By Matt Plapp
In recent weeks on PMQ.com, we’ve been exploring the Build pillar of my ABR (Attract, Build, and Retain) framework. As I’ve previously explained, you should start by building your database inside your four walls. Then you can build relationships in your community. Today, we’ll close out the Build pillar with the third and final battleground—building digitally, reaching customers in the one place they never log off: their phone.
I’m Matt Plapp, CEO of America’s Best Restaurants. We help independent restaurant owners win. We help them win new customers, win back lost customers, win more frequent visits, win higher check averages, win their community’s attention and win against the chains. We do it through our three pillars: Attract Attention, Build a Database and Retain Your Customers.
Last week, I was on the road with the ABR Roadshow, filming in Northern Ohio. We visited seven restaurants in seven communities, and every community looked identical. You drive through the old part of town, where the people used to be; then you hit the new part, where the people are now, and it’s chains on every corner. Chipotle. Starbucks. Chick-fil-A.
I found the same story in Northern Kentucky, where I passed five Chipotles this morning just driving to the gym and back. So ask yourself the honest question: Can you go dollar-for-dollar with Chipotle? Sign for sign with Chick-fil-A? No. You can’t outspend them, and you can’t out-footprint them.
But you can beat them in hospitality. You can beat them on your story. And you can beat them in the one place that matters most, the place we all live now: our phones.
We check our phones 144 times a day. Your customers are on theirs right now, sitting in your dining room. The only question that matters is: Are you showing up there enough?
Of the seven restaurants I visited last week, four were not using social media right. They were posting no stories about themselves, their team or their community. Their pages showed only food—a photo of a pizza, a photo of a sandwich, repeat. That’s not marketing. That’s a menu nobody asked for.
Here’s the part most owners miss: Digital marketing is not for getting attention. At least, not only. Attention is the top of the funnel. The goal underneath it is to capture data, so you own the relationship and can invite that customer back on your terms, not Facebook’s. That’s the Build pillar, run digitally, and there are two places to do it: social media and your website.
The Facebook Post That Built a Database
Let me show you what this looks like when it’s done right. There’s a restaurant called County Road Burger Company in Denton, Texas. On December 20, 2025, they posted on Facebook. It went viral, with about 570 likes, 42 shares and 1,200 comments.
Look closely at those numbers. Why would they get 1,200 comments but only 570 likes? Because the call to action wasn’t “Like this post.” It was “Comment below.” Every comment triggered an automation in Facebook Messenger that asked the commenter who they were: name, email and phone number. In exchange, they got an offer to use at the restaurant.
Since December, County Road Burger has run Facebook and Instagram ads that generated 262,000 impressions. Those impressions drove 6,300 engagements, mostly clicks and comments. And those 6,300 engagements turned into 2,570 people raising their hands and saying, in effect, “Here’s my info, give me a burger.”
Zoom into a single 30-day window, and the math gets clearer. County Road Burger spent $322 on ads. That top-of-funnel money pulled in 225 new opt-ins. The system then used the database to drive traffic, and 157 of those people walked in and spent $4,400, with an average check of about $28.
Take out the ad cost, the food cost and the regulars who would have come anyway, and the owner cleared almost $2,000 in incremental profit—from a $322 investment, at a 21% redemption rate the system tracked, so he knows it worked.
I learned this lesson the hard way in 2015. We ran a National Pretzel Day promotion for the Hofbräuhaus locations in Newport, Kentucky; Columbus, Ohio; and Pittsburgh: Bring this in on Sunday and show your phone. It went off the hook, and they reaped massive sales.
Then, the next morning, it hit me. I had just gotten hundreds of people to drive in and spend money, and I had no idea who any of them were. I got their money; I didn’t get their data. I couldn’t invite one of them back.
That’s why we built our acquisition system: to monetize the database after visit No. 1. The days of “show your phone at the counter” are over. Run an offer, and you must get their information in return. Period.
How to Build the Funnel Yourself
No system like ours is running this for you? Here’s how to build the funnel yourself.
Lead with a high-value offer: a free burger, a free side, a free dessert—something people actually want. Something that will not only drive sales but also create new habits, like your best customers buying desserts every time.
Make their data the price of admission. They give you a name, an email and a phone number, and they get the offer.
Then automate the follow-up. Whatever tool you send them to has to capture the info and automatically send the offer, without you touching it.
And, finally, track redemption in your restaurant. If we hadn’t known that the County Road Burger campaign hit 21%, how would we know it worked at all? You can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Your One Move This Week
Go look at the last paid post or ad you ran. Did it capture anyone’s information? Or did it just collect likes from people you will never reach again? If it was liked, you bought attention and rented the customer. Make every dollar you spend on attention do double-duty and build your database.
You are never going to outspend Chipotle. But you can out-system them. And it starts on the one screen they can’t buy their way onto: the one in your customer’s hand.
Take our free WIN Audit and see exactly where the gaps are in your restaurant’s marketing. And, if you want to go deeper, join our free ABR Skool community, where we break down all nine strategies under the three pillars. We go live with the team every Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern.
Now go build something you actually own.
I’m Matt Plapp, the CEO of America’s Best Restaurants, and we exist to help independent restaurant owners win—not survive, win. We help them win through their marketing and by leveraging our three pillars: Attract Attention, Build a Database and Retain Your Customers. The goal is to win new customers, win back lost customers, win more frequent visits, win higher check averages, win your community’s attention and win against the chains. That last one is the one keeping you up at night. And it should be.
