Restaurant Marketing Begins With Your Growth Objectives
- Do you have as many patrons as you can handle and simply need to keep the flow going or are you looking to grow your business and perhaps open additional locations (for tips on franchise marketing click here)?
- How much engagement are you getting on your social media?
- Who are your ideal patrons? Who would you like to see more of? How much is a new patron worth to you? These are important to assess your marketing budget.
- What is the focus of your restaurant? Are you more upscale or fast casual? Is your menu healthy or indulgent?
Restaurant Marketing Fundamentals
- Adwords: Most restaurants are highly competitive. If you Google how you would like to be found and see your competitor’s ads then you’ll need to be there too.
- Online Reviews: People really do care what others think, even when it comes to choosing a restaurant. The same way that people like to go to a restaurant that looks busy, they will select one that is busy online also. The more 5-star reviews you have on Facebook and Google, the more confident a patron will be to dine with you. Even if they find out about you elsewhere you can be certain they are checking you out online.
- Social Media Visibility: Are you active daily on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Instagram & Twitter? Does your restaurant have positive reviews?
- Social Media Engagement: Visibility is the first step but for a restaurant, social media engagement is key. Join community online groups, comment on posts, share and make connections. Out in the community? Share pictures! Can you profile patrons? Share testimonials?
- A Website That Converts: Your website needs to load in 2 seconds or less, look great on mobile and make it very obvious why you’re different from other restaurants. More and more restaurants are including the ability to order online.
- Local SEO: Your restaurant needs to be on the map. This is probably one of the most important aspects of your marketing plan and is accomplished by creating keyword rich listings in hundreds of online directories. It is one of the most cost effective and fastest ways to be found and should definitely be part of your strategy.
Next Level Restaurant Marketing
- A Newsletter & Blog: Find a way to regularly connect with your patrons by sharing a weekly or monthly newsletter with your upcoming events, specials, pictures of your dishes and people enjoying them. Remaining top of mind will help bring patrons in the door.
- Are you networking? Do you take full advantage of the handfuls of business cards you collect or do they sit on your desk? A CRM system is a perfect tool to automate nurturing those leads for events and parties at your restaurant. Send customized emails that look like you fired them off from your account personally.
- On Page SEO: This involves optimizing the load speed of your restaurant’s website (like an untuned car it will slow down over time), making changes to the code to be more search engine friendly and optimizing your content for target legal keywords. A proper restaurant SEO strategy will help your Adwords campaign to perform better and cost you less per click.
- Videos and Photos: This is so important to your restaurant business. Your website simply must show professional photos of your menu. Shoot 1-2 minute videos for your website and social media of your check preparing a dish, your mixologist creating an amazing cocktail, or patrons enjoying your food. Visitors to your website or social media should get a feel for what it would be like to dine with you.
Diane is very knowledgeable!! Very professional.
Would recommend to a friend
Lola Hernandez
Franchise Business Development, Vicky Bakery