Marketing Strategies to Try in 2021

Restaurant marketing strategies are changing from time to time. As a restaurant owner, it is important to have a clear understanding about the best restaurant marketing strategies that exist out there in the world. Then it is possible to grab the most out of those strategies and ensure future success. Here is a list of 30 effective strategies that any restaurant owner can follow to promote the restaurant. All you have to do is to go through these marketing strategies and add them into your restaurant marketing mix accordingly.

  • Add links in your Google Business profile for reservation

Google Business profile can provide a great assistance for you to increase your overall sales volume. Therefore, you should think about getting the most out of it. Most of the people tend to look for your business on Google before they walk in. In fact, almost all the people who are about to come to your restaurant for the very first time will do it. Hence, it is better if you can add a link to make reservations on the Google Business profile. This will tempt the people to go ahead and confirm a reservation immediately. This will help you to convert the lead and get the customer to come to your restaurant.

  • Focus on email marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing methods available for restaurant owners to try as of now. Restaurants are using this marketing method for years, but it is still relevant. Hence, you don’t need to think twice before you send out mass emails to mailing lists that contain the email addresses of your potential customers. To get the most out of your email marketing campaigns, make sure that you are sending out automated and personalized emails. If you want to discover more please visit our other blog post- Effective Newsletter Ideas for Your Restaurant

email marketing for restaurants

  • Never forget SMS marketing as well

Along with your email marketing campaigns, it is worthy to run SMS marketing campaigns as well. That’s because SMS marketing campaigns are associated with a high open rate when compared to email marketing campaigns. If you want to get a better return out of investment, you should be focusing on the SMS marketing campaigns.

  • Collect customer data as much as possible

We are living in a data driven world. Hence, it is important for you to collect customer data as much as possible. Customer data will assist you to uncover lots of hidden facts with related to your customers. For example, you can figure out how often a customer visits your restaurant, what his preferences are and even specific details such as whether the customer is visiting your restaurant for celebrations. While keeping these facts in mind, you will be able to send targeted promotional content to the customer. This will eventually help you to increase your chances of getting your existing customers come back to your restaurant.

  • Create a strong brand

One of the core objectives of your restaurant marketing campaign should be to create a strong brand. The brand you create will provide you the opportunity to unlock numerous great things in the long run. Your restaurant will not be able to survive in this competitive industry without having a strong brand. Hence, you must focus on brand building efforts and try your best to develop a stronger brand. The brand you build for the restaurant will eventually help you to unlock numerous opportunities.

restaurant branding strategies

  • Don’t ignore retargeting ads

Retargeting ads are another effective method available for your business to increase your customer base. In here, you will be sending advertisements of your restaurant to the visitors who visit the restaurant website. People visit your restaurant website because they have an interest. If you can promote your best dishes, or even an offer given out by the restaurant in a retargeting ad, you will be able to increase the chances of converting that customer with ease. If you want know more about Retargeting and Facebook pixel discover this article Facebook Pixel – What is it and how to use it for your restaurant?

  • Keep an online menu

People usually prefer to take a look at your menu before they come all the way to your restaurant. Therefore, it is a must for you to maintain an online menu. You should try your best to make this online menu of your restaurant look amazing. For example, you can get that designed by an expert designer. You should also make the online menu mobile optimized. That’s because most of the people will take a look at your menu from their mobile devices and proceed with making the decision on whether to visit your restaurant or not.

  • Don’t ignore local SEO

As a restaurant owner, you need to understand that your customers are from the local neighborhood. Hence, you should never ignore local SEO. You should focus on the best practices of local SEO and try your best to maintain rankings. For example, you should claim your Google My Business profile. On the other hand, you will need to get more revies on Google, focus on quality content and optimize your websites for local SEO. More about Restaurant SEO Here- How to do SEO for Your Restaurant – Common Questions and Answers

  • Local online ads

Local online ads can also benefit your restaurant with restaurant marketing. The online ad platforms will provide you the opportunity to customize your ad campaigns. For example, you will be able to geo-target your advertisements. People who are not from your local neighborhood will not be able to contribute towards your business by any means. Therefore, you should always use geo-target the online advertisements and make them visible only to people who come from your local neighborhood.

  • Boost customer loyalty

Loyal customers will keep on coming back to your restaurant. You should keep this fact in your mind and try your best to boost customer loyalty as well. Then you will be able to get the most out of your customers to ensure future betterment of the business. Loyal customers can even benefit your restaurant with word of mouth marketing. You can come up with an attractive loyalty program to keep the customers loyal to your business.

  • Offer coupons

Discounts and coupons are a great option available for the restaurants out there in the world to get more customers with ease. You can therefore think about running a promotional campaign with coupons. Along with the coupons, you can offer a 10% discount or even a free dish. If possible, you should run a buy one get one free campaign with coupons because it is highly attractive.

  • Make your restaurant Instagram friendly

Most of the people who walk into your restaurant will upload pictures taken at the restaurant on their Instagram accounts. This is why you will need to make your restaurant as well as your dishes Instagram friendly. Then you will tempt people to upload more pictures from your restaurant on their Instagram accounts and provide free promotions. For example, you can decorate your restaurant according to a unique theme. On the other hand, you can use ingredients that have matching colors as well. More about Instagram marketing ideas that you and your restaurant can follow – Click here. 

  • Make your restaurant available on the online booking platforms

There are numerous online booking platforms that people use to reserve their restaurants. You should think about making your restaurant available to book on those online reservation platforms. Otherwise, you will miss out the opportunity that you have to attract more customers to your restaurant from those online platforms.

  • Add live chat to your restaurant website

A considerable percentage of people who come to your restaurant will initially take a look at your website. Therefore, it is important for you to make your restaurant website full of information. This is where you can think about adding a live chat. Live chatbot will be able to help your potential customers to get all information they want with ease. Along with that, it is possible for potential customers to go ahead and visit your restaurant.

  • Send birthday reminders to your customers

While you collect customer data, you should pay special attention towards birthdays. Then you will be able to send out birthday reminders to the customers accordingly. These birthday reminders will make your customers feel special. You can also think about offering a free dish, or a discount to the customers on their birthdays. This will help you to attract more customers who celebrate their birthdays to your restaurant.

  • Get the most out of restaurant surveys

As a restaurant owner, you should learn more about what your customers are saying about the restaurant. This is where restaurant surveys will be able to help you. You can take a look at the restaurant surveys and collect useful information with related to your customers as much as possible. Then you should properly analyze the data you gather and take appropriate steps to improve the service you offer.

  • Don’t ignore Yelp

Yelp is still a great channel available for the restaurants to ensure their success. Hence, you need to make sure that you don’t ignore Yelp. Yelp has lots of users. If you can build a strong profile for your restaurant on Yelp, you will be able to attract those users to your restaurant. Hence, you should never ignore your Yelp profile. Take a look at the Yelp profile and get the most out of it.

  • Upgrade the restaurant website

As mentioned earlier, people will go through your restaurant website before they visit. Hence, you should upgrade the restaurant website. The restaurant website should provide all important information with related to your restaurant, such as the location, opening hours, and the menu. On the other hand, you should also make the life easy for all your customers to get specific pieces of information with related to your restaurant. For example, customers will be interested in getting to know about the ambience of your restaurant before they visit. This is where you should think about including more photos from your restaurant on the website. More about website and web design click here – Do we need a Web Designer?

  • Ensure your presence on social media

Social media networks will contribute a lot towards the success that your restaurant can secure with restaurant marketing. Hence, it is important for you to get the most out of social media marketing. The main objective of your social media marketing efforts should be to develop long lasting relationships with your potential customers on social media networks. These relationships will eventually help you to unlock a variety of benefits with converting the customers.

  • Use Instagram, Facebook, and Google ads

Facebook, Instagram, and Google are all offering you the opportunity to have your own ads published on their networks. Every restaurant should think about getting the most out of this opportunity. However, you should also notice that each and every platform comes along with a unique set of features. Hence, you should initially get yourself familiar with those features and then use the platforms for advertising purposes. Then you can get the most results out of your online pads ads.

  • Develop a restaurant marketing framework

If you are looking for a more robust method to promote your restaurant, you should think about developing a restaurant marketing framework. Then you will be able to combine different restaurant marketing strategies and create a solid restaurant marketing framework. This restaurant marketing framework will take good care of your overall marketing campaign.

  • Get the help of influencers

Social media influencer are powerful than ever before. They have the ability to create a strong positive impact on the success of your restaurant. Therefore, you should think about getting the most out of your influencers. People who follow influencers trust content shared by them. Hence, all you have to do is to get in touch with an influencer and collaborate to promote your restaurant. Then you will be able to get the followers of that influencer to walk into your restaurant.

  • Continue to blog

Blogging has been delivering amazing returns to restaurants along with time. You should keep this in mind and continue to blog. This doesn’t mean that you should upload a new 2000 word blog to your restaurant blog every single week. Instead, you can even update the content of your website and make it more engaging with the visitors. If you want to know How to Go Ahead and Start Your Food Blog – Click Here

  • Respond to all your online reviews

When you take a look at the online reviews gathered by your restaurant, you will notice that it includes both positive reviews as well as negative reviews. It is completely natural for a restaurant to get positive reviews and negative reviews. That’s because you will not be able to please all your customers. No matter what, you will need to respond to every review that you have under your online profiles in a professional way. While you do it, you will need to learn how to convert the negative reviews into a great marketing opportunity. This is where you should empathize, acknowledge, and solve the problem of the customer who has written the review. Other people who see this review will get the idea that your restaurant is offering a top-notch customer service.

  • Encourage more people to leave online reviews

Online reviews are a powerful marketing tool that your restaurant has. Therefore, you should encourage more people to go ahead and leave online reviews about your business. You can think about offering an incentive to the people who write online reviews. When you have hundreds or thousands of reviews on the internet, you will be able to use that as a great marketing channel to ensure future success of the business.

  • Improve your PR

Reviews and write ups from trusted media sources will send all sorts of signals to the potential customers of your restaurant. This is where you should think about taking your PR efforts to the next level. For example, it is possible for you to boost your PR across the website and on social media profiles.

  • Upload best quality images on social media

As a part of your social media marketing campaigns, you will upload high quality images. This is where you should think about uploading the best quality images on social media. You will then be able to get the most out of your restaurant marketing strategy. That’s because you can convince diners to come all the way to your restaurant with the stunning photos you upload on social media.

  • Get people to engage with you on social media

There are numerous methods available for you to get people to engage with your restaurant on social media. Social media stories hold a prominent place out of them. For example, you can upload behind the scenes videos of your restaurant through social media stories. Then you can get your potential customers to interact with them and eventually become long term customers of the business as well.

  • Do online deliveries

Along with the COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of people who stick to online deliveries increased significantly. You must be experiencing a drop in the number of visitors who come to your restaurant as a result of it as well. However, you should consider it as a great opportunity available for your restaurant. You just need to take advantage out of it and start offering online deliveries. You can partner with the food delivery apps such as Uber Eats. Along with that, you can think about getting your own food delivery app.

  • Show off the ingredients

People in today’s world are highly concerned about the quality of the foods they consume. This is why it is important for you to show off the ingredients that you include for the foods. Then you can create trust among potential customers that you are not using any harmful ingredients.

Final words

Now you have a clear understanding about the ways on how to improve your restaurant marketing efforts. Take a look at these methods and develop that perfect restaurant marketing strategy. Then you will be able to develop a perfect restaurant marketing campaign with ease.