10 Jan Branding A Successful Bar/Restaurant Checklist

Whether you are opening a new bar or restaurant, taking over an existing restaurant or simply want to completely rebrand your bar or restaurant, this list will help you decide what you need to be successful.

FOR PRINT:

• • Logo

    You need a professional logo that speaks for your business and compliments your overall restaurant. Upon completion of the logo, you will want a version in color, black and white in all relevant file formats for print and web.

  • Menu

    Depending on your business, you might need a sit-down menu, menu board, take-out menu or all three.

• Uniforms

  Do you need tee shirts with your logo, phone number and slogan?

• To-Go Bag Design

  When you customer comes to get food to bring to a friend or partner’s house, you want everyone to know where that delicious food came from.

• Event Questionnaire (Print and/or Digital)

  If you have event space, an easy way to get most of your event information before even meeting your client is to get them a questionnaire. You can give this to them in person, email it to them or let them download it from your website.

• Additional Print Media

  Postcard for grand opening, door hangers, flyers, labels, table tents for food/drink specials, etc.

FOR WEB:

• • Website

    Not only does your website need to have relevant information (about, contact, menu, reservation requests), it needs to be optimized, mobile-friendly and have full Search Engine Optimization.

  • Google Business, Yelp and Swarm

    These are all great and free ways to link to your website, show off photos and get positive reviews. Not to mention you can also advertise for the world to see.

  • Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)

    These are essential for every business and FREE. You need your social media platforms branded correctly, professionally written and posted and updated frequently.
    You can also advertise on here and target specific people who you wish to be your ideal customer.

  • Email Signatures

    These are often overlooked but always necessary. This allows the person who is getting the email to see who it comes from (what if you forgot to sign your name?), as well as have a link to your website and social media.

  • General Email Response Templates

    You will be getting dozens, if not hundreds, of emails from the time people start to know about your business; whether these are employee applications or event inquiries. You need to have a general email response for each type of email that comes in so you can have an additional 24 hours to respond with without your lead thinking you are ignoring them.

  • Professional Photos

    You need professional photos for both print and web. You will use these photos for your website, social media and for any sort of articles that are written about you. These photos need to be professional with the correct lighting.

• Popular Mobile-Loyalty Applications (Belly, etc.)

  Most people love a loyalty program, but we are past the days of punch-cards and tokens that you can use. If you want to have a loyalty program, use an application because most people have mobile phones attached to them anyways.

• Online PDF Menu

  On your website, you need your Menu page to have your food/drink items displayed in text, but what if someone want to download your menu to view in one glance? A PDF download button on your website is all you need. This will allow the menu to open up in a new page so you customers can view it easily without scrolling down and down.

• Email Marketing (Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, GoDaddy, etc.)

  This is a great way to get your specials, holiday hours and special announcements to everyone in one day. By using email marketing, you can send emails to specific groups (for example your Wine Club members) or to everyone who has signed up to your email listing through your website.