With social distancing in full swing and an increasing aversion towards social interactions, a restaurant’s ability to market itself will be crucial to its recovery. Fortunately, restaurants can choose from a number of marketing tactics that will help them recover during these times of economic crisis. Here are some tactics that are worth every restaurant’s serious consideration. 

Show Customers You Are A Safe Choice

After the government’s mandated shutdown has been rescinded consumers will still be concerned about how safe it is to stop by their favorite restaurants. People are generally risk averse, meaning that any restaurant viewed as risky will be disqualified in the minds of consumers. 

Even if a restaurant is implementing every safeguard in the world, it is meaningless unless customers know what is being done to protect them. Look at each point of contact with a customer and ask how I can communicate that this restaurant is safe. 

Leverage Pareto’s Principle And Focus On Retention

Regulars are the lifeblood of restaurants. To quote Pareto’s Principle, the 80-20 rule, for many restaurants only 20% of customers generate 80% of their revenue. This is great news because that means a restaurant can focus limited resources on retaining high value customers. 

This tactic can take many forms and its most common form is the reward program. When considering how to apply this tactic consider referencing Chick-Fil-A. They have been successfully implementing a reward program through their app. 

A dedicated app like Chick-Fil-A’s is not needed to start your own reward program but we ask that you look at what Chick-Fil-A is using their program to accomplish. Habits, Chick-Fil-A’s reward program is geared towards creating a habit of visiting their restaurant. Instead of investing large dollar amounts on advertising they have opted to focus their attention on creating regular customers. 

Consider your own restaurant’s capabilities when using this tactic and remember that using this tactic to recover your restaurant will generate better results because restaurant regulars already have a taste for your food and it will cost less resources to get their attention. 

Don’t Run A Blind Promotion 

The full extent of a restaurant’s recovery plan should not be a simple promotion that offers a slight discount to consumers that come in for a meal. Every restaurant needs to take into consideration that every other restaurant will be running their own promotion to accomplish the same goal. 

Your restaurant needs to stand out, and find a way to persuade its customers to return. Otherwise, the only thing your restaurant will accomplish is reducing its margins. If your restaurant can leverage the first promotion to encourage a second visit with a larger group of people then it would have succeeded in the following areas. 

1. Gaining exposure to more customers through word of mouth
2. Creating a returning customer who is more accustomed to your dishes
3. Creating a habit of inviting others when customers visit your restaurant 

To accomplish this your restaurant can think about creating a series of promotions that will guide customers towards the behavior your restaurant would like them to exhibit. Another thing to consider is that your restaurant is not limited to promotions and can experiment with different ways to accomplish its ultimate goal, growth.