10 Best Marketing Ideas for Restaurant Businesses

We have discussed a lot of smart solutions for restaurant businesses lately, haven’t we? Very well. Let us talk about the marketing hacks that can enhance and accelerate the growth of the restaurant businesses.

Of course we all believe that before indulging in marketing efforts with full force, one must define who the target audience is. Considering that has been sorted, it will be easier for you to do online or digital marketing via effective and focused content, adverts, social posts, or even emails.

Need of Digital Marketing for Restaurants

• Build a lasting digital identity
• Boost customer loyalty
• Stay in the competition instead of oblivion
• Broadcast content, updates
• Offer promotions/offers
• Close engagement with customers
• Priority given by new customers to ratings and reviews

10 Best Marketing Ideas for Restaurant Businesses

Engaging and Appealing Website Development

A well planned website development for your restaurant business guarantees you enhanced visibility. It opens up a gamut of marketing opportunities no sooner it is launched. Website design plays a crucial role for restaurant businesses. You need to ensure that you are using colors that pop up, story telling designs, and images that are crisp and clear making it a mouth watering journey for the visitors. This is why you must not compromise with the design thing and get the right UI/UX website design team to make this happen.

Get the local SEO done by the right digital marketing company in your city or town. Higher SEO rankings means more traffic, more footfalls, more business. It is that simple!

Mobile App for Online Food Ordering and Delivery

In case you have no plans of online food ordering and delivering modules as of now, you can always come up with a reservation booking option. Opt for a mobile app development in Android, iOS, or an affordable cross-platform app in case of bringing online food ordering system to life. This can be done via website too. But the reason for maximum usage and tendency to browse and order things via smartphones holds the key. Having a mobile application that is responsive and user-friendly with excellent reviews, will garner you exposure on the mobile market.

Set up Google My Business Account

When individuals search up your business using Google, it will pop up in the search results. This encourages users to visit your website, learn about your locations, write or read reviews, and it gives them quick and easy access to    your contact information. It is a free registration which can give you instant visibility in the world’s largest and the most used search engine.

Plan Strategic Social Media Sharing

Considering that you have a large content of media files of your delicious dishes, these images could be used to promote your authenticity, presentation, and uniqueness through your content on social media posts. You can also learn and use hashtags to drive the content to specific people and categories for more outreach. For example, “Food porn” is very much alive and well and is one of the best ways to promote your restaurant or small town bakery.

Create a social media calendar and never ever miss an opportunity to get close and place your products in your customers’ minds. This is what marketing means, isn’t it?

User Generated Content Sharing

You must believe the fact which states that 92% people believe in the recommendations given by the other people, which could be customers or agencies, which can be considered as peers. Why would someone who is unknown to your business believe your marketing content? Hence, by using the content posted by your followers can save you time and get more value to your branding. Encourage your customers to share the pics of them and the dishes they love on social media with your tags. And believe me, a lot of millennials and even older people love posting pics on our social media upon our restaurant visits.

Blog Posting

It is a proven, consistent, and effective way to market your business. A creative blog creation is the first step in engaging your community in an effective manner if you have a niche target audience. A blog presents the voice and personality of your restaurant business. Moreover, it highlights the uniqueness and authenticity of you and your restaurant. Engage with your customers by sharing your struggles and success stories down the road. It will boost customer loyalty and patronage. You can share the blogs on your website, mobile app, social media platforms, blogging platforms, etc.

Get paid traffic driven to your blog by using advertising campaigns through social media platforms like Facebook. This can help you build buzz around the content you create and drive more traffic to your website.

Real-time Social Media Sharing

Whether a live football is going or a beautiful birthday bash is being celebrated, use Instagram stories and Snapchat to create ephemeral content, a type of content that disappears after a short period of time and is filmed  or created in real-time. Your customer base loves behind the scenes content. Apparently it builds authenticity while delivering good vibes instantly for their next visit. Go live and even do video streaming on Facebook and Instagram to know what your followers are thinking about your venture.

Proximity Marketing

Having a mobile app can make this happen using BLE technology where by using iBeacon devices, you can create content in the form of offers, discounts, promotions, dish of the day, etc. The content will be pushed to the smartphones of the people in the vicinity of the restaurant. Location-based marketing will trigger a response such as a push notification to pop up. You can also do upselling of your products by giving recommendations to the customers and nearby visitors.

Chatbots for Enhanced Customer Experience

A custom developed chatbot for your restaurant website or a mobile app empowers you to provide instant and precise information on-the-go. Not only it answers the customer queries but also generates leads and fosters a way of communication 24/7. A well programmed chatbots can help users to automate the reservation, food ordering, and customer management processes.

Run Social Media Contests

Your social media activities must be engaging. If your purpose is to market your products only, then you are doomed. People will start ignoring your posts and may get away from you before you come close. It is like the harder you try and hold the sea sand in your hand, the more you will lose it. Social media contests are a great way to engage. In fact, it is one of the easiest ways to boost your presence. Examples are liking or sharing your page, a trivia, guessing the dish, commenting on a photograph, or creating a caption on an image.

A Few Tips Off the Platter

Digital marketing of a restaurant business is creative indeed. But the most of your creativity lies in staying flexible. You just can’t afford to be static. You must not get stuck with one directional idea. Also, it is imperative to identify the opportunities to perform marketing on digital channels and be ever ready for it. There are a range of social media tools, influencers, food bloggers which you may seek as well.

If you have more ideas on what could be done for creative restaurants marketing online, we would love to do so.