Before You Spend More on Restaurant Marketing, Fix This First

Every restaurant owner has heard the pitch. You need more social media. You need Google Ads. You need influencers. You need email marketing. You need loyalty. You need AI. The problem is that any of those tactics could work, but only if they’re solving the right problem. In Episode 81 of the Brand To Table podcast, Henry Kaminski Jr. explains a different way to think about restaurant marketing. Instead of immediately asking which marketing tactic to use next, start by figuring out where customers are falling out of the journey. Henry breaks those problems into four categories: **Discovery** Can people actively searching for a restaurant like yours easily find you? This is where Google visibility, your website, reviews, restaurant information, photography, and your Google Business Profile become important. **Decision** People know your restaurant exists, but are they choosing you? If your content looks exactly like every restaurant around you, producing more of the same content probably won’t solve the problem. Your marketing needs to communicate what makes the experience worth choosing. **Conversion** Someone is interested, but how difficult are you making the next step? Whether they want to make a reservation, buy event tickets, order online, or inquire about catering, unnecessary friction creates opportunities for customers to get distracted and disappear. **Retention** Your restaurant gets customers through the door, but what happens after they leave? Email, SMS, loyalty programs, and your customer database give restaurants an opportunity to continue the relationship with people who already know and have experienced the business. Henry also discusses why restaurant groups shouldn’t automatically run identical marketing strategies across every location. Different markets, competitors, customer behaviors, and traffic patterns can create completely different problems from one restaurant to another. The episode finishes with a simple exercise. Choose one restaurant location and rate its **discovery, decision, conversion, and retention** from one to five. Start investigating whichever category receives the lowest score. Because the question isn’t simply: “What restaurant marketing works?” The better question is: **“What problem am I actually trying to solve?”** CONTACT & RESOURCES: Email: [hk@brandtotable.com](mailto:hk@brandtotable.com) Website: www.brandtotable.com FOLLOW HENRY ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram: instagram.com/h.kaminskijr Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BrandToTable Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HenryKaminskiJr/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-kaminski-jr/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@henrykaminskijr 📢 If you got value from this episode, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment or review, and share it with someone in hospitality who needs a smarter way to grow. 💥