By Matt Plapp
Last week, I covered the importance of building a database from inside your four walls by gathering the data of the most important customers that will ever exist: the ones eating there now.
Outperforming the chains starts in your customers’ phones, but if you don’t know them, then you’re at a big disadvantage. That is the entire reason the Build pillar exists. So today, we’ll start building close to home—because a chain can copy your menu, but they can never copy your presence in your community.
I’m Matt Plapp, the CEO of America’s Best Restaurants, and we help independent restaurant owners win against the chains through our three pillars: Attract Attention, Build a Database and Retain Your Customers.
Here is the part the chains will never tell you: You cannot outspend them. You cannot out-footprint them. So stop trying. But you can out-community them.
They’re faceless; you’re not. A chain is a logo on a corner, or a regional manager nobody in town has ever shaken hands with. You are a person your neighbors actually know, and that is a weapon no marketing budget can buy.
Sadly, most independents waste it. A few weeks back, I warned you about being a MINO, a member in name only. That’s what you are when you join the chamber of commerce, buy a sign to show off on the main road, and then disappear. You are technically in your community, but you remain invisible to it. The biggest signs of that miss are the businesses sitting within blocks of your front door that have no idea you exist.
Community is crucial within Build, the second pillar. Out in the community, Build does not start with a QR code. It starts with a relationship, and the data and the visits follow the trust. The best part: A relationship you build once keeps paying dividends, while an ad stops the day you stop funding it.
How to Win This Week: Influence the Influencers
Cindi at LaRocca’s Pizza in Topeka, Kansas, could spend her life chasing the 5,000 people in their area who might buy a pizza this month. Or she could let her marketing plan chase those people and spend her own time on something much smarter: She could influence 15 people, each of whom could influence thousands.
Who are those 15? The band director. The girls’ basketball coach. The chamber president. The football coach. Heck, you could even say the players and parents are massive influencers. Want proof? Go to a friend’s Facebook profile and see how well their posts do when they share their kids’ wins in life.
Every one of these people in your community stands before an audience that already knows, likes and trusts them. Get them to know, like and trust you, and they’ll bring their whole following along—for free. That is leverage no chain on the corner has, because nobody in town has a personal relationship with a corporate office.
Cindi at LaRocca’s gets it. She uses her “media channel” (Facebook page) to tell stories, but not just any stories. She tells the ones from her community. And, in turn, that content spreads.
Make Your Page a Highlight Reel for Your Town
Here is the easiest version of this, and you can start doing it tonight from your phone: Stop posting your pizza. Start posting your community’s wins.
Look at what Cindi and her crew at LaRocca’s are doing. On May 17, they did not post a coupon. They posted a graduation reel for their own employees—the kids who balanced homework, sports and late restaurant shifts headlined “LaRocca’s Class of 2026.” It pulled in 8,000 views, 193 reactions, 17 comments and 8 shares.
Two weeks later, there was, once again, no pizza posted. Cindi congratulated a longtime employee, Lauren, and the Hayden Wildcats for going undefeated and winning the state soccer title. That one got 413 reactions and 42 comments.
Not one of these posts sold a slice. But every one of them sold the restaurant.
Here is why it works: When you put a kid’s graduation or state title on your page, the people closest to that win do the sharing, and those people are your real influencers: The parents. The coach. The teammates. Nobody in your town moves a crowd the way a proud parent or a coach can, and no ad you will ever run buys that reach. So share about the softball player’s fifth home run of the season, or the band’s trip to the state championship. Post the win, tag the people, and let your town do the sharing for you.
A Wish Versus a Plan
Blasting an offer to 5,000 strangers and hoping somebody bites is Hope and Pray marketing. Picking the 15 voices your town already trusts and showing up for them on purpose is Aim and Expect marketing. One is a wish. The other is a plan.
Here’s one thing you can do this week to start: Make the list. Write down the 10 to 15 people in your town who already have an audience that trusts them. Pick one and go show up where they are—a game, a charity night, their podcast—and do not sell them a thing. Then post one community win this week instead of one more pizza. That’s it!
You cannot outspend the chains. You cannot out-footprint them. But they will never out-community you, because they cannot. They do not have a face. You do.
Want to see exactly where your marketing is leaking attention? Take our free WIN Audit. The industry average is 28 out of 100, and we can typically add 40 points in a few months. And, if you want to go deeper, join our free ABR Skool community, where we help owners and their teams dominate all nine strategies under the ABR pillars. We go live every Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern. Bring your questions.
Now go get out on the streets, where your customers walk every day. They show up for you by visiting your pizzeria. It’s your turn to show up for them.
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.
