Paul Green, founder of Restaurant Growth UK

Dear restaurant owner,

How has 2012 been for you so far? Has your restaurant performed as well as you had hoped? Will Christmas be the crowning glory of a fantastic 12 months, or a time when you keep your fingers crossed that increased spend will offset painful losses from earlier in the year?

For far too many restaurant owners this has been another tough year. When will it all end? Not for another two years, according to a recent article on the BBC News website. We might be technically out of recession, but the depression is going to linger on a little longer.

If you have had a bad year so far, that's not what you want to hear. It certainly helps to explain why every day 2 UK restaurant businesses go bust - a terrifying stat.

Yet underneath all of this doom and gloom there is light. Because no matter what's happening in your particular restaurant, across the UK, hundreds of thousands of people are still eating out every day.

Walk past virtually any Pizza Express or Giraffe at lunchtime or evening and it'll be full of happy customers. Customers who aren't eating with you. Why?

What are these restaurants doing differently to you? Are their customers just driven by deals? Will they only eat with chains?

Or would they try out your restaurant if only they knew more about it and were given some very good reasons why they should eat there?

The reality is, there's plenty of business out there. If you are struggling, it might be because your restaurant simply isn't good enough at marketing for new customers.

You're not alone. In my experience, most owners with just one, two or three units are not very good at marketing. With everything else to do, it's one of those things that gets overlooked every day... and only thought about when the place is practically empty on a Monday night.

In 2013 you can do things differently. You can have as many customers as you need. Heck, you can be turning them away on your busiest nights (which can create immense future demand if done in the right way).

All you need to do is focus a little more of your time, energy and cash onto marketing. But the right kind of marketing - 21st century marketing - that has been proven to work for restaurants up and down the UK.

To be totally clear, these are NOT the kind of marketing methods I'm talking about:

All of these are old fashioned 20th century marketing tactics. A lot can change in a decade.

No, what works in 2012 - and will work even better in 2013 - is putting your restaurant smack bang in front of people who are already looking for somewhere exciting and new.

And it's actually quite easy to find these people. Because they tell Google who they are every single day of the year.

Look at this screenshot from Google... doesn't it make you dribble with excitment!

This screenshot was taken from Google's keyword tool on the 14th November 2012. It shows how many searches were made in the UK for those keywords within the last month.

Yes, that's right, 7.4 million searches were made for a restaurant in the UK over a single month. 7.4 million!

673,000 searches for a restaurant in London. 60,500 in Leeds; 49,500 in Bristol; and 22,200 in Norwich. Even the smaller areas have a good quantity of people looking for somewhere new to eat... Gillingham in Kent only has a population of 99,000 yet there were still 880 searches for a restaurant there last month. Nice.

These figures are going to increase.

Search trends show that people are relying more on their computers and especially their mobile devices to find local businesses (like yours).

Look at these three stats gathered by software company SnapHop:

1) Global internet usage will more than double by 2015
2) 61% of smart phone users search for local businesses from a mobile device
3) 53% people who search for something click on the very first link at the top of the search results… the next result down gets only 15% of the clicks. Ouch!

What this means is that it’s more important then ever before to use the internet as a significant way of generating new customers for your restaurant. That means a well-designed modern website (with unique content) that dominates Google searches, and looks great on mobile devices.

And there's more. Your website is just the first of a dozen ways of getting hundreds and hundreds of new customers in 2013. You've also got to make sure your business is fully across social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Plus you've got to use local PR in the right way (which doesn't just mean giving free meals to lazy radio presenters). Work out co-promotions with other local businesses who share your customers but aren't in competition with you. And build your own marketing list of local residents who might just eat with you one day if you market to them well enough (with their permission, of course).

At this point you'd be well within your rights to say:
"OK Paul, I get all of this... the problem is I don't have time to do it. Otherwise I'd already be doing it!"

That's a fair point. And it's one my growth consultant Ben Smith hears all the time, when he visits restaurants all around the UK to figure out their growth challenges and opportunities.

But there's an easy answer. Surely if you knew exactly what worked and what didn't work to win new customers, then you would never waste time on bad marketing again? With that kind of knowledge, you could spend just an hour a day on marketing and see tremendous results. Hundreds and hundreds of new customers.

And that's why my team and I are putting on two brand new FREE marketing workshops, just for the owners of independent restaurants. I know you're going to be really busy in December, so we're squeezing them in at the end of this month, in London and Birmingham.

Tempted? Let me seal the deal by telling you about three free gifts you'll also be given at the workshop (you have to attend to get these freebies. This is an ethical bribe to make sure you take action):

Free gift number one: A brand new marketing manual giving 21 clever bootstrap ways to market your restaurant

Bootstrap means no cost and low cost marketing ideas. I'm writing this myself to give to our clients next year. You'll get a copy before them - in fact I'll personally hand it to you at the workshop.

Free gift number two: £10 to spend on Amazon, along with a list of recommended business growth books

I'm passionate about the business of running a restaurant, and there are three or four top business books I recommend you read. Rather than give you a book you might already own, I'll give you £10 to spend on Amazon along with my recommendations... if you'd prefer to spend the £10 on a Christmas gift for your mum, that's your choice.

Free gift number three: A personalised video review of your website

After I have met you at the workshop, I will ask a member of my marketing team to review your website on video. They'll analyse five key areas and make a series of suggestions to improve it. You'll get the video on a private, password-protected page on our website, for you to watch any time.

Are you wondering why I am giving you a free workshop, plus three other free gifts, without asking anything back from you

The answer to this is very simple.

From the free workshops I have already run this year, I know that some of the restaurant owners who attend will go on to ask for our paid help in the future. However, you can be reassured that just by attending this event, there is no obligation for you to ever buy anything from us.

So... come on, it's time to take action to grow your restaurant in 2013. Do you want to come to London, or would you prefer Birmingham?

Remember, these workshops are only for restaurant owners – please don’t apply if you’re a manager or you haven’t started your restaurant yet… this workshop would just be a waste of your time. The content is totally aimed at existing restaurant owners, who have the ability to go back to their business and change things for the better.

To secure your free place fill out the form below, right now. We need your address details to post written confirmation of your place. My colleague Sally will call you within a day or two to confirm your place has been secured for you.

See you in London or Birmingham,





Paul Green
Founder of Restaurant Growth UK