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Does your company do any direct mail marketing?
I own a restaurant and over the past year I've noticed that our direct mail marketing efforts (door hangers, flyers, etc.) haven't been netting new customers like they used to. Is direct mail marketing dying, or do I simply need to change it up a bit? I'm considering participating in Groupon and am starting a customer loyalty program with a monthly newsletter for members. Should I still continue to invest in direct mail efforts, or should I switch to online?
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6 Answers
I do direct mail all the time and preach direct mail. It is what you mail that drives them.
If it is the same old boring door hangers no good. I have a direct mail program that has been used by Target, Green Giant, Casinos etc, revolving around a promotion.
In the promotion the customer is a gauranteed a winner of some prize, free drink.
There are other nicer prizes, such as an IPOD.
One of the tickets printed and mailed is the grand prize winner.
They must bring the ticket into the restaunt to see if they have won.
There is NO WAY for them to tell if they have won by looking at it, as it is not a scratch off or anything, but a patented process that requires a special decoder.
Safeway, Circle K etc, are some other big names who have used this and I can send you the case studies if you wish.
Go online and focus on social media for the restaurant industry. Things like Groupon or even apps like Foursquare- you can offer specials to folks who check in at your business. I would look for a local seo company that specializes in social media to help you kick start a campaign.
In the direct marketing world, a marketing piece that is no longer working is called 'Tired'. Direct mail is a great way to get business, BUT you need a compelling offer. Too many times I see a restaurant spending money on one of those envelopes stuffed with a bunch of other ads. Nothing wrong with that, but their offer sucks- (Note Suck is a professional marketing term for 'Not effective.' Their offer to 'entice' people is a free drink with your meal ( and then in the small print, is that you must dine with another person, and that person must order a drink at full price- and at least one person must order a desert or an appetizer. SHEESH!
One of the things we have recently rolled out is mobile marketing. For you market, it would be something like text the word (whatever your offer is) to a specific number) to receive an instant coupon good for X% off, a free starter, or whatever. You can NOW send them a text message to inform them of weekly specials, etc.
Hope that helps-
Courtney Kostelecky
Marketing Director
MyFishNetMarketing
You can also with some texting programs after they text to you they can get a game piece on their phone which they have to "BRING IN" to your restraunt to see what they have won.
Derek and Michael both offer good points.
It depends on your client.
Regulars who visit frequently would benefit from a Check-in app so they can help spread the Word about your restaurant and they are more likely to feel comfortable doing so. FourSquare Check in works best in large cities but hasn't caught on yet in smaller markets.
Encourage regular customers to use a platform they are already familiar with like Facebook. Customers can use Facebook Places so they can check-in to your restaurant and get free desserts or something for most in a month or most in a 90 day period or something.
If you are looking to bring in new clients then What Derek said earlier is definitely the way to go. Get a new client in with an incentive. No iPods or cliched stuff like that. Get them in with something endemic to your business. Maybe a free Kids meal or a free bottle of Complimentary Wine. It might cost a bit up front, but if your goal is to build a client base your customer service should wow them and then they will come back again and again. The CEO of Zappos.com makes a good case for spending extra money up front on customer service (like Free overnight shipping) Once that customer gets that excellent customer service they will keep coming back!
Sorry, but no response here is correct in it's approach or in it's tactics.
1. Direct mail is not as effective across the board, as it once was because we are a more social world. Direct mail is push marketing and people are tired of being sold.
2. Groupon is just a desperate replacement for your DM efforts. It doesn't work. No coupon and discount scheme works.
3. You should have already had a real loyalty program in place. But not the frequency scheme you are talking about. There is a major difference.
4. Nothing you try will work, and certainly nothing you've mentioned will work, until you get a marketing strategy in place. Focusing on nothing but once replacement tactic after another is a recipe for disaster.
5. You definitely need to stay away from any online presence until you shore up your operations and work on becoming a more social business.
6. You're to the point that you need to get professional marketing help. And not the kind that has absolutely no successful experience in creating marketing strategies for restaurants.
7. The focus needs to be on growing traffic and sales from existing guests, not spending an obscene amount of money to get new ones. It costs 6-8 times as much to get a new guest than it does to keep an existing one.
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