Hooray - Episode 50. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to the Secret Sauce podcast since we started.
We look at how a lot of Restaurants miss some fundamental marketing steps and when they get a great public relations win they aren't in a position to capitalise on that win. Too many restaurants don't have a website, they don't have the Facebook pixel installed, they which means it is a lot harder to build a strong brand and find new customers and turn them into repeat customers.
We discuss what intellectual property and intangible assets. These can have an impact on the price that you pay when you buy a restaurant and definitely can impact the price of the restaurant that you sell for.
Does a restaurant have an email list? How big is it and how
Domain Names - These are sometimes registered by aggegators like Menulog, or they can register a similar name.
Facebook Pages - who is the owner of the Facebook page, who has access to it?
Do you have an unofficial Facebook Page? Is there a site that Facebook created for you? You need to claim that.
Do you have an unofficial Google My Business account? You need to claim that and ensure that the information is correct. We have seen peoples business listed as Permanently Closed and they are still open. Very few customers would go to a Restaurant that Google has listed as Permanently Closed and unfortunately dodgey competitors may list your restaurant as permanently closed.
Check out your restaurants google listing from an incognito mode browser so that you can see your restaurants as other people will see it.
Look for fake websites. We see this all the time and there are thousands of restaurant brand jacking websites, set up by shonky online ordering companies.
Brand jacking can mean that you are missing out on all of the emails of your customers.
Check the details of your Google Knowledge Panel. Many restaurant aggregators can try to hijack the Google Knowledge Panel to hijack your customers. We look at restaurant adwords arbitrage and how it can be costing your Restaurant tens of thousands of dollars every year.
We talk about how companies like Dimmi can attempt to hijack customers look for your restaurant and drive them to a restaurant using Dimmi. We wrote an article about what happened to Brae and how Dimmi was trying to steal their customers.
Make a booking at your own restaurant with a new gmail account and see what kind of emails you receive from your booking company.
We finish of with a story of how restaurant aggregators want to minimise the impact of your brand and your story. The only way that they can stand out in these online ordering platforms is with price, which decreases their ability to really create some awesome food.
If you are having issues with your Google Knowledge Panel, Facebook Page, fake websites or domain name hijackers, please contact the M4R team, we deal with these issues every day and we know the best ways to help you to protect your own intellectual property.