March 16, 2020

Uber Eats delivers

4-minute read

There’s no doubt that operating a restaurant is difficult even under the most normal of circumstances.  But when an unusual event, such as the forced closure of your restaurant due to the Covid-19 virus scare, wreaks havoc with your ability to manage the business, your ability to take action and implement a plan could be crucial in determining whether your restaurant survives the event or not.

Take action!

Most restaurants are being shut down to create the most opportunities for social distancing which will help slow down the spread of the virus. It’s important to note that in most cases, the restrictions are not on being able to cook and prepare food. The restrictions tend to be around the number of patrons who can be seated inside a restaurant. That means that for most restaurants, takeout and delivery are the only viable options to generate revenue. If your restaurant does not already have takeout and delivery options in place, I recommend you take the following immediate actions:

  • Purchase to go containers – to get container that are the correct size and heat capacity (ability to keep hot food hot and cold food cold – remember hot food needs to be kept at a temperature above 140 degrees and cold food below 40 degrees to prevent the possible growth of bacteria), you probably need to plan a trip to your restaurant supply store;
  • Register with established restaurant delivery servicesGrubHub, Uber Eats, Postmates and DoorDash are all established businesses that help consumers order meal delivery from local restaurants;
  • Post your menu online in as many places as possible – Make it easy to find on your Facebook page, on your website, on your twitter feed, on your Instagram page or on any local restaurant directories;
  •   Get the word out that your restaurant now offers takeout and delivery
    • If you have an active social media presence, post an announcement there
    • If you have an email list, send out an email
    • If you still have customers visiting your store, place signs on the front door and on your hostess stand.
    • Ask your servers and other employees to share the news that you now offer delivery.
    • If you have a marketing budget, advertise on Facebook to residents who live within a 5-mile radius of your restaurant
    • If you have a web developer on staff or on call, place a banner on your website homepage.

When you announce that takeout and delivery are available, however, DO NOT FORGET to include the way customers should place an order.  If you have a phone number customers should call to place an order, include that in ALL messages.  If you have an online option (or optionS assuming you’ve signed up with GrubHub, Uber Eats and Postmates), include the URLs.  If you don’t have a way to let customers order directly from your restaurant, you may want to consider having somebody develop that functionality in a Facebook messenger chatbot (see case study on chat ordering here).

Give easy order instructions

  • Create promotions to sell – You should consider reminding customers that your restaurant is family or independently owned and that the owners do not have deep pockets to withstand these difficult times, and that most servers and other employees live paycheck to paycheck.  As such, an investment in future sales via purchase of gift cards would go a long way towards keeping employees working and in stabilizing the finances of the business.  If it were MY restaurant, I’d probably sell gift cards over $10 at a 20% discount (e.g., Buy a $20 card for $16, buy a $50 gift card for $40).  If you want to create a charitable offer, you could invite customers to buy a meal for a household or family in need that you could donate.

Donate a meal

  • Train your employees! – Teach your employees what to say and how to say it (preferably in a positive way – “Unfortunately our sit down service has been suspended but we do now offer take out and delivery, you should order the turkey burger, it’s my favorite”);
  • Target local businesses – I would round up 2 or 3 employees and visit the larger businesses in your neighborhood to provide food samples and coupons and to announce the availability of takeout and delivery and of whatever promotions you’ve developed.  Even if you don’t convince a business to order food for their meetings, you will at least be able to get your message out about delivery to a wider audience than you may have without visiting your neighbors.  If you are open to running Facebook ads, there are ways to target the people in a single building.
  • Plan for success – WHEN you emerge from these challenging times, you will want to set your restaurant marketing up for bigger success.  I would do the following:
    • Plan to hold a Grand Opening event – Once it is safe to let people assemble in groups, you should provide them the opportunity to celebrate with friends, family and your great food.
    • Build a customer list – If you do not already have a customer contact list, you will want to build one so you have the ability to share important information and policy changes if and when future events such as this one happen.  You could build an email list, or a Facebook messenger (e.g., chatbot) list immediately by running a gift card giveaway

It’s uncertain how long the restrictions on restaurants being able to host diners and guests will last, but it is almost certain that if you do not take any actions to generate revenue while you can, you put your restaurant and its employees into financial peril.

If you would like my help in implementing any of these restaurant marketing tactics or strategies, please contact me.

What's In It For Me? 

 

The 5 most important words for any marketer are "What's in it for me?" If you can answer this simple question from the perspective of your prospects and customers, you’ll be far ahead of your peers who attempt to create marketing. Your customers don’t buy from you because they are madly in love and can’t get enough of your restaurant’s Cole slaw, your dental office’s Novocaine, or your auto repair shop’s grease. Nope, believe it or not, most of your customers don’t give a hoot about your products or services, except for in those moments when they need your products or services to help them.

  • “I want to remember the summer picnics when the family was smiling and laughing as we all ate hamburgers and grandma’s special Cole slaw.”  Don’t sell food, sell happy memories;
  • “I want to get rid of this damn pain in my mouth.”  Don’t sell medicine, sell pain relief;
  • “I want to get my car running again so I don’t have to beg my friend to borrow his extra car just to get to work every day.”  Don’t sell car repair, sell freedom and self-sufficiency. 

If you aren’t helping your customers solve their problems and helping them to achieve clearly articulated benefits, you’re just talking to yourself with your marketing.  “Features tell but benefits sell.”

A Handy Shorthand to Identify Your Products’ Benefits.

Do you know how to communicate the benefits your products offer your prospects and customers?  May I offer you one very easy to remember tip?  Whenever you write out or verbally state a description of what you are offering, always end the sentence with “… which means.”

For example, if I were to offer you “Invest $2,500 per month in Gary’s Done-For-You Email Marketing Services where I will write one email per week and send it to your customer list which means you can spend more time with your wife and kids at home because you won’t have to struggle hour after hour to figure out what to write in your customer emails because I’ll do that for you.” 

While many business owners would be happy to merely check the box on the to-do list for “send weekly email marketing”,  a much more powerful reason to offer is the ability to spend more time with the family, to be a more involved spouse and parent.   

Other examples:

  • “Buy our green chile cheeseburger that’s made with Hatch green chiles and Southwest Cheddar Cheese made in Clovis, NM which means you’ll eat uniquely New Mexican burgers that use authentic New Mexican ingredients;
  • Schedule an appointment to take advantage of our New Patient Special which includes x-rays, a basic cleaning, all for the low price of $59 which means you can attract strangers to you with your beaming smile;

Emotional Benefits are the Strongest

Emotion is the trigger that gets somebody from being a shopper to becoming a buyer.  If you can articulate a benefit that triggers a desired emotion within the shopper, you’re going to be much more successful selling than somebody who only focuses on the functionality (what it does) of a product or service.

So when you’re answering “What’s in it for me?”, try to answer with a benefit that triggers an emotion.  Saving time and saving money are two of the most common benefits marketers use to sell their products.  They are also very real and very tangible benefits.  But you’ll need to go at least one level deeper with these two benefits in order to tap emotions.  My earlier example of the Done-For-You email marketing services WILL certainly save a busy business owner time, but it’s what the owner gets to do with the time that’s truly important. 

Yellow Fishes, a marketing agency in India articulates the best categories of benefits that truly trigger emotions in most shoppers: 

  • Recognition  – Recognition can be in the form of being identified as “special” or even superior as in Tesla S owners are prestigious – not every person can afford to pay for such a luxury car and quantities are so limited you must know somebody in order to get one; or it could be being considered a role-model or standard as in “Choosy mothers choose Jif” – a “good” mother would naturally want the best for her children;
  • Belonging  – Apple has created a “cult” following around its more popular and advanced products such as the iPod and the iPhone.  For many, owning one of these Apple products signaled to others that you were part of the “in” crowd.
  • Confidence – Red Bull immediately comes to mind for me when I think of brands that conjure confidence.  If Red Bull can give me wings, I can take on most any challenge;
  • Individualism – I think back to an old David Ogilvy campaign from the early 1950’s for Hathaway Shirts (which ironically were mass produced dress shirts) that advertised the Man in the Hathaway Shirt who struck an individualistic pose while wearing an eyepatch;  

Hathaway shirt ad

  • Nostalgia  – Jingles and music in advertising can evoke precious memories.  In 2016, Miller beer brought back a classic jingle it used in its advertising the 1970’s.   If you were a fan of the cable TV series, Mad Men, you may also recall a powerful scene when Don Draper pitched a new campaign to Kodak that was all about tapping into nostalgia with a product he called the Carousel

Next time you sit down to write or evaluate a description of your products or services, put yourself in the shoes of your prospects and customers and ask yourself “What’s in it for me?”  As the marketer, if you cannot come up with an answer that promises an emotional benefit, keep working at it or ask your copywriter to keep working at it. 

I've got a fever

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