Digital Marketing for Restaurant and Food Services
Even though the internet has been around for decades, it’s only recently that digital marketing has become an essential tool for businesses. And even though you may think your restaurant’s web presence is great, it could be better. Just like any other business, restaurants should be using social media to market their restaurants. But if you don’t have a strategy, your efforts will be wasted on Twitter and Facebook posts that get no engagement.
1. Search Engine Marketing (SEO)
If you want to get ahead of the competition and generate the most new customers, you need to have the best online presence. The best way to do that is by ranking high in search results. With so many ways to search for restaurants online, you need to have your keywords embedded throughout your website as much as possible.
You can also work on getting more local SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Local SEO means that when someone searches for “taco bowls” in Dubai, they might also include local terms like “taco bowls Business Bay” or “taco bowl near Dubai Mall.” If you run a taco bowl restaurant in Dubai and are trying to figure out how to use keywords, try one of the many free tools out there before you make a big investment in SEO promotion.
One really good way you can rank high is through a blog. Blogging about your recipes and other offerings at your restaurant can help direct traffic to your site by using your keywords in texts about new offerings and services at your restaurant. People love looking at photos of your food and reading recipes as much as they love tasting them. For an example of how you can blog about a recipe, see here.
When you’re doing pay-per-click advertising, make sure that you aren’t paying for clicks on search terms that don’t apply to your business. You can use negative keywords to keep this from happening. If people are searching “taco bowl Sharjah”, you don’t want to end up paying for clicks from Tacoma.
2. Be Smart With Your Social Media
Social media is a powerful way to get the word out about your restaurant, but if you don’t actively seek to stand out, you may be lost in the mix. Restaurants need to be on social media, but simply putting up the same type of posts as everyone else will not make you stand out. With so much competition, each restaurant needs to find a way to make sure that its social media profile is memorable and special.
Most restaurants post their best images of their best dishes, and though this is a good start, it’s not enough. You need to find a way to rise above the crowd. A big restaurant group needs to have someone dedicated to how your social media profile is marketed. Social media gives brands the opportunity to express their personality or communicate who they are to the world; take this opportunity to introduce your wait staff and your hosts. Use videos showing the back of house making beautiful stuff during your dinner rush. During slower mornings, give customers a treat by showing them photos of a dish from start to finish, from raw ingredients to a beautifully plated masterpiece.
It’s your business, and you are the expert. It’s nice to be able to do what you want in your own restaurant, but it’s also important to listen to feedback from your customers.
Ask for feedback – Link back to the post above about asking for feedback on popular sides and desserts. Reply to comments and engage your audience.
Offer specials – Offer a special a week later on that dish; link back to the blog post mentioned above about doing this before.
Build brand authority – Building brand authority builds loyalty and lifelong customers.
3. Video Is King
Video is a powerful way to tell your brand story and attract new customers. But it’s not easy to capture good video, and it’s even harder to edit it down to a couple of minutes. If you’re not careful, the production value of your videos can be low, and that can make potential customers turn away.
If you’re looking for high-quality videos that capture the attention of your target audience, it’s a good idea to hire a professional video team. A team will have the technical skills and creativity necessary to create polished content that will make your business stand out from the competition.
When you are looking for your video team, come up with more than one way to reach your customers. Ask for 10-second, 30-second and 2-minute edits for different social media sites. Longer videos are appropriate for YouTube, while Instagram or Snapchat users want to see short clips.
Tell the story of your business in one video. If you source ingredients from a local company or farm, tell a short story about your relationship with them.
Personal narratives resonate with customers. They are more likely to remember the content of your story, and will be more likely to recall your brand.
4. Cross-promote with Influencers
The most powerful way to market a restaurant is through word-of-mouth. And as an owner or manager, you can’t simply sit around and wait for people to start talking about your place. You actually have to do some marketing yourself.
There are countless ways to promote your restaurant digitally, but the most common way is through cross-promotion—you promote other local businesses, they promote you back. For example, if you serve hamburgers and hot dogs at your burger joint, you can ask the hot dog stand in the mall food court to post a picture of their signature hot dog on social media with a link to your burger joint’s website. Or if you use a hot sauce that’s made or distributed by a local vendor, you can promote each other with blogs and social media posts.
Whatever digital marketing strategies you choose—and whatever the strategy of the businesses you choose to work with—there are two factors that will make it successful: relevance and consistency. If you’re not relevant to their audience or consistent about promoting them, then they won’t be interested in working with you. So whatever digital strategies you choose, make sure they’re tailored toward your audience so that they can connect with your brand.
Get social media influencers to talk about your restaurant. You can hire paid bloggers and reporters with large followings to write about you, or invite guest bloggers to write on your blog. Share recipes, favorite dishes from around the world, or just your favorite things about your city. Be creative and make connections. You never know where they could lead.
5. Email and Text Promotions Still Work
Take action on the contact information you have been gathering from comment cards or promotional cards. That is a great way to start building your restaurant’s digital marketing strategy.
You can send out an email to all of these people announcing that the restaurant is having a special 2-for-1 deal on a certain day of the week or month.
If they are interested in receiving this information in the future, they can sign up with your restaurant. Create a spreadsheet of these names, email addresses, and phone numbers.
Then target them through email and text promotions when there is something special going on at your restaurant like an upcoming holiday or slow night when you can offer something of value for free such as a bottle of wine or dessert.
Restaurant Digital Marketing Is a Full-Time Gig
Restaurant owners are hard-pressed to handle all the moving parts of their business while also becoming experts in SEO and digital marketing. If you’re new to these areas, it might seem like too much to handle.