By Matt Plapp
Here’s the truth nobody wants to say out loud: The chains are beating you. Not because their food is better. Not because their service or their people are better. They’re winning because they have your customers’ attention, and you don’t.
I grew up in Northern Kentucky, right by the Cincinnati Airport. Thirty years ago, when my mom and dad took us out to eat, we went to local spots: Pasquele’s Pizza, Barleycorn’s, a few places on the river. There were maybe one or two franchises in the whole area. That was it.
Back then, the independent restaurant was the default choice. That world is gone.
I live a few miles away now, in Union, Kentucky. Ten years ago, when I moved in, there were two restaurants on the main stretch near my house—one independent, one chain. Today, in a quarter-mile radius, there are 23 restaurants. That original independent is still there, fighting for its life among a wall of chains. And I keep waiting for a second Chipotle to show up, because that’s the direction everything is moving.
Between my house, my office and my gym, I pass eight to ten Chipotles on any given day: two near the house, two near the office, two near the gym. You and I cannot compete with that—physically. We never will. But here’s the question I want you to sit with: What if you could replicate a big chain’s footprint digitally?
Expanding Your Digital Footprint
Think about where your customers are right now. At the pool—on their phones. At a stoplight—on their phones. At your table, between bites—on their phones. Consumers check their phones approximately 140 times a day. Eleven times an hour. That is not a problem. That is your opportunity.
The chains have a physical presence everywhere your customers go. But you can have a digital presence everywhere your customers are—social media, email and text—and be a physical presence in your community. After all, social media channels are largely free. Facebook isn’t charging you to post. Instagram isn’t billing you for showing up. Email costs pennies on thousands of dollars. The barrier isn’t money; the barrier is showing up consistently, and most of you aren’t doing it.
That’s the Hope and Pray strategy, and it worked 20 years ago, when there were four restaurants in your town. You hoped the customer had a great meal. You prayed that the next time they drove by hungry, they’d stop in. But when they’re driving past 30 restaurants between their house and yours, Hope and Pray is a losing game.
We call the alternative Aim and Expect. You identify your audience. You market to them directly. You expect an outcome. And when you’ve done it enough times, you know exactly what to expect. Every time you reach these 1,000 people, 50 of them come in. You can plan around that. You can grow around that.
@luigispizzaparkslope 🥱😴💤 #pizza #pizzeria #brooklyn ♬ The Next Episode – Instrumental – Dr. Dre
Back in 2005, I was running a mom-and-pop boat dealership in Northern Kentucky, competing against Bass Pro Shops. We couldn’t match their budget. We couldn’t match their footprint. They lived in every customer’s head, rent-free. So I figured out a different play. I knew fishermen wanted deals. If they have a gift card in their wallet, they’re going to use it. So we sponsored 1,800 bass fishing tournaments from Lexington to Louisville to Dayton to Columbus to Indianapolis, and we put a $25 gift card in the hands of every serious fisherman in the region. We gave away about $30,000 that year. My employees thought I’d lost my mind.
A year later, a customer came in and told me he’d seen a Bass Pro circular that morning but came straight to us because he had our gift card. That’s the moment—that’s what I want to help you build. Except instead of the Sunday paper, we’re building it inside the device your customers are staring at 140 times a day.
The ABR Method for Targeted Marketing
Here’s where the ABR method comes in: Attract, Build, Retain. These three pillars aren’t abstract concepts. They’re the framework for every decision you make in your marketing.
Attract is how you get attention—inside your four walls, out in your community and digitally. Build is how you turn that attention into data you own—not rented attention, like you got with old-school radio (and where you had to keep paying to reach the same people), but owned relationships through email addresses, cell phone numbers and loyalty memberships. Retain is how you keep those customers coming back, instead of churning through the same expensive cycle of finding new ones every month.
Here’s a stark way to look at it: I recently talked to a restaurant that signs up 20 people a month for its in-restaurant loyalty program. Twenty. And I told them straight: Every month, 20 to 30 of your existing customers are dying, moving or divorcing your restaurant. If your only input is 20, you’re standing still at best. Another restaurant I spoke with the same week was signing up several hundred customers a month in-store through intentional conversations with guests. They had the same concept but a completely different execution—and a completely different result. That gap is where the battle is fought.
@luigispizzaparkslope Gio gives back to the community the best way he knows how 🍕 #ItaliansBeLike #brooklyn #pizza #pizzeria #parkslopebrooklyn #parkslope #nyceats #nyceatsgram #pizzatiktok #pizzatok ♬ Nothing But The Best – 2008 Remastered – Frank Sinatra
Adding Your Personal Touch
The other piece of this plan, which most owners resist, is the personal one. You have to become the face of your restaurant. Your bartender can’t do it. Your assistant manager can’t do it. Your kids coming into the business probably can’t do it (yet). You have to get on video. You have to show up on Facebook and Instagram. You have to be out in your community: at the football games, the chamber events, the local gatherings. And then you have to document it. You have to use your channels to support your community, attract attention for them, and build relationships that make people feel like spending money with you is personal.
I wear my brand every single day. I walked into the gym this morning, and two women walking out commented on the all-orange outfit. It’s been all orange for 10 years. You have to live your brand. That’s what turns a restaurant into an institution.
The chains will never have that. They can have 23 locations on your corner and two Chipotles next to your house, but they cannot be the owner who goes to the same church as their customers, who shows up at the same football games, who is genuinely invested in the same community. That’s your weapon. Use it.
Your Action Plan
Here’s your one action for this week. Look at the digital channels you already have and ask yourself one question: Am I showing up consistently enough to stay in my customers’ heads? Not occasionally. Not when you remember to. Consistently. If the answer is no, pick one channel and commit to showing up every single week for the next 13 weeks. That’s the muscle memory we’re building.
You can win this. Your competition is not as far ahead as you think. I was at Pizza Expo recently and asked owners how they give back to their communities. The most common answer? “We do dine-to-donate.” That was cutting-edge 10 years ago. It’s table stakes now.
The good news is, the bar for dominating your local market is not that high. Most of your competitors are barely showing up. So start showing up. Aim and expect. Build something they can’t replicate with a real estate budget.
If you want to learn more, take our free WIN Audit to 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 help owners and their teams dominate all nine strategies under the ABR pillars.
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.
