Restaurant Marketing: It is not as difficult as you think

Managing and building a business brand is a daunting task and it is more challenging if it is a restaurant business. Competition in the food industry is fierce and you must be well equipped with all the tools and have the knowledge of this field to make it stand out in the market.

The majority of Smartphone users acquire all the restaurant information by using their mobiles, so online presence is mandatory for your business. With stiff competition, the right marketing for your restaurant is important; it may be offline or online marketing.

With the advent of the internet, marketing for restaurants has gained significance that includes brand promotion of restaurants through digital platforms like Facebook, websites, Emails, Twitter, and Instagram to name a few. This will help you create a strapping visual appeal, which the food offers. So it is high time restaurant owners realize that digital marketing for restaurants is the need of the hour. Restaurant marketing assists in targeting online customers as their reviews can have a strong impact on the reputation of the restaurant.

Some old conventional marketing ideas are still followed by many restaurant businesses which are hampering their business growth on a large scale. The difficulties that they face are due to bad social media planning, not having a website, not responding to their target audience, omitting online orders, being clueless about SEO, marketing mistakes by not using technology, no business claim on Google, not keeping up with latest marketing trends, and having the social media platform in inexperienced hands.

It is also vital for a restaurant business to have a crisis management group that can handle all the short-term and long-term crises. A crisis can be of any type; bad mouth publicity, changes in a restaurant menu, change in the ambiance, good music, and hygiene if your current business plan is not working properly. Many restaurants face difficulties in acting late or too little during a crisis which leads to the biggest marketing failures in the growth of the business.

There are so many types of questions that trigger in our minds about marketing a business 

A few of them are:

• Not aware of restaurant marketing
• Why should we market our restaurant business?
• How much money should I invest in restaurant marketing?
• Bad marketing ideas with a low budget
• How to calculate an appropriate marketing budget plan for my restaurant?
• What are the marketing strategies?
• Superior restaurant marketing plan

Marketing your restaurant business is critical but not as much as you think.

Marketing strategies to be followed to promote your restaurant business are:

There are numerous marketing campaigns for your restaurant business and there are several things you can do. Restaurant marketing is not simple as it appears to be and it relies on many strategies that a restaurant business must follow vigilantly. A few of the restaurant marketing strategies that should be followed are:-

• Get yourself registered on restaurant apps

Online ordering through free online ordering restaurant apps is among the best restaurant marketing tools. Getting recognized on food apps means your marketing strategy is working. Food apps allow the customers to filter and order according to their preferences. They can add details like cuisine, price range, contact details and sometimes offer like free if not delivered in half an hour.

• Updated Website

An updated website is another great way to make your online presence felt. A perfect restaurant website should comprise of –

• A page that highlights the brand of your restaurant
• Listing of all delicacies on the menu page
• A page that reveals the interior of the restaurant
• Feedback Form where the clients coming to your restaurant share their dining experience, which works as an incredible marketing tool and helps your restaurant to improve and grow
• An about us page that discusses your history and culture
• A virtual tour of your restaurant will be an added advantage and promote your restaurant in a big way

 

• Marketing on the social media

With approximately 1.6 billion users registered on Facebook, social media has come up with the simplest way to attract people. So, it is suggested to use social media platforms to achieve the digital marketing goals of your restaurants. Certain activities need to be carried out online for marketing your restaurant.

• Engaging with the customers

Engaging with your earlier and potential customers on social media is mandatory. You should always reply to their posts, tweets, or comments. You will come across countless social media tools accessible that permit you to handle your various channels in one place. Posts and tweets can also be scheduled to sustain constancy.

Remember to retain regularity in your posts. Adding a picture one day, then ghosting away won’t work. Restaurant marketing completely depends upon visibility. It is not necessary to post daily but your presence at least once a week is necessary.

• Video Marketing

Another digital marketing strategy for the restaurant is using videos. Develop catchy videos of the events organized in your restaurant or dishes served during the parties. Tag your customers and request them to re-share it. Maybe short clips for Instagram and Facebook and detailed videos for Youtube will work. These videos are entertaining, informative, and can easily be shared. It should be shared more often to make your business a success.

• Campaigns and contests

Regular contests and campaigns should be done on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram like a check-in campaign, or picture tagging. This way your restaurant will be visible to the friends of all the customers, who can be your future customers.

• Paid Ads

Diverse social media platforms permit you to dart geo-targeted ads and through this, you get the advantage of choosing your intended audience by their gender, age, preferences, etc. For instance, if you have a fast-food chain, you can aim the young crowd below the age of 30. This flexibility is only possible with digital marketing.

• Share fresh content to gain customer flow

It has been rightly said that people eat with their eyes primarily. Be certain to gain from your marketing strategies. Use different social media platforms to share attractive, sumptuous, and tantalizing visuals and interesting content along with the recipes, and limited-time menu dishes.

Fresh and exciting content on social media sites is the key and encourages the new customers to visit and makes your regular customers want to come all over again.

• Build loyalty of the customers

Social media is an ideal tool to connect with your clients and create personal relations with them. More than 50% of the users all across the world believe that the best way to connect with companies is through social media. The use of more and more social media platforms to reveal your brand is an excellent way to gain the trust of your clients.

So respond swiftly and professionally to clients that connect with you, and you will make them feel esteemed and they will visit your restaurant more often in the future.

• Offering incentives to the Customers

If your restaurant business is offering promotional offers and sharing unique menus, it can be shared with the help of digital marketing by using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. These special occasions can be unveiled online to attract customers. This will help in building your audience and encourage repetitive purchases.

To enhance the most likes and shares, provide your customers with discounts and offers as it is one of the most popular ways to reach out to a larger audience and create your brand name in a short period.

• SMS Marketing

Another great marketing strategy for restaurants is SMS marketing. SMS along with an offer or a promo code is an amazing way of restaurant marketing as it offers maximum visibility. For this, all you need is to have the expertise to create short, crisp, and attention-grabbing messages as your patrons are already receiving hundreds of other messages and notifications.

Try to end your messages with a Call-to-Action notification like Order Now, Book Your Table, or Try our new dish with a phone number or a link to wind up that action. SMSs are of great help in the delivery of orders as well.

• Email Marketing

Email marketing is another great marketing strategy for restaurants that can be achieved with the assistance of your CRM database. A welcome mail can be sent to your clients and carry on with sending frequent greetings and offers.

Nevertheless, email marketing is not just about sending good wishes to customers and sending coupons and offers to their inboxes. A newsletter that is sent every week is a great way to connect with your clients. You can form a reverberating personal touch with your regular clients by sending updates related to your restaurant like introducing your staff, or new chefs hired or highlighting the recent event that took place in the restaurant.

Getting the clients acquainted with your culture will make them feel at home when they visit your restaurant. Gaining new customers is not the only purpose of your restaurant business but retaining them should be the task and this is what email marketing indulges in.

Conclusion

To wrap it up, we can say that marketing will help your restaurant business grow in a big way as it has the advantage of immediacy, large reach out, and visual appeal on social media platforms. See your audience grow with each passing day, your table reservations soar, and the affirmative reviews flood in as you invest in digital marketing strategies for your restaurant.