Restaurant Word of Mouth Marketing

Updated October 2nd, 2013

Word of Mouth Marketing is a marketing technique dependent upon loyalty, but has the ability to reach countless potential customers. Find out how you can improve your Word of Mouth Marketing efforts here.

The strongest marketing technique within consumerism is word of mouth marketing. An elated customer could talk all day about the new thing they’ve just tried and that’s a plus because when it comes to product recommendations, 65% of consumers trust friends over experts.  This is likely due to the sneaky nature of the undercover “experts” who are somehow intermixed with the business, in turn profiting from the advertisement and product, even if it is subpar. Nonetheless, you can tap into this marketing approach to legitimately increase your business.

There are three correlating strategies to help you do so:

1) Increase customer volume

As obvious as it may seem, the first necessity of an increased word of mouth marketing team is a greater customer volume. Simply put, you need to increase the number of people that can spread the word. To initially drive in potential “marketers”, you can offer new customers a deal through Groupon, Living Social or another local discount site. Your deal will be advertised to hundreds of prospective customers with an incentive such as “Buy One, Get One Half Off or Free” or “Pay $15 for $30.” When you steadily expand the number of customers you serve while providing your upmost service, you are increasing the possibility of guests sharing with others. Interested in starting a viral coupon experience? Read more in our article entitled, “5 Ways Restaurant Owners Can Use Online Coupons Effectively”.

2) Give them something to talk about

When a meal or service is memorable, customers are bound to share their experience with co-workers, friends and family.  Granted, not every chicken sandwich can make a person’s list of “Best Meals”, but the service can pick up where the food may be humdrum in nature. Greetings, smiles, jokes, generosity, among other things are greatly appreciated by patrons. Due to the fact that such chivalry and niceties are uncommon, customers will make certain that they recall this specifically about your restaurant. Go out of your way and have your employees go out of their way to make the customers feel appreciated. Think outside of the box for other ways to impress your customers. Make them want to brag about you.

3) Provide social media incentives

Social media is today’s pool of resources, packed full of swimmers and runners who update their friends on a regular basis through a post, comment, tweet or ‘like’. These actions may be forwarded to millions of other people with a single click. Never has the world experienced such a simple way to transmit a message. Failing to utilize social media sets your restaurant back a couple of decades. You may as well be doing business in the Dinosaur Age. It doesn’t matter whether you use Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp or other social media sites; chances are that they are your best opportunity for earning the testimonial of everyday people.  Promote social media activity that promotes your restaurant by offering various incentives such as:

• Free drinks for checking in to Foursquare while at the restaurant

• Receive 10% off your next bill with a Yelp Review

• Dessert thrown in with any entrée order when you add a location update in Facebook

Promote social media activity that correlates with your restaurant for highly effective and immediate word of mouth marketing.

Written by Daniel Grossmann