Handling and Managing a business is a tedious and strenuous process. If the business is in a sector that is saturated with competition, the task gets even more difficult. If you are in the Food and Beverage industry, a fierce competition is a no-brainer.
In that case, you must have the knowledge, tools and resources to stay relevant and keep the restaurant business booming. You need a professional to help you with the best digital marketing strategies for restaurants to
employ for your business.
A study suggests that more than 70% of smartphone users check out restaurant information on the go. This makes it essential for you as a business owner to take your restaurant online. An online presence is a precursor to promoting innovative restaurant
ideas and employing the best marketing strategies for restaurants. The decision of where to eat has several factors- location, price points, cuisines, and last but one of the most important - reviews. The question is how
and where do you start with promoting your restaurant for maximum impact on customers? The answer- Digital Marketing.
Digital Marketing is all about telling your brand story and interacting with the consumers on the internet or any social media platform. It comprises elements like Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Content
Marketing.
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO INVEST IN DIGITAL MARKETING RATHER THAN OPTING FOR TRADITIONAL MARKETING?
- Digital Marketing is a cheaper alternative to Traditional Marketing
- In Digital Marketing, it is easier to identify and target potential customers
- Higher conversion rate as a result of targeted marketing practices
- In Digital Marketing, each process can be tracked and optimized
- Digital marketing is more flexible and easy
- It is communicative and conversational, and not just a one-sided messaging medium
- Customers can reach out to you through the digital medium much more easily
HOW WILL DIGITAL MARKETING WORK IN YOUR BRAND’S FAVOUR?
- Brand Identity - Your brand represents your restaurant. It sends out a direct message as to the origin or backstory of your restaurant. This would also distinguish you from the numerous competitors who might be offering
similar if not the same services. It also puts forward your offerings informing the type of food and experience you provide so they know exactly what to expect as they step into your restaurant. Digital marketing strategies
for restaurants can be researched to better understand how they will help your business grow.
- Incentives and Offers - Innovative food marketing would not be enough for your restaurant business to boost. There needs to be integrated communication on the brands part as well. Your communications about the offers or
new services and experiences attached to the restaurant brand get a proper medium when you post about them on your social media feed. This way, not just the followers but also others who are enthusiasts for food and
offers to get to know about your brand and get an incentive to come to visit your restaurant.
- Handle Online Feedbacks - By being active on social media handles, you get to tackle negative feedback and customer issues on a priority basis and this helps in keeping up your restaurant’s online reputation.
AS A RESTAURANT OWNER, WHAT DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES CAN YOU ADOPT?
- A well-made website is your way to go!: Make your restaurant website the online representative of your physical space. Let your customers interact with you digitally before entering your restaurant place. A research study
suggests that more than 80% of consumers check out the digital presence of a brand, service or product and then make a purchase decision based on it. They evaluate your brand based on how you portray your brand and
communicate your story. If your website isn’t impressive or convincing enough, they will want to skip visiting your restaurant and choose to go check your competitors out. This way, you would lose out on a fairly large
amount of audience. For a website to be visually convincing enough, one needs to focus on:-
1. Relevant images - Put efforts into getting professional photoshoots (of food, beverages, ambience, staff etc.) done and make these a part of your website.
2. Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak - Let your website be the one talking descriptively about your offerings. The audience needs catchy, engaging relatable and informative content to get an understanding of your
brand.
- Website Optimization for Google Rankings! : You need to perfect your website optimization so on Google when people look out for restaurants in the area that your business is located. SEO helps in getting organic traffic
to your website. You need to take into consideration, optimization of your website so that your website trends locally and your brand gets maximum exposure. In optimizing your website, you need to focus on the following:-
1. Backlinks - Add internal and external links that are relevant to your website.
2. Content Hub - It comprises the blogs that are relevant to the website content that is present at the back-end of the website. The blogs are generally written using as many keywords as possible.
3. Site structure - Make sure that your site structure is user friendly and navigable. The users must be able to interact with your website pages without glitches.
4. Internal Site search - The presence of an intra website search bar helps users navigate and search for the exact products or services that they seek.
5. Device Compatibility - The website needs to be responsive so when opened on different devices, the website will be sized in that format to ensure easy accessibility.
6. Accelerated Pages - For the Bounce rate (people overlooking your website and jumping off without any further action) to be low on heavy websites, one needs to increase the number of scrolls on the website. Each
section of the website will load individually so it shows the user enough of the website to keep him hooked and scrolling.
- There is much more to search engine optimization than this. The technical aspects of things and the implementation of these practices could be done by a professional digital marketing agency that would be able to help you
understand things in-depth and guide you wherever needed. .
GAIN SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS
When you push out interesting share-worthy content on your social media handles, there’s an opportunity for you to garner more followers and go viral thereby increasing your word of mouth.
You need a social media content strategy in place so that relevant content which drives sales goes up on your pages. Secondly, by hosting competitions, quizzes and giveaways, you give your followers ways to talk about your brand beyond the topic of food.
Another important aspect of social media marketing is that it is for free. You can boost your pages by paying extra and making your reach better. But the social media marketing experts would be a wise decision as they understand the details and best practices
to be employed for your business to grow digitally.
SMART INFLUENCER MARKETING - YOUR EASY SOLUTION
Social Media Influencers are people that have expertise in a certain domain and have a large following as a result of the content that they create in relation to that particular domain. Reaching out to food bloggers and influencers would be another way
that you can boost your business.
Influencers that have a good enough following in the food or lifestyle space can make and break your brand with one post. Their large audience could be driven towards your brand and in no time, they could become your audience. It would be wise to research
the local influencers that could make a positive impact on your business and draw a marketing Memorandum of Understanding stating the agreed-upon clauses.
MAKE OPTIMAL USE OF ONLINE REVIEWS
A large number of people depend solely on online reviews in terms of concluding your restaurant. A smart way to use reviews is to provide incentives to existing customers who write reviews for your business. These reviews will give people in the decision-making
stage of their customer journey reassurance that your restaurant is worth visiting.
Hiring a professional digital marketing agency or social media marketing agency that helps you with restaurant advertising ideas, innovative marketing campaigns and drives your business digitally is crucial. It should help make your restaurant rank in the search
engine ranking pages, bring in an excellent audience engagement on social media, ultimately increasing foot traffic in your restaurant would be the wisest decision to make for making your business reach its highest potential.
The professionals at Verve Media promise to deliver the very best results possible within a stipulated amount of time. On the other hand, we also serve the benefits of a seo company in Mumbai and web development company in Mumbai. One inquiry conversation with them is all you need to be assured that handing over your business mandate to them is undoubtedly the best business decision.