The world has changed drastically in the last decade and will continue to do so in the upcoming years. Businesses have pushed themselves to explore and implement new ways that help them reach their desired audience and in turn scale their presence.
In this case, the card of restaurant businesses is no different. Due to the advent of digital technology, each and every industry has been radically transformed. The dependencies over traditional forms of marketing are no longer preferred.
This is the age of the internet, and thus it becomes imperative to implement unique restaurant marketing strategies.
Most restaurants have begun or have already taken advantage of digital media and mobile technology. But cracking the digital code is no easy task; it requires careful study of the technology, trends, and skill to implement them in an amazing fashion.
Some of these restaurants have got it right, but the majority are still struggling to get their marketing strategy on point.
Why should I market my restaurant?
Being a restaurant owner or its employee, by now you should have known that the competition in the restaurant space is fierce. If statistics are to be believed, considering the fierce competition, there exists a huge probability of a 60% failure rate of restaurant businesses.
So what is it that would make or break your restaurant business? Is it fantastic food? Maybe. But if you take a look around the industry, you’ll find hundreds of restaurants that fail despite cooking their best. On the other hand, some restaurants in spite of cooking average food, achieve massive success that too in a short amount of time.
Turns out succeeding in a restaurant business is beyond cooking the most palatable of dishes instead it bears on the restaurant’s marketing strategies. Marketing is what helps a business to reach out to people and attract desired prospects/customers.
The essentiality of effectively marketing a restaurant is no different than inhaling air to keep ourselves alive. In times of such uncertainty, it becomes difficult to bet on one marketing strategy without accessing its entire gamut.
So to give you more clarity regarding the same, in this post, we would be highlighting several marketing tips for restaurants that may help them survive in this pandemic and in turn scale their business in the future.
1. Be present on social media
During this lockdown, all people are sitting in their respective homes and are scrolling their feeds on social media tirelessly. Since this is the age of the Internet, social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat, etc. are bustling with loads of pictures of delectable dishes.
These pictures would make any miser spend some extra rupees to satiate his/her cravings. Pictures of delicacies taken with a pinch of aesthetic can more effectively broadcast your offerings and roll some extra orders.
In today’s age, it has become imperative to take advantage of social media platforms to promote your restaurant online. We know, it is easier said than done, having tons of social media channels of varied niches and lack of clarity regarding what strategy to implement can make the process difficult.
So here’s our advice; when it comes to food, take into consideration Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. The objective is to post top-notch food pictures and video clips that sufficiently entice users to make an order.
To take full advantage of social media platforms, consider hiring Sampark Infoways- a full-scale digital and social media marketing company based in Raipur and Mumbai. We just might be your best bet to formulate the best restaurant marketing ideas for your outlet.
Also Read: Why Social Media is an Absolute Must for Business Branding?
2. Having an aesthetic yet fast website.
We couldn’t stress enough how important a good website is for any business. Having a great website set up for your restaurant business is no different from having a food outlet in every part of the world.
A website, that too a good one is one of the primary branding and marketing materials for every business. If you want to see your restaurant scale big, then you must get a professional website.
A website acts as a door that opens up several opportunities for you as well as gives you access to a large market of consumers. A website makes it easy for potential and even pre-existing customers to reach you.
To build a professional and elegant website, you may require a website design and development company to do it. To get yourself the best website solutions, consider visiting Sampark Infoways website.
You can also read our blog that articulates the importance of a website for a company/business.
3. Setting up Google My Business Account
Setting up your restaurant’s Google My Business account is as important as creating your professional website.
Here’s why- when any user searches a business or its product/service-related keywords within Google, Google’s Knowledge Graph gives him the business’s details in the sidebar. The business’s details include a website link, location address, contact number, hours open for, customer reviews, link to social media handles, directions to address, etc.
If you see carefully, this much information is huge and you get to display all of this on top of Google’s search engine page. The probability of user clicking on this information is high because he/she has a search intent that aligns with your business’s niche.
Since restaurants are usually dine-in brick-and-mortar outlets, this feature by Google can help them reach out to targeted people effectively and efficiently. This is one of the best restaurant marketing strategies you can implement. And do you know the best part? It’s absolutely free!
4. Geographically targeted ads
As we discussed above, a restaurant is a brick-and-mortar place. This means that the restaurant has a fixed and tangible location in a city where people can visit and have food.
Having said that, for most restaurants local is the name of the game. People generally prefer good eats that are close to their home rather than traveling miles to reach a faraway restaurant.
With this insight in mind, you can generate the most value out of your digital marketing efforts by investing in high targeted geographical ads. Geographically -targeted ads help you save money, ensuring that only people in certain cities or within a particular radius see your ads. This eliminates those non-relevant ad clicks which generally cost you big amounts of money.
It is an efficient way of marketing your restaurant. There are many digital advertising services, from Google Ads (also known as Google AdWords) to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter that offer geo-targeting ad options that too at no extra cost. Make sure to take advantage of these easy targeting features to get your amazing ads in front of your best customers.
5. Don’t skimp out Email Marketing
Another vital and effective restaurant marketing strategy includes email marketing. But to properly utilize this method, you’ll need a considerable number of email IDs in your hand.
There are primarily two ways to increase your email list- by persuading customers to fill forms in person or by getting them to fill those forms online. Since the world is now more and more close to become fully digitized, we would suggest that a restaurant should pay close attention to the latter.
To put it in blunt terms, Email marketing is a perfect way to “bait” your customers. This practice ensures that your customers keep them coming back for you. By using email marketing, you can also tell your subscribers about new additions to the menu and other amazing offers.
However, if not executed properly your emails might be put in the spam category. Your emails need to strike a fine balance of marketing and humanizing. If you’re new to email marketing, don’t hesitate to consult an expert firm – like Sampark Infoways to help you with the best email marketing strategy for your restaurant.
6. Get Listed On Food Apps
We all know how food delivery apps like zomato, swiggy and uber eats have exponentially grown in these recent years. Due to the expansion of these apps in the remotest of towns, customer behaviour and buying patterns have changed drastically.
Now consumers want delicious dishes delivered right at their doorstep. Due to popular demand by consumers, many restaurants have partnered with these food delivery apps to reach as many hungry stomachs as possible. No longer do customers have to go through big directories or browse the web for long hours to find an appropriate place to eat.
Now all they have to do these days is download a food app that refers them best and nearest restaurant for free. Getting listed on food apps drastically improves your visibility that prior this option was not possible. If you’re planning to scale your restaurant business, bait more potential customers and reap in more orders then taking advantage of this service would be the best option.
7. Maintaining your Reputation
A bad review can destroy your brand authority in an instant. In the case of restaurants, it is much more damaging as compared to other businesses.
It is often said, nothing ruins a restaurant business like a bad review. You should make your services so much better as to avoid reviews like – bland food, rude waiters/staff or found a dead insect in my food.
All your marketing and other efforts could go to the trash if you don’t have an appropriate reputation management strategy in place. This reputation management plays a major part in maintaining your goodwill, especially on the internet.
Some online reputation practices for a restaurant would simply include responding to customer queries in a punctual manner and replying to both positive as well as negative reviews in a manner that would project your restaurant in good light.
Summing it Up!
So these were our few cents now on how innovative restaurant marketing strategies can take your restaurant business to the next level.
With these restaurant marketing ideas, I hope you are well on your way to boost your restaurant business to achieve massive milestones. Just don’t forget, execution is everything!
Wondering who we are? We are Sampark Infoways-an all-round IT solutions company located in Raipur and Mumbai that provides businesses industry-standard website-app design/development, SEO, SMM, digital marketing and software development solutions. Visit our site to know more.
