What?
A print ad in a magazine or local newspaper can give your restaurant a way to spread your messaging over a large, non-targeted area. This will generally include a coupon for a guest to bring back.
What is this important?
If you have a certain promotion or want to push a certain daypart or menu item, print ads can reach thousands of people at one specific time. When you include an offer, you can see immediate results in the coming days to bring in new guests.
Execution:
- You can either reach out to your local newspaper or magazine, or it’s likely someone from their sales team may reach out to you.
- Ask them for a “rate card” and to
discuss ad sizing and options with you.
- Be sure to get approval from the Marketing Manager on any ad spends, especially for any that may be multiple.
- See if there are any special promotions going on. Sometimes things like “Back to School” or the holidays have different rates and may go out to more people.
- Once you know what you’d like to place,
work with the Marketing Manager on a design.
- Be sure to provide the “specs” so we can get the correct measurements for the designers.
- Please also provide a timeline for when the artwork is needed by.
- Submit the completed ad back to
the newspaper or magazine rep and be sure to mark on your calendar when it will
be going out for distribution.
- It’s important your staff knows when any offers or coupons might start coming in
- For
a large distribution, prepare for increased sales
- Ensure there is a button on your POS for the comp to track success.
Things to note:
- Sometimes there is a discount on multiple ads purchased- if this is a paper you have a relationship with, this may be in your favor.
- See if they have any other ways to partner, such as a post on Facebook, digital ads, etc
- Be aware of the location of where the newspapers are distributed. If one area does not work, another zone may work better.