Restaurant directory, my plan.

This idea stemmed from some thread I read on this forum awhile back:

I have already bought the domain name, here is my step by step plan. By the way this is localized in a certain county.

Step one: Get a nice template and SEO up the homepage. I plan to create sections for different types of eateries (Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Burger joints etc...).

Step two: Add 100 of each type of eatery using other directories and bold the top 10 results. They will be organized by quality. I plan to put my top 10 favorite restauratns at the top of the list to start.

Step three A): After I build the directory for each city in my county and get a decent amount of traffic to the site I will begin cold calling the businesses that I put as the top 10. I will say that we have to begin charging for top 10 featured section of the website, and I will explain how much traffic it draws in. To start I'm thinking of charging $10 for the first month then $20 for every following month.

Step three B): Instead of cold calling I was thinking of maybe just approaching the businesses themselves and giving my spiel, then handing htem the order form. The only thing that holds me back about this idea is a lot of restaurant managers have odd hours and aren't in all the time.
Step three C): Maybe email marketing? At least as an attempt at first contact? I feel like this would be less confrontational, and if I didn't get a response I could follow up.

So I shared my idea with you guys, it stemmed from a thread I read on here awhile back so I thought it might help you guys. If you have any suggestions on whether I should use A, B, or C it would be helpful. Thank you.

Edit: Should I instead NOT use a featured section until it gets popular and THEN offer it out? I'm not sure if it would seem more authentic to have it already up for free without them knowing and then offer a continuation of the services OR releasing it as a new service and offering it to them as a fan of their restaurant cheaply.

Maybe if I opened it as a new service I could charge more for less spaces.

I dont know from personal experience but guys from my country say that they make money from restaurant directory site..

Do you have any competitors? If you have, look what they have and make it better and offer something that they dont have...

Also you could add section with reviews of restaurant, how is the food, staff, etc...

Just off the top of my head...

Well you have the plan, now go for it..

I would go with the option of offering the Featured Section after you start getting some decent traffic. I am looking at it from my point of view that if someone said that I am in the featured section of their site and I now need to start paying I would be a bit skeptical.

Build up traffic then present the stats to them and slam them with the benefits of been in the featured section

Good Luck with your project, keep me posted with your success!

@m_zec this is exactly what I am doing. I am trying to differiniate my services and make myself the unique, trendy, authority on diners in this area.
@PinkBitz I agree, this is what I was leaning towards. I am thinking of doing split testing in different cities to see which works better.

Yes, I will keep everyone posted. I might even make a case study once it gets going. I do have a lot of competitors but I believe my unique approach will succeed.

Yelp.com is the 800 lb gorilla in the room, and it's going to be very hard to compete with them, but yelp is more of a review site (that many people use as a directory as well).

Where are you located?

From where I'm from, restaurant owners are usually broke...

We plan to set ourselves apart from Yelp by offering pop up food menus and things of that nature. We plan to target both people who are already on Yelp and those who don't even have a website yet.

Our goal is to make a site similar to www.localrestaurantdirect.com, except a more trendy approach. Something like http://nycrestaurant.com except not.

I can already see that there are other businesses doing similar things locally, its just a matter of setting ourselves apart. Theres thousands of restaurants out there, I'm sure some of them can afford a cheap Featured section.

I don't love this idea. I don't think you will be able to beat Yelp. Not to mention that most restaurants either don't make money or do not do well financially, so even if they understand the power of IM and like you enough to buy, they might not be able to afford the low price. Really, if you are getting 200 bucks per sale (maybe) and you factor in the cost of all that work to set up a directory, you might as well sell stock over the phone.

That being said I hope you prove me wrong!!! xoxox

Haha its cool TeenAngel I appreciate the criticism. Yelp is not even a direct competitor of mine because of my approach. Maybe your right, but I'm going to do what I can to prove you wrong.

If this doesn't work, on to the next idea right? I got ideas for days.

Btw, of course I'm not going to share every bit of information in regards to my marketing procedure as it would create direct competition.

I think you should consider checking this website which might give you some great ideas on how to proceed. They actually have a bunch of restaurants listing as well as maps etc....

I know this is an old thread but some people underestimate the advo budget restaurants have. As a former restaurant manager myself my budget was 1% of sales and the store was doing $60k per week so my local budget came to about $2400 p/month. We also paid 2% towards national level advo that was pooled by the company to buy TV and radio.

The way I envision a site like this goes something like this: Have a VIP lisitng or Premium call it whatever you want. The top 10 results include a positive review, phone number address and website url. Have the price start at say $250 p/month for the #1 spot and drop the rate by $15 p/month the further they get away from #1 down to the 10th spot which would be $250- ($15*9)

Then have a featured listing that lists any restaurant willing to pay for $10 p/month that shows the restaurant name and address(or phone number), that is it.

Then have a free basic list that shows only the restaurant name, this way you have some content for your site. If you have a friend in the biz you can temporarily give them a "VIP" listing for free so they (as in their competition)see that the service is being used.

Anyway, that is my idea, the mom and pops may not pay $100+ p month but the big hitters might. But the mom and pops may pay $10 p/month and it would not be hard to get friends and family to call the restaurants listed and say "I saw you on that restaurant site dot com, what are your hours of operation?". In most areas there are dozens if not HUNDREDS of restaurants so the hard part IMO would be simply managing who is paying and who is not and then subsequently change the listing.

OR you can make it annual $10 p/month for the year $120 then set a calendar alert when that particular restaurant is due to renew.

If any of you market to restruants, let me know. I have a product that will soon be revised for restruants. It's something that they are all legally required to do but doing it has always been difficult and time consuming.

I can't give any details today but PM me and let me know how many you market to and I'll hit you back up once it is time.