How to Use Public Relations to Gain Exposure for Your Restaurant

How to Use Public Relations to Gain Exposure for Your Restaurant

As a Franchise PublicRelations Agency, we know how much companies large and small want to increase their exposure.  Our Chicago Public Relations Agency has some advise as to how you can best utilize a PR Agency to gain expose for your restaurant.  Gaining new expose for your restaurant is crucial whether you are trying to maintain a current image, mend a false or negative image, or create a new positive image for your freshly opened restaurant. 

First things first, if you are a new restaurant, you should contact all of the local newspaper companies, radio stations, and/or magazines to notify them of the restaurant opening.  Be sure to send along a menu or better yet, offer a free meal or coupon for guests.  Also, request that the individual makes a review about the food and service.  The more publications or radio stations that get the word out about the restaurant, the more opportunity you have for business.  Our Chicago Franchise PR suggests that you utilize the radio for advertising purposes like having people call in to try to win a free dinner for two.  Contests help gain the attention of the audience and force them to listen in to learn what the benefits are to the prize.

In Franchise Industry PR, we also highly advise that you write a press release or have a press release written for your restaurant by our Chicago PR firm.  Although there is no guarantee that you press release will be published, it does help to legitimize your restaurant.  You may be wondering what the importance of a press release is, well, we will explain to you why.  A press release is a great way to educate the public about your new restaurant.  It is also a fantastic way to inform the public of any changes your restaurant has undergone. 

For instance, Outback Steakhouse restaurants recently have undergone remodeling within the company.  After the internal remodel was complete at each location, coupons were directly mailed to local households to give incentive to their potential guests to dine at the restaurant, enjoy good food at a discounted price, as well as enjoy their new look.  Another important aspect of the direct mail Outback Steakhouse utilized was that they incorporated a photo of the new interior design into the direct mail.  Our Chicago PR firm knows that people want to see what they are going to get before they get it.  So if you are going to use direct mail or a press release to get the word out about your restaurant, be sure to include a photo.  Also, please do not use any photo that could be taken from your smartphone, we advise that you have a professional take the picture.  A professional photographer has the ability to take a quality photograph that will translate well into a black and white press release or article. 

Lastly, make sure your restaurant gets listed online to help validate your restaurant.  Listing your restaurant on Google Places, Yelp!, GrubHub, etc are great ways to authenticate your business.  Also, having a Chicago social media presence is key as well to any PR campaign.  After all, these are all places to allow your customers or guests at the restaurant to leave compliments or suggestions to your restaurant.  It’s important to know what your restaurant excels at or what you could improve on as well.

Why Public Relations is Important for Franchise Sales

Why Public Relations is Important for Franchise Sales

As a franchise Public Relations Agency, we understand that businesses large and small want to increase their sales.  The emergence of social media has definitely helped small franchisors get the word out about their brand and communicate to their audience; however, social media is not enough to do the job.  We also know that it is great to build your customer base by with friends, family, or other people who would take an interest in your brand.  But again, even those personal connections will not build a base as large as social media or large enough to increase sales as drastically as many companies would like.

Realistically, the best way to increase your franchise sales is with the help of our Chicago PublicRelations Agency.  The responsibility of franchise public relations entails crafting the message of your franchise opportunity targeted at a variety of different publics, and it should also be an objective of the overall strategy of your franchise.  Our Chicago PR firm evaluates public attitudes, identifies policies and procedures or an individual or organization with the public interest and creates a PRcampaign and executes a program of action to earn public awareness, understanding and acceptance.  Our seasoned professional and franchise PRconsulting will line up the best publications and broadcasts with your target market. 

Here are some tips on how to increase your franchise sales with our PR agency:

1. You need to know your audience, customer, and market.  We assume that you know your audience considering you purchased your franchise, however, you need to stay in tune with trends and your geographic needs.
2. Know your competition and how to market your product or service to appeal better than the rest.  If you cannot pin point your competition, we have a great hand in helping you narrow that down.
3. Create as much awareness as possible about your brand and product/service.  The more you promote through PR campaigns, advertising campaigns, media, radio, direct mail or internet, the greater awareness your brand will have.  Society tends to trust the brands they hear more about.  We know you are busy, so let us reach our public relations agency. reach out to your surrounding media outlets.
4. Create a loyalty program or something to keep your audience coming back for more and trusting your services.  If you don’t know what will keep them coming back, this PR agency does!
5. What you do in short term effects the long-term.  Make wise decisions regardless of the time constraints.  We are experts in time-management and crisis communications, let us be your voice to avoid any communication mishaps.
6. Lastly, be an expert on your services and similar serves.  The more knowledgeable you are, the more followers you will gain by trust alone.  We can help you gain trust and show you exactly why we are so trusted.

The Importance of Avoiding Social Blunders

The Importance of Avoiding Social Blunders

As a Chicago FranchisePublic Relations Agency, we understand that social media can be a double-edged sword.  In a matter of second, your 140-character tween could have your brand ‘trending’ for better or worse. Since the beginning of social media, several companies have fallen victim to the all too familiar rogue tweets and communication blunders.  This often times happens by accident because company or organization social media accounts are linked to personal accounts and the administrator forgets to switch usernames before posting.

For example, Cynthia Soledad, the head of KitchenAid, made a large Twitter error after the presidential election in November 2012.  She tweeted her negative thoughts towards the election referencing President Obama’s deceased grandmother from the KitchenAid Twitter instead of her own.  The company quickly deleted the offensive message and issued a public apology, but the tweet went viral in seconds and was retweeted numerous times.  This mistake required a strong Chicago crisis communication agency like All Points Public Relations to help render the blunder.

While many people may be shaking their head and wondering how something like that could happen, it actually happens quite frequently in Chicago social media and elsewhere.  Our PR agency has come up with a few tips for you to consider in for you franchise public relations agency to prevent any social media mishaps in your PR campaign. 

Think before you tweet: It is important to remember you are protecting and building an image.  Social media pages should mirror the company's brand. Keep your franchisesocial media professional, and if it sounds like something you wouldn't tell your mother it is probably not the best status to post.

Always log out: Blunders often happen because an employee thought they were posting on a personal page.  Once the mistake was realized, the post had already gone viral. General rule of thumb, always log out and your company won’t be in need of our Chicago crisis communication agency.

The world is watching:  Knowing your audience is key and with social media, your audience is the world.  You need to be up on current events and remain empathetic/neutral to sensitive issues.

No posting after hours: There is a saying that nothing good will happen after 2am.  Well, in social media, nothing good will happen after 10pm for any PR campaign.  Your online persona could be tarnished by a regrettable 'retweet,' a sarcastic joke or an unflattering photo.  It's best to save the social media updates for working hours and working hours only.

People do make mistakes: Nobody is perfect and mistakes will be made.  If in need, you can depend on All Points Public Relations as your Chicago crisis communications agency.

How to Use Public Relations to Benefit Your Business

How Public Relations Can Benefit Your Business

As a Chicago Franchise Public Relations firm, we truly understand the importance of helping brand your company’s name.  We have developed effective PR campaigns that are completely aligned with our clients needs.  Our franchise PR consulting. helps connect the vision of our clients with strategic communication plans.  We ensure our PR agency takes a personal and professional approach to all business.

Public relations is of growing importance in today’s day in age.  It should be used for both large and small Chicago PR firms.  The main uses of PR for Chicago Public Relations consist of increasing the company’s profile in nearby communities, increasing awareness of the company’s services or products in comparison to its competitors, and lastly, to help truly brand the company so that it becomes the favorable choice of society.  When working with our franchise public relations agency, we can guarantee that a variety of strategies will be used to encompass your needs in the most dynamic way possible. 

We help you stand out- We do not want our clients to blend in with their competitors.  We know that our PR campaigns set our clients apart and give them a greater edge in their industry.  All Points Public Relations will better define your company’s purpose, what you do, why you do it and what exactly makes you unique and the better company to align with.  We are a ChicagoPR firm with seasoned professionals who will help you communicate to your audience in the effective way possible.

We are PR experts- All Points Public Relations knows the best ways to help create brand awareness for any company.  We become experts on your company, the way your brand stands to your target audience, the public, and in the market.  Whatever needs to be incorporated, whether it be advertising or marketing, we will provide our clients with the most effective plan and PR campaign.

We make the bad better- Lastly, if you need help with crisis management, we promise we provide the greatest assistance as your Chicagocrisis communication agency.  No matter the crisis, we do our best in helping companies diffuse bad situations and help companies to best articulate answers and information to the public.