By Nick Fosberg   |   June 28, 2018

If you asked any bar or restaurant owner if they’d like to double the amount of loyal repeat customers walking in their doors, they’d tell you HELL YES! Who wouldn’t. But the truth it, for most owners they feel it’s impossible, but it’s not when they know the restaurant marketing secret you’re about to discover.

Think about it for a second. Think about your current loyal repeat customers. Why are they so loyal? They like your business. They like you. They may have a relationship with the staff, even yourself.

That’s the goal in this business. Have enough loyal repeat customers that we don’t need to spend much money on marketing or getting frustrated with lack of sales.

Lets dive into…

The Restaurant Marketing Secret That Has The Best Chance Of Building Instant Trust, Credibility, & Relationship With New Customers Before They Ever Step Foot In Your Doors!

Anytime I’m running a promotion to get brand new customers in my doors or my client’s, I always run a lead capture promotion. A lead capture promotion is where you put out a great offer in front of your target audience, but in order for them to receive the offer, they must sign up to receive it online. When they do this, they now become a “lead” Someone who has an interest in doing business with us.

Once they become a “Lead” they are taken to a “Thank You” page that says “Check Your Email, We’ve Just Sent You Your Offer!”

My goal now is to get them to feel like they know me on a personal level. To get them to like me and trust me. To provide them with value and also to let them know I will be sending them more valuable offers because I value their business.

The other goal here is to stand out like no other owner has ever stood out with them and make them say “Wow, I really like this guy. I want to continue to do business with him! Not only is he generous, but he cares about his customers and his honest!”

Damaging Admission
The Secret To Instant Trust

The first email that goes out with the offer, I call it my “Cheers Letter” and besides just saying “Thanks here’s your offer, can’t wait for you to come in!” I tell them , “I want to be 100% honest with you from the start. It’s nearly impossible to run a 100% perfect business when you’re dealing with cooks, servers, bartenders, etc. There might be a time when you come in, your meal might not be perfect or service might be slow. It’s very rare that that happens BUT it can happen from time to time…..If you ever have a bad experience, I want to know about it, I want to make it right for you. Because if I don’t know about these issues, I can’t fix them within my business.”

This is something I learned called “damaging admission”. It’s where you talk about something that may be not so perfect about your business and you’re up front and with them. The reason marketing experts use this is to build credibility. To build the trust. Because the truth is, there’s always going to be a time that a new customer walks in and something isn’t 100 percent perfect.

When you can stand out in your new customers mind and they understand you care about them, their experience, and you’re providing them with a offer that out beats any of your competitors, it’s a game changer.

This is the first step in turning them into a loyal regular and making you unbeatable in your market. Doesn’t this sound like a easier, more profitable, and smarter way of turning new customers into loyal regulars?

Here’s a screen shot below of a response I got from a customer not long ago and these come pretty frequently as people are signing up to our offers. Notice the “But after seeing and reading your email would inspire myself to come back if that was the case” this refers to the damaging admission of “we’re not perfect. we do make mistakes”


Restaurant Marketing Secret - Damaging Admission


When you tie a automated follow up system like this to your business when people sign up for your offers or VIP programs, you have the best sales message – YOU – delivering every single time without a flaw. This has been one of the best strategies I’ve ever applied!

If you’d like to learn more about how to attract new customers at a profit and how to turn them into loyal repeat customers….Without risking your marketing dollars, click here to receive a free copy of the 100/80/20 marketing formula I’ve used to double my own bar business and hundreds of other bars and restaurants around the country.

Nick Fosberg


Nick Fosberg is known as one of the highest paid, marketing and promotional consultants in the bar & restaurant industry and he owns 2 bar / restaurants in the Chicagoland area. He's famous for creating some of the highest grossing digital marketing promotions in the history of the bar & restaurant business..... without spending a penny on marketing. All done through e-mail & Facebook posts. 

Click here to get a free copy of my latest book.

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