What are customer profiles — and why should you build them?

By Mark Plumlee Knowing your customers is perhaps the most important part of running a successful small business. Knowing your target audience should inform every decision you make – your overall atmosphere, your menu, your marketing strategies, and beyond. Familiarity with your diners allows your business to provide them with the exact drinking or dining […]

Your menu pricing strategy can help your restaurant get ahead

As inflation continues to rise and labour shortages persist, it may be time to look at your menu pricing strategy as a way to cut costs and raise profits. As a restaurateur, you know it’s a balancing act to keep customers happy and stay in the green. Understanding how to create a menu pricing strategy […]

How to better understand customer experience (and why it matters)

By Austin Verner Customers are the lifeblood of any business, and that means delivering an exceptional customer experience is a must to keep your guests coming back. A study conducted by Thanx found that revenue was highly-concentrated among a small number of customers, with the top 25 per cent contributing 64 per cent of revenue. […]

Using social media to optimize your LTO sales

If you own or manage a restaurant, you’ve probably developed a marketing strategy around limited-time offers (LTOs), but are you using social media as part of that strategy? Social media can help you reach a large audience quickly and cheaply, using your LTOs to help drive traffic, create a sense of urgency, and up your […]

How to use design to make your restaurant stand out — part 2: restaurant atmosphere

By Megan Prevost While the design and content of your menu can certainly help your restaurant stand out, customers think about more than just food when they’re choosing a restaurant to dine at. Restaurant marketing professionals know that restaurants provide customers with an experience, not just dinner. Whether subconsciously or explicitly, diners select restaurants based […]

How to put your employees first to fight ongoing labour shortages

The pandemic brought new, unimagined challenges to the restaurant industry, from closures and loss of business to supply chain delays. In the post-pandemic climate, while some of those obstacles still continue to plague the industry, a newly intensified challenge has dominated: labour shortages. During more than two years of unreliable work, many people quit the […]

How to use design to make your restaurant stand out — part 1: food & menus

By Megan Prevost Even if your restaurant makes the world’s best food, it won’t survive without a solid marketing strategy in place. Most restaurant marketing experts know that customers aren’t simply seeking something to eat; they’re seeking an experience. If you want to create an experience at your restaurant, you’ll want to design and establish […]

How to prepare your restaurant for fall pests

By Alice Sinia Although pests present a potential problem all year long, changing seasons often bring changes in pest populations. To best protect your business throughout the year, it is important to know how changes in weather will affect these unwanted guests’ habits. As temperatures drop, restaurants are especially vulnerable to fall pests looking for […]

Why you should solicit more online reviews (and how to do it)

By Mark Plumlee If you want to capture the attention of would-be guests on the internet, online reviews are of the utmost importance. According to a study by TripAdvisor, 94 per cent of respondents in the U.S. admitted that online reviews influence their dining decisions. Another study by two economists at the University of California, […]