As of 2022, the Dining Trends Report states that 80% of diners almost always check out a restaurant’s website before choosing a new one.
With the rising prices of dining and increasing competition, it is crucial to have a strong online presence for your business to thrive. As per the same statistics, 41% of customers examine the social media of new establishments before deciding to dine there.
Looking to enhance your restaurant’s business through online advertising? Wondering how to reach potential customers online and captivate them instantly? Well, we’ve got great news for you! We have a plethora of valuable tips and tricks to offer. In this article, our team of Poster experts will delve into the fundamentals of digital marketing specifically tailored for restaurants in 2023.
If you do not promote your restaurant correctly, even if it has the best location, menu, staff, ambiance, and offers, you will struggle to attract the necessary customers, especially at the beginning. All restaurants, whether new or established, must promote their business through online campaigns.
Promoting a new restaurant online is crucial, particularly because they bear the significant responsibility of establishing a customer base in the market. To reach the potential customers browsing the internet, it has become essential for all new restaurants to engage in self-promotion and online customer interaction. Presented here are a few tips for effectively promoting a new restaurant online.
Effective Digital Marketing Strategies for Your Restaurant
1. Create a Professional Website
The most important restaurant marketing tip to consider is creating a visually appealing and user-friendly website. Nowadays, customers are more inclined to assess your business by exploring your website rather than visiting your physical storefront as their initial step before giving your establishment a chance.
To ensure your website is informative, intuitive, up-to-date, and mobile-friendly, follow these step-by-step instructions: First, focus on making the layout visually appealing. Second, ensure that the navigation is easy to use. Finally, perfect the responsiveness of your website to different devices, whether they are mobile or desktop.
To ensure that your menu, opening hours, contacts, and location are easily locatable, make sure they are readily available to visitors. Additionally, boost awareness for your business by featuring information about any special offers or promotions on your website.
In order to effectively convey your vibe online, it is crucial to include high-quality images of your establishment, delicious dishes, and cheerful staff serving customers who are enjoying themselves on a busy night. Your website provides an excellent platform for visualizing this experience.
If you have an existing website that works well, you can enhance it by integrating an online ordering system. By doing this, you can conveniently receive orders directly through your website. It is important to ensure that the process of ordering from your website is smooth and trouble-free.
To enhance visibility in online searches, optimize the website for search engines (SEO) by regularly posting valuable, interesting, and high-quality content that caters to the target audience while also being SEO-friendly.
One should first use the Google webmaster tool to identify any errors that their website might have and then fix them. After that, it is important to incorporate relevant keywords into the website content. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that visitors can easily share content from the website to their social media platforms.
2. Utilize Social Media
In order to grow and engage your customer base, it is essential to have a strong presence and visibility on social media. Given that individuals are increasingly focused on digital platforms, it is crucial to establish a compelling social media identity to capture their attention.
At this stage, a restaurant business can have a social media presence for various reasons, enabling them to:
- drastically increase business visibility;
- reach out to a wide target audience;
- convey the business mission, values, and benefits;
- show legitimacy and professionalism;
- communicate with the audience directly;
- show your foods and restaurant in the most appealing way.
Typically, restaurants opt for popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok when deciding where to establish their online presence. Additionally, some restaurants may choose to invest in generating longer content by sharing cooking videos on YouTube.
To begin, easily establish your business profiles with a legitimate and professional appearance. Include essential details such as your basic information, location, operating hours, contact information, and a link to your website. If your website allows direct ordering, be sure to add a corresponding link to your social media accounts. Share visually appealing images of your food offerings, menu, and the atmosphere of your location.
When using Instagram, it is essential to prioritize the aesthetics of your profile. It is highly recommended to have a professional photographer available to artistically and consistently depict the story of your brand.
In order to enhance your restaurant’s visibility, it is advisable to engage your audience by encouraging them to follow you on the app, comment and repost posts where you are tagged, as well as create polls and contests for your followers. Collaborating with local influencers can also help amplify your restaurant’s presence.
When using Facebook, there is no need to post as frequently as you do on Instagram, and the visual appeal does not have to be as refined. For this platform, you simply have to create a “Local Business or Place” account, complete all the necessary details, and include your online ordering links. Regularly posting about promotions, special deals, or any updates you want to inform your clients of should suffice.
When it comes to marketing, TikTok offers a unique approach. It allows you to express your brand’s personality through short videos. You can consider posting various content on TikTok, such as showcasing new menu items, capturing the ambiance during a busy night or themed party, highlighting the exceptional skills of your cooks, and participating in platform challenges. Additionally, you can also repost your TikToks on Instagram reels for wider exposure.
You have the option to create a Telegram channel where you can share company news, updates, and more with subscribers. Additionally, you can collaborate with other channel owners to advertise your business.
Collaborator is a platform with a catalog of over a thousand trusted Telegram channels that have engaged audiences. Through this platform, it is possible to order a post on any relevant platform in just one click.
There is typically no specific guide on how to conduct restaurant marketing on social media, and the necessary actions will vary as you gain a better understanding of your audience and keep up with the evolving platform trends.
3. Leverage Online Advertising
Online marketing is accessible and free for everyone, but for optimal results, occasional investment in paid ads is necessary. Online advertising has the potential to greatly benefit your business.
When advertising your business online, you can benefit in the following ways:
- Build brand awareness
- Stand out in the competition
- Persuade customers to try your food on-sight or get it delivered
- Boost sales and profit
Once you initiate a pilot ad campaign for your restaurant, the journey has just commenced. As you familiarize yourself with promoting a restaurant on social media, feel free to explore and experiment with various aspects such as ad settings, targeting, and budget. However, it is crucial to consistently monitor your ad analytics to ensure that you are effectively achieving your campaign objectives.
4. Employ Multiple Restaurant Promotional Channels
To effectively advertise a new restaurant, avoid limiting yourself to a specific type of marketing. Instead, explore and test various marketing approaches. By doing so, you can determine the effectiveness of each method and allocate your budget accordingly.
To effectively promote a new restaurant, it is recommended to divide your budget in a way that 80 percent is allocated to digital marketing and the remaining 20 percent is allocated to traditional advertising options such as newspaper, directory, radio, television, and billboard ads. Additionally, it is beneficial to include references to your website in all advertising materials to leverage cross-promotional advantages.
5. Integrate With Online Delivery Platforms
Online Ordering has gained popularity among customers as a preferred method to order food for delivery or pickup from restaurants. This method not only offers convenience to customers but also allows restaurants to boost their sales and enhance customer support and engagement.
To ensure that you have successfully enrolled your restaurant on multiple online delivery platforms is crucial in order to enhance your online presence. These platforms typically require a registration fee that equates to approximately 10-15% of online orders. Collaborating with these platforms enables you to become easily discoverable by potential customers and enhances your overall visibility.
In addition to the registration process, restaurant promotions can also be conducted on these online ordering and delivery platforms. This will ensure that your restaurant stands out among the numerous other restaurants already listed on these channels.
6. Cinemagraphs Are Catchy
Capturing the attention of potential customers on social media is quite challenging, as these platforms are usually used for leisure rather than gaining valuable knowledge. Therefore, being extremely creative is essential if you want to engage someone’s interest. This is where cinemagraphs become significant.
Cinemagraphs, a type of sophisticated GIF, appear to be high definition photos at first glance. However, upon closer inspection, one will notice that a specific element within the photo moves seamlessly. Therefore, cinemagraphs are a captivating and creative method to catch the attention of potential customers.
7. Ask For Feedbacks And Work On Them
In order to effectively engage and communicate with your customers, it is important to request their feedback and reviews and make improvements based on them. Utilizing digital tools, smartphone communication, and social media platforms enables direct communication with both current customers and potential ones.
It is always important to motivate customers to write reviews, share their experiences online, and post photos. You can even consider uploading videos that capture your chefs preparing food and the final plating.
Engaging viewers and attracting interest from social media users is accomplished through this type of communication. To engage online audiences, host special events, contests, or scavenger hunts. Another option is to utilize your restaurant POS system to solicit the appropriate feedback.
8. Incentivize Well
In order to attract customers, it is important to offer incentives that will not cause financial loss. Therefore, it is necessary to distribute incentives carefully. For instance, giving complimentary items such as a slice of pastries or an appetizer is acceptable, but offering a 50% discount on meals is a risky move.
Customers are unwilling to pay the complete cost of dishes that they previously purchased at half price. The promotional incentive of purchasing one item and receiving another item for free is the most effective and never fails to capture the attention of customers.
