Running a restaurant? Is your online marketing limited to a nice photo on Facebook every now and then? Sin! We understand that you have to focus on the satisfaction of your guests in the restaurant. And admittedly, you are of course busy enough with that. At the same time, you also know that there is plenty to get online to make your restaurant succeed. But how do you do that?
Even if you already have a lot of experience in the culinary world, it can be a bit difficult to provide the online visitors with the right information in addition to serving all guests. And that while the importance of digital marketing for restaurants is getting important. Compliments, and especially complaints, are spreading faster than ever. If you don’t have an online presence to manage these, it can be at the expense of your cherished reputation. We are therefore happy to share a number of indispensable tips for digital marketing for restaurants that ensure that you also look good online.
Digital Marketing For Restaurants: Here are the tips to follow!
1. Don’t miss on local findability
For a few branches, local findability in Google is as important as in restaurant marketing. You often distinguish yourself initially in the city or village where you are located. Therefore, make sure that you have used all the options of a local SEO strategy. Broadly speaking, this means that when someone searches for ‘restaurant near me’, for example, your local restaurant displays at the top of the search engine.
In addition to the standard SEO rules, such as clear meta descriptions, title tags, and optimized keywords, you should pay attention to the rich snippets that can be shown with your search result. For example, think of the well-known review stars and your address in Google. This way the visitor can see at a glance whether your restaurant is interesting.
2. ‘Use’ the guest
A satisfied guest normally leaves a smile and hopefully a tip after the delicious food and excellent service he has just received. However, you can get more from this. For example, ask to leave a review on the website or on one of the many local listing sites that yield the most for your restaurant. In addition, it is sometimes difficult to provide a nice photo or video content yourself on a busy evening, so ask the guest. Think of a giveaway where the best photo of the evening with the accompanying hashtag wins a free treat. Then copy the photos and let the guest tell you how good your restaurant is. In short, use the guest for your branding.
3. Your customers are on mobile, so you should
Every potential visitor has a smartphone with them. If there is no reservation, but a search is made for a ‘restaurant in your city’, for example, then it is important that your restaurant with specialties appears in the Google results on mobile. Your digital marketing for restaurants should focus on responsiveness.
It’s even better if your website adapts to every size of different smartphones. If the potential visitor nevertheless wishes to make a reservation online, this should be possible from a mobile phone without any problems. The website must therefore be as beautiful as it is functional – on any device.
4. Collaborate with influencers
Take advantage of influencers! There’s no denying that influencers greatly affect the thoughts of your followers and eventually your digital marketing for restaurants. But how will you do that? Do you think that it will cost you a lot? No! Just ask a local influencer of your region. You can offer to try a free dish and drink and then post about it on their channel where they have high followers. Just ensure that they are connected to your target audience to get the maximum exposure.
5. Be social smart and transparent
Your eatery stands for much more than just a table with a chair and a tasty meal. You have been around for three decades now and therefore provide your own piece of history and a whole experience. In order to convey that experience, a certain feeling has to be conveyed.
Only your presence on social media won’t work. The passion should be felt on your website and on your social media pages. This experience must be perfectly expressed online because potential guests are still in the orientation phase and choose not only for the meal, but also for the ambiance, the friendliness of the staff, and of course the view.
Fortunately, thanks to social media, you can easily show the atmosphere. Just think of an atmospheric photo on Instagram or a look at the restaurant with a video that you post on Facebook. And importantly, be consistent and frequent in that. In any case, post a message every weekend and also take several moments during the week to inform your customers.
6. Leverage the power of campaigns
And finally, be proactive. Therefore, bet on special occasions and use catchy campaigns for that. For example, is your restaurant years old? Or do you have a new menu list? Let the outside world know about your extraordinary digital marketing for restaurants.
Sometimes dare to invest in paid campaigns via Facebook or Google Ads to empower these kinds of opportunities. Already have an email database? Then send a newsletter and retarget them. Because being a good host also means that you let us know when there is a reason to party. Both in the dining room and on the internet.
Do you have a taste for it and do you want to improve the digital marketing for restaurants? Contact us quickly for a cup of coffee and a good conversation about your online plans.
