Do you have a restaurant or pizzeria and you just can’t seem to figure out how to attract more business? Don’t worry, you are not alone. A lot of up and coming small businesses are having the same problem. Here is where Bruce Irving and “Smart Pizza Marketing” step in. We had a nice conversation with Bruce, who not only taught us many things when it comes to restaurant marketing, but also has seen extreme success in real world situations.

Bruce is a Marketing Consultant for restaurants and pizzerias and the host of “Smart Pizza Marketing” podcast. A podcast channel that discusses best marketing tactics for restaurants and pizzerias. They truly focus on how to grow your business and get it to the next level needed to succeed.

As a consultant, Bruce focus’ on digital marketing for restaurants and pizzerias, getting the most engagement and attention, the most cost-effective way possible. With his background in the restaurant industry starting at 18 years old and proving his marketing tactics are successful through years of company building, Bruce has become one of the major influencers in the restaurant industry.

While discussing with Bruce, he made it clear that there are some factors that are crucial for success. The top three we discussed are….

#3) Talk and Engage with Your Audience on Social Media

Bruce discussed how many companies on social media are just using the platforms to sell. They base their campaigns around selling and selling only. He described social media as the new platform (and one of the best platforms) to truly engage with your audience, find out what they like, what they want and be able to provide based off what they are saying.

Building relationships is extremely important and clearly social media is a great tool to build that relationship.

#2) Pay Attention to The Industry and Where the Attention Is

Throughout our conversation we agreed that times are constantly changing with they way people market and how your target market consume content. With newer technology, making it easier for consumers to receive information, their means of where the information is coming from has changed. Bruce very strongly believes that businesses need to “shift” their marketing and attention to where their audience is. This means if you find your audience is on Facebook and not Twitter, advertise on Facebook.

Do not just advertise on Twitter because its “Twitter”, do what is best for your business and for your customers.

Can You guess what the #1 Factor is…

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#1) Make sure You Have Top Product Before You Start Marketing

This seems so simple right? You would think so, but as Bruce discussed with us, all marketing truly is, is promotion and awareness for a product. If you have a good product, then you will spread awareness for a good product, BUT if you have a bad product and you start to advertise or market that product, you are only spreading awareness for a bad product, that can hurt your business more then help.

Listen to your customers and what they are after, if you can provide for a need or gap that they want, you have struck gold!

Both parties agreed that Facebook marketing is the best stream of marketing right now (Yes even with the advertising changes) since there are so many options and targeting purposes.

We also joked around saying that if you as a business owner do not know how to do something, there is an interesting website called “Google”, that you can search and study and learn a new skill or trade to help your company become successful.

Things to be aware of and look out for in 2018 include: employee pay rate and labor costs, finding innovative equipment that can reduce the need for more workers and as a business owner, if you can get comfortable with video, that is the way of 2018 and the future.

Bruce brings a lot to the table and we are extremely happy we have the opportunity to grow our relationship and educate restaurant professionals on how to improve their business!

Follow Univex and Smart Pizza Marketing On Facebook if you want to see some podcasts and get key information!