Office buildings are freaking hilarious (at least mine is).  It’s not uncommon for the question “What’s for lunch” to spring up around 8am.  That sounds ridiculous, but if you forget lunch at home then you’re eating out.  It’s a great idea to get that ball rolling early.

If you work in a restaurant, you might not understand the politics behind a lunch break.  It’s the highlight of the day!  Everyone has to eat, and you’ve got one hour to do it.  The power is that offices order food in groups.  Do most restaurants understand this culture?  It amazes me that local restaurants never stop by our office to offer incentives.  They could be killing it!  Here are 4 quick office promo tips:

Take a Groupon Approach

Two key features why Groupon works:

1.  Sense of Urgency

2.  Fear of Loss

Basically, this offer is only good today, buy now or risk losing it forever.  QVC uses the same sales techniques, and so can you.

Put together a special offer that includes group buying.  Most offices order lunch in group orders anyways.  Drop it by an office building and tell them “If you get 10 people together to place an order in the next 2 days, we will offer you $5 sandwiches.”  Or whatever your most popular dish may be.  Just make the deal worth doing.  People will fight to sign up for $5 sandwiches when it comes to lunch. The key is to make the special worth doing, limit the time, and only make the offer valid if X number of people sign up.

Party Trays

People like free food.  Ok, people LOVE free food!  Drop off a sampler tray by an office next to your restaurant.  Include some of your favorite menu items.  Make sure to leave lunch menus and even a small incentive.  For example “Receive 10% off when 10+ people place an order.”  Bait them with the incentive, hook them with the free food, and land 10+ orders.

Exclusive Twitter offers.

If you are a restaurant on Twitter, than you probably have a follower who works in an office.  Send them a DM that morning saying “Hey, get 10 orders together and we will give you 25% off for lunch today.”  That sets a spark within the office early.  That person will start asking around if anyone is interested in ordering.  DM ten followers daily and you’re likely to get at least one large lunch order.  Make sure you have good relations with these people so they don’t see the offer as spam.  This goes back to basic principles of how your restaurant should be tweeting.

Group Happy Hour

Ok, this one doesn’t pertain to the lunch crowd, but it’s worth noting.  Office employees love happy hour, especially if it’s close.  The key is getting in touch with someone within the office.  Have them pick a date and offer a group happy hour.   These specials are exclusive to the people that attend.  This spreads like wildfire as people constantly ask each other if they are coming to happy hour tonight.  Whoever you set up the happy hour with is now your spokesperson.  Put them to work on getting a large group together.  Numbers baby!

What are some other ideas for office promotions?  We have tons, UrbanBacon being one of them!  Let’s start the discussion below, its lunchtime!

The majority of my life I grew up fishing private ponds, streams, and rivers in Missouri.  There is nothing like the serene stillness and peace of a bright summer day on the crystal water.  This is my element, at least as a kid it was.  I remember tying neon green and construction orange lures in hopes of landing that monster 8lb large mouth bass.  Constant casting and reeling while my lure danced across clear water taught me a great deal of patience.  In a way, fishing is like social media.  Are your customers biting your lures?

The Game is Patience

My father taught me the importance of patience.  He is honestly the most patient man I have ever met.  This transferred well into fishing for me.  When you’re bass fishing, you are constantly casting and retrieving different lures in efforts to attract fish.  Bass have instincts to strike what they haven’t seen before.  Therefore you should constantly change and adapt to water color, temperature, time of year, time of day, and what everyone else is fishing with.  This takes patience.  Learn that you won’t always land tons of fish until you find the right technique. Social media is the same way for your restaurant.  You have to offer different specials and react differently given the timing.  You are building an online customer base, and that takes time.  The most deadly mistake your restaurant can make is believing things happen over night.  You have to learn, try new things, and be patient with your customer base.

Push vs Pull Marketing

There are both push and pull strategies in fishing.  Buzz-baits make an awful buzzing sound that annoys fish to the point of striking out of frustration.  Are they effective?  You bet.  Spinner-baits use shiny metals to attract fish so they strike out of curiosity, also highly effective.  In essence: Buzz-baits = Push Marketing Spinner-baits = Pull Marketing Most social media platforms use a pull marketing technique.  Twitter is a perfect example of this.  90-95% of your tweets should be engaging (Pull Technique), and the rest to push your specials on followers.  Twitter followers consider specials as spam, so it’s best not to over tweet them.  Instead, you should focus on creating compelling content around your restaurant that pulls followers in.  Here are some tips on using Twitter like a double edged sword. UrbanBacon is more of a push marketing example.  Here you directly post your specials, and then work on pulling them in through comments/interaction.  UrbanBacon users are actively looking for specials, so you can get away with pushing specials upon them. Ideally you should use a combination of Push vs Pull according to Mike Atkinson from FOHBOH.  Play with your customer base and see which platform/strategy is more effective for your restaurant.

What Are You Fishing For?

In my eyes, there are 2 types of fishing:  Bass fishing and Cat fishing, and both use very different techniques.  For bass you typically use fake lures to constantly cast and retrieve.  Bass are aggressive and hunt their prey, so you must be aggressive.  Catfish are bottom dwellers meaning they sift through the pond floor for food. They rely on sense of smell, therefore stink bait smells like a steak dinner to them.  Let your bait hit the bottom, pull the line tight, and wait for a bite.  Are your customer’s bass or catfish? You should know what customers you’re fishing for.  Are you a trendy college bar?  Than why in the hell would you advertise in The Wall Street Journal?   Focus on producing content your customers will consume and revolve it around your restaurant.  For example, if you are a dive bar, than start a blog about dive bars across the country.  This will attract people who love dive bars.  Once they’re hooked, it’s up to you to land them into “the boat” a.k.a. your bar.  The foundation of content marketing is knowing what you’re fishing for.

Fish Different Spots, But Stick to Your Honey Hole

Anglers learn to try different spots.  There are plenty of fish, just some places are more abundant.  Through trial and error you can find these spots.  The main key is to get fishing, just remember your honey spot. There are tons of social media sites:  Facebook, Twitter, UrbanBacon, Yelp, etc where people are daily.  Which spot works best for you?  If your Facebook fans are extremely loyal, than this is your honey spot.  But don’t be scared to fish other social media sites.  They may just have the customers you’re looking for!

Fishing Takes Time

You want to start catching fish?  Start fishing!  Simple as that.  The more you fish, the more you catch.  You have to invest the time it takes to learn techniques, scout spots, tie lures, wait for bites, set hooks, and ultimately land fish.  If you want more fish it’s time to take action. Social media is exactly the same.  Want more followers?  Then you need to start connecting with people online.  There are multiple social media platforms already built, you have to invest the time.  It takes time to build a customer base online, and nothing happens overnight.  The customers are there, are you ready to invest the time? What do you guys think as restaurant owners?  As customers?  Is social media worth the time?  Leave your comments below!

Why where The Romans such a dominate army?

One Reason: The Gladius aka “the sword that conquered the world”

This technology allowed soldiers to dish massive amounts of damage to opponents that leveled entire armies!  When was the last time your iPhone conquered Greece?  It’s funny how a simple technological advancement can be so powerful.  Sounds like Twitter, right?

We all know Twitter is a powerful networking tool.  That’s not a secret.  Just like the double edge sword, its also has an incredibly simple design.  This in return, deserves a simple approach.  There is no magic bullet to killing Twitter, but we can let you in on a secret tactic that works, keep reading…

The Nature of Twitter and Specials

Twitter is entirely user based.  Without users the service dies.  Therefore, the nature of Twitter follows natural human behavior.  We all want deals/specials and we will jump through hoops to get them.  Getting hooked up makes us feel special, destroys buyer remorse, and keeps us coming back.  Face it, by nature we are suckers for great deals.

Yet, we don’t want to be sold, because that just sucks.  So how does a restaurant offer deals without selling?  What is the super secret trick to posting ninja specials?  Are you ready for it?

The Super Secret Ninja Tweet Example:

“RT this and we will send you a coupon for…”

Profound, huh?  Not really…we told you Twitter deserves a simple approach.  But this single tweet alone can be a double edge sword, here’s why:

1.  The coupon = exposure = more customers to your restaurant

2.  Since they must RT to get the coupon, it encourages everyone of their followers to RT it also

Wondering what this can do for your followers and email lists?  Say someone RT’s you in order to get the coupon, which means it’s time for a ninja move.

@mention them saying:

“Totally pumped to send you our coupon, please DM me your email.”

In order to DM someone, they must follow you.  See where the hoops are leading?  Once they DM their email to you, send them their coupon immediately.  They have deserved it.

Do not forget to rehash by asking them:

“Do you wish to receive coupons in the future to this email?”

If they agree, consider this a sign up for your email list =) In a matter of seconds you have gained a customer, follower, and email subscriber. Some may call this gaming the system…I call it brilliant marketing.  After all, you are offering the consumer something they want, for free.

WARNING:  Yes, this works.  It’s effective as The Roman’s double-edged sword.  But even a powerful nation like Rome became arrogant and fell. Use this technique sparingly as ALL your marketing efforts on Twitter. Twitter makes a better customer service platform anyways.  It’s all about meeting people and listening.  95% of your Tweets should be talking to people, the other 5% can be marketing.

@RizzoTees once told me to respect the twitterverse, and it will show you love.  I believe that wholeheartedly.  In tha words of Ali G – “Respect!”

DO you guys know any other effective Twitter tips?  Leave your comments below or share this!