How to better market my Restaurant?
We are living in an ever more competitive hospitality world, where restaurants have had to jump through many hoops to survive the Covid pandemic. Now, perhaps as a follow-on from that, the world seems to have been plunged into a cost-of-living crisis with customers generally faced with less disposable income. The question of "how to market my restaurant" is one which for restauranteurs has become ever more important. So do business owners have to employ a multi-point strategy to survive or indeed thrive in the current environment? In fact, the issue is rather more nuanced than that.
We came across an article recently that highlighted the 30 marketing strategies that small restaurants "must adopt". Plenty of restaurant owners would roll their eyes at the thought of all this additional activity when it is hard work to provide a quality culinary experience for their diners in the first place. It is important not to be overwhelmed by the possible options available to restaurant owners, but to focus on taking the most important steps. In this article, we have concentrated on the major means of marketing a small restaurant and also produced a bullet list of extra possibilities.
It should also be borne in mind that advertising and marketing spending averages about 3% of revenues in small businesses although closer to 5% in small business start-ups. The US Small Business Administration recommends that this should be more like 7-8%. It is therefore critical that restaurants take all the free and low-cost steps that they need to before considering any paid advertising spending.
Marketing is a critical side of any business's toolkit even if it is not always visible. For example, many businesses in different genres benefit from word-of-mouth or referral marketing. This has the great quality that a referral is likely to come from a trusted source. Also, it involves no cost. Before the internet, the reputation of a restaurant was crucial to its success and advertising was generally limited to adverts in the local press and the occasional staged events. Today unless you are based in a village or small town where the locals all know you, reputation in the conventional sense counts for very little. On the other hand being found easily, having a good website presence, and favorable reviews count greatly - they are the "new reputation".
Getting the basics right
All restaurants need to have a website. The website acts as a shopfront allowing existing and potential customers to check the online menu, order takeaways (if relevant), and preferably book tables, which of course should involve them leaving their email addresses. The data collated from bookings, conversions, and lists on a website need to be monitored and analyzed on an ongoing basis so that it is possible to understand what is working and what is not. Marketing spending can be adapted accordingly. It is also essential that your website is optimized for mobile. Whilst the growth of mobile means that this is true for most websites, it is especially the case for restaurants, since many people ate out and about when they decide to visit a local restaurant.
All restaurants should be listed on Google My Business so that they can be found easily by map, and that a potential customer can phone and check availability. Many owners will take the step of initially listing themselves on Google My Business but fail to keep their listing optimized. This is a big mistake since up to 80ften % of searches are carried out on Google and often by potential customers who are ready to eat at the time they search (the "near me" search).
It is essential that you focus closely on the keywords that customers are likely to use (a case of knowing your customer), and also use negative keywords to eliminate costs that you do not need to incur. For example, if you do not cater to vegans then vegan would be an obvious negative keyword since you would not appear in searches and not have to pay the cost of unnecessary clicks.
Free organic use of Social Media
Engaging with your customers or followers on social media is becoming an ever greater requirement for restaurants but it can be a fun thing to do and at a simple level it is free (other than the time cost). Posting of content, information, and images needs to be done regularly since any material that becomes out of date will immediately look like a lack of care has been taken. A minimum of two posts a day on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and preferably other platforms should be considered. Again the need for impressive visual elements is essential. People want to see your food and may want to show pictures to their friends. The inclusion of pictures of staff, or approved customer-generated material, perhaps cheery faces of customers in your restaurant goes down well, as do details of special offers or prizes (see later section).
The need for quality images has never been greater with Social Media sites such as Instagram and Pinterest lifting the bar ever higher. The cost of getting a professional photographer to make your dishes look their best, as well as making your restaurant look appealing, is almost certainly a price worth paying. Pictures of enticing decor, new additions to the menu, colorful dishes or cocktails, and smiling faces of the staff can also convey a positive message. Also in a similar way to how "un-boxing" has become popular, people like to see things behind the scenes - a picture of someone cleaning or a sparkling kitchen is reassuring.
All comments or questions should be replied to as this interaction creates a strong bond with customers, even if this may mean repeating answers to questions that have been answered before. It is unlikely that a potential customer will ask questions, get positive replies, and then not visit the restaurant subsequently. Online "listening" and prompt answering can give you a heads up on what your customers like and also prevent an unhappy customer from creating a detrimental ripple effect.
SEO and PPC
We are all familiar with the first series of entries that we get when we do a Google search. These are pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. Further down the first page start the organic searches. The entries toward the top of the organic searches are there partly because the websites have high domain authority (they have trusted websites as far as Google is concerned) and partly because they rank well for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) meaning mainly that they have done good keyword research and the site is well connected in terms of backlinks to other websites and indeed internal links to other articles or entries on the site.
So whilst SEO can in theory be done at no cost, without a reasonably deep understanding of keyword research and a paid tool or tools to assist in the process, the reality is that you may need the assistance of a professional to get your website or at least certain entries or articles ranking high enough to get desired levels of traffic. If on the other hand, your knowledge of the process is reasonable, your restaurant is in a specialized niche and you for example target uncompetitive long-tail keywords, you could be successful at driving organic traffic to your website.
It is now possible to carry out local campaigns across Google assets including Search, YouTube, Maps, and Display Network. Once you have set a budget Google will schedule your ads using AI to direct customers to your restaurant at favorable times and will switch off your ad when you are closed. Enhanced options now show the location of your restaurant, and how far it is from the customer and also give them a call-through number. This is a small example of the dominance of Google in this area and why embracing the options their technology provides makes sense.
If you create a Facebook Ad for the first time you will be astonished by how precisely you can target potential customers. We are not just talking about the location or the general demographics of the campaign such as the age range, gender, marital status, and so on of the individual targeted. You can also target things like hobbies, interests, whether they have pets, and so on. This means that you are likely to waste far of your budget on customers who were unlikely to buy in the first place. The powerful analytics allow you to refocus succeding campaigns and retarget "warm" clients who have been identified as far more likely to buy (for example they may have visited your website (than those who have shown no inclination to buy).
Email marketing
One of the most underestimated and cost-efficient forms of advertising is email marketing. In fact, the DMA's 2019 research shows that email marketing has the best return on investment of any marketing channel available with a 1$ spend leading to an off-the-charts $42 ROI! The great advantage of email marketing is that when you build up an email list you are building a business asset. It compares favorably with other forms of advertising, such as adverts in the press or on Social Media, which are time-limited, and when they expire you are back at square one, having to spend more money on the next campaign. With an email list, you can conduct repeated marketing campaigns to a highly targeted customer (or potential customer) list cheaply.
Like all forms of marketing, the use of email needs to be done correctly. This is greatly assisted by the use of automation and the use of auto-responders. If a customer joins a list or buys a product, sending an immediate welcome email is essential and can lead to a 12X response rate. We feel neglected if we do not get an immediate response. Pre-headers boost open rates, as do headings with numbers in, and customers love it when you know when their birthday is. How about targeting someone two weeks before his or her birthday and offering them a discount if they dine with you on their birthday.
You can also provide your email contacts with a monthly newsletter, which needs only be a paragraph or two when sent by email, in which you can tempt customers with special offers, for example on weekdays or at lunch-times when things are normally quieter at your restaurant. It is possible to turbo-charge email marketing with the use of prize draw software which allows you to grow your email list at a greatly accelerated pace. This can give a restaurant a tremendous boost in profits. This is an area that we specialize in here at Viral Snowball and unsurprisingly we believe it to be much the best marketing strategy that a small restaurant can adopt. You can read about it in greater depth here.
Other strategies in brief
Consider delivery platforms - companies such as Uber Eats have a vast number of drivers who can connect with restaurants via an app and deliver meals to customer addresses. The problem is that they will charge you about 30% commission for doing so. The growth of online delivery means that restaurants are delivering a far higher percentage of their sales online than they were during the pre-covid pandemic. If you have a high proportion of customers who can collect, offering takeaways could be a good option if you are not already doing so.
What about reviews - over 90% of people check reviews before visiting restaurants for the first time so reviews are critical. If you have regular customers ask them for a review (they would not come back if they did not like your restaurant). If your guests compliment you at the end of a meal, ask them for a review. In general, ask for reviews. Also, be aware that high percentages of people read responses to reviews. So thank customers for compliments and deal tactfully and politely with those who leave negative reviews. Make sure that you have developed your profile pages on Google and Opentable in particular and be responsive and amicable.
Loyalty programs - In the same way, that cafes offer loyalty punch cards, restaurants have turned to digital loyalty apps. The customer downloads the app and claims rewards as he or she returns to the restaurant. Experience tells us that these apps must be kept simple to work effectively and that if you have staff that can engage with customers and promotes them effectively then they have a far greater chance of success. Using receipts for potential future rewards like many shops has also been found to be a successful strategy.
Employing a PR firm - We have all heard the expression it is not what you know it is who you know. When you hire a good PR firm they can open doors that would normally remain shut, because of who they know. A good write-up in a quality magazine or newspaper can make a restaurant. Restauranteurs can then dine out on the publicity (excuse the pun) for a long time to come.
Influencers/Restaurant critics - in the same way, that major brands pay celebrities to endorse their products, influencers and critics will post to their followers or write an article about the quality of the food in your restaurant. You invite them, put them in a room if possible, and put your highest-quality dishes on the table. They take pictures, write about the experience and you get the publicity. It is simply a business transaction with the influencers or critics getting a free meal and you reaping the rewards and it definitely works. Retain and market the compliments you receive.
Coupons/discounts - Coupons or discounts can work especially well if you target them for times when you are not normally busy. They also tie in naturally with email marketing campaigns and newsletters. As covered above this is especially enhanced when used in connection with prize draw software. See here for a detailed report.
Direct mail - Direct mail is often assumed to be a relic of the past but actually continues to have a high ROI (29% according to the DMA). This puts it behind email marketing but on par with Social Media and ahead of Paid Search. ROI is also improving with improved software, printing, and data technology. Some think of direct mail as junk mail but clearly, customers keep leaflets, cards, and flyers and use them at a later date. Definitely worth considering as part of your strategy.
Online booking platforms - there are many benefits of using an online booking platform. These include getting more bookings with no time expended and fewer complaints because of clear booking instructions. It reduces the number of "no-shows" because customers get a booking confirmation and reminder notifications, usually by email or SMS. The guest feedback facility allows restaurants to up their game. Deposit-taking facilities allow restaurants to pre-book tables at busy times or for special events. Platforms can also automate email events and promos. This all comes with a cost of course but many platforms allow you to test-drive their system for free to get started.
Conclusion
Marketing your restaurant can be looked at in different ways. As a wealth of separate opportunities or as a case of ticking relevant boxes so that you do not lose out to the competition. Since the options are multiple, it makes sense to stay flexible and try various options.
Understanding your starting point is important. If you are busy but not sufficiently profitable, then are you maximizing your time efficiently? Perhaps you need to install or better utilize your online booking system. If insufficient customers are coming through the door, have you tried to maximize your use of email marketing and social media communication? Are all your profile pages set for maximum engagement? Discounts could help to drive customers to visit at less popular times. Have you looked into direct mail? Have you had any poor reviews that you did not stay on top of?
How about if you know your product or dishes are wonderful and you are not getting the rewards that are due? Could it be time to get influencers, critics, or even a PR agency involved? Perhaps you could consider targeted ads. If you have communicative staff perhaps a simple loyalty scheme could pay dividends.
There are many options and approaches available. We hope this article has simplified and clarified them.
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