We discovered an idea maybe 15 years ago that may be the best marketing idea we’ve ever conceived. We call it the Red Envelope giveaway. Here’s how it works. We actually print red envelopes that have our logo on the front. On the flap, it has instructions in large bold type. It starts with “Do Not Open This Envelope!” Here’s how it works. Each sealed envelope holds a card that lists a prize. Free glass of wine. Free appetizer. A free dessert.

There is a saying that goes, “The way you onboard your staff sets the tone for your business”. In short, set eh ground rules for new employees and be diligent about making sure that they understand who you are as an organization and what you stand for. If people come on board the organization without knowing the ground rules and what is expected of them, they tend to do whatever they like. That, is a recipe for disaster.

Believe it or not, the decision as to where to dine is often made by the kids. Do you think that the happy meal happened by chance? Kids often influence the choice of food venues because they like or have fun at the establishment. Though they don’t account for a large part of the total check, they are the ones who bring parents and family along.

There used to be a business axiom that you should spend between 5 and 10 percent of your yearly sales total on advertising and marketing. Now, whether that was created by Park Avenue is ripe for discussion, but businesses worked somewhere around those numbers. Back in the day of print media, restaurants advertised in the Newspaper, Magazines and other publications. The pitch was always that 52,000 subscribers will see your ad. Some high end publications would pitch us with ¼ page ads at a price of $3,500. Why, because all of these people were going to see my ad. Of course, these people were from all over the market, many 50 miles from my location.

Information is money. But how are you going to get your customers to offer up theirs? The more that you know about your customers the better you can create additional revenue. Who are they? Where are they from? What is their Birthday or Anniversary? What did they think of their visit to your restaurant? All of this information is extremely valuable and so you need a way to secure that from your customers in a way that they want to give it to you. We devised a card that allowed for all of that, and gave them a chance at a reward at the same time.

Everyone knows that gift cards are the fast and easy way to sell your business to your guests. They fit in a wallet and they look like a credit card, which of course, is really the whole idea. They are clean, neat and easily issued on your POS system. There was a time years ago, where gift card sales where a billion dollar industry particularly around the holidays. Businesses were hawking their cards and packaging them so that the last minute shopper was eager to use it instead of spending a great deal of time shopping for that “Perfect Gift”. With the use of gift cards, of course, the way they were issued and the restrictions changed. You can no longer put an expiration date on a gift card. They are good forever.