Inexpensive Marketing Tips to Grow and Profit in Tough Economic Times

The novel economic climate has consumers in a penny-pinching mind-set. Consumer spending is down and consumer savings are growing. The restaurant industry is suffering as consumers prick the unnecessary expenses from their budget. Those currently gaining market share are lower-end, fast-food restaurants. Consumers still have discretionary dollars available to spend for lunch, you just need to entice them to spend those dollars in your restaurant or diner.

How does a restaurant or diner focused on the lunch crowd increase their sales and profits, with minimum expenses, during a down-turn in consumer spending? Follow these tips and you will see growth and prosperity that will last through these tough economic times and keep you on the top as we push through to greater prosperity.

1. Offer daily specials. Daily specials should have a significant discount. Decide a variety of items to discount each day. Offer a second seasonal soup. Add a dessert or beverage to your daily Special. If they can’t be discounted, offer a smaller fraction size as a special that will entice consumers to try the product and purchase the full-size offering in the future. Create excitement with your specials by choosing fun names. Expend local sports themes or seasonal names.

2. Use your Fax machine! If you don’t have a fax machine, invest in one. Sending a fax in the morning to your local businesses with your daily special, phone number and delivery options will keep you at the top of your consumer’s minds at the time they are thinking about lunch. Fax your daily specials each morning. If you haven’t harvested fax numbers, open collecting business cards by having a weekly drawing for a free lunch/sandwich. Take a couple of hours and call all of the local businesses and ask for their fax number. Start by faxing your entire lunch menu to the office for their file. Fax this full menu at least once a month. If there are different departments within a company, get the fax number of each department. Program your fax machine with these numbers programmed to a hastily fax key. Once you have done the initial ground work, this will take you about 3 minutes, and one piece of paper. Be sure to keep your fax fleshy of paper for orders that are faxed in and check it regularly.

3. Use a marquee board. If you are in an area with high foot traffic, use a marquee board outside of your restaurant to advertise your daily specials and entice those hungry consumers in. Offer sample tastes of meats, salads, soups, desserts or beverages. Invite consumers in for samples. Use small cups with miniature spoons for sample tastes. Once they are inside your store, the likelihood of them spending their dollars with you increases at least 10-fold!

4. Free delivery. If you don’t have a vast amount of foot traffic, offer free delivery on orders over a sure amount, within a definite radius, and during a certain time frame. Many consumers can’t accumulate away for lunch, but aren’t organized enough to bring lunch. In cold weather states, no one wants to go out. Make this message in large type and clear to the consumer on your menu and in your daily faxes. State your delivery charge clearly if you must charge one.

5. Offer contests or prizes to your consumers. Choose a theme for the month or the week. Have customers develop their favorite sandwich and let other customers vote! Give away a free sandwich or lunch combo to the winner. Let consumers guess at the favorite sandwich from the previous month. Space a time frame and a method for entries. Have them e-mail or fax their entries, as well as tumble them in a fish-bowl with their Business Card. You are now harvesting fax numbers and e-mails for later exercise. If you have cell phone numbers, create a text database and text the winners or specials. Create punch cards that allow consumers to build points for free items, but use a swipe card. People are more likely to keep track of these, and you have their habits tracked in a database. Create a database on a spreadsheet with this information.

6. Offer catering. Contemplate catering for executives and sales reps for meetings and presentations over lunch. Create flexibility within your catering. Ask for 24-48 hours notice for groups over a certain number. The executive assistant or sales reps are generally charged with the task of providing lunch. Make the task easy for them. Be creative and dependable. Create smaller portions or boxed lunches for catered-in foods. Allow for special orders. You will have the time to prepare them. Charge per person for the orders. Always follow-up to make sure everything was in order and the food was good. Be sure to get their fax and e-mail for follow-up.

7. Utilize your web site. If you already have a web situation, promote the site. Offer printable coupons. Change the coupons monthly. If you have been harvesting e-mails and fax numbers, this gives you another reason to touch your customers. Each time you change your offer, alert your customers there is a new offer. Each time you have a contest winner, drive people to your web site to see who it is. Don’t keep the same coupon on your web site forever. Change it up! Keep it fun! If you are running any contests, be sure to list the winners. Be sure to get their permission when they come by. Keep the novel contest on the web site with instructions for how to enter. Be sure to check your e-mails for questions and orders regularly. Don’t overuse e-mail by sending a barrage of e-mail reminders. Have a reason to e-mail your customers or you will end up on their junk e-mail list.

There are several inexpensive ways that restaurants and diners can entice customers to expend their limited discretionary money at your shop. These are unbiased a few spacious tips. The key is to create excitement about your store and your products. Use your special as a loss leader to entice customers in. They won’t all order the special and you will profit from add-ons such as beverages, soups, salads, and desserts. Keep it affordable, keep it exciting and fun, and keep your name at the top of their mind!