Chip Close (0:00)

Do I need a PR company? That's a question I get quite often from the members of my P3 mastermind and all different restaurant owners and operators all over the country. When I travel to conferences, conventions, trade shows, when I take the stage and speak or I do Q and A sessions on marketing. Do I need a PR company? I'm going to answer that question and a whole lot more on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy. There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking. Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close and this is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast dedicated to helping you build a more profitable and sustainable, sustainable business. Each week I leverage my 25 years in the industry to help you do just that. Build a business that can support you, can support your family for many, many years to come. I wrote a book, it's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. You can get that anywhere where books are. I take the stage all over the world, give talks from time to time on marketing, on operations, on profitability. I also run something called the P3 mastermind. This is a group coaching program dedicated to helping independent owners and operators increase the profitability in their restaurants. All you need, right? Beyond good food, good service, you know you need a plan for targeting profitability and a system to help your team get you consistently profitable every single month. If you wanna learn more about that, if profitability is something you're thinking about, that's top of mind as we come to the end of the year, into the new year, then I wanna chat with you. The best way to get started is to set up a free call with me or someone, my team. You go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule you'll see a calendar there. You grab some time on the calendar. 30 minute call, absolutely free. No pressure to join us, but we get to ask questions of you and learn more about what you're going through. And you get to ask all of the questions you want so you better understand the program. Do that. The link is in the show notes, but again, RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com schedule set up that call and I'll see you on the other side. Now I've got a friend, his name's Rev cnc. Oh. We host a live event every single year. It's called the P3 Marketing Summit, which is coming up in January. Stay tuned because we'll have tickets on sale in the next few weeks. But Rev, right, is a is a consultant and a coach. He works with hundreds of owners and operators all over the country. He's probably the smartest restaurant marketer I know. He thinks like I think and he's really good at the tactics, right? He every time he works with a new restaurant, he insists that they use a program called Marquee. M A R Q I I Now I recommend Marquee as well to all of my clients because it helps with listings management and reputation management. But Rev Rev will not work with a new client unless they are using the software. He's that passionate about it. With Marquee, you get to manage and respond to all of your reviews on Yelp, on Google and OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Grubhub, Uber Eats, EasyCater. They're in one central place. Marquee helps you improve your star ratings with consistent review responses. And the program will even respond for you if you don't have time. Marquee also makes sure that all your hours, menus and online information is accurate across the entire Internet, which in the end places you higher in near me searches, which ultimately helps you get more butts in seats. You curious? To learn more, visit marquee.com that's M A R qi.com as always, you'll find that link in the show notes. Okay, now today we're going to talk about press, publicity, pr, right? This is something I was raised in the industry in New York City, especially in the world of fine dining. You need a PR company for that first year. So let me just say, right, we're going to deal with a series of questions here and I'm going to first and foremost answer the question of whether, whether you need a PR company. But mostly this episode is about how you get press. Let me just start right off the bat and say if you are in a major market doing a major opening and you guys know what that means, right? A major marketing, a major market, major opening, then yes, I would say hiring a PR company to help you get through that first year makes a lot of sense. Now, if you like that relationship and you want to continue it beyond the year, that's up to you. But for that first year, absolutely, it is money well spent. Tens of thousands of dollars that are going generate hundreds of thousands of dollars. The proof is in the pudding that again, if you're in a major market doing a major opening, yes, I do think you need it. Now, I'm Guessing. For most of the listeners of this show, you guys are independent owners and operators in all different markets. And you don't necessarily have the hottest new restaurant that's opening in Miami this year. If that's you, if you've got the hottest restaurant in Miami that's set to open or you're trying to become the hottest restaurant in Miami, then yeah, I think pr. I think hiring a company to help you do that makes a lot of sense. But for the rest of you, I'm going to assume you're not in that. In that situation. And so we'll answer the question, right, which is, do you need a PR company? My answer is, I don't think you necessarily do. Now, at the end of this, you might think to yourself, like, okay, that's all a lot of work and I don't feel like doing it. I'd rather outsource that. And that is great. If that's what you want to do, then fine. But there are four points I want to make about prep, publicity and PR companies. Four points that will help you take control of this on your own. Or at the very least, even if you end up working with a PR company, you're going to understand how they think and you're going to be able to ask the right questions of them and direct them, direct them better. It's going to deepen your relationship. So whether you do it yourself or whether you're going to outsource this, it's going to help you do either of those things better. Four points I want to make over the course of this episode. The first one, first point I gotta make is that it is all about relationships. The sooner you realize that, the better off you're going to be. You bring a PR company in. Yes. To manage your account. Yes. To pitch. Yes. To build press releases, all of that. But mostly you are hiring them for their Rolodex. You're hiring them for their relationships. The relationships that they've built over the last five, 10, 20, 30, 50 years. Right? They have relationships with, with newspapers, with magazines, with specific writers, with critics, with people that can be influential and will care about your restaurant. Because the PR company will tell them to care about the restaurant. But really, anybody can tell anybody else to care. What you are buying when you hire a PR company are those relationships you're renting, those relationships. You're asking them to leverage the relationships they've built over the last X number of years to help you. So if the first point is that it's all about relationships, let's be clear that you too can build relationships. In fact, as an independent owner, if you have not started building relationships, then I'm glad you're listening to this episode because even if you do have a PR company, it doesn't mean you can't start building your own relationships with the people that they send to you, right? With the people they connect you with, with the, with the writers and the periodicals, the newspapers, the magazines where you are featured in. There's nothing to say you can't begin your own relationship. Not that you're going to go behind their back, but there's going to come a time maybe where you're not going to work with this PR company or you're not going to like your account executive or, or you're just going to be able to do it on your own. That's fine. It begins by building relationships. Relationships begin by understanding who they are, where they work, and what's the best way to connect with them. That's very, very simple. It's just data. So if it's about relationships, make sure you have the data and make sure you are building a relationship with the different writers, with the different publications. Right? That's the first one. Number two, and this is really important, you can get press on your own. You do not need a PR company, which of course we mentioned. Sometimes the PR company is easier because they're relationships, because are well known and well respected in a given market. Right? But it doesn't mean you can't do it on your own. If you're not great at it, then maybe you want to leverage somebody who's better. That's why you would outsource it. But maybe you've got somebody internally. Maybe you can bring somebody in, somebody who used to work at a PR company, who used to manage a PR company, who used to run their own PR company. Maybe it's worthwhile bringing them internally. Guess what biggest organizations in the world, the Mena Group, the Let us entertain you, the Union Square hospitalities, that they all bring it internally, right? It's not saying you have to outsource this. If it makes more sense to bring it inside, especially if you've got multiple units, multiple concepts, then rather than hiring a company to manage each of these five different accounts, maybe just hire one person to do PR for all five accounts and you save some money. And you can do it better because no one's going to care more about your thing than you do. And an internal employee might do it better. So the first two points I want to make here Number one, it's all about relationships and you can and should be building your own relationship relationships. And yes you can get press on your own. You just have to commit to it. Those are the first two points. Two more points after a word from another one of our sponsors. 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Enjoy 15% back at thousands of restaurants and access exclusive dining perks and offers by downloading the in kind app@app.inkind.com or visit inkind.com to see how In Kind can benefit you as a restaurant owner and operator. Restaurant strategy listeners can retain a special offer at in kind.vip restaurantstrategy. All those links you'll find in the show notes okay, so today's a shorty episode. We're talking all about press, publicity, pr, right? The end of the day, when does it make sense to hire one on your own? We covered that. When does it, when does it make sense to hire a PR company? Take care of it. And on the other side, when does it pay to handle it on your own? We've answered that question. Four main points. I want to talk, I want to make about getting pressed. Number one, it's all about relationships. You can and should be building your own relationships. Number two, yes, you can get pressed. Press for yourself. It is not impossible. The third point I want to make, and this is how you get press, is that you have to think like a writer thinks. A writer is always thinking, why would anyone care? Or more specifically, why would my readers care about you? Fill in the blank. Right? So the writer is always trying to think what is, what's, where is their momentum? Where are trends going? What are people writing about Googling, thinking about? What are other publications covering? What am I, the writer, looking at that seems interesting or, or seems unique or out of the ordinary? Am I observing just a blip, a trend, a fad, or am I seeing a larger shift? A writer is always thinking about writing about things, talking about things that the readers will care about, right? If the reader reads the thing and shares the article and all that, then it's better for the writers, better for the publication. So as a restaurant owner, you may want people to write about you so that more guests discover you and come in, but that's not how a writer thinks. A writer doesn't care about giving any one particular restaurant more attention. What a writer cares about is serving the needs of the readership, the people that they have built trust with. And I think about this all the time, right? So I have this podcast. This podcast has been going on for, I don't know, five and a half, almost six years. And my job is very. My focus is very, very narrow. It's to speak to independent restaurant owners and operators, people with probably six or less units, right? People who are doing anywhere between. I'll say the sweet spot is a million to $4 million a year. That's, I think, who most of the listeners are. Now, maybe as you're listening to that, to this, that doesn't sound like you. Fine, hopefully you still get value. But that's my audience, and I'm trying to answer the questions, solve the problems of that core demographic. It's also my, my coaching program. It's sort of positioned towards those independent operators, single unit owners or multi unit operators, with five, six, maybe like eight locations, either same concept, multiple locations, or multiple concepts, multiple locations. But again, the auv, the annual revenue at each unit is somewhere between, let's say, 1 and 4 million. There are specific problems that that group that you guys face. And I'm trying to serve you in the best way possible. Every single week, I've been asked to have people on my show that would make for phenomenal interviews. But I know the conversation would not, Would not speak to the listeners of this show. And so I've said, no, no, that's not. That's not a topic, a subject. That's not a conversation that is going to help the people that I serve. So in a certain way, I've got my own little media company. I am a writer to the degree that I have to serve an audience. That's how writers think. They think deeply about who reads my thing, and what do they want to know, what do they care about. And that's different for every writer, every publication, right? The New York Times is interested in one thing. The Wall Street Journal is Interested in another. USA Today is interested in another eater, or the infatuation is interested in something quite, quite different, right? All of that changes, and it influences what a writer chooses to write about and how they choose to write about it. So in order to do this, you have to think like a writer thinks. Why would anyone care, right? You care because it'll help fill your seats. That's not enough for the writer to care, and it's not enough for a reader to care. All of that leads us to the fourth point, which is the most important tactical, actionable point. The fourth point here I want to make is you gotta get good at writing pitches, right? A pitch is a press release. It is the way you pitch an idea or a story to a writer, to a local news station, to a. An influencer, right? You have to tell them why they should care. You have to tell them why they think or why you think their readers or their viewers would care. That becomes really crucial. You have to get good at writing pitches. There are two main ways to do this, right? The best way to do this is to think in terms of what's coming up. That's going to be unique, right? Somebody. I used to work with a guy in pr. He ran his own company here in New York City. It's one of the big four PR companies. And he said over and over, first, last, best, most, only. First, last, best, most. Only. If you think about it, it's about going to the edges, right? People care if it's the first, right? The first Korean steakhouse in midtown. The last place in the city where such and such. The only place that has this dish or has this chef at the helm, right? First, last, best, most, only. When you think in that you're thinking about going to the edges, and that becomes a really helpful thing. It becomes a really helpful frame to provide for your. For your things, right? So if you're saying, hey, it's National Cheeseburger Day and we're gonna be serving our cheeseburgers all day, that's not necessarily enough. We're going, it's on National Cheeseburger Day, we're gonna give away 100 cheeseburgers to the first 100 people, right? First, first, last, best, most, only on National Cheeseburger Day, it only happens once a year, right? That's only. We're going to give cheeseburgers away to the first 100 people who walk through the doors, right? Now, we've used two of those five words, the first, right? This only happens once a year. We're only doing this once this year, and we're going to give away 100 cheeseburgers to the first 100 people. That's how you begin thinking. And that's an easy, obvious way of writing a pitch, right? That's a, that's an easy promotion. You. We've seen that a hundred times. Do I think you should do that? I don't know. Maybe if no one else in your market has ever done that, that becomes, that becomes worth worthwhile. My, my point is that's how you begin thinking from a press perspective. And so you write to the article, say, you know, literally, and you can download different tools how to, how to write a really good press release, even how to write a really good press release for the food industry. But literally you're going to say, right? Restaurant XYZ is thrilled to announce on such and such date, which is National Cheeseburger Day, right? We do this once a year on National Cheeseburger Day. We're going to give out 100 cheeseburgers to the first 100 people in line and we would love for you to come cover the event. That might be a pitch to the local news station, right? You're going to write to a specific anchor or correspondent or to a specific producer, right? This goes back to the first point. It's all about relationships. You have to know who to pitch this to. But once you have the who, then you got to put stuff in front of them that they're going to care about. So when you think about that, right, writing good pitches, you have to think in terms of what would be newsworthy, right? First, last, best, most only is a good framework for thinking about news. The key to it is going to the edges. You've got to be willing to go to the edges. Just business as usual is not enough, even when you're launching a new restaurant, right? It's a good frame to think about. Why would anybody care? Why does this place need to exist? Well, there are other steakhouses in this town, but this is the only steakhouse that will you fill in the blank, right? That becomes a helpful way to think about entering a market, right? Is it newsworthy? The other way to do pitches, and this is really, really important, is that you include some of your quote unquote competitors in this, right? So let's say your restaurant has this brand new eggplant dish, right? And you say, hey, eggplant is making a comeback and you want to write a pitch about it, right? You want to say, hey, eggplant is really making a comeback this fall. We're doing a blah, blah, grilled, roasted, Greek style, whatever, right? What becomes more helpful is if you can show that there's actually a trend happening. So you say eggplant is making a big comeback. There are numerous restaurants, including this place, this place, this place, that are all incorporating eggplant in a major way. And here at our restaurant, we are doing a blum plum. And you explain what it is and why it's so amazing and why it's newsworthy. But sometimes when you point out other people, it's highlighting the trend. It's not a trend because you say so. It's a trend because you're observing it. That's what a writer would do. And when they get pitches like that, they're going to go, oh, interesting, I didn't realize that. And guess what? Then they're going to go seek out other restaurants beyond the three that you mentioned and yours, and then they might do an article all about eggplant. So it's not an article about you and your great eggplant dish. It's a. An article about how eggplant is trending right now. And the proof is this restaurant's doing this, this restaurant's doing this, and this, your restaurant is doing that. Right? That becomes another really effective way to build a pitch. You won't get a feature all on your own, but you will be written about over and over and over. You can do that with the kind of wines you serve, specific dishes, your cocktail program, side dishes, a service style, blah, blah, blah, Right? We think drinks for two are coming back. We have three great drinks for two every single night. And this restaurant's doing it. This restaurant's doing it, this restaurant. Right? Punch bowls are making it back. The martini is alive. Whatever you want to write about, whatever you choose to write about again, start with the framework of first, last, best, most only, and then look for other people. There are tons of templates out there to write a really good press release. It doesn't have to be that complicated. It can be two or three paragraphs. It should have all the prominent information. Who, what, where, when, why. It should have a way for them to get in touch with you. And you should know exactly what you're hoping for, right? What you're hoping will come out of it. The relationships and the pitch are key. Understanding how to make something newsworthy or how to pay attention and draw people's attention to what's newsworthy and then to draw the right people's attention. Right? It begins with relationships. It ends with really strong pitches. That's how to get press on your own. Now what's really important is I promised at the end, right at the end of this, you might determine like, I don't want to do all that on my own. Fine. Totally fine. It's fine if you want to outsource this to an agency, to a PR company, but now, hopefully you've got a better framework to think like they think. You've got a way now to talk to them, a shorthand that you can have with them so you better understand what they're up against and what they're looking for because they're constantly going to be looking for you to come up with things that they can talk about. That's what I want to talk about. How you get pressed. That is how you get pressed. Four points. I want you to internalize. If you haven't yet, start building relationships. It starts by just looking up people's email and reaching out and just saying, hey. That's how you begin doing this on your own. Guys, as always, I appreciate being here. Thank you for taking time out of your day. One last request, if you haven't done it yet, if you get any sort of value out of this show, please go leave us a five star rate rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes literally 60 seconds and it would help us grow this community. We've got. I don't know, we're a 4.9 rating, 128 reviews over the last five or six years and man, can we get to 200 by the end of the year. I'd love it if you could be part of that 200. This show continues to build up, pick up steam. It continues to build an audience and that is because of you. Thank you very much again, if you get any sort of value, go leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. I'd appreciate it. Thank you very much and I will see you next time.