7+ ways to step up your restaurant’s local game

What’s up, everybody, and welcome to the Local Marketing Lab. Today, joining us in the lab, we have a chef with over 35 years in the culinary space. He’s an author of a bunch of books, including his latest, Be a Better Chef: A Recipe for Culinary Leadership for the New Kitchen Culture. He’s a culinary career coach, host of Chef Life Radio podcast, and cohost of the Turning the Table podcast, chef Adam Lamb. Welcome to the lab.

Adam Lamb
Thank you, Justin. And sponsored by our good friends at Evocalize.

Justin Ulrich
That’s right, dude. I’m so excited to have you on the show. I know this is kind of an odd switch having you being the podcast host and now you’re the guest, but super excited to have you on.

Adam Lamb

Thank you, brother. I’m very excited to be here, and especially talking about a subject that is kind of like, at the tip of everybody’s tongue right now. There seems to be a lot of conversation around marketing now that most restaurant operations seem to have found their legs again and are moving at breakneck speed. 

And of course, with the advent of AI, that’s also something that everybody’s talking about, even though they might not necessarily know where it fits in. So I’m really excited for the conversation.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, for sure. Getting back into it, a lot of times I would imagine that folks are thinking, oh, I have to do everything all again. Just start everything back up. And sometimes that can be paralyzing. What we like to do is just talk about, hey, if you’re just to get started today, let’s get started doing something test into what works, because what you used to do may not work as well post COVID and just kind of go from there. 

But I guess to kick things off, why don’t you just start with telling us a little bit about your background and what keeps you busy?

Adam Lamb
Yeah, I started washing dishes when I was 15 years old at the local restaurant where my dad hung out. He was a college professor, so it was kind of cool to see him in a different light. Other than the family dynamic, turned out he was a pretty good garious guy. Loved to talk to the waitresses. 

I was walking past the kitchen one night, trying to put away all these dishes, and there were two cooks in the kitchen, both women. One was. Her name was Artilia White. She had a gold tooth, and she would chat to everybody through the window. And the other woman was as thin and severe as Artilia was open and fun. 

And one night I walked past the kitchen and they were involved in this dance I’d never seen before. They weren’t really speaking to one another. It was a very busy night, but they were moving back and forth between one another. And it seemed to me like this highly orchestrated symphony. And I stood there in the doorway and thought, whatever that is, man, I want to get me some. 

So it just seemed so beautiful and so that dream of the dance is something that’s been kind of kept me moving all the way through my career. I’ve worked in restaurants, hotels, multi entertainment complexes, I’ve done back of the house, front of the house. I’ve worked as employees to big corporations, small corporations, mom and pops. I’ve seen just about all there is. 

And over the last, I’d say three or four years, I even got into the retirement home space, which was a revelation for me. I thought, oh my God, why didn’t I do this years before? Because there’s a whole different vibe in that environment, and the food is just as engaging as it would be anywhere else. 

So I’ve got a lot of experience underneath my belt. I speak a lot about health and mental wellness in the industry, drugs and addiction, corporate culture, culture change, change management, and have landed on being a culinary career coach because that’s what people were calling me and asking me about. I mean, it seemed like for my entire career, people were like, hey, how do you do this? How do you do that? How do I move up? How do I do this? And so I just decided to start doing that professionally. And it’s been very rewarding.

Justin Ulrich
Very cool. Yeah, it’s awesome to talk to people who get their start with such passion and inspiration rather than just being motivated to do something. Just wanting to striving to become the best at doing something like you did at such a young age is really cool to hear. I love that you have such a wealth of experience across all facets of the restaurant. Like you talked about, front of house, back of house, basically everything from an operations standpoint. 

Given that experience and doing it for so long, what would you say is the most important aspect of local marketing?

Adam Lamb
Well, I think you started, you mentioned it at the very beginning of the conversation when you’re talking about, okay, trying things, looking at your metrics, see what kind of return on investment that you’re getting. I’ve been in the podcast space since 2014, and a lot of podcasters are out there marketing themselves across a lot of different social media channels. 

They think that, oh, now TikTok is the new thing, or this is the new thing. I think what you have to do is you have to start with the content, create good content, and start out by just focusing on one or two social media platforms. Currently, the wisdom is that most podcasters who are making a living doing podcasting focus on two outlets that’s LinkedIn and Facebook. That’s it. They don’t focus on Instagram, TikTok, some of the other ones out there. So it’s really important to focus on what you do best. 

Some folks speak well, so something like a short form podcast could work well. Some people write very well, some people use images very well. So it’s important to kind of stay in your lane and be where your potential guests and or associates are going to be. 

Because part of the great thing about local marketing is that you can just as easily hook a young person who’s looking for their next job or their next adventure just as much as a potential client or customer. And the cool thing is they’re often related. So I look at a lot of the toy companies who are marketing to the kids and they know that once the kids get hooked, they’ll pull their parents in. So it becomes a symbiotic relationship. You’re not just talking to one particular group of folks.

Justin Ulrich
Cool. Very good advice. Yes. With hiring being such a struggle that’s ongoing within the space. It’s so important to put yourself forward as like a solid brand, a fun brand to work for more than just what people might push out on marketing channels to try to bring folks in that could potentially come in to help grow your business, whether it’s back of house, front of house, whatever it might be.

Adam Lamb
Yeah, I’m a big advocate of folks using the technology that’s right in their pocket. Their cell phones, usually the camera devices on the cell phones are so advanced now. And I think one of the most important things is to be authentic. Any marketing that you’re putting out there is really important that it’s authentic to you, your brand, your values, and not to make it too polished. 

Most of the traction on videos you see are behind the scenes bloopers people just having fun setting up and talking amongst themselves before the guests come in there. Sure, you can use static images. Static images have a place. But I think for most people, the engagement rate on video is so much higher than just static images.

Justin Ulrich
I would agree. Yeah. The majority of learners are visual learners. People just process information visually. That’s why as a marketer, it’s like that’s typically where we go first is to develop the things that look good. You always hear a picture is worth a 1000 words. Just imagine what a video is worth if you’re able to showcase your process within your unit or something about highlighting your people, whatever it might be, video is where it’s at.

Adam Lamb
And taking a tip from some of the other emerging technologies out there. There are three or four different companies that come to my mind that are focusing on short form videos as training materials, as a way of kind of engaging with – I hate to call them like, the new generation, because it seems like several generations, everybody start out with the millennials, everybody talking crap about the millennials. And then gen Z. 

And I think every single one of those quote unquote generations have had something to teach us as kind of like I would consider myself not necessarily a dinosaur, but certainly an elder in this space and thinking about starting it when I was 15 years old. It must put me around 50 years now being in the industry, if you can believe that. 

And every single time to be able to shut up and listen, ask really great questions, and then shut up and listen to these associates very often, they’ll be a great source of information about where you should be, the type of stuff that they’re watching as a great way of kind of informing what type of content that you want to put out.

Justin Ulrich
Exactly. And knowing your audience is so important if you’re trying to access new audiences, it’s important to have a testing mindset so that you can constantly test new things, because what may resonate with your audience five years ago may shift as kind of demographics shift or tastes shift. It’s important to be able to recognize that and create content that resonates with your segmented audience.

Adam Lamb
Right. I think one of the old adages was if you’re a restauranteur and you’ve been open for five years, it’s time to do a complete remodel of your facility as a way of continuing to engage your customers. And you may not be doing a complete rebrand, but just a way of freshening up the space. 

So why wouldn’t you be doing that using that same type of philosophy? When it comes to marketing, direct mail used to be a thing and I still get a ton of direct mail from restaurant companies through them. And I’m like, I wonder what their return on investment of that is? Because it seems to me to begin, it’s so easy just to kind of shuffle that up and throw that away as opposed to something that’s really going to engage you and grab you.

I can’t tell you how many times I might be sitting outside or taking a break from work only to flip through some short form videos on a social media platform just because it’s so engaging. So to me, that’s where the edge is right now I think.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, for sure. Kind of pulling on that thread. Is there something specifically that you’ve seen that’s worked really well from a local marketing standpoint, whether it’s…

Adam Lamb
Yeah, the ones that I engage with again are kind of… I’m thinking of this one particular guy who has a hot dog restaurant, and he has some crazy combinations. And so on a Friday, he’ll pop up a quick little video where he’s in the kitchen talking about that particular thing he’s doing, and he’s so excited that it’s like, oh my God, man, I got to go try that. 

So again, it comes back down to that authenticity. He’s not trying to be anything more of what he is, but he is sharing his enthusiasm for what he’s doing. And someone might say, well, it’s a hot dog. Yeah, but he’s kicking butt, man. I mean, if I got me and I was local, I would definitely be on the road down. 

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, for sure. For sure. You never know what’s going to stick until you just try things out.

Adam Lamb
I love those outtake shots of people talking about how fun it is to work there and stuff like that. To me, not only does that engage me as a prospective associate, but as a guest, I want to be where people are happy, engaged. I don’t necessarily want to go into a place where I’m just another order going into the kitchen.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, no, I 100% agree with that. For those who are struggling at the local level to drive traffic, to drive engagement, what’s a suggestion that you could give them something they could start doing today or this week to start turning that around.

Adam Lamb
Again, I think, first off, I’d have to say congratulations, because it takes a lot of courage to take a look at what you’re doing. And considering is it working or not, I think the tendency is like sticking to your guns because you might think that this best represents your brand or I can’t be frivolous on the video or any kind of stuff like that. So I want to say congratulations and thank you for your courage of taking a look at maybe something that’s not working for you. 

And number two, I would say where I would go always is to my associates and say, what are you guys watching? What’s really engaging for you? And use them as a way to kind of inform what’s going on. And I would look at are you being true to your brand? Are you being true to your core values and does your personality come through in what you’re doing? 

Because again, I think yes, the one thing about the end of COVID is everybody came back to the restaurants because they were so desperate for that human connection. And now that they kind of have that, I think what has to come through now is that authenticity of the brand and what you represent as the brand as well. So be willing to be a little goofy and being willing to play with maybe funny short form videos as opposed to anything that’s trying to be too serious about what you do and what you represent. 

And I would also caution against passion because even though everybody likes to say, oh, you’re so passionate about what you’re doing, that can also be a double edged sword. So to be kind of neutral in your viewpoint and not so attached to the outcome, I think is really important because if you’re not getting the engagement that you want, then maybe that kind of knocks you in the ass a little bit and maybe you don’t do anything because you’re like, well, what’s the point now? As opposed to maybe changing it up? 

The last thing I would say is look at your competitors in the market, look at what they’re doing, subscribe to their channels. And if you see, say, a short form video that’s got a lot of views, you can reverse engineer that to your brand. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but if it’s working for somebody, it’s bound to work for you. And there’s probably just a few elements that maybe might not necessarily be present in what you’re producing. 

Like, is there a good hook after the good hook? Is there a great summation? Are you actually bullet pointing this stuff? And then there’s all the technical stuff as far as creating these little short form videos. But I would say those are kind of like probably three or four points that someone could actually start looking at right now and go, what have I got to lose?

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, there’s there’s some really good examples. The ones that come to mind. So I had Troy Hooper on a couple episodes ago, and he gave a shout out to this company, Cupbop, and they have really funny, engaging TikTok videos. And their followership is pretty big relative to what you would expect from a restaurant. 

The other one, this guy cracks me up. I see stuff every day. I followed him just because his content was so funny and engaging. Paul Tran over at Roll Them Up Tacos. So many funny memes. I swear, I’m like, how do you think of all these things? And it’s like new memes coming out consistently. And they’re all very good, very engaging, and as a result, his audience is very highly engaged. 

So humor is something that is definitely worth testing out if you haven’t tested it.

Adam Lamb
Yeah, and to your point, I think because we invest so much of ourselves emotionally and physically into the work that we do in food and beverage operations, that sometimes we take ourselves too seriously then. 

And while that might be a point of pride amongst other professionals, I think back to chefs who brag about how many hours they’re working, like they’re in the grind. I’m doing it, baby. Regardless of how much they’re getting paid per hour, which just kind of goes back beware of the passion thing. But when you start taking yourself too seriously, then you come across as inauthentic, and nobody really wants to waste any time with that. 

So funny is, I think, completely underrated as far as a marketing technique, for sure.

Justin Ulrich
If you look at the strength that it can give a brand, think of industries like insurance, where it’s relatively like it’s just a commodity, what you’re delivering. But the brands, they really differentiate themselves based on humor. It’s like bringing something to the insurance space that you would have never otherwise expected.

Adam Lamb
Right. You can think of Flo. You can think of the guy with the emu. I mean, they’re poking fun at themselves, which, again, is a very endearing quality to a potential customer. It’s like, yeah, if they’re willing to kind of make fun of themselves, then why wouldn’t I give them my money, for sure.

Justin Ulrich
Exactly, though. Very good advice, I think, too, just to kind of add to that, chef, a lot of times, people with the conversations like this, we’re giving good tips or whatever, but they might think, oh, yeah, well, I don’t really have the time, or it just takes so much, it’s such a heavy lift. 

But I would suggest just try something, just stand something up. It could just be something, like you said, authentic, unedited. Just show a video of a process in the back of house and prep on some meal and just see what the engagement looks like. And then you’ll be able to kind of go from there, but start yeah.

Adam Lamb
And there’s all kinds of technological work. Know, one of the easiest video editing apps to have on your phone is CapCut, and you can take a short piece of short form video in CapCut, and there’s a small learning curve. But the fact is you can create this really highly engaging video with great little cuts, relatively easy, and probably less than five minutes to do a minute long segment. And you can have that up and as a testing device, right? 

So to be able to just look and see if that’s got any engagement, if it’s got any drag. And one of the other ways is to use, like ask the public, which is this really cool… 

Justin Ulrich
Visual tool?

Adam Lamb
Yeah, but it makes it into this huge split off of like, what are the questions that people are asking about that? And use the question as a way to start your hook, and so it doesn’t cost any money. Quora is a great place to search for questions about particular cuisines and stuff like that. And it could be something that’s on your menu that someone has a question about how they make it. 

And dude, you want to talk about traction? You get that it’s behind the scenes, like showing, okay, this is the way that we’re going to do it, because there’s lots of guys and gals out there who are doing little cooking videos where they’re mimicking making a particular product from a restaurant in their own fashion. How cool would it be to grab that power back and say, well, this is actually how we’re doing it, right?

Justin Ulrich
Yeah. You mentioned earlier on in the conversation, you mentioned AI, I can’t remember who the restaurant was, and I’m kicking myself because of it. But there’s a restaurant that was using ChatGPT to create menu items, and then they would put it on their menu to actually test new things, and they were making a ton of social content around it, some really funny stuff. They were cranking. 

Like the example I’m giving was around sushi rolls, and they were reading off the ingredients and the instructions. And then the sushi chef was like, yeah, that’s a California roll. Not interesting, right? But then finally it got to something that was new and they made it and it was actually really tasty. And of course, in the video, the sushi chef was like, he enjoyed it. And I was, you know, it’s garbage, but it was really entertaining content. I wish I would remember the name.

Adam Lamb
Yeah. And there’s, you know oh my mean, if you watch any short form videos on Facebook or any of the other ones, there’s a ton of videos around cutting edge AI tools. I actually used ChatGPT 4 to create an authentic Asian menu for one of our episodes on Turning the Table, because I just wanted to see like, okay, how is it? And I actually showed it on the screen. It was like crazy. These items that they were bringing out. 

And there was one that I thought, like, I got to try this, man. Because it looks so good. And given the idea that these AI engines are generative, meaning they’re trying to figure out what the next word is in the phrase, that’s where they come across this idea that ChatGPT is actually hallucinating, but if it’s not continually referencing all the information that’s on the Internet, it can cannibalize itself. So in a vacuum, the systems don’t necessarily work very well. 

But if you consider that Chat GPT is created to have a conversation with the user as a continual thing of helping to refine it, just don’t take the first thing and then it pops out, but just keep trying it. I mean, after all, these tools are not going to replace human beings, but they might replace a human being that’s not using it, right?

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, that’s true. I just look at them as just it just amplifies what you’re doing. So if garbage in, garbage out. If you’re putting a lot of garbage in, it’s going to give you a lot of garbage out. But if you take the time to put the right inputs in, it’s going to accelerate your outputs exponentially to where you’d think that the social content that you’re creating and you have an entire team creating, but in reality you don’t. 

It’s really incredible. So real quick, Chef, who would you like to give a shout out for doing something really cool or interesting or engaging from a local marketing perspective?

Adam Lamb
Yeah. I would say out of anybody that we’ve interviewed on Turning the Table, I think Geoff Alexander from Wow Bao, they’ve done an incredible job at saturating their markets with their brand. And not only have they done it through great local marketing, but they’ve also done it almost bootstrapped gorilla style. 

The biggest piece that came out of that was my partner, Jim Taylor, asked him a question and he said, well, we act as if we don’t have any money. So a lot of the stuff very early on was them packing up a bunch of meals, taking them down to the Apple Store when the Apple Store first opened up because they knew that the people working there weren’t going to get a chance to have lunch. 

So like filling up a van of their baos and taking it to the local university and giving them away. So they’ve done a really strong job at not only guerilla style marketing, at making sure that people recognize not only the brand, but what’s actually involved in the brand, that bao, that every time anybody ate one they would go up, “Oh Wow Bao”.. 

As a matter of fact, I was in an airport the other day and saw a person walking past with a Wow Bao bag and I’m like, look at that. So I think they’re doing an amazing job and plus, they’re doing a great job at expanding their businesses in different verticals so they’re not resting on their laurels at all. And they’re thinking of some really creative ways to get their product out in front of people.

Justin Ulrich
I think it was a video from NRA where they were showcasing the machines, the kiosks that they have, they crank out the piping hot baos. I’m like, man, that’s a pretty good idea.

Adam Lamb
Yeah, it was amazing. I mean, basically all you need is a steamer and you can sell their product. So that was kind of their thing. And not every food and beverage operation is going to be able to position themselves that way. 

And the other thing that I think is really important right now is for everybody to have the courage to niche down. I think the future of the restaurant industry is going to be such that the more you’re niche down into what you really do very well is going to carry you a lot longer or a lot farther along towards your success than having a menu that’s full of, say a little bit for everybody. Well, the problem with that is when you try to please everybody, no one’s happy. 

So to be known for the best hot dog, known to be the best taco, known to be the best bao, I mean, those things are really incredible and can form the basis of a really superior marketing strategy moving forward. Because again, you’re not trying to please everybody. 

And if you’re doing a great job, those customers would be raving, fanatics and will tell everybody about them or they won’t tell anybody because they don’t want anybody…they want to make sure that they have a table, right? They don’t want to have to wait for a seat.

Justin Ulrich
Interestingly enough too, you pare down your menu and be more focused on niche. It’s like you’re also cutting your operating cost, cutting down all the food that you have to store. I mean it’s the ingredients, the spoilage. You’re getting rid of all that stuff and it’s just like so you’re cutting your cost and you’re driving more traffic and you’re driving more business. It’s a win win.

Adam Lamb
Yeah. I think that’s ultimately where the industry is going to find its sweet spot and there’s probably more shakeout from COVID in the lockdown that has yet to happen. The operators that have been more courageous about trying different things to your point, Justin, just getting out there and trying something I think are way ahead of the curve and those are the ones who are going to continue to try different things. 

I mean, the other person that I probably have to shout out is Shawn Walchef because I’ve never seen anybody saturate a market like him. I mean he is constantly talking about his brand, what they do to differentiate themselves from everybody else. I don’t live close enough to try it, but I can’t wait to know. 

Jensen Cummings is also another person who I really admire as far as the space is concerned. And I think marketing can also those of us that are in the service providing space can also learn a lot from these marketing ideas as well because again, how are you differentiating yourself from everybody else? And are you actually talking about the problems that people are having in such a way that you can allude to the fact that you actually have a solution for that? 

And I think on the other hand, restauranteurs need to be start looking at that as well. I mean if you’re looking for the best taco, you got to come here man. If that’s what your Jones is, then you got to come and check this out.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Those are all great shout outs. Those guys are on fire. Like you said. Shawn is all over the place man. And he’s such a gracious, just good dude wanting to help everyone succeed. Just incredible human beings. So I give a shout out to Shawn as well. And Jensen’s great too. Lots of great solid content coming from him as well. Like really interesting stuff. 

So I guess as we kind of head into wrapping things up, chef, we’ve got you mentioned how Wow Bao, all they need to do is steam their food. They just need a steamer. Well, I’ve also heard from the grapevine that you love a good steam and love a good sauna. 

And given that you are the chef that you are, I thought this would be a great time to show what I envision you doing in the sauna. Steaming the veggies, prepping the meal. It reminds me of Kramer in the shower when he was cooking.

Adam Lamb
That’s awesome. I love it. Can’t wait to see what you do with my AI.

Justin Ulrich
Anyways, chef. It was a lot of fun having you on the show. Before we sign off, why don’t you let us all know how we can follow you?

Adam Lamb
Sure, Justin. And again, thanks for the opportunity to be with you, man. I always enjoy our conversations because I always walk away a lot richer for it. So thank you for that. You can find me at cheflifecoaching.com. You can find me on LinkedIn as Adam Lamb, on Facebook, as Chef Adam Lamb. 

And I am doing my thing as far as looking at what’s working and what’s not working as far as my own marketing is concerned. So this is always a great pleasure to be with you because it gives me some stuff to think about, and even though probably already know this stuff, but to be reminded of it is a great thing. So thank you.

Justin Ulrich
You bet. Yeah. Every day I learn something new. Every day, even if I’ve already known it, you forget about it over the years and it’s like, oh, man, that’s a good nugget I need to need to bring back. 

Well, awesome. Okay, well, that about does it for today. Make sure you follow and subscribe to Chef Adam Lamb, to the Turning the Table podcast on LinkedIn, to Chef Life Radio on social and your favorite podcast platforms. 

Chef, it was a ton of fun having you in the lab today. Thanks for joining us and giving us your insights.

Adam Lamb
Appreciate that. Thanks very much, Justin.

Justin Ulrich
You bet.

As always, thanks for joining us in the local marketing lab. This podcast was sponsored by Evocalize. To learn more about how Evocalize can help you grow your business, visit evocalize.com. 

If you learned something from today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook at evocalize. That’s Evocalize and on X at Evocalize. 

And remember, keep innovating and testing new things. You’ll never know what connects with your customers best unless you try. Until next time. Thanks for listening.