A restaurant marketing plan does not need to be long. Four sections are enough to start: who you are selling to, what makes you different, where you will reach those people, and what you can spend.
Why write it down
A plan on paper sets the direction for the year and gives you something to measure against. It also stops the pattern most owners fall into: ideas on a notepad, no order to them, and marketing that only happens in a quiet week.
The template
Four sections: target market, unique selling proposition, marketing channels and budget. Adapt it to your restaurant rather than following it word for word.
1. Target market
Who are your ideal customers: local residents, tourists, families, office workers, people who follow food? Note where they live or work, when they come and what they order. Then aim your menu, your prices and your messages at them.
2. Unique selling proposition
This is what sets you apart from the restaurant down the road. A family recipe, produce from a named farm, staff who look after people well, a room that suits groups. Whatever you pick, it has to be something your customers value and cannot get elsewhere.
3. Marketing channels
These are the routes you use to reach that market: social media, email, local events and your own website. Choose the ones you can keep up with. Two channels run properly beat five that go quiet.
Your website is the channel you own. A restaurant online ordering plugin such as FoodMaster (formerly WooFood) adds online ordering to it, so customers can order from your site.
4. Budget
Decide what you will spend over a set period and include everything: ads, promotions, printing, and any ordering or delivery system you pay for. A realistic figure you can hold to is more use than an ambitious one you drop in the second month.
Keep it useful
Review the plan on a fixed date and change what is not working. The template is a starting point, not a contract.