Restaurant Marketing Copywriting: Testing “Starting At”, “As Low As”

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Words mean a lot when marketing your restaurant. What you say will affect how people feel, think and act — even the little phrases that seem insignificant can greatly affect the success (or failure) of a marketing campaign.

I have a friend that tests E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G when it comes to marketing. He figures that if he’s spending the money, he might as well know if it’s working. That is, afterall, the key to becoming successful at it: testing. Don’t make too many assumptions when it comes to advertising and marketing… test, test test!

Take, for example, the phrases “starting at” and “as low as”.

What phrase do you think caused more people to come into my friend’s business? He wouldn’t have known until he tracked the results of two consecutive marketing campaigns. The short of it: “As Low As” pulled roughly 20% more business, and he continues to use that phrase when doing any specials from now on.

We can reason why that might have occurred: “Starting At” leaves nowhere to go but up! “As Low As” says you can get something at a low price, but there are other low-priced options too.

This is just a small example of how a seemingly-insignificant change in words on a sign can affect the amount of business we do. It shows that we need to think twice about everything that’s widely distributed, really considering what’s being said and whether it can be said better.