The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Watch how our very own Hengam Stanfield shared her knowledge and expertise in this exclusive interview by Shane Riggs, Restaurant Owner-Entrepreneur, and the CEO & Co-Founder of Brightside Consulting & Restaurants Secret Weapon.

As restaurant owners, Hengam, and her husband Matthew believes that every restaurateur should own a profitable restaurant that does not own them.

Five years ago, they envisioned to have the freedom of time, to run a restaurant that does not run them. So they can have the freedom to spend as much time with their kids and loved ones.

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane as Hengam tells the story about her family's journey in putting up their own restaurant business, how it has grown over the years, and how they turned their vision for their restaurant into reality.

>>> Special thanks to Shane Riggs for this insightful interview. Follow Shane on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/socaldelicious/

Check out  https://www.restaurantssecretweapon.com/main

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Adding menu offerings, hosting new events, changing decor... so many things you're trying to plan for your restaurant, two questions in your mind... will it work, or will it flop?

All that matters is understanding what our customers want and give it to them. That's what success in this business is all about.

So you are probably wondering how you would know what your customer's desires are.

A simple tip is to ask them! Aside from directly getting the information from your customers, asking them will make them feel valued.

Indeed, we must always give importance to our customer's feedback. Be sure to ask a variety of people and ask for their opinions.

Never assume that people would love your ideas, instead ask them. Gather intel, so you can make a wise choice on what's going to serve your customers.

Also, another way to know what your customers want is to read your online reviews. As well, read the reviews of those restaurants within the 3-4 mile radius of your establishment.

By doing all these things, you can discern what your customers want to see more of, and what they don't. Keep in mind that having great ideas isn't bad at all. However, you have to ensure that customer feedback should be put into consideration, first and foremost. Give customers what they want.

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

SPEED and ACCURACY.   

Why am I, as a restaurant owner, obsessed with these two words?  

It's solely because our customers are obsessed with their time. No matter how great or delicious your food is, it will ruin the customer's experience if it's served late and inaccurate.   

If you know something that matters to your customers, that should matter to you and to the whole team. 

You and I need to be obsessed with things that matter to the customers, and let go of the stuff that doesn't really matter to them. That should be our focus.   

So the question I have for you is, are you aware of the things that matter to your customers? What are the three things that make or break their experience in your establishment? Do your managers and the rest of the team know about that?

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Restaurant owners, can you define exceptional service? Do your managers and the whole team understand what it takes to have it?   

You must ask specific questions to your managers or team members and even your servers to ensure they know what distinguishes an extraordinary service:  

-What is their favorite restaurant where they had the best experience? -What was unique about that experience?  

-Why is it their favorite?  

-Why do they think it was an exceptional service?  

Listen to how they define outstanding service. For us, sadly, most of our servers have not gone to any fancy restaurant yet and apparently did not experience what excellent service is.   

So be mindful of that, don’t expect your servers to provide that high level of service if they have no idea how it looks and feels like.   And for those who experienced outstanding service, ask them what they can do for the team to level up your service.   The bottom line is, you must work together as a team, share your thoughts and ideas on how you can provide your customers with a service that will keep them coming back to your restaurant.

#RestaurantMarketing #CustomerService 

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Every success has a story of hard work, perseverance, and determination.  

Today I am sharing with you the three top secrets to our restaurant's sales growth.  But before that, let's take a look back at our humble beginnings.  

Five years ago, my husband and I quit our job as engineers. We moved from New Mexico to San Antonio, Texas, in pursuit of an American Dream! We wanted to be in business and work together as a team. Since we loved having people over and served them delicious home-cooked foods, we thought of opening a restaurant. We believed that starting a restaurant would fuse our passion for food and our desire to have our very own business! We sold our house in New Mexico and bought a dying Pizzeria in San Antonio.  It was hundreds of thousands of dollars BELOW breakeven.  We had 0 prior experience in the restaurant business, and at the time, our two kids were very young. Luke was 2 and a half years old, while Mark was only 7 months. In that first year of operations, I think we worked 100+ hours a week and only collected $25k - $30K in profits for the whole year.  But we got very aggressive in boosting our sales after that initial year. We never stopped thinking and doing things that would generate sales for our restaurant business. And lo and behold, we OVER tripled our sales in the last five years.  We also opened our 2nd location last year, and we had our 3rd baby, who is now 2!   

We are engaged owners, but we do NOT work in the operations. Thanks to systems, automation, and leadership development. We collectively work around 10 hours a week, meeting with our managers, and collect 6 figures in profits. So how did we do it? That's a secret you need to discover! Listen to the podcast to find out our three top secrets to our sales growth! 

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Instagram is a free app that is perfect for restaurants since it is a visual platform. It has around 1 billion active users worldwide.

However, there are some challenges when it comes to using Instagram for restaurants: 

Making time for content creation - it's a content monster! It takes time to create content, and there's never enough content. Every day, you need to produce new things to post since they get buried in the feed. 

The organic reach continues to go down down down - it's killing organic reach. Like Facebook, it's turning into a "pay to play" platform. 

Developing a STRATEGY that works - it's a challenge generating an effective strategy that works. As the platforms shift, our approach needs to change as well. 

In this episode, I will give you 10 practical tips on Instagram that you can implement and make some dough for your restaurant!

1. Batch content creation

2. Use a scheduling software

3. Use editing software to make your images stand out 

4. Engage with those that engage with your page

5. Engage with those that use the # (hashtag) of your town 

6. Send a DM (Direct Message) to connect with people 

7. Utilize the Instagram Bio to include your information about your restaurant

8. Create captions that will compel people to comment - Ask questions!

9. Always put the name and ingredients of the dish on your caption

10. Recruit your team to help you do the Instagram task

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Happy 2020! I am excited to share with you the 2020 Restaurant Marketing Plan that will help you grow your sales for this year.   

Hopefully, this will also bring you thousands of dollars, not only in 2020 but in the next coming years.  

In this show, I will walk you through the process of creating a Restaurant Marketing Plan for the year 2020.  

Here are the things you need to do in constructing the Marketing Plan for your restaurant:  

1. Set a Monthly/Year Gross Sales Projection 

2. Run a SWOT Analysis 

3. Outline a Marketing Budget Allocation Analysis (Pie Chart)  

4. Conduct a Marketing System Assessment 

5. Prepare a Platform Strategy 

6. Assess Marketing Tactics you would like to try in 2020 

7. Plot a Strategic Partnership 

8. Build a Content Strategy 

9. Breakdown Quarterly Promotions 

10. Formulate Marketing System Projects

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

In this show, we will acknowledge an inquiry that most people ask me.

But specifically, here's a question of Jonathan from Ohio: 

“How can text message marketing help us grow our restaurant sales?"

There are three ways to grow sales in any business: 

In this show, we will dig into details on how Text Message Marketing can grow restaurant sales by being the most effective method of increasing repeat business. 

As an example, here's another question to answer:

What is easier for Papa John's, acquiring a new customer, or bringing their existing customers back? 

Lastly, we will discuss the three common ways to reach out to customers and which among these is the most effective:

By comparing these three methods, we will prove that Text Message Marketing remains the most powerful way to communicate with customers consistently.

// Need help with your restaurant marketing strategy? Let’s chat. Email us at: [email protected]

// WHO: Hengam Stanfield is the co-owner of two restaurants in San Antonio alongside his husband Matt. Their background is in engineering. They tripled their restaurant sales in less than 5 years with 0 prior restaurant experience.They believe every restaurateur deserves owning a restaurant that does not own them.

#RestaurantOwner #RestaurantMarketing

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

In this episode, we are giving tips, factors, and variables to consider in offering a breakfast menu to help Jackie decide.

Sadly, in the restaurant business, nothing is black and white. Everything is gray. It depends on a lot of different factors that are involved.

So we are going over the three phases that you need to consider and go through to determine whether it is a good idea to add breakfast:

We are also providing alternatives in case adding breakfast to your menu is not feasible.

So by the end of this episode, you will know if you should add breakfast to your offerings. And if you do, how to make it a success.

RESOURCES

// Need help with your restaurant marketing strategy? Let’s chat. Email us at: [email protected]

// WHO: Hengam Stanfield is the co-owner of two restaurants in San Antonio alongside his husband Matt. Their background is in engineering. They tripled their restaurant sales in less than 5 years with 0 prior restaurant experience.They believe every restaurateur deserves owning a restaurant that does not own them.

#RestaurantOwner #RestaurantMarketing

FREE Guide:  

RESOURCES

We all know that our customers are indeed on various social media platforms. People spend hours on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. 

Consequently, being in the restaurant business, we also need to be present where they are at. 

The result that you are getting isn't outstanding. 

And the question is, how are we going to know if we are doing it right or wrong? 

In this show, you will learn about the five possible ways that you are using social media wrong:

1. You have not defined success on social media. You must measurably define success for you to know if it has been achieved. 

2. You are just focused on sales. If your business is on social media and your only goal is to increase your sales, then you are not maximizing the usage of this powerful tool. 

3. You have not set a system in place to measure sales that come from social media. You need to set up some guidelines or standards for you to measure success in using it. 

4. You are using social media like it’s 2017! You need to understand that if you don't have new strategies in place, and you are not using these powerful tools as if it is 2019 or 2020, then you are using it wrong.

5. You don’t batch your content!  Capture photos and take videos. Batch-create the captions that go with your posts, and then batch schedule everything. 

// Need help with your restaurant marketing strategy? Let’s chat. Email us at: [email protected]

// LET'S CONNECT:

// Got questions? Submit your questions for a future Q&A episode at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/

// WHO:

Hengam Stanfield is the co-owner of two restaurants in San Antonio alongside his husband Matt. Their background is in engineering. They tripled their restaurant sales in less than 5 years with 0 prior restaurant experience.They believe every restaurateur deserves owning a restaurant that does not own them.

#RestaurantOwner #RestaurantMarketing