If you are marketing a restaurant, it is important to face reality and move forward. Then you will be able to get the most out of time and effort that you are spending on restaurant marketing. Here are 9 such truths that we got to know about restaurant marketing. We thought of sharing them along with you so that you can get the most out of your restaurant marketing efforts.
- All the departments should contribute towards restaurant marketing efforts
Your restaurant has got many different departments. All those departments should be able to go ahead and contribute to restaurant marketing efforts. This will help you to brand your restaurant among audiences in a strong manner. In addition to that, you will be able to deliver meaningful messages to the audience through your marketing campaigns and get a better advantage over your competitors.
During the marketing campaign, you should think about capitalizing on the opportunities that you have while solving problems. For example, assume that your restaurant stores go ahead and stock excess inventory on a specific seafood. You will need to run a marketing campaign in order to get rid of this excessive inventory, so that you can make sure that you don’t have to make them end up with waste at the end of the day. This is a perfect example available to showcase how different departments in your restaurant can work together and make sure that restaurant is provided with positive results at the end of the day.
Likewise, when your admin team is appreciating the efforts of employees who work for the success of the restaurant, you can promote the hard workers through our marketing campaigns. This will make your restaurant business closer to the hearts and minds of your customers. This can also help you to secure better results from the restaurant marketing campaign at the end of the day.
- Make your marketing campaigns unique
You are not the only restaurant that promotes the business to your target audience. You will have to deal with lots of competition at the time of marketing the restaurant. That’s why it is important for you to be unique with what you do.
You need to take your time and plan how to be unique with the experiences and items that you promote, so that you will be able to reflect the restaurant and brand. This can help you to grab attention from potential customers and drive more visits.
In order to make sure that you run unique marketing campaigns, you need to take a look at your competitors. Then you can see whether you are different from them. You should also be standing apart from the competitors. This will also help you to determine whether you really need to change your marketing strategy, so that you are not doing the same thing as of your competitors.
In the meantime, you can take a look at your restaurant décor, menu and the guest experiences that you deliver. Every single touchpoint will contribute towards your marketing efforts in the long run. Hence, you should try your best to be unique in all those aspects. If there is a signature cocktail or a signature dish, you need to promote that through your marketing campaigns in a compelling manner. Such things will assist you to get more customers to come to your restaurant.
- Go ahead with a mobile-first approach
Most of the people search for restaurants to dine in or order food through mobile devices. In fact, they go ahead and look for places to eat near them. According to statistical studies, it has been identified that the total number of people who use mobile devices to search for restaurants are doubling every single year. Therefore, it is important for your restaurant to move forward with a mobile-first approach.
You should also make sure that the mobile-first experiences that you deliver through your marketing campaigns are frictionless and fluid as much as possible. Potential guests should be able to figure out the nearest directions, location and phone number within a short period of time. In addition to that, they should also have the ability to make a reservation for seating ahead of time.
In order to take your mobile-first marketing campaigns to the next level, you are strongly encouraged to think about analyzing your Google Analytics. Then you will be able to understand whether your website is getting a decent volume of mobile traffic. In case if there are problems with mobile optimization, you need to understand how to improve the issues and make sure that you convert most of your mobile traffic into sales.
- Pay more attention to social media networks
During the restaurant marketing campaigns, you need to pay extra attention to social media networks as well. One out of every five customers who come into your restaurant will go ahead and share a picture of food on social media at least once in every month. Due to the same reason, you can expect pictures of the dishes that you serve in your restaurant to end up in social media networks as well. It can be any social media network, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or even Yelp.
You can also think about sharing more photos of dishes that you serve through social media networks. For example, you can showcase how your food is prepared, how they are plated and how they are served. On the other hand, you can promote the restaurant along with dishes as well. This will help you to create a temptation among people who browse social media networks to come forward and dine in at your restaurant.
The photos of dishes that you promote on social media networks should be sharable as well. Then more people will go ahead and share them with their friends, family members and colleagues on the social media networks. This will help you to get more people to see what you are offering on social media. In other words, it can further contribute towards boosting the popularity of your restaurant in social media networks.
- Take a look at every touchpoint
When it comes to restaurant marketing, you need to make sure that you are taking a look at every single touchpoint, which you can use in order to promote your restaurant to the customers. You should think about helping your customers to go ahead with their journey along with the restaurant. When you take a look at every touchpoint, you will be able to get a better understanding on how to align your brand to differentiated assets.
For example, coffee is a beverage that can deliver a physical boost to customers. You can think about writing uplifting messages on top of coffee cups that you offer in the restaurant. Along with that, you will be able to create a physical boost as well as an emotional boost.
On the other hand, you can think about including directions on how to “reheat and eat” in the pizza boxes and that you give for take-outs. You can promote these things through your marketing campaigns to receive the best possible results at the end of the day.
- Get the help of micro-influencers
Getting the help of micro-influencers can help you to take your restaurant marketing efforts to the next level in a convenient manner as well. That’s because people tend to trust their peers than you. Therefore, you should get the help of micro-influencers and promote the restaurant or your brand messages. Along with that, you can create awareness and increase the sales volumes that you are generating at the end of the day.
Before you go ahead with this marketing technique, you need to do proper research and understand who the perfect micro-influencers are. Those micro-influencers should have strong local followings on social media networks. It is better if you can go for Instagram influencers due to the nature of the impact that they can create on your restaurant with their Instagram profile. If the audience and type of your influencer don’t match with your restaurant, you should look for another influencer.
Influencers will be able to capture excellent photos of your restaurant and the dishes that you offer. You can welcome them to dine in at your restaurant. Then you can negotiate how to promote your restaurant through their social media accounts.
- People tend to consume food with their eyes
Excellent photos and videos are in a position to make your guests crave for what you offer. You should pay more attention to this fact during the restaurant marketing campaign. If budget allows, you can promote the offerings on television. Or else, you can seek the assistance of other channels that are available for you to promote your restaurants, such as social media networks or local newspapers.
You need to showcase your offerings to the customers in an appealing manner. Then people will get the irresistible temptation to come to your restaurant and enjoy what you are offering. Many restaurants located around the world are doing this. Therefore, you are encouraged to follow the same trend as well. It can deliver outstanding results, which you will fall in love with.
- Tell stories
People love to hear stories. This is applicable for the potential customers who will come to your restaurant as well. Therefore, you should think about taking the maximum opportunity to tell stories.
For example, you can think about telling stories about the dishes that you offer. If they are based upon traditional recipes, you can tell more information about the origins of the recipe and how they evolved along with time. Then you will be creating the temptation among people to come to your restaurant and enjoy those dishes. Likewise, you can think about promoting the employees who work for the restaurant as well. Your employees have got great stories. You can share those stories with potential customers. Your customers will be interested in listening to those stories as well. It will create the temptation for the customers to come forward and enjoy the dishes that are prepared by those employees who work for the restaurant.
You can simply do research and understand how other restaurants are promoting their businesses with stories. You can get the inspiration from them and promote your restaurant as well. It can help you to come up with the best stories as well. These stories can help you to take your business to the next level with ease.
- Be a part of the community
All the restaurants should think about becoming a part of the community as well. Whether your restaurant is only based in the local region or if you have branches in other parts of the country or the world, you should think about blending with the local community. That’s because your local community is in a position to contribute towards the success of your restaurant by becoming customers of it.
Your restaurant is a place where people from the community come together to dine in. They include family members, co-workers, friends and many other customers. You need to showcase the support that you are giving back to the community. This is where you can sponsor a locally happening event or a local sports team. Or else, you can donate food to a local food bank. You can also think about joining the local chamber of commerce. In some of the instances, you can think about inviting the community members to come and enjoy their meals. All these efforts that you put to blend with the community will be able to help you with creating positive experiences. It will help you to get better results from the community at the end of the day.
