Digital Marketing for Restaurants: How to Market A Restaurant Online
Digital marketing for restaurants has been around for a while now, yet so many restaurants aren’t taking full advantage of the opportunities digital marketing can bring.
Every restaurant business needs to ensure that they have a strong marketing strategy in place, and this is especially true for venues like restaurants.
It can help you grab the attention of potential customers to increase your revenue.
Although there are various marketing strategies that you can use to market a restaurant, all of these strategies don’t hold the same weight.
When you’re trying to market a business or any service for that matter, you need to make sure that you’re able to connect with your customers, and perhaps the strategy that does this best is online marketing.
The fact that we live in a digital era is undeniable.
Everywhere you look you see smartphones and screens. All of these digital advancements have made it easier than ever to market your services.
But digital marketing for restaurants can be quite tricky as restaurants rely on their service and food to bring people in.
So how do you create a digital strategy that actually works?
You need to use your social platforms to create a robust and attractive online presence for your restaurant.
Remember that your online presence is the only aspect of your restaurant that potential customers will see.
Social media platforms are used by plenty of restaurants.
You need to figure out how to grasp and maintain the attention of social media users, and this article will help you do just that.
We’ve listed 7 tips that are sure to take your restaurant’s digital marketing to the next level.
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1. Make your online posts as appealing as possible to draw users to your page
2. Start building a following by creating interactive accounts
3. Email marketing can be very useful if it is used right
4. Host regular giveaways and competitions on your account to avoid disinterest
5. Consider using influencer marketing to promote your business
6. Online review sites can majorly impact your reputation
7. Bloc is an online app that takes a unique approach to marketing
8. Take advantage of Google marketing
1. Make your online posts as appealing as possible to draw users to your page
Most popular social media platforms have thousands of posts uploaded to them daily.
This means that users have a constant stream of information to go through, and they’re only going to notice the most attractive content.
If your account doesn’t post pictures that are high quality and engaging, you’re not going to grow your followers.
You must take care to produce content that is incredible.
Show the best facets of your restaurant to your followers so they know why they should consider coming to your restaurant.
The heart at the center of any restaurant is its food, so be sure to put up as many pictures of your scrumptious food as possible.
You could also make short videos about your food to put up on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Compose a few behind the scenes videos for your YouTube channel to give your followers a glimpse at the inner workings of your restaurant.
All of this content will go a long way to making your accounts and your restaurant interesting to your followers.
2. Start building a following by creating interactive accounts
One of the primary reasons that most online media accounts fail is because businesses simply don’t work with the algorithm that is in place.
So, what exactly is this algorithm, and why is it important?
Because of the massive amounts of content these platforms need to go through every day, many of these companies have designed algorithms to pick the right content to show to a user.
It’s impossible to manually select and choose which posts to show to a particular user, and automatic programs can make this process effortless.
The advancement of new AI technologies means that these bots can learn a user’s preferences and suggest various posts to them based on this.
However, to use this effectively, you need to keep a few things in mind.
This algorithm looks for content that is optimized, and it also prioritizes accounts that the users interact with.
Therefore, to get followers for your media accounts, you need to make your account interactive.
Many of these apps provide tools like polls or tags that your followers can use.
Also, make it a point to encourage your followers to comment on your posts by using intriguing questions.
3. Email marketing can be very useful if it is used right
When people think of digital marketing for restaurants, they tend to think about social media platforms. Although these are excellent tools, email marketing can also be quite effective when used correctly.
Emails are used by plenty of people in their day-to-day lives, and they’re built quite differently from social media apps.
The reason that email marketing is so great is that you can send the content directly to your customers, and don’t have to rely on an algorithm.
However, this also means that you need to ensure that the content you send is valuable to the person.
To do this, try to use discount coupons or offer codes to give people that sign up for your mailing list a small bonus.
You could send a poster for a new event at your restaurant along with a discount coupon.
Additionally, make it a point to space your emails out, so you don’t oversaturate the people on your mailing list.
4. Host regular giveaways and competitions on your account to avoid disinterest
An excellent way to reward people that pay attention to your social media accounts is by arranging occasional giveaways or competitions.
As a bonus, these tools will also help to improve the user interaction with your account.
You need to be certain that these competitions encourage customers to attend and maybe even promote your restaurant.
To do this, host competitions that are relatively simple, like quizzes, to incentivize your customers to interact with your account.
You could also ask them to post their favorite highlights of your restaurant and pick a few winners from these posts.
As for the prizes, you can either offer discounts and other similar perks, or you could partner with another company that has useful products for your customers.
Take a look around and do a bit of research into businesses that are popular with the local people.
A better prize will draw in more people, so organize your strategy accordingly to account for this.
5. Consider using influencer marketing to promote your business
Restaurants offer experiences, and often to attract people, you need to give them a small taste of your restaurant.
What better way to do this than by using influencer marketing?
The popularity of social media apps has led to a ton of celebrities that have built a massive following which can be quite valuable for marketers.
Their followers trust these influencers because of their content.
Most of these individuals create platforms that are popular by using their personalities to draw people in.
As a result, the user base of these influencers views them as a trustworthy source.
When an influencer promotes or even drops a mention of a restaurant they like, it can prompt their followers to check this place out of curiosity.
If you’re able to strike up a deal with these influencers to promote your restaurant, then you’ll have access to a new base of potential customers.
Influencers love to promote services that they find useful; therefore, try to invite local influencers to experience your restaurant for themselves.
Prices and marketing strategies may differ depending on who you pick, so keep that in mind before deciding on a deal.
Conduct a bit of research into who the best person for the job will be and choose the one who offers the most value to your company.
6. Online review sites can majorly impact your reputation
Nowadays, when a person wants to have a brand-new dining experience or simply check out some of the local delicacies, they open their phone and look it up on the internet.
The first few results that pop up might be a few details about the restaurant itself, but there’s sure to be a result for an online review site on the front page.
People want to go to establishments that they can trust, and that’s why they start to search for reviews from people who have had experience at a particular place.
That’s why you want to make sure that the first glance that a potential customer gets of your restaurant is a positive one.
To do this, try to keep up to date with the reviews given on these online sites.
Remember that some negative reviews may not be as useful as others, but you must take every comment into account and reply accordingly.
These sites are also a great way to get a bit of useful feedback about your business’s flaws and its best assets.
7. Bloc is an online app that takes a unique approach to marketing
Digital marketing for restaurants can be pretty confusing, especially for beginners, because the experience can help a lot with creating effective strategies.
But what if we told you that you can get customers into your restaurant without any continuous work?
Bloc is an online app that can give you just that.
Bloc is a location-based app that provides its users with venues based on their location.
However, unlike most apps that do this, Bloc can draw customers into the restaurants that it partners with.
The way that it does this is by giving its users incentives in the form of stars for using venues that are a part of the app.
The customer can then use these stars to get money which motivates them to keep using the app.
You can create ads on Bloc that you can just let ‘ride’ and you’re only charged when someone physically attends your venue (tracked via geo-location).
It’s different from other platforms that charge for impressions and clicks, which you don’t care about. You only pay for the perfect result you want, someone in your restaurant, spending.
This will make sure that you have a steady stream of customers without having to put in the effort of formulating a new strategy.
8. Take advantage of Google marketing
When someone wants to go to a restaurant the first place they’re going to try and look for one is probably Google.
Infact over 80% of restaurant bookings come via Google.
This means as a restaurant, your venue needs to take advantage of Google marketing.
Google has multiple placements where your restaurant can feature.
The first is Google ads, these are usually at the top and get clicked on the most.
Setting up Google ads is super easy. Our biggest tip is to only set up ads on keyword phrases where you are a perfect result.
Don’t put ads on general terms like ‘London restaurant’ as they may not be looking for your cuisine.
Instead put ads on super relevant keyword phrases. If you’re a Chinese restaurant, only put ads on ‘Chinese restaurant’ related keywords. This will maximise the conversion rate and therefore the ROI of your ad spend.
The next placement is Google’s Local Pack. These are the top results on the map feature. These restaurants get clicked on the most, even more than ads most times.
The key to getting in the top 3 results is having a good domain authority, having good backlinks from other websites and having lots of positive Google reviews.
The third is the organic results. These come below Google ads and the map placement. To feature your restaurant in this space you need to focus on SEO.
Our tip is to focus on getting in blogs that are already ranking e.g. ‘The Top 10 Chinese Restaurants in London’.
Summing up
The future is now, and it’s clear that online marketing is only going to keep growing.
These strategies can be pretty complicated and challenging to implement if you’re not a media strategist, so remember that when you’re starting out.
You will require a bit of trial and error before you find an ideal strategy.
Every restaurant has its target audience that they tend to focus on, so you’ll have to work out which methods are the best for your audience.
A great tip to help you figure this out is to ask people that come to your restaurants how they heard about your business.
Then you can use that information to better your strategy.
Digital marketing for restaurants can massively improve the profits your restaurant makes. It is essential to utilize these tools to appeal to a wider audience.
Once you begin to use these online platforms, you’ll get a much better idea about how these apps work.
If you’re looking for more information about digital marketing or just restaurant marketing in general, then go check out our blog page, which is chock full of useful information to help you get an extra boost of inspiration.
Additionally, consider checking out Bloc for an effortless way to market your restaurant.
Once you use it, we can guarantee that you’ll be sold. You can sign up for a free trial to see if this app is the right one for you. Click the link to take your digital marketing game to the next level.
