Office Hours: How to Get Your Guest's Attention (and get them back in)

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter, more successful businesses.

In this episode, I dive into the importance of understanding restaurant profitability and dialing in effective marketing strategies. I’ve seen firsthand how so many restaurant owners crush it when it comes to food and service—but really struggle when it comes to the business side of things. I address the common questions I hear all the time around how often to market and whether folks are actually listening. Spoiler alert: they are—but not in the way you think. I push for a shift in mindset: instead of chasing a bigger audience, focus on building a loyal one.

You’ll walk away with actionable insights on how to communicate more effectively with your guests and why repetition in your marketing messages isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.

Takeaways:

• You can run a successful restaurant without running a successful restaurant business.
• Most restaurant owners have great food but struggle with profitability.
• Marketing doesn't exist in a vacuum; it's a moving parade.
• Repetition in marketing is compelling, not annoying.
• Unsubscribes can help filter out uninterested audiences.
• Focus on cultivating an engaged list of buyers, not just size.
• Engagement is the key metric, not audience size.
• Marketing requires consistency and multiple touch points.
• Your marketing should resonate with what matters to your audience.
• Plan to reintroduce your story regularly to keep it fresh.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Restaurant Profitability
00:55 Understanding Marketing in a Distracted World
03:38 The Importance of Repetition in Marketing
06:32 Building an Engaged Audience Over Size

If you’ve got a marketing or profitability related question for me, email me directly at josh@joshkopel.com and include Office Hours in the subject line. If you'd like to scale the profitability of your restaurant in only 5 days, sign up for our FREE 5 Day Restaurant Profitability Challenge by visiting https://joshkopel.com.