One of the most significant marketing tools available to you is your menu. How things are described, where items are placed, and even the font you use can influence people's decisions in what they order.

Don't just put words on a page. Not only should your menu be attractive, but it should also guide people to order more of your most profitable items.

Many restaurants have transformed over to digital menus; having links to more information, beverage pairing, and pictures can help guests try new things and order accompanying dishes.

Before you start on any outside marketing, make sure your menu represents the experience you provide.

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So often, restaurants concentrate on creating the best Instagram post as their complete marketing strategy. They measure the success of their posts based on how many people like them.

Those tiny hearts make us feel good, but unfortunately, you can't deposit those into the bank.

Concentrating on how many people like and follow you on social media instead of creating a plan to track guest visits is like worrying about the unpolished spoon when the restaurant is on fire.

Getting your message out to a big group of people is expensive. It takes the collaboration of many different media platforms. Social, Billboards, Radio and TV. Don't try and compete on the mass scale as the big chains will always dominate.

Your restaurant needs focus, connection and engagement. You need to find the individuals who love your restaurant and encourage them to spread the word.

You need superfans. You don't need 50,000 followers and 10,000 email addresses. You need to find a group of people who love your restaurant and love hearing from you. This might be as few as 100 people.

100 people who are engaged and you communicate with frequently will always be better than a list of 10,000 people on a list that you send a newsletter to once a month.

If you don't pay your staff, you won't have anyone to serve your product
If you don't pay your food supplier, you won't have any product to serve.
If you don't invest in your marketing, you won't have any guests to serve.

A strong marketing plan gets them into your restaurant to buy your food and be served by your staff.

Your marketing plan is at the start of the guest journey.