Mimis Cafe Can Teach You a Thing or Two About “Comfort Food” and Online Marketing

Mimis Cafe, a Tustin, California-based restaurant chain owned by Bob Evans Farms (http://mimiscafe.com), recently moved into my home city of Montgomery, Alabama.  The restaurant won’t actually be open for business until sometime next week (just before Christmas), but my local newspaper published an article today that caught my attention.  It turns out that Mimis has an interesting online marketing strategy that I haven’t seen before — and one that independent retail stores in many categories can easily learn from and execute as well.

A Compelling Online Offer

Mimis online strategy is to give its customers and prospects a very compelling reason to visit — and return — to their store website.  There are a number of very specific reasons why the restaurant wants you to do this — not the least of which is to drive more patrons into their stores.

The best way to describe the “whys” of Mimis’ online marketing strategy is to analyze the “hows”.  We’ll do this by examining the homepage of the store’s website.  For reference purposes I’ve numbered some of the “hows” in the screenshot at the top of this page.

#1: Purchase Gift Cards — Mimis Cafe doesn’t overlook the obvious benefit of pulling customers to their website.  They want to make it really easy for their customers to give Mimis Cafe Gift Certificates as gifts.  For any restaurant this is a total no-brainer”.   Sadly, I still visit tons of similar websites that fail to make this simple offer.  Why this is so difficult for some retailers to understand is beyond me because this online transaction device is relatively easy for an online marketer to add to any website.  This isn’t just for restaurant sites.

Contact your website developer TODAY and get this done!  Or, click here to complete our Initial Prospect Form and I can help you get the ball rolling on your site fairly quickly.

Perhaps the only stores that can’t sell gift certificates online are those that refuse to accept credit cards.  But in the end, if a retailer doesn’t understand how important an online profit opportunity this can be then there’s probably no hope of convincing him or her in this review.

#2: Questions & Comments — Never be afraid to solicit comments or questions from online visitors to your website. It’s one good way to find out what you’re doing wrong — and doing right.  Furthermore, visitors will tell you things in an email that they might never tell you any other way.  And the chances of them sitting down and writing a note or formal letter to you are extremely low unless they have a truly serious complaint or comment and want it in writing — on paper!.  Needless to say you NEVER want a problem to spiral that far out of control if you can help it.

#3: E-Club — Ah-h-h-h … now Mimis’ website is starting to smoke!  They want you to join their “fan club” so they can give you lots of FREE services in exchange for a little information about yourself.  Your information is added to Mimis’ online marketing customer database with solid assurances that any information you provide will not be sold, traded, or otherwise misused.  The company’s online privacy policy is convincing enough for me to trust them.

Mimis Cafe E-Club Sign-up Page

Above is a screen shot of Mimi’s E-Club registration screen.  NOTE:  The only minor problems I saw with the E-Club sign-up process include the premature request for the my birth year.  I’m not overly sensitive about my age, but asking for this information on the “first date” as it were would not be my first choice on any site.  I understand the marketing logic for asking this information, but there are less intrusive ways of getting it such as using age ranges, i.e. 18-25, 26-34, 35-49, etc.  This was only a minor point, however.

Mimis Cafe E-Club Confirmation Page

A slightly more bothersome glitch was on the “confirmation” screen following the sign-up. The offer was a coupon for a free breakfast, but it’s going to take the company 4 WEEKS to email it to me!  What’s up with that?  The eyebrows of even moderately tech-savvy customers will rise over this unnecessary delay in fulfilling Mimis’ offer.

The lesson here is “Don’t make the mistake of treating your customers as if they were uninformed or dim-witted — even if some of them are.”  It only puts unnecessary doubts in their minds about how far they can trust you.

#4: Recipes — This is the feature that REALLY caught my eye!  Have you every heard of a restaurant that published their favorite recipes on their website for the world to see?  Why on earth would they do that?  Well, here’s why…

Mimis Cafe wants you to visit their website so that the company can 1) Give you some FREE services in exchange for some information about you; 2) Collect your comments and questions to improve their products and services; and 3) Sell you more of their products AND get brand new customers through their gift card program.

After all, do you really think people are going to stop eating at Mimis Cafe just because they can cook the same food at home?  I think not — and neither do the smart online marketing folks at Mimis.

#5: Student Recognition — Finally, Mimis earns tons of good will with a program intended to recognize the achievements of students in the local community.  What’s not to like about this idea? Click here to view the Student Recognition page.

Any retail store can do this for not a lot of money.  Besides, you probably couldn’t afford to pay for all the good publicity your local newspaper will give you for FREE!  Set aside $1000 in your marketing budget — or reserve some appropriate store merchandise — and recognize some deserving students for their hard work.  Let your customers nominate worthy students for recognition and announce the winners on your website.  Take plenty of pictures of you making the presentation.  Better yet, take some video of the presentation and post it on YouTube so that the students can send it to friends and family — with your store logo in the background.  You won’t believe how effective a marketing strategy this can be for most any independent retail store.
Summary

Any independent retail store can implement the online marketing strategy that is being effectively executed by Mimis Cafe on their company website.  It doesn’t cost tens of thousands of dollars — only a commitment on the part of the retail store owner and manager to elevate the importance of their store website in the overall marketing plan.  It also requires the help of an experienced online marketer who understands what changes are needed for your website and why.

If we can be of any help to you in making your website more productive please click here and complete our brief Initial Prospect Form.  There is absolutely no obligation and you will receive our proposal and recommendations within 1-2 business days via email.

(c) MELCOOPER Consulting, Inc. — Online Marketing Strategies for Retail Stores & Services