The restaurant biz can be challenging, especially with cyber kitchens ruling the industry. But it doesn’t always have to be that way, mainly because there are numerous less-explored growth hacks like digital marketing. In this comprehensive guide, you’ll see the top 7 digital marketing tips that can work wonders for restaurants.
And if you thought restaurants had only a minimal chance of increasing sales with digital marketing, sorry, but you’re terribly wrong. When did you last visit a new restaurant without checking its reviews online? Probably never.
Especially the digital natives – who can directly boost your sales with word of mouth and user-generated content – check reviews and see if your place is socially desirable.
When such opportunities knock on your door, you don’t want to miss them. While looking for recipes to succeed with online marketing, there are plenty. But the ones that cost the lowest yet reap the best results should be chosen and embraced.
To save you time, we’ve listed some of the best digital marketing tips you can readily implement if you desire to enhance footfall figures and, more importantly, sales and revenue. Have a look and get inspired.
1. Build a Website
Your website can be your business’s digital front door, giving customers a glimpse into the type of foods you offer and more reasons to visit soon. You don’t have to spend a fortune on it, nor does it have to be fancy.
Instead, a cleanly designed website that can creatively display pictures of your dishes and interior will do the trick. There are plenty of online website builders, for that matter.
The key is to make it appealing and, more importantly, mobile-friendly, as most prospective customers will be using smartphones to browse your website following this guide using digital marketing restaurants.
You can include information about hours of operation, menus, location, contact details, social media links, and, if possible, coupons for visitors who wish to subscribe to your email lists.
And yes, emails are pretty important and beneficial for boosting your online presence. We’ll get to that part shortly. We’re intentionally skipping the social media marketing part, as it’s even used by restaurants that have yet to build a website.
2. Leverage Local SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO), aka the organic methods to improve online visibility and traffic to your website, is of utmost importance of digital marketing for restaurants.
For example, if you serve Thai dishes and a hangry customer searches “best Thai food near me,” your website or any online listing must come up above your competitors—hence SEO.
Here are some of the fastest ways you can boost your SEO with this guide for restaurants digital marketing.
- Create a blog and consistently publish relevant and engaging articles.
- Make your blog posts easily scannable.
- Perform on-page SEO.
- Include relevant keywords in your website copy.
- Make your website crawlable for search engine bots.
- Repurpose your content into multiple formats and link back to your site.
3. Try Email Marketing
The power of email marketing is often overlooked. Many regard it as a primitive form of online communication, but every US$1 you spend on it will deliver an average of US$42 in return on investment.
You can use email marketing to inform users about weekend specials, deals, discounts, events, etc. You can use an invitation maker to entice customers to your restaurant with words and images.
4. Embrace GMB to the Core: Restaurants Digital Marketing Tips
It’s no secret that Google is the world’s biggest search engine (SE). Google My Business (GMB) will obviously be the search engine with top priority. And the best part? You don’t have to pay a penny to get listed on GMB.
Moreover, you can even use it as a mini-CRM (customer relationship management) software, which has tremendous potential to enhance your online visibility. You can also try listing your restaurant on online directories and restaurant review websites like Yelp.
5. Give Video Marketing a Try
Video is the king now. Instead of struggling to read long-form content, consumers prefer watching a video. The cognitive load is lower, and the message is shorter. You can use YouTube for video marketing and embed the videos you publish on your website.
Think quality over quantity – like how people want your food to be. Try posting quick tips on making, or you can post making videos of your weekend specials. Are you stuck thinking about how to create a video? That’s the most accessible and exciting part – thanks to online video editors like InVideo.
6. Invite Influencers: Restaurants Digital Marketing Tips
Interestingly, word of mouth and user-generated content (UGC) are still effective—even beyond the reach of paid advertising. Nearly 74% of consumers state word of mouth as a critical influencer on their purchase decisions.
You can invite influencers with significant fan followings on Instagram and YouTube and request that they leave a heartwarming review on their social media accounts. As influencers help you directly reach the customers, more customers will drop by quickly.
7. Experiment With Paid Ads
If you want an expeditious boost to your online visibility, paid ads can be your go-to. You can try Google Ads, YouTube Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads. Online advertisements can also increase your website traffic, given that you use witty ad copy and mesmerizing graphics or video.
You can always hire a professional graphics designer to create ads. But that can be costly, depending on how much you want to invest in digital advertising. Fortunately, you can use an online ad maker to create eye-catching creatives at a fraction of how much you’ll otherwise spend on a professional.
Digital Marketing Tips Restaurants Bottom Line
By this point, we hope you have zero excuses not to try out digital marketing for your restaurant. Implementing the tactics discussed in this article will help you strengthen your business’s online presence.
If you become digitally presentable and available, more foodies will pour in and logically bring their friends along. But there’s a catch. You must be consistent with digital marketing, just like any other strategy, to see results.
So, what are you waiting for? Start today and allow a broader range of consumers to relish on your specialties.
