How to create a restaurant marketing plan: best strategies | TheFork Manager

For any marketing strategy for restaurants to be successful, it must start with a good plan. Like a treasure map, a restaurant marketing plan should show the way to your goals, containing all the strategies to build the business in manageable chunks that analyse, define and structure the steps to follow. 

This is a restaurant marketing plan. Have you ever done one?

At TheFork, we know strategy is essential, especially at this time of huge competition in the restaurant industry. This is why we're tackling this subject, to show you how to create a marketing plan that will get the most from your restaurant.

Benefits of a restaurant marketing plan

Establishing specific objectives and implementing a structured marketing plan for your restaurant will allow you to see clear improvements in your business, and help you to achieve your goals. Here are some strategic benefits:

• By running a detailed market study, a SWOT and potential customer analysis, Restaurant owners gain access to real data about their business. Unlocking this information is fundamental for commercial success, and will allow you to make decisions based on a first-hand understanding of your strengths and limitations.
• Creating a good restaurant marketing plan helps establish clear goals. A useful goal can be anything from increasing your business visibility on social media to improving the user experience in your establishment or simply attracting new customers. This allows you to concentrate your efforts more effectively and continuously assess your progress.
• A restaurant marketing plan will set out a series of actions to ensure customers are aware of your online presence. Therefore, they are essential for cultivating email marketing strategies, organising social media activities, and optimising your Google My Business to ensure information is always up-to-date.
• Social media campaigns can also enhance customers’ dining experience through efficient resource use and greater consistency in communication strategies. By highlighting your restaurant’s brand identity and promoting its values, digital marketing can establish an emotional connection with your customers before they even arrive.

To make the process easier to understand, we'll review the marketing plan for Ocean, a restaurant on the promenade in a coastal city of around 200,000 people. Ocean serves Mediterranean dishes and can host 80 guests.  

Let's begin!

Conduct a market analysis for your restaurant 

Every marketing plan should start with a comprehensive analysis of the business involved. Like an inventory check, a market analysis helps to take stock of factors that currently affect the restaurant internally and externally and is key for working out what you can and cannot use.  

In marketing circles, this process is known by the acronym SWOT Analysis, and covers:

STRENGTHS (internal): Elements that make the restaurant stand out. Advantages over the competition.

OPPORTUNITIES (external): Expanding market niches, positive trends, and sale-driven consumer behaviours.

WEAKNESSES (internal): Disadvantages for the business versus the competition. Limitations and areas to improve.

THREATS (external): Negative changes in the environment. Is the competition fierce, making it hard to find the right position in the market?

To begin SWOT analysis, you must also gather data on direct and indirect competitors, including their strategies to drive activity, their promoted values, and how they interact with customers.

Another key task will be to study market trends. By gaining insight into opportunities within the sector, you can learn to anticipate and capitalise on changes in the culinary scene. 

An effective marketing strategy must also include a demographic analysis to understand your audience and their consumer behaviour better. Demographic data can influence your restaurant’s location, menu, and promotions.

A practical example of SWOT analysis

Applying all this to our restaurant, Ocean, we can set out all the internal and external factors:

STRENGHTS

• Excellent local octopus supplier.
• Good location on a key corner near the tourist zone and offices.

OPPORTUNITIES

• Companies are increasingly holding after-work social events in this area, and more executives are attending.
• More corporate buildings are in construction.

WEAKNESSES

• Not many customers come on Wednesday lunchtimes or Thursday evenings.
• The brand image needs to be updated, and the restaurant needs better ambience.

THREATS

• Mediterranean cuisine does not stand out from the competition.
• Although the popular location near the beach is advantageous and good for tourists, many new restaurants have opened in the area also serving Mediterranean dishes and seafood, increasing competition.

The competition

To take a look at the competition in more detail, pay special attention to:

• Offerings and prices.
• Customer demographics.
• Weaknesses: Are they ever empty? Do they offer the same menu items as other local restaurants?

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