Maria’s about to lose her goddamn mind. We’re sitting in her taco joint at like 9 PM and she’s got this beat-up legal pad with notes scratched out everywhere, looking like she’s been up for three days straight.
“Everyone keeps telling me I need some fucking marketing plan,” she says, chucking the notepad across the table. “But what the hell is that supposed to be? Write ‘need more customers’ over and over until magic happens?”
Her place opened six months ago and she’s watching her savings disappear. Makes killer tacos, a decent spot, but it’s like she’s invisible.
I had this same conversation with tons of restaurant owners. They all think marketing plans are these fancy corporate documents with graphs and business school bullshit.
When Maria Finally Woke Up
“Screw everything you think about marketing plans,” I tell her. “Just look around right now. Who’s actually eating here?”
She stares at me..like I asked her to do calculations but it was “Those who like tacos?”
“No, for real. Look at them.”
Maria turns around and actually watches her customers for probably the first time. “There’s those construction dudes who show up every Tuesday. That chick with the laptop always gets the veggie thing. Some high school kids are sharing chips and taking selfies.”
“There you go.”
That’s when Maria realized she’d been doing this backwards. Instead of trying to get everyone who might possibly want tacos, she needed to understand why these specific people already picked her place.
The Plan That Actually Worked
“Marketing plans are answering three basic questions,” I explain while Maria grabs more napkins to write on. “Who eats here? Why do they eat here? How do we find more people exactly like them?”
Maria starts getting pumped. “Construction guys come because we’re quick and they beat the lunch rush at other places. The laptop girl likes our corner – it’s quiet and she can work. Teenagers… they probably just like that we don’t give them shit for hanging out.”
Perfect. Three different types, three different reasons, three totally different ways to reach them.
The Construction Dude Strategy
“How do we get more construction crews?” Maria asks.
“When do they come in?”
“Always 11:30, right before everywhere else gets crazy busy.”
“So do a ‘Beat the Rush’ thing. Lunch specials from like 11:15 to 11:45. Post about it on Facebook early in the morning when those guys check their phones before work starts.”
Maria’s scribbling on napkins like crazy. “I could put flyers at Lowe’s, give discounts if the whole crew comes together.”
Finally thinking like her customers instead of herself.
The Laptop Girl Angle
“That laptop chick – what’s her deal?”
“Shows up around 2, gets a veggie bowl, stays for hours. Tips okay.”
“She needs a place to work. Make that corner officially the work spot – add power strips, better WiFi. Target afternoon stuff on Instagram for freelancers and people working from home.”
Maria’s face lights up. “Shit, I could team up with the coffee place next door. Lunch plus good coffee packages.”
Now she’s connecting stuff instead of just throwing random ideas around.
The Teenager Problem
“Those kids are tricky,” Maria says. “They barely spend anything but take up space forever.”
“That’s not necessarily bad. They post everything online. What if you did after-school specials – cheap snacks, good lighting for photos, maybe a wall for taking pictures?”
“Their parents would see all that…”
“Exactly. You’re not selling to the kids, you’re using them to reach parents.”
This is when Maria really understood. Marketing plans aren’t about one magic trick. They’re about knowing why different people show up and building specific stuff for each group.
The Monthly Reality Check
“Here’s the thing about restaurant marketing plans,” I tell her. “You can’t just write something and forget it. Check what’s actually working every month.”
We figured out simple tracking. Which specials brought people in? What social posts made customers mention them when ordering? Which partnerships actually drove business?
“If construction workers don’t work after a month, try something different. If the work corner stays empty, switch to families or date nights or whatever.”
Maria’s plan became this living document that changed based on real results, not wishful thinking.
Three Months Later
Maria texts me a picture of her place packed on Tuesday lunch. Construction crews, laptop people, even those teenagers with their parents now.
“Beat the Rush thing is insane,” she texts. “The laptop girl brought her entire book club yesterday. They went nuts for the quiet corner.”
Her marketing plan wasn’t some perfect strategy she figured out ahead of time. It got built by watching actual people and learning how to attract more like them.
The Actual Truth
“Want to know what a real marketing plan is?” I asked Maria a few weeks later over tacos.
“What?”
“Paying attention to who shows up and why. Then making it dead simple for similar people to find you.”
Maria’s original legal pad looks like it got run over by a truck – scratched out garbage and new ideas crammed in margins. Her marketing plan looks nothing like those templates online. It’s messy and personal and based on real humans making actual decisions about where to grab lunch.
What She Really Learned
Restaurant marketing plans don’t need PowerPoint slides. They need honesty about who your customers actually are, not who you fantasize they might be.
Start with people already walking through your door. Figure out their situation. Find more people in the same situation.
That’s literally the whole thing.
Maria quit trying to appeal to everyone and started being exactly what construction crews, remote workers, and teenagers needed. Business has never been better.
The best marketing plan matches your real world, not some template you found online.
