Restaurant Owners Can Use this Formula to Dominate Social Media
One of the biggest reasons restaurants struggle with sales isn’t always the food or service — it’s awareness. Either people know about you but don’t care, or they would care if they knew about you. Josh Kopel calls this the Awareness Formula and in this episode of my podcast, The Restaurant Prosperity Formula, he shares powerful strategies that help restaurant owners become known in their market. Kopel has mastered a critical component of restaurant success: marketing. He is not just a restaurateur — he’s a tech pioneer, a Michelin-rated fine dining operator, and one of the best marketing minds in the industry. If you’ve been struggling with getting more customers in the door, keeping your tables full, and making marketing work for your restaurant, this episode is for you.
The key to restaurant success: Awareness
Social media is a big piece of this, but as Josh explains, most restaurants use it the wrong way. Instead of trying to sell, sell, sell, they should be focusing on storytelling, engagement and creating an emotional connection with their audience. People don’t buy products — they buy stories, experiences and relationships.
Three simple marketing strategies to grow your restaurant
Josh shares three key strategies that any restaurant owner can implement today to increase sales, build awareness and drive repeat business:
- Fix your conversion issues – Most restaurant websites only convert about 10% of visitors. That means 90% of people who check you out online decide not to come in. Josh explains how improving your Google listing, making your website more inviting, and using better storytelling in your descriptions can instantly boost conversions.
- Leverage your existing guests – Instead of focusing only on bringing in new customers, work on getting current guests to return more often. If every customer who comes in once a month started coming in twice, your revenue would double. Kopel shares how to use direct messaging and social media engagement to get more people back in the door.
- Outbound marketing that actually works – Most restaurants sit around waiting for customers to show up. Instead, Kopel teaches his clients to go on the offensive — sending direct messages, emails and calls to personally invite potential customers in. His simple DM strategy (sending 35 messages per day) can drive hundreds of new covers per month — without spending a dime on ads.
Why restaurant owners need to lead their marketing
Many restaurant owners feel overwhelmed when it comes to marketing. They think they don’t have time for it, but Kopel makes it clear: if you want to succeed, you need to own your marketing. You don’t have to do everything yourself, but you do need to understand it. That’s why Josh focuses on teaching restaurant owners how marketing actually works — so they can confidently grow their business without wasting money on strategies that don’t deliver results.
Click the podcast player above to listen in, or you can watch the video on YouTube, click here to download the latest episode.
