My name’s Ryan Gromfin, I’m an author, speaker, chef, restaurant and I’m the founder of TheRestaurantBoss.com as well as RestaurantProfitandPerformance.com.

We sometimes over complicate marketing. We think of it as this huge thing and I’ve got right here on this piece of paper the three things that you need to remember all the time about restaurant marketing. It’s actually quite simple, so let’s get right into this.

The first step is to create something worth marketing that people will actually benefit from.

So often we think that what our restaurant needs is more marketing. That if we had more butts in our seats because of more coupons, more advertising, more Facebook, more word-of-mouth, more partnerships, whatever it was.  We think that’s what’s missing in our restaurant. That’s why we don’t have the butts in our seats. But the reality is, you probably haven’t created something worth marketing.  You haven’t created something that’s benefiting the community. You haven’t created something that is extremely valuable to your customers. Something extraordinary, something distinct, something different something special, something unique, something that people cannot live without.

All the marketing in the world cannot replace the fundamental cores of your business if your restaurant is not extraordinary.  If it’s not amazing, if it’s not unique, if it’s not distinct. All the marketing the world can’t do anything about that.

The second step is to simply tell everybody about it.

Don’t worry so much about how to get your message out there or making sure it’s perfect. Don’t worry so much about the newest technology, email marketing, Facebook marketing. What’s the best thing? What’s the best bang for your buck?

You know the best marketing that my wife and I ever did when we were running that higher-end wine market and bistro was that we just told everybody about what we were doing. If we were at a party, we talked about it. If we were at the grocery store we talked about it, we handed out business cards, we handed out gift cards. We told everybody about what we were doing. We were passionate about it. We were excited about it. We were exuberant about it. We did not hold back because we knew what we were doing was great. It was special, it was unique, we loved it, and we just stood on mountaintops and screamed it for the whole world. So don’t worry so much about the specifics of marketing. Just get the message out there!

The third step is so often overlooked. I want to read it exactly word for word off of this piece of paper so I don’t mess this up for you.

You have to do the hard work by showing up regularly, consistently, and generously for years, and years, and years.

The best way to sum this up as a quote from Monte Moran who is the COO of Chipotle, and he says: “The best marketing we do, is the experience a customer or a guest gets when visiting our restaurant.”

Remember folks marketing is not just putting the message out there and telling the world. Marketing is everything you do to attract and keep a customer so once you’ve told the whole world about this amazing unique thing that’s so valuable to your guests and you’ve gotten them in your restaurant, you’ve got to do the hard work. You’ve got to operate an amazing restaurant with great service .. with great staff, with consistency and excellence, with service in mind, with everything that you do. If you’re not nailing the operations then all the marketing in the world doesn’t matter.

I hope you enjoyed this video and I look forward to seeing you again next week.