If you want to know why digital marketing for restaurants really matters, then you are in the right place. Your restaurant might have the tastiest food, the greatest ambiance, and the best services in your neighborhood. Analogous to this fact, if a small number of customers visit your restaurant, you are failing your business.
Today, over 1 billion consumer visits to restaurants are influenced by digital marketing. As a matter of fact, it is important to keep up with changing times. You need to have efficient digital marketing strategies to popularize your restaurant. If you fail in marketing your restaurant well, you might eventually lose your place in the food service industry. All in all, to ensure a great business, great digital marketing strategies are important.
What Is Digital Marketing?
By definition, digital marketing is the practice to use social media platforms for the promotion of your business. It can be done by social media accounts or by spreading awareness about your services on digital platforms. The aim of digital marketing is to attract a huge number of customers.
Digital marketing for restaurants is very popular because of consumer action. Don’t we get tempted by pictures of delicious food on Instagram? In the same way, customers consider your restaurant when you showcase your food and services through a social media presence.
Why Digital Marketing For Restaurants Matter
According to a study, 75% of consumers use social media platforms to decide where to eat from. Out of all industries, reviews of restaurants are the most read reviews online. Not limited to this, online ordering is growing with time, since 57% of consumers prefer ordering from websites.
You can see that there are several reasons to pay attention to digital marketing. If you want your business to flourish, digital marketing is unavoidable. Not only does it matter, but also, it might play an important factor in deciding the fate of your overall business.
The 5 Digital Marketing For Restaurants Best Strategies
Knowing the importance of digital marketing, you need to prepare a proper plan to meet the demands of the competition on marketing platforms. Apart from working on the services that you provide, you need to learn ways to reach out to the maximum number of customers through social media.
Once you learn certain methods to do so, you ought to attract large numbers of consumers to your restaurant. Here are 5 proven methods for digital marketing that can make your restaurant business reach greater heights.
#1. Influencer Marketing
Instagram and Facebook are the most widely used apps at the present date. According to a report, 49% of consumers use Facebook to search for restaurants. About 93% of people agree that the appearance of products determines their purchasing decision. This fact itself makes Instagram one extremely important marketing platform.
As a matter of fact, if your content can make its way through the feed of Instagram users, they might turn into your customers. To do the same, you need help from marketers who can make their way through Instagram feeds. Yes, I am pointing toward Influencers. These are people with a high number of followers on digital platforms.
There are ways to collaborate with influences namely, barter and paid collaborations. It depends on what you and the influencer are willing on. You can pay or even send some vouchers or food to them. Wouldn’t an aesthetic photo of your restaurant on their page be useful?
Well, influencers can help in improving the image of your restaurant. But, you need to choose the right ones in terms of followers and engagement.
#2. Email Marketing
Considering ROI (Return on Investment), email marketing might be an even better option than social media marketing. To explain, it generates $38 for every investment of $1 spent.
All you need to do is to make a number of customers subscribe to your email subscribers list, to begin with. You can do this by offering discounts and benefits to those customers who had subscribed earlier. When you have a good number of subscribers, you can advertise your restaurant through Ad Pages.
Owing to the pandemic, the system of contactless delivery and online menu options has made collecting your customers’ emails quite an easy task. For instance, if you successfully collect 100 emails, about 10 of them are more likely to go for an opt-in. Through this, you can send promotions and offers, making them your regular customers.
#3. Focus on SEO
For instance, if someone searches ‘Chinese restaurant near me,’ your great SEO skills will drive them to your website. This can turn the searcher into a customer. On the other hand, if you do not work on your SEO skills, but serve the best Chinese in the town, no one will ever know! Now, do you see the exact reason to optimize maximum content on your website?
You can use tools and plugins and even hire some SEO experts for the task. Research and create an account of which words consumers are most likely to use when searching for food online. Use those keywords in most of your posts, images, and content on your website. This way, you enable your reach to the consumers and increase the chances of attracting them to your restaurant.
#4. Focusing on Digital Platforms with Potential Customers
Building a good SEO is helpful. But focusing on digital platforms with potential customers is a smart move. You need to focus on who your potential customers are. Are they adults or youngsters? This depends on the kind of services you offer. Are you a fine-dining restaurant or a casual cafe? You can plan your strategies accordingly.
You have to decide which social media platform needs more attention. According to a study, nearly 70% of American adults are on Facebook. Thus, if they are your potential customers, you know what you have to do.
#5. Using Online Reviews for your Benefit
Ratings and reviews by customers of your restaurant highly impact your future customers. If there is a repetitive review, you need to focus on that. You can improve your services by studying your reviews. This might improve your online rating. In an attempt at the same, you can request your customers to rate you online when they visit.
According to online sources, a survey suggests that 59% of consumers consider reading reviews. Adding to this, 54.7% of these prefer reading at least 4 reviews before making their decision. This survey is enough for you to understand the importance of reviews and ratings. Upping your review game will definitely help in the better marketing of your restaurant.
Conclusion:
Digital marketing for restaurants not only matters but also decides the number of customers you get. It is quite essential to create a strategic plan to meet your digital marketing goals. You should create social media pages for your restaurant and focus on engagement rates.
It is clever to advertise your restaurants through paid collaborations and email marketing. Improving your SEO is important as well. You can use your ratings to improve your services. It is reasonable to invest in paid marketing since it might help in creating awareness.
That’s it! By following these simple steps above, you can easily ace the game of digital marketing and make your restaurant an absolute favorite! So, which digital marketing strategies for restaurants did you like the most? Are you ready to follow these steps to ace the digital marketing game?
Well, feel free to share your thoughts in our comments section down below and let us know! But, if you’ll need more help, you can always Contact Us and let us know how we can sort you out. Not to mention, you can also Donate in order to support what we do or even share this guide with other readers like you.
About The Author
Deeksha Tripathi is a Literature graduate and is currently pursuing her Master’s in Business Administration. Besides being a passionate writer, she is a fashion enthusiast. She enjoys trying different types of Indian curries or shopping for trending vintage aesthetic outfits.
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