Marketing Plan Within the Service Industry

When it comes to the restaurant that I personally work for, Hillstone Restaurant in Coral Gables, corporate does not do anything when it comes to the marketing of the actual restaurant. No Google Ads, no running of promotions online, no sales, nothing whatsoever. And for a particularly good reason because they rely primarily on the positive word-of-mouth of the Miami locals for more than 20 years and through the personal reviews of our guests on websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. This gives guests the impression that it’s only through attaining a guest experience that they will be able to come to their own conclusion of how the restaurant is in terms of food quality, service, and their overall dining experience. However, that cannot be said for a good majority of the restaurants throughout Miami because they’re always in competition with one another. Therefore, there must be a marketing plan set in place in order to compete with the other restaurants vying for the attention of the Miami locals, particularly now during an economic downturn. The owner, alongside the management teams (because most restaurants throughout Miami are pretty small and do not have a corporate office such as the one I work for), develop a mission that will align with the main mission of the business. Once the restaurant knows their target audience through their buyer personas, KPI’s are set that can be easily measured so that the management team can periodically measure their growth, whether it be their social media engagement, RIO, customer acquisition cost, click-through rate, or website traffic. At the moment, Instagram and TikTok are king when it comes to content creation and that’s where the majority of their content will live and where management will be able to find existing trends that will help in the formulation of content initiatives. Finally, a budget is set (which is not big at all and is normally just tied to their base salary), roles are distributed amongst the owner and the management team, and they start going after their competition. The service industry in Miami is a very difficult industry when it comes to being “relevant” because there is just so much competition out there. But, take for example, a restaurant like Good Chef Restaurant on 113 SW 107th Street, 5 minutes away from FIU. It’s not a particularly large restaurant, it’s not even the most flashy restaurant in the area. But I remember following a page that had mentioned them and I had decided to give them a shot. I was absolutely blown away. Their popularity on social media skyrocketed which directly correlated to more sales and, now, they just opened up a new store on Bird Road. It is not impossible to grow, what you need is a plan in place and the rest will take care of itself.