Starting up a new restaurant is an exciting endeavor. Not only can you be creative with your interior design and branding, you’ll be keen to offer great quality food to your new customers. During this inspiring period, keep in mind that there’s more to it than the creativity. The legalities can take time to work through, and then there’s marketing. It’s so easy to focus on getting ready for the grand opening, that you may not even be thinking about marketing for the long term — that’s where many businesses fail.
According to CNBC, around 60% of restaurants don’t make it past their first year, and 80% don’t survive their fifth year. Quality and targeted marketing with a clear strategy is one of the reasons you’ll beat those statistics.
This article provides a checklist to explore what your restaurant marketing strategy should include, and how a skilled restaurant marketing agency can assist your growth plans. Here are some examples to boost your marketing efforts.
Restaurant Loyalty Programs
We all like a freebie or a discount as a reward for loyalty, even if it’s a typical free coffee every now and again. Most businesses know that it’s easier to keep the customers you have rather than having to constantly be attracting new ones. When you consider that it can cost 5 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one, your retention of the client base you build up should be a priority.
Loyalty builds an emotional connection, so ensure you come up with offers to reward return visits. For example, print out a discount code on a receipt, offer birthday discounts and member dining experiences through your website subscription service, or send out codes for free starters/desserts during a quiet period through SMS services.
Pay-per-Click Advertising/Adwords
One of the most effective marketing techniques is pay-per-click advertising. And the most beneficial aspect of this type of marketing is the fact that you don’t need to pay a set fee. Instead, you pay for each occasion someone clicks on your advert.
To narrow it down even further, you choose specific keywords and then bid for placement of your ads for those particular keywords. That way, your advertising is highly targeted, limited to only those individuals who are actively and deliberately using those precise search terms. An agency can best assist in testing different strategies, helping you to reach more targeted viewers, improve your conversion ratio, lower your per-click cost, and increase your ROI.
Social Media Marketing
This is a must as your potential customers will spend time on social media. According to Modern Restaurant Management, statistics can confirm that:
- 63 percent of restaurants use social media for restaurant advertising;
- 37 percent of social network users use social media to research brands; products, or services before making a purchase;
- 49 percent of consumers learn about food through social networks.
Posting at the optimal time is a good idea. If you serve breakfasts, post early in the morning. Post lunch photos around lunch opening times, and evening meals over the course of an evening. If customers post their own photos, you can also re-share these. This form of social proofing builds brand awareness and reputation. You can also use cross-promotion if one of your social media channels gets more engagement and interaction than another, by creating a post to drive engagement across multiple channels — not forgetting to include your hashtag.
Your Website
A professional website is a must in order for you to showcase your menu, share events, book tables, and more. Your blog can share tips, recipes and videos with your website visitors. It’s also a way customers can share their experiences and reviews. Creating a website for your restaurant has never been easier. By using a restaurant website creator, you can create a professional-looking website in a matter of minutes. Simply choose a template, customize it with your own text and images, and you’re ready to go! With a website maker, you can showcase your menu, hours of operation, and location, making it easy for customers to find and visit your restaurant.
Local Marketing – Google My Business
One of the most popular searches is for restaurants. The need to eat is something everyone has in common, so ensure that customers can easily find your restaurant online. A free marketing option is via Google My Business (GMB). This helps your restaurant to rank higher, providing potential customers easy access to your restaurant name, what type of food you serve, and essential information like your address, phone number, website, and opening hours.
Optimizing your GMB profile can really help improve your online search visibility, especially for the map pack rankings that dominate local searches. With proper management, you can curate your reviews and interact with your potential customers to further enhance your reputation and the chances of attracting new visitors.
A restaurant marketing agency that offers optimization services will help you to focus on the best search terms and achieve the rankings for those terms that will drive customers to your business. Additionally, don’t underestimate the fact that social media management can take up valuable time and consider outsourcing that too.
A well-thought-through marketing plan is designed to move your target audience to take action, as well as to retain customers wherever possible. Whatever strategy you choose depends upon your target market and the right fit of activity for that market.
