Ella_Johnson
Have a restaurant that serves awesome food? Great! But guess what? That alone won’t bring more people to your doorstep. Your brand won’t get viral overnight without a well-defined approach.
Worried? Don’t be.
Social Media is the voice of your brand. It is an engagement machine where you can build great content – to increase. Well, most restaurants have a social media brand. But are they creating enough visual content to attract customer eyeballs? Here are a few things that may need your attention.
A major chunk of your business comes via your existing customers. Your restaurant marketing strategy should engage customers so that they keep coming back to your restaurant.
A restaurant loyalty program rewards your customers if they make repeat visits to your restaurant. An omnichannel strategy will make it more attractive to the customers.
So what are some ways to take your loyalty program strategy to the next level? Here are 2 ideas that you can try:
Offer referral incentives – Provide benefits to customers who refer your brand to their friends. Make them your affiliates. Incentivise them so that they can tell everyone about the great experience at your restaurant.
Provide extra points for social sharing – Social sharing is great as it amplifies your brand’s presence on the web. When customers provide you a review, encourage them to share it on their timelines so that their connections see it too. You can promote sharing by providing freebies like ‘Get 40 points for sharing your review on platforms’ Positive reviews act as a great indicator for people to check out a restaurant.
For more ideas on how to promote your loyalty program check this article.
#Tip: Before promoting your loyalty program, answer this question – Why should a person sign up for the program? You’re on the right track if an answer strikes right away.
We like to call these two as the vital pillars of your customer relationship management strategy.
Once you have access to customer information – SMS and email campaigns on your marketing automation tool are a great way to engage your audience.
Here are a few ideas to get it right:
To be found online, your business should be listed on Google and other popular sites. The traffic on these sites goes as high as millions a day. Ask any digital marketing professional, a listing is perhaps the first step to be discovered online.
Many sites allow you to get reviews, ratings, testimonials, pictures on their platforms. These add to the positive signals that your restaurant needs. Here are some high authority websites to get listed on:
Once you’ve built a list it is quite a task to keep your customers engaged with new content. If you roll out too many campaigns with aggressive CTAs, they might not resonate well with your audience. Diverse content helps here and a newsletter is an excellent collateral. Designing a good newsletter is tricky and if done wrong, can backfire.
Here are a few tips to help you create a good newsletter:
A good website is a central point for all your restaurant marketing, branding, outreach, and promotional efforts. The limited space given by Swiggy and Zomato to show off your restaurant is one major drawback. Having a website helps to overcome this by giving you ample opportunity to push your messages the way you want.
As you build your website, be aware of the following guidelines:
Like a website, an online food ordering app is also an important part of your revenue strategy. With mobiles becoming popular among the millennials, ordering through apps is expected to grow in the coming years.
An online ordering app helps in:
Customers love freebies. A gift, a takeaway, a souvenir – a small token or gesture of appreciation can go a long way. Restaurants can offer freebies in a variety of ways. Here are a few ideas.
Most users like to ‘stalk’ your restaurant online before actually visiting. That’s the way customers roll nowadays. Make sure your online accounts are updated with all the things that matter. Your online menu should be updated as often as you possibly can. Having a mismatch in what you actually serve at the restaurant and what your menu says online is a negative signal. The menu should be:
Talking to customers is of eminent importance when it comes to restaurant marketing. People who visit your restaurant provide feedback that is a great indicator of your performance. It is also an excellent opportunity for you to connect with the customers and take in their views.
You can collect feedback through digital feedback forms, push notifications on apps, and physically at the restaurant through your staff.
If you still have second thoughts, here are 7 reasons why you should be collecting feedback if you aren’t already.
Source: 16 Restaurant Marketing Ideas
