The Elements of a Good Restaurant Marketing Plan

Before you open the doors of your new restaurant, you need to have one thing already in hand if you want a good chance of succeeding. And that one thing is a marketing plan.

The main idea of a marketing plan is to help you figure out who your market is going to be. Without this information, you're not going to know how to position your business, how to advertise effectively, even where to send marketing materials. You could end up wasting a lot of time and money with poorly planned marketing campaigns, and you stand a much better chance of being one of the millions of restaurants that goes under in its first year.
With that said, let's talk a little about what a marketing plan includes.

Situational Analysis
One aspect of your marketing plan is going to be the Situation Analysis. In this section, you'll be given some background about your restaurant, about its potential for growth, and about its actual target audience. Putting this material together makes you take a long look at who is going to be buying your product so you'll be better prepared to meet their needs.

Understand Your Market
Although you can do a fairly simple marketing plan, it's a good idea to include some demographic information about your target audience, as well as a list of some of their needs and the trends in the market right now. For example, if you recognize a trend toward customers choosing healthier food options then that might give you a good marketing angle for some of your menu items.

SWOT Analysis
Your marketing plan should also include a SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. You need to take a long, hard look at what your business has to offer and what might stand in its way of success. Only by being honest about these elements can you maximize or combat them.

For example, if one of your strengths is the quality of your food, then you'll want to emphasize this in your marketing. You might want to pass out free samples at a local event or invite customers in for a sandwich – you want to do anything that will get your food to tingle their taste buds because that's what going to bring back the business.

Competition
Another important section of your marketing plan is a look at your competition. Who might steal your potential business? Why might you lose that business? These are the questions you need to be asking here. Make sure to be thorough when you are thinking about your competition. Remember that many customers aren't choosing between two Italian restaurants or two Mexican restaurants – they are actually choosing between all of the restaurants in the same price category. Maybe you specialize in sub sandwiches – that doesn't mean McDonald's won't possibly steal away some of your customers.

When you're analyzing your competition, you should make sure to watch for weaknesses. If a competitor consistently delivers poor service, then that's something you can emphasize at your establishment to lure away his business. If a competitor is expensive, then your selling point might be that you offer high quality food at reasonable prices. Hopefully, you get the idea.

So far we've only covered a portion of what you need to include in your marketing plan. Read The Elements of a Good Restaurant Marketing Plan Part 2 to find out what else you need to include.