advertising

Tough call. Have you determined a budget?

You have two big advantages, a busy location and an established reputation. Play off that. Can you display a sign/banner to passing drivers letting them know "big joe bbq" is back and is offering a buy one, 50% off the next during: ____ (pick a slow day or an off time)

Another thought, after your soft opening (working the bugs out) sponsor a charity benefit/Grand Opening combo. High profile local charities work very well. Call your local radio stations and ask if they'd piggyback with a live remote.

The key is to get as many people in the door as soon as possible, even if it distorts your numbers a little at first. You don't say where you're located (which BTW, should be required info on everyone's profile), but you'll need to reach a certain number of likely diners in order to stimulate self sustaining word of mouth. That number varies somewhat depending on population and competition, but a quick expenditure for advertising at the beginning will usually pay for itself faster than money spent later on.

Look at nearby churches and ask if you can "sponsor" their church bulletin one week, and offer a generous discount and/or free kids meals for bringing in the bulletin, Sunday-Tuesday. Be cautious however about offering meeting space to these same churches. Not a good idea without a minimum food purchase.

Look at local office parks and mfg plants for some type of lunch promo.

Coupon cards mailed in about a 3 mile radius, but limit the discounts, and package meal specials that increase perception of value while preserving your margins.

Big Joe, PM me: I open a new place 6 weeks ago & we are killing it! I did a few things that may interest you. Check us out @ Realurbanbbq.com or our facebook page. The social media is a big part, but we did stuff in the schools ect. Let me know if I can help,

Jeff

quote:

Originally posted by j-pouchman:
Big Joe, PM me: I open a new place 6 weeks ago & we are killing it! I did a few things that may interest you. Check us out @ Realurbanbbq.com or our facebook page. The social media is a big part, but we did stuff in the schools ect. Let me know if I can help,

Jeff

yes i would like to know what you did. where are you located? what smoker are you using?

quote:

Originally posted by j-pouchman:
Big Joe, PM me: Jeff

Why PM? Isnt' the intent of the forum to share info, I'm sure other users might want to know, is it a super secret or something?

Russ my intentions were to have a phone conversation, because there is so much to discuss. It's not all cookie cutter.
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First guys, I bring 35 years of experience to this concept. I have run some of the biggest & best restaurants in Chicago. But here goes a few things: I would be happy to discuss things further on the phone. My restaurant # can be found on our web site.

I put together a dream team of restaurant professionals: that included, corporate chefs, other restaurant operators, food service professionals ect.

Prior to opening we did the "taste" of our community. Here we did mini pulled pork sandwiches at $1.00.

We show cased our menu, our original sauce, our rub, and drinks. We sold over 5,000 sandwiches! Crazy crazy weekend!We reached so many people!

Prior to this we set up a web page & facebook page.

During construction we blew up huge pic's of ribs, chicken, brisket and side dishes & hung them up corner to corner in our space. We included our web address & facebook page.

Since we were under construction during aug/sept I contacted all the local schools grammer/ jr. high ect & put an ad in all the school phone books: really cheap & it hit the entire community. I think some of the ads were $75 bucks & it went to the local PTA's.

On our web site: we included a small tab that said free bbq: we offered a wooded buffalo nickel for the first 500 people who signed up: 1 catch; they had to register their e-mail address.(wood pellets/wooden nickel)

We then mailed out all the coins to all the people who signed up, with a menu & a post card advertising smoked turkeys for thanksgiving. We sold 47 turkeys for turkey day!

We joined the local chamber of commerce & started attending meetings.

We did a ribbon cutting ceremony with the mayor of our community.

I hired a local PR form to send out press releases to all local food media: in return, lots of right ups & interviews.

We hung up signs all over, first they said: coming soon, then we replaced with grand opening!

We sent out menu's all over the community & too local businesses.

During this time: we updated facebook constantly & started tweets. We held some contests on facebook as well.

Once we opened:

I have been at the restaurant everyday since we opened from 7am till 1t least 11pm. Visited every customer & shaken a lot of hands! Very important.

We have given sample after sample to almost everyone who has walked through the doors!

We talked to all the car dealerships & started catering all Saturday lunches. We are currently doing about 6/7 dealerships.

We did a mini pulled pork give-a-way at the local library. Handed out menu's & shook a lot of hands.

We started talking to local Dr. offices: the drug reps send in lunches: so we have catered in some lunches for the office staff. Big money here!

We have been delivering menu's to local (large) cpa firms: tax season is starting and people will be working late.

We spoke to our local village & have set up: to bring in food for all the snow plow guys working these late shifts.

We are now talking to the local schools for their hot lunch programs, we are hoping to start bringing in lunches for the kids.

There is a lot more, but this is a list of everything we have done thus far. We have a few other things brewing. Some of them very cool!

I hope this helps!

I am using 2 FEC 300's. Cookshack pellets & BBQ Delight flavored wood logs to enhance the wood flavors!

Good luck!

THANK YOU POUCHMAN!!

Awesome reply! Great details, thanks for being open and sharing

That's a full spread, including guerilla marketing, very effective. Great job.

Um, you can expect me to call you at least once or twice over the next few months, if I may.

Carl

Wow. With marketing and thought like that, I'm sure you've been very successful J. Great response.

Maybe this should be a sticky post in this forum.

@j-pouchman

GREAT post! You're up fairly close to me. I work in Northbrook, may have to stop on up one day for lunch to try it out.

One of my big pushes, probably set for the grand opening, I think it's a good idea anyway.

Streetcorner hawkers handing out coupons, wearing my shirts. Coupons say free lunch for 3, online order, same day lunch delivery only. They get our standard pulled pork sammich with slaw and a side and a drink for themselves and 2 buddies. They register their email (and text # if they have it) and we deliver 3 meals to their office. Couriers also wearing my shirts and carrying shiny thermal bags.

Andy,you are close,hell if you look up over Highland Park you may see the smoke! I am there 24/7. Please come in & check us out!
Jeff

Jeff, stopped by today for lunch. A little hard to find in that shopping center, but well worth the trip. Had the pulled pork sandwich. Outstanding! HUGE sandwich! Only bit of criticism would be that I was asked if I wanted sauce, I asked if you had Carolina BBQ sauce and was told no. Which I wasn't surprised, since most places around here don't have it. So I got the spicy Texas sauce, but when I got to the table, I noticed you had Carolina sauce at the table. Texas sauce was good, but I'm a sucker for that Carolina vinegar sauce.

I'll be back though! Next time, no sauce. I'll add the good stuff myself at the table. ;-)