By Hannah Butler, Contributor
People use the internet to look for new restaurants, post reviews, peruse menus, and book reservations. Marketing your restaurant in today's digital environment can be a difficult challenge. You'll need unique restaurant marketing concepts to attract consumers and keep them coming back.
You must first determine your target audience before you can begin marketing to them. Are you promoting your business to Millennials, seniors, or families with children?
You can't develop an ad campaign without a well-defined audience; therefore this stage is crucial before you start promoting with innovative restaurant marketing ideas. It will be simpler to generate content, advertisements, and marketing emails if you precisely identify your target demographic.
10 Creative Restaurant Marketing Ideas
1. Create Challenges or Contests on Social Media
Everyone enjoys winning freebies, and social media competitions are a great way to advertise your business.
It may assist you in gaining more followers, raising brand recognition, and attracting more followers and guests. If the winner has never dined at your restaurant before, this will give them a risk-free taste of it.
2. Have a Basic Understanding of Social Media Hashtags
Hashtags are a fantastic way to come up with new restaurant marketing concepts. What are the benefits of using hashtags in your restaurant? They can assist in increasing brand recognition, increasing post engagement, and attracting new guests to your restaurant.
One of the keys to your success is increasing your brand recognition. You want potential consumers to recognize your brand or restaurant name right away:
What does your company mean?
What food do you serve?
What is your restaurant´s location?
If your restaurant uses hashtags, it will inspire your fans to do the same. This improves client involvement and helps to establish a customer community. Once your hashtag becomes well-known, you'll be able to grow your client!
Tip: Use a mix of specialty and popular hashtags. Your post will get lost in the shuffle if you utilize popular hashtags. To get your posts to appear in your local region, use local hashtags. Most likely, you're going after folks in your immediate vicinity.
You'll need to keep track of the number of hashtags used in addition to utilizing specialty hashtags.
3. Content Created by Users
User-generated material may greatly simplify your life! You may save time and money by utilizing the material that your followers provide.
People trust other people's suggestions more than marketed material you create. Marketers' material is disliked by the public. They don’t trust it; they trust their peers. Therefore, use the content that people regular post to promote your brand.
The best thing is that you may utilize their stuff without charge! People love to snap photographs of their meals and share them online, so as a restaurant, you're likely to have a lot of user-generated content.
User generated content is usually indicative of a trustworthy or trusted brand. If other people are promoting your brand, it looks like they are giving you a great overview!
Using material from your followers allows you to connect with people on a more personal level and appear more genuine.
In 2014, Starbucks wanted to redesign its limited edition coffee cup. However, rather of spending time and money on design, they decided to enlist the help of their devoted consumers!
With the hashtag #whitecupcontest, people were invited to upload photographs of their cups. The winner received $300, as well as his cup. Starbucks has combined the competition with custom content and hashtag.
The ideal mix of innovative restaurant marketing concepts!
4. Concentrate on Local SEO
The importance of local SEO for restaurants cannot be overstated. You can't expect significant business if you don't show up when potential consumers are browsing in your region.
When consumers type a specific phrase like "best pizza," your objective should be to rank in your local package, commonly known as the top three positions on the Google map. Because they are the first results a person sees, these top three eateries will receive the most traffic.
Here are some restaurant marketing tactics that may not be adequate to get you listed in local SEO:
Get positive feedback. Testimonials help potential consumers trust you. Encourage customers to post reviews on Yelp, Google, Facebook, or any other site you like. There will always be negative reviews, so keep note of them so you can reply to guests who may have had a negative experience at your restaurant.
Google My Business and Local Listings are two other options. Using these tools consumers may see your address, contact information, and even photographs and reviews on Google My Business. List your company in local directories. Put it on Yelp, Foursquare, and any other review site you can think of. This improves your chances of appearing in local searches.
Refresh your site! Check that every detail on your site is correct. This will delight both customers and search engines. Also you should take care of your website content. I, as an essay writer in WriteMyPapers4Me writing company, know better than anyone how important it is to create quality content. It should not only be unique and interesting to the visitor of your site, but also not contain any grammatical errors and typos. All these factors are essential for a good ranking in search engines. So, if you struggle creating remarkable texts you can use copywriting services.
Search engines crawl websites on a regular basis to ensure that they are still operational and up to date. If your site hasn't been updated in years, it's possible that they'll penalize you in search results.
5. Web Design
You may begin dining before a consumer reaches your place if you have a top-notch restaurant web design. You may display guests the environment as well as your drinks and food items on your website.
You must also ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. If someone is hungry, the chances of them taking out their computer are minimal to none. They'll probably be on their way and will use their smartphone to find a restaurant fast.
6. Increase Publications or Create Sponsored Ads
You'll need to develop advertisements or pay to promote your content in addition to publishing on social media.
Platforms like Facebook operate on a pay-per-use basis. Some of your followers may notice your message, but you'll need an advertising budget to get the word out about your company to most of your followers (and non-followers). You may pick your target audience, region, and more when you pay to advertise your articles!
If you choose to promote a post, you are paying to promote a post that you already have on your Facebook or Instagram. A message created with the goal of generating leads, clicks, or conversions is referred to as advertising. When you pay for premium publications and advertisements, you have access to analytics that can help you expand your business even more.
The most cost-effective type of advertising is on social media. If you've ever paid for a billboard, newspaper, or magazine, your social media advertising budget will pale in comparison.
You should contact a Social Media Advertising Specialist if you're unsure about your advertising budget. They can assist you in developing a budget that is more appropriate for your company.
7. Monitor Your Restaurant’s Social Media
Reviewing your ratings on various platforms, checking comments, and tagging articles are all examples of social media monitoring. What do social media users have to say about your restaurant?
As the restaurant's owner or manager, you should double-check everything written about your restaurant, as well as any submitted comments. If you don't have time to keep up with all of your followers' comments and postings, consider hiring a social media firm to handle it for you.
8. Build a Quality Loyalty Program
A loyalty program is an excellent method to boost sales. Receiving customer emails is one approach to entice people to your loyalty program.
A website, landing page popup, or social media campaign are all effective ways to do this. Customers who participate in loyalty programs are more likely to return for a free dessert or a discount.
Firebirds restaurant sends out identical emails to its clients on a daily basis. They make use of phrases.
9. Write a Blog
Although blogging may appear to be the last thing on your mind when it comes to your restaurant. But it can be a fantastic method to share recipes, tips, and secrets, as well as convey your restaurant's narrative.
For instance, you can teach individuals how to make dishes at home. You should also maintain a blog for your local customers. Tell them about local activities you've attended or other community events you've organized or a part of.
People spend time on your site when they read your blog. This informs search engines that your site is valuable and relevant. As a consequence, your restaurant will appear higher in search results.
10. Don’t Forget About Your Email Marketing
Email marketing is a must-have marketing strategy for any company, including eateries.
First and foremost, you must construct a list. Create a popup to gather client emails on your website or landing page. You may also collect them at your restaurant, but keep in mind that you'll need to add them to your post API manually later. You may start generating email campaigns and automated emails once you've built your list.
Here are a few unique restaurant marketing ideas for your email marketing:
If your menu changes, send an email to your clients or offer weekly discounts
Tell subscribers about the events that are taking place at your restaurant
Create a special customer appreciation day for subscribers who receive a discount
Share the story or history of your restaurant
Keep in mind that not every email should promote your restaurant. To keep your subscribers opening your emails and engaging with you, you should provide your subscribers with high-quality material
Being flexible is one of the most essential creative restaurant marketing ideas! It's possible that some strategies you employ will fail at times. Don't get too attached to a single concept. If something isn't working, replace it. You may use a variety of unique restaurant marketing concepts in your marketing efforts.
About the Author
Hannah Butler works as a content writer. She knows how to write an analytical essay and many other types or paper. She likes sharing her experience in the form of articles in such spheres as Business and Marketing. In her free, time Hannah enjoys rock climbing and bike riding.
