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How restaurants can make digital pay off

If your restaurant is struggling to get digital marketing set up, you aren't alone. Panelists at the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit shared key tactics to set up and measure ROI for digital campaigns.

Hassy Braggs of Your Pie, Jodi Contrad of Fazoli's, David Ponce of Wings Etc. and Bradly Voreis of Scorpion discuss digital advertising. Photo by Willie Lawless

March 25, 2019 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator

One major challenge for restaurants is the transition from more traditional advertising methods to digital advertising such as kiosks, digital signage, mobile, online and others. And there's also the issue of how to measure return on investment for digital campaigns.

Panelists Hassy Braggs, director of marketing, Your Pie; Jodie Conrad, vice president of marketing, Fazoli's; and David Ponce, chief marketing officer, Wings Etc., shared key lessons on measuring digital ROI during a session at the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit in Louisville. The session was moderated by Bradley Voreis, vice president of strategic marketing at Scorpion.

You're not alone

If you are struggling to get digital marketing set up, you aren't alone. Conrad said she initially felt like Fazoli's was late to the digital game, especially mobile apps, but she saw many other businesses were struggling as well. Ponce said his restaurant was in a similar situation

"We were dragged kicking and screaming into digital," Ponce said.

Braggs said several elements of its digital tools such as its POS system wasn't integrating well with its other technological tools.

Do one thing well

For restaurants, all the technology available, from menu boards to social media to AI, can be overwhelming. The panelists emphasized, however, that restaurants should stay focused on a few things and gradually improve on them.

"Doing a few things reasonably well and continuing to improve those things is way better than trying to do a thousand digital initiatives and it becomes unmanageable," Ponce said.

Your Pie focused on AdWord campaigns to help find the right keywords and the right audiences for its restaurants, according to Braggs. The restaurant chain is constantly retargeting advertisements and testing out different content.

"Always be testing," Bragg said.

Fazoli's focuses specifically on driving people to its loyalty programs, because that's where it gets the most data, according to Conrad.

Build a good road map

In order to deliver strong ROI, the panelists said restaurants need good road maps in place. For example, if your restaurant wants to boost reviews, it needs to have a good plan that brings in both employees and franchisees.

Ponce said that in Wings, Etcs.'s quest for five-star reviews, it made an offer to franchisees. When franchisees boosted review scores, Wings, Etc. would give additional advertising dollars to help them reach additional customers.

Another step in this road map to boost review scores would be to improve review response rate.

Conrad and Braggs said they aim to respond to positive reviews, rather than just doing damage control for negative reviews.

"We will reach out to positive reviewers and say, 'lunch is on us,'" Braggs said. "This isn't a bribe, but a way to boost word of mouth."

Gather data

All the panelists said it is very important to gather data on customers if you want to build successful digital campaigns.

Ponce referred to using local mobile campaigns to grab customers as they walk by a restaurant, which he jokingly called, "devil's tech."

Braggs said restaurants should always be looking for more ways to gather metrics and analyze that data.

It is important, however, not to get lost in the data or feel you need to do everything at once, according to Ponce. You should instead focus on fundamental data.

"One franchisee said 'you can never go wrong by working on the fundamentals,'" Ponce said.

Deliver on your promise

Even with the best review management, advertising, mobile apps and loyalty programs, if your restaurant ultimately doesn't deliver on your brand promise it won't matter.

Ponce refers to the restaurant experience as the tip of the spear, with everything else being the advertising and the brand. If the tip breaks, it will backfire and destroy your brand in the eyes of consumers.

In order to deliver on your promise, you need to understand your location, audience and markets well, said Ponce.

By understanding your audience well and delivering on their expectations, you can stay afloat in the sea of digital marketing.

About Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and Food Truck Operator. He was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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