Bringing patrons to your restaurant is not as simple as opening the doors and serving great food. Public relations, marketing and advertising are key to the success of your new venture.

Introduction

Public relations in the restaurant industry are a perfect method to gain coverage, and to reach customers in an informative and unbiased way. To reach the eyes and ears of customers, a restaurant needs good and effective PR, through which the names of the chefs and restaurant are delivered in the form of a message, image or a story.

One can hire the services of a PR firm which provides the restaurateurs ideas on restaurant design, menu design and writing, staff training, service and sometimes even the name and concept of the restaurant. The most important goal of your PR is to bring customers through those doors. After this initial inflow of customers, it is the job of the restaurant and its management to retain those customers by providing good ambience, food, and service.

An effective PR campaign for a restaurant makes the audience familiar about the business, and can remind them of your continued existence, enticing them to come down and spend some cash.

Traditional Marketing – It Works

The traditional elements that compose an effective campaign for a restaurant are ongoing press releases, which cover different and specific story angles that target the various broadcast and print media outlets, and newsletters for print and online publication that also can showcase the different elements of the restaurant business. Website copy can educate the target audience, and hard copies can provide detailed information about your restaurant to editors and reporters.

Diversify your Marketing

If you are planning a multi-layered PR campaign - and you should be - marketing in various forms becomes vital. Marketing your restaurant allows you to sell it directly to target customers. Some good marketing methods that promote your restaurant are direct mail, newsletters, comment cards, cross-promotions- through local retailers or organizations, concierge programs, and many more. All these marketing methods focus on encouraging customers to come to the restaurants. Think they are old fashioned? They are still statistically the best way to get people to come to your restaurant, so cannot be overlooked.

Getting Technical with your Marketing

We do not live in a time where a good reputation and word spread through the mouths of customers is enough to maintain a successful restaurant. Public awareness with positive information is vital for the success of a restaurant. So, use all the modern media available today, like the TV and radio stations, the internet, magazines, and newspapers to reach a wider audience.

Social media is an excellent platform to promote your restaurant. This is a fast and economical option to post great things about your food and restaurant. Get the attention of the readers through creative promotion of links and your own content.

Create the Buzz

A well-crafted PR campaign can raise awareness in the media and with consumers. When one maintains a positive relationship with the media, and gain publicity through them, restaurateurs can witness continued prosperity. Create a buzz in the media through implied endorsement to form a favourable public opinion.

Plan a grand opening of your restaurant by asking your PR to create awareness through social networks, television and radio stations etc. Plan this well ahead and start this campaign a few weeks before you open. Post good photographs of your restaurant and let them speak volumes about the place. Use the momentum from the opening and plan how you will capitalize on it over the next few months.

Outsourcing your PR

Media relations are a powerful tool to promote your restaurant. To have a successful culinary business, you must have a good relationship with the restaurant industry and market through a PR firm that is passionate about the restaurant business. The general public will ultimately read about the restaurant in print, hear about it on the radio, see it on television, or read about them in a magazine or cookbook. Good media relations is the right way to flourish in this business.

A good PR firm should be able to work with short and long term goals and give you access to communicate with your customers directly on a regular basis. The main aim of any PR campaign is to gain positive opinions from customers. A good PR agent for your restaurant can become the liaison between the restaurant operations, advertising companies like television, literary agents, real estate agents, and other competitive restaurants.

Choose the right PR firm which has direct experience in this industry. If this PR firm employs people who have had experience in this industry, you can expect some excellent PR ideas to make your restaurant stand out. To establish the restaurant as a true competitor, utilize their expertise in the design of the restaurant brand, down to the wording of the menu and the choice of decor – if they are experts in this area.

Conclusion

This level of detail means that hiring a PR firm requires the necessary research and planning. Talk to the experts from different PR firms and know their ideas. Test their knowledge in the industry and of the competition by interviewing them. Employ their services only after you are sure of their expertise in creating a successful campaign for your restaurant – if not you’re paying for a service that is not helping your business.
The role of PR in the restaurant industry is huge today, and no restaurateur dares to overlook the services of PR. Choose your PR company wisely, and ensure that they will be with you all the way, building the restaurant into the success you know it can be.

Guest Post by Sauce Communications - Food and Drink PR and Marketing Agency.