NEED BRUNCH RESTAURANT MARKETING ADVICE? TRY THESE 10 TIPS

So, you’ve decided to open your own brunch restaurant. Congratulations! You’ve got your location, crew, furniture, utensils, ingredients, recipes, and a cool name to top it all off! Now comes the hard part of effectively marketing it. Without that, nothing else matters. But why is marketing so important for brunch restaurants? Because, unless you’re a Franchise Owner with a renowned brunch chain, you need to get the word out for people to come. Customers have plenty of restaurant options to choose from. Your marketing will tell them why you’re the one they should check out, and patronize. You’ll have to repeatedly tell them what’s unique and compelling about your brunch restaurant. In other words, you’ve got to start from scratch.

WHAT YOUR MARKETING NEEDS

Your marketing strategy should be a mix of both offline and online media. Also, you’ll have to be consistent in your efforts until you start to get organic traction. In other words, until people start recommending your place on their own to their friends and families. This means you’ll have to allocate budgets early for marketing. If you reduce your marketing spends due to slow business, that will create more problems for you. The last thing you want when things slow down is to cut back on marketing. Finally, marketing requires dedicated resources to monitor performance. In case you get busy with other aspects of running your restaurant, ensure that there’s someone in charge of marketing. To make it easy for you, here are ten tips and tricks to effectively market your restaurant.

10 TRICKS TO MARKET YOUR BRUNCH RESTAURANT

Your branding should also clearly convey what your restaurant’s all about and what it specializes in. Customers shouldn’t have to wonder what you serve. Don’t try to copy the established names in your vicinity as they’ve been around for long. For this reason alone, Toastique Franchise Owners have an upper hand. The name is short, unique, and already familiar to consumers. Even before a Toastique brunch restaurant franchise is opened, there’ll be a buzz in the market. So the Founders can get going from day one.

2. Newspaper Ads & Hoardings The good news about newspaper ads is that you can potentially reach a large number of readers in one go. It’ll also give you credibility when your ad is featured in your local newspapers. The bad news? They’re expensive and a one-time affair. Plus, unless you have a discount coupon, it’s difficult to measure their success. Hoardings are temporary borders around a construction site that usually feature advertisements. You’ve probably seen these structures in your city without knowing what they are called! Hoardings are as expensive as newspaper ads, but they give you more long-term visibility since your ad will be up until the building is complete. You can also strategically put your hoardings in places that get a lot of vehicular and foot traffic in your area.

3. Pamphlets & Leaflets

These are relatively inexpensive but are also ineffective when compared to other media. The trick is to get in touch with grocery chains and supermarkets in your area and request them to distribute your pamphlets and leaflets. You could go for a co-branded offer when you launch. For example, customers at a salon or a supermarket could get a discount at your restaurant if they bring the leaflets with them.

4. Google My Business

Websites are fancy but the first thing in your digital marketing must be to list your restaurant on Google My Business (GMB). Upload photos, your menu, the exact address with phone numbers, website URL, working hours, and all other relevant information. Whether you have a website or not, your customers will be talking about you online. Google Reviews have become crucial for the success of local businesses like restaurants. With a GMB profile, your customers will be able to leave favorable reviews that’ll get you more interest. Pro tip: If you get a negative review – and chances are that like all businesses, you too will get them – respond professionally. Apologize, offer to take the conversation to a private channel, and tell them how you’ve responded to their complaint. Everyone online will see how you respond and so, be at your best. If you’re a Franchise Owner with Toastique, you don’t have to worry about this. There’s an experienced team to take care of all digital marketing, leaving you free to concentrate on growing your business.

5. Yelp

If Google is where the world goes to search, find, and review products and services, Yelp is where they go to find and review local businesses. Your brunch restaurant needs a strong Yelp presence with all the necessary information, photos, and your location. You should also showcase your menu, what makes your place unique, and any promotions and offers you may have. Don’t forget to add additional features like parking and WiFi. Like Google Reviews, you should have a code of conduct for managing Yelp reviews. Thank all the positive feedback by addressing the reviewer by their name. If it’s a negative review, don’t get upset, and importantly, don’t reply immediately. Sit down with your team and figure out what happened. If it’s your mistake and if what the customer’s saying is true, apologize publicly. Try to take the conversation private through email or phone. Need some Yelp inspo? Check out the Yelp page for the Toastique location that started it all in Washington, D.C.

7. Localized Digital Ads

Local is how you should play your digital ad game. With geo-targeting, you can reach out to those individuals who live or work in the vicinity of your brunch restaurant. That makes your advertising focused, and accountable. Your marketing mix should have Google Ads and Facebook ads. Before that, you should know what the users are searching for. Go to Google and type in brunch restaurant + your locality and see what the other prompts are. This will give you the keywords to use in your ads. Maybe your potential customers are looking for a particular dish. Maybe they’re searching for discounted brunch deals. Or restaurants close to a particular landmark. Once you have a set of keywords, use them in your local ads with geo-targeting. You should also use them in your website, GMB, and all other digital platforms.

8. Topical Marketing

Marketing is about offering a compelling value proposition to interest consumers. For that, you should look for opportunities that are relevant to your audience. Is there a festival or a concert or a sports game that your locality is famous for? Try to align with that. Are you aware of all the national food days? Do you know that January 27 is National Chocolate Cake Day or that May 25 is National Wine Day? When September 26 rolls around, are you all set to celebrate National Pancake Day? If you own a brunch restaurant, it’s in your best interest to be in the know for all the fun, quirky food celebrations you can turn into promotional revenue. Get the full list here and try to come up with discounts and offers for any of your main dishes. Start the social media campaign several days early so your followers have time to get on board.

9. Show Off Your Staff

This is your chance to showcase your team. The idea is to humanize your restaurant by sharing the profiles of those who work there. Instead of merely showing a photograph with their job title, write a short summary of what makes them unique. Do they have an interesting hobby? Are they saving up for education? Do they plan to travel somewhere? Those will make your staff relatable and familiar. It will also open up conversations between your staff and your customers. So, now you know how to effectively market your brunch-themed restaurant. It can be challenging if you don’t have adequate resources or an experienced team. That’s why many entrepreneurs prefer to be Franchise Owners of a proven concept like Toastique.

10. Social Media

For your brunch restaurant to succeed, you must be an irresistible presence on social media. But when it comes to food, not all social media are alike. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (or any other platform). Remember your social media priorities in that order. Let’s put it this way. Everything about your restaurant, from the food to the interiors, should be Instagrammable. You should start your social media campaign days before the launch. Take as many photos as possible. Pro tip: You need a professional photographer. Just because your smartphone camera is awesome doesn’t mean you can do it on your own. Photography, especially food photography, is not about filters but an understanding and effective use of light. You need an experienced food photographer to get it right. Close to the day of the launch, start sharing those photos with a short description of the dish and the relevant hashtags. There should be a couple of hashtags that are unique to your restaurant but others should be about the category, location, preferences of the local population, discounts, offers, the theme of the restaurant, etc. The same’s true for Facebook although the platform allows you to be more descriptive. Along with photos, you should also post videos of the preparation of the dishes and interiors. On both Instagram and Facebook, you should use a similar set of hashtags.

Toastique has over 5K followers on Instagram and new Owners can use that to get social media traction in their local markets. In fact, our social media presence is so strong that we were able to earn over $1 million* in our first year of business on the strength of our followers alone, without spending any money on professional advertising or marketing efforts. The takeaway: Never underestimate the power of Insta-worthy food selfies!

Advantages of Being a Toastique Franchise Owner

• • • Guaranteed Returns: Toastique has a lean and effective business model that focuses on maximizing returns while eliminating wastage. The brand earned over $1 million at its first location during the first year of business. This was without any professional or paid marketing. It was all through organic social media.

• • • Brand Equity: Toastique has a passionate customer base that the brand has acquired without running any advertising campaign. The brand’s unique product offerings have got a loyal audience that continues to organically grow. This means that as a Franchise Owner, you won’t have to unnecessarily spend on brand awareness.

• • • Marketing Support: As a Toastique brunch restaurant Franchise Owner, you will be supported by an experienced social media marketing team. You won’t have to start from scratch and pay salaries for marketing specialists. You won’t have to hire a digital marketing or PR team. You’ll have access to all the best practices that have got Toastique thousands of followers on Instagram.

• • • Multiple Revenue Streams: As a Toastique Franchise Owner, dine-in is not your only option. You can also earn revenue from catering or delivery.

• • • Invest in Healthy Living: Health-conscious consumers are redefining the brunch restaurant industry. With natural juices and gourmet toasts, Toastique is synonymous with healthy and quick meals.