Your marketing is only as good as it's message

Your marketing is only as good as it's message.  All of the impressive sounding numbers and data collection can't help your business if your content sucks.  Again this sounds like common sense but most content I see as a consumer is just horrible.  I also get all of the spammy emails, texts, and half thought out offers.  When a blurry cell phone pic is used on social media with text like "Come see us for lunch today" how could this possibly work?  It doesn't but it happens every day.

Quality over quantity

Often restaurants or bars will tell their "Social media guy" to post something once a day or every other day with no regard to content.  What this leads to is quickly running out of ideas and posting straight garbage over and over.  Great campaigns with huge engagement numbers don't happen daily.  One awesome weekly well thought out or clever post will trump daily crap every time.  This clever Arby's post is a great one, and of course it's free to make, just takes a bit of thought and creativity.  This isn't even necessarily a good picture of a sandwich but it would make someone stop and pay attention.  And hit the like button, and comment, and engage.  If you don't have a creative mind, hire someone who does.   (True movie nerds will catch the Spaceballs/ Star Wars mixed message here as well, pretty sure that was an accident).

Creativity is free

Think of it like this.  A bar or restaurant can survive with a great customer experience and zero marketing budget.  No restaurant in history can survive long term with a huge marketing budget and a terrible customer experience.  Today's market is more competitive than ever, restaurants open and close every day.  If you don't want to be another number, start to pay attention to your marketing message, or don't do it at all.  Measure your success or failures regularly and make changes based on this.

Read more about measuring your marketing success here.

Read more about social media for bars and restaurants here.