Best Pub and Restaurant Marketing Ideas
Best Pub and Restaurant Marketing Ideas - The Journey from a £1 Bet to an Award-Winning Hospitality Venue: How I Built a Thriving Pub, Restaurant, and Functions Business
They say the best stories come from unlikely beginnings, and mine starts with a £1 bet. Fresh off the back of winning Pub/Restaurant of the Year and Manager of the Year awards (as voted by customers and suppliers, no less), a good friend challenged me: "I bet you £1 you can't build a successful hospitality business out of a failing one". As someone who loves a challenge, I took that bet - and what followed was a life-changing journey that taught me more about leadership, marketing, and business development than I ever imagined.
The Search for the Perfect Opportunity
It took me a year of searching to find the right business to buy. I was already running my training company, so I knew I wouldn’t be working full-time at the pub/restaurant. My focus would be on the two elements of the business that most in the industry tend to ignore: training and marketing.
When I finally found the pub, it was far from what you'd call “successful”. But I knew this was the one. The business was struggling, but I saw potential - potential in the space, the location, and even the team. It just needed the right direction and a clear vision.
Best Pub and Restaurant Marketing Ideas
Year 1: Setting the Foundation (Winning That £1)
The first year was about survival and laying the groundwork. I focused on the essentials, like defining the mission for the business and ensuring everyone on the team - from the 16-year-old waitress to the assistant managers - understood it. The mission was simple: To become the heart of village life. This wasn’t just about serving food and drinks; it was about becoming a community hub for locals, businesses, and tourists alike. We wanted to be the place people chose, whether it was a casual dinner, a function, or just a great coffee.
Training was the first order of business. Everyone was involved in training, not just on service but on leadership. Every team member had a role to play, and I wanted them to feel empowered to contribute ideas to improve the business. This kind of ownership would be crucial to our success.
It took us two years to make our first £1 of profit, but I won that bet. And shortly after, things began to turn around in ways even I didn’t expect.
Year 2: The Vision Comes to Life
By year two, we were starting to see the fruits of our labour. The reputation of the pub/restaurant grew exponentially. Customers weren’t just coming for a meal; they were coming for the experience. In my opinion - and that of hundreds of our loyal customers - we had the best menu, the best-trained team, the best service, and the best events.
Our team wasn’t just good at serving food; they were brilliant at coming up with innovative ways to engage our customers and generate revenue.
FIRE: Find Incremental Revenue Everywhere
One of my favourite stories is from when I bought a Lavazza coffee machine. It made the most incredible coffee, and our coffee-loving customers loved it. One day, a team member came up with an idea: “Why don’t we sell the coffee we grind here”?
Then another chimed in: “If we’re doing that, why not sell smaller coffee machines so our customers can make perfect coffee at home? We could even include training as part of the price”!
So, we did. And do you know what? Every time that machine went on in our customers’ homes, they were thinking of us. This is the kind of creativity I love to see - our team found incremental revenue opportunities everywhere (hence FIRE), and they were leading the charge.
Marketing Lesson #1: It’s not the customer’s job to remember to do business with you. It’s your job to remind them. We did this by staying top of mind with creative, valuable ideas that enhanced the customer experience.
Year 3 and Beyond: Building a Legacy
By the time we hit the third year, we had solidified our place as the heart of village life. Our clientele expanded to include not just villagers, but associations, clubs, local businesses, two large housing estates full of foodies, local schools, and tourists passing through the Peak District. We became the go-to destination.
And it wasn’t just because of the food or the events; it was because we had created something bigger. The team felt like they were part of something special, and they were constantly coming up with ideas to make the business even better.
The Secret to Our Success? Vision, Leadership, and a Clear Mission
One thing that set us apart was our clarity of vision. Everyone - from the kitchen team to the cleaners - knew exactly what they had to do. They weren’t just employees; they were leaders in their own right. They understood the mission and took ownership of their roles within it.
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Best Pub and Restaurant Marketing Ideas - The Six Steps That Defined Our Marketing Strategy
Over time, I realised that the approach I was using to market the business could be distilled into six simple steps. These eventually became the backbone of my marketing philosophy, which I later outlined in my book, Mastering the Path to Profit: A Six-Step Guide to Marketing for Independent Business Owners Everywhere. Here are the six steps:
- Defining the Mission: Know your purpose, and make sure everyone on your team understands it.
- Establishing Goals: Set clear, measurable objectives to track progress.
- Pinpointing the Target Audience: Know exactly who you’re serving, and tailor your message to them.
- Crafting the Core Message: Develop a compelling message that resonates with your target audience.
- Reaching Your Ideal Clients: Use the right channels to engage with your customers where they are.
- Planning, Budgeting, and Tracking Your Progress: Make sure you’re sticking to the plan and adjust as needed.
The Exit: Selling the Business and Moving On
After eight years, we had built something incredible - a business worth selling. And we did just that. The sale wasn’t the end, though. It was the beginning of my next venture, Ultimate Leadership Training Ltd., where I now train business owners and managers on how to build successful teams, improve communication, and, of course, market their businesses effectively.
A Final Tip: It’s All About Ease
One of my top tips, which I talk about in my free 5-day
Marketing Mastery Challenge (but didn’t include in the book), is that
customer service is about making things easy. Easy to contact you. Easy to
navigate your website. Easy to understand what problem you solve. And easy to
buy your product or service.
That’s what we strived to achieve in the pub/restaurant, and it’s what I now teach my clients. We made it easy for customers to engage with us, and that made all the difference.
The Next Chapter: What’s in It for You?
Whether you’re running a pub, a retail store, or an online business, the principles I used to turn that failing pub into a thriving business apply to you. Follow the six steps from my book, Mastering the Path to Profit, and you’ll be well on your way to building a successful, sustainable business.
Want to learn more? Join my free 5-day Marketing Mastery Challenge or grab the book on Amazon to get started. Trust me, with a clear mission, a dedicated team, and the right marketing strategy, any viable business can grow and thrive.
Best Pub and Restaurant Marketing Ideas
As well as lots of smaller businesses and organisations, below are examples of some larger organisations who have received training from our director of learning at Ultimate Leadership Training:
Please contact us to discuss any training requirements you have, we either deliver for you or sell you the course for your trainers to deliver to your team
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Best Pub and Restaurant Marketing Ideas, discover how I transformed a struggling pub and restaurant into an award-winning business using leadership, training, and innovative marketing strategies. Learn key tips from my book 'Mastering the Path to Profit' and explore a six-step guide to growing any viable business. Perfect for hospitality owners and managers seeking proven success methods
Best Pub and Restaurant Marketing Ideas