Why So Many Restaurants Were Unprepared To Deal With The Pandemic: From A Marketing Point Of View

First of all, my heart goes out to all restaurant owners, I understand that the last year has been incredibly difficult.

That said, I have a few ideas from a marketing perspective. Before the pandemic, my experience was that I saw very few restaurants doing long-term strategic marketing planning.

Most were doing random and inconsistent marketing. They had no marketing plan to fall back on during COVID_19.

For example, I dined at many restaurants before COVID_19 and I can’t recall a time when they tried to capture my email address or cell phone number to encourage me to come back again and again. Too many restaurants treat their customers as “one night stands”.

Research has shown that email marketing is one of the most profitable tactics for restaurants. It’s targeted, personalized marketing, but few restaurants consistently take advantage of it.

I would venture to guess that restaurants that had a consistent email marketing strategy were in a much better position to communicate with their regulars to keep them updated and maintain their relationships.

Imagine you’re the kind of restaurant owner who relies heavily on dine-in for your daily income and suddenly has to switch to just delivery and pickup, how do you get that message across to your customers?

What about social networks? Yes, that could work, but you have to be prepared to spend a few dollars to achieve reach because organic reach alone will not be effective for most restaurants.

Based on the latest data I saw, the average restaurant has about 600 followers. And you have to remember that Facebook says that they will only show your posts to about 10% of their followers for free.

In my opinion, a significant number of restaurants do poor social media marketing, they have no goals. Posting photos of your dishes is the bare minimum, but for many restaurants, that’s all they do.

When it comes to which strategy restaurants should use, it’s not email marketing vs. social media, it’s BOTH! And there are many other marketing strategies that restaurants should have been using constantly before and after COVID_19.

There is no marketing panacea for restaurant owners. Even with a limited marketing budget, restaurants can still use a multi-channel marketing mix.

They need to find strategies (free and paid) to find more customers and get them to order online or dine out over and over again.

All restaurant owners know that profits come from getting lots of repeat customers, but few implement a marketing system to achieve it.

Another reason many restaurants weren’t prepared for a shutdown is that they didn’t have a website or a poor one, so they weren’t positioned to order online. Some went to delivery services like Skip The Dishes, but they take 20-35% of the order, often leaving very little for the restaurant owner.

My opinion is that too many restaurants were surviving before COVID_19 due to their lack of effective and consistent marketing.

So when COVID_19 hit, it didn’t take much to push them over the edge. Will the surviving restaurants focus on further improving their marketing so that they will be in a better position to cope when another crisis such as an economic collapse strikes?

______________________________________________________________________