If I had a nickel for each time I heard a restaurateur say, “we got busier after doing X marketing”, I’d be a rich man. That is typically the answer that I hear when I ask new clients (or prospective clients) how their existing marketing is working, regardless of what they’re doing. Tracking is so important, yet so few people do it when it comes to their marketing dollars. If I asked that same restaurateur how much their food cost was for a certain dish, or their average labor costs, they usually have an exact answer. So why is this so different when it comes to marketing dollars?
I think that the norm has become “if we get busier, turn more tables, then our marketing worked”. Well what if you were giving away more food cost than you were receiving in revenue? This counts as being busy, yet you didn’t profit, or create a loyal customer…you lost money and got coupon clippers…BAd BAD BAd. A good marketing campaign will also allow you to track revenues, discounts, and guest counts, and provide you with powerful analytics that tell you your return on investment.
We recently developed a proprietary tracking system that allows our clients to track each campaign, each person spending money, and determine their yield in real dollars. I guess you can say this is my analytical engineering background, but in the end, it comes down to knowing what your money is doing for you. If you need help, reach out to me and I’ll show you how our tracking system can possibly tie into your current marketing solutions.
