Vertical Marketing Digest for Small Business

At the New England Food Show Mason Harris of YouGotMeals gave a great talk on restaurant marketing. While some of his tips would also be appropriate for other industries, e.g., retail, I'm going to focus on the restaurant points here.

His opening point was: "good food and service is no longer enough for small restaurants" as the big chains have levelled the playing field on those fronts. (Aside: Older chef/owners I talk to sometimes dispute this, but in general I am seeing a trend where even the hottest places in town are very active marketers -- email, community programs, etc.)

He emphasized programs that were: low-cost, high-impact, targeted, and easy-to-implement. Much of the talk was focused on email marketing (which his company provides, of course) and those points are well-covered on his site and sites like ClickZ.

Niche Media: He highlighted the growth in niche media as making the marketing decisions more complex for the small business owner. More cable channels (Food Network), more magazines (his hypothetical monthly "Left-Handed Cigar Lovers"), more advertising locations (taxicabs, golf carts).

Permission: He hammered on permission marketing vs. interruption marketing; this topic has been covered elsewhere in depth since Seth Godin pounded on it years ago in his now classic book. However, in economic terms, he pointed out that loyalty marketing is critical, because otherwise you "pay others over and over to find your own customers again".

Media Comparison: He largely rejected the use of TV advertising, calling it "ego media", and he found newspaper advertising to be "untargeted" and "cluttered". Yellow pages ads are mandatory, but do little for customer awareness. People usually go to the yellow pages for a restaurant's phone number after they already know about them and have thought about them.

Interesting point - that last one on YP usage. A small restaurant owner is basically paying to provide directory assistance to her existing customers, in an untrackable ad medium that juxtaposes her listing with all of her competitors.

Mason did a great job of laying out Pareto's Principle (a.k.a. the 80/20 rule) in restaurant terms: 20% of your customers are 80% of your traffic, 20% of your menu drives 80% of your profit, 20% of your marketing brings in 80% of your customers, 20% of your staff causes 80% of your complaints, etc.

Takeaway: One main point was clear: there are more and more advertising and marketing options for the restaurant owner, which suggests to me a need for more advice to the owner on which media / services / techniques work best.