Restaurant Marketing 7 Steps To Success

If you can successfully run a restaurant, together with its moving parts, you can definitely run a successful advertising effort. All you need is the ideal tools, and that is what we’re here for. We are going to provide you with a comprehensive guide to restaurant marketing.

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Step 1: Describe Your Target Market

First things first, you need to know who you are attempting to reach, and exactly what your target audience needs a lot from a restaurant. You would like to think about a market, since this can set you apart from the remaining restaurants which serve your type of food.

As an example, Chipotle doesn’t just promote food, it elevates Mexican cuisine with a brand new, sustainable mindset. Similarly, McDonald’s does not only advertise food, it promotes fun, quick, comfortable food. Therefore, what’s your angle?

Have your ideal customer in mind when answering this question, and always consider them when making marketing decisions.

Step 2: Create and Optimize Your Website

Now that you’ve found your niche, it is time to create and optimize your site.

If you want people to locate your restaurant when researching places to consume online, it is crucial that you have a dedicated website for the restaurant. While it’s possible that people are going to have the ability to find you via your social media pages or from online review websites, a site is the online location where you have full control over the information. Additionally, it does not hurt to have an additional prospect of ranking on the search engine results page.

If you have not created your website, you will want to check out this guide on the best way best to establish a restaurant website in under 60 minutes. We created a WordPress template particularly for restaurants that includes all the important features you need. Just enter your data and photos, and your website will automatically be put together.

The next step after making your website, is to be certain it is optimized for search engines. Optimizing your site’s content raises the chances your website will rank on the search engine results page when someone is searching for your type of restaurant in where you are. Find out more about how to rank highly in Google within our manual.

Step 3: Get Online Reviews To Build Social Proof

People are more inclined to see an establishment should they visit several positive online testimonials for this. This is particularly true for restaurants. According to the Local Consumer Review Survey, only 13% of people are eager to try a company with a 1 or 2 star rating. Therefore, it’s not only important to have online testimonials, but they will need to be positive (typically over 3.5 stars).

Here are 4 best review website which you want to Be Certain you have a profile :

1. Yelp — With over 145 million unique monthly visitors, it is very likely that your potential customers are reading reviews on Yelp before deciding to stop by a restaurant. If you’ve got a profile with few testimonials, your target market may decide to pay a visit to your contest instead. View our guide to Yelp for company to learn how to make a desired Yelp profile.
2. Google + — Though less popular as Yelp amongst customers for reading restaurant reviews, reviews on Google + have a possibility of showing in the local results when a person searches for your sort of restaurant. You will need to set up a Google My Business page so as to get these types of reviews.

3. TripAdvisor — Tripadvisor caters to travelers. If your city is tourist destination, it is important to keep a presence on Tripadvisor, as well. Here’s an article on the way to setup and handle your Tripadvisor business listing.
4. OpenTable — OpenTable is an online restaurant reservation service where users can easily look for restaurant within their place, read reviews, and create reservations all in one place. You might choose to get your restaurant listed on OpenTable, especially if many of your competition is using the website.

After you’ve set up your restaurant profile on these sites, it is important to receive your existing clients to leave reviews for you. This may be tricky, however there’s software available to make this process simpler for you. Learn why we recommend ReviewTrackers in our standing management applications buyer’s guide.

How to React to Negative Reviews

You can have the most wonderful food and the best customer service, and people can still find something to complain about. The most important thing you can take after someone leaves a negative inspection would be to respond, and do this quickly.

If a client posts a negative review, it’s not the end of the planet. However, it’s important that you are keeping a watchful eye on the very popular review websites. Whenever someone posts a comment, good or bad, you can follow up with an attentive response. Oftentimes, a quick and meaningful response will diffuse anger and totally transform the circumstance.

We did a thorough guide on how best to answer negative online reviews. Be sure to test it out so that you’re well prepared to handle negative reviews if they are posted.

Step 4: Use Social Media To Reach a Broader Audience

Now that you have your website and online testimonials squared off, it’s time to spread the word about your own restaurant. Social networking is a powerful tool which provides restaurant owners the chance to get in touch with thousands of local users that they wouldn’t have managed to have in front of with no platform.

People love to post about meals, see food videos, and discuss food associated content together with friends. By creating engaging content — like recipe videos, photos of your delicious looking food, and sharing events your restaurant will be apart of, you increase the chance of consumers sharing your posts.

Find out more about how to advertise your restaurant on Facebook free of charge, and how to utilize Instagram advertising to market your establishment.

Remember that it’s key that you work on your online presence before you start advertising on social networking, as users who hear about you through Facebook or Instagram are likely to look to your online reviews and site before making a decision if they want to see your establishment.

Measure 5: Affect Your Relationships in the Community

While societal media is a great way to reach a larger audience, the heart of restaurant advertising is local.

“The adage –‘All politics are local’ can also be true for restaurants. 80 percent of business comes within 6-8 miles of a full-service restaurant. Therefore, it is very important to be more active in the community.

— H.G. Parsa Ph.D., Professor, University of Denver

One way to be successful with neighborhood marketing is to become involved in neighborhood events. It is not essential that you organize them yourself, just sponsoring one or demonstrating up to sell food is a good start for making your restaurant known in the local community.

You will also want to create connections with other local companies that appeal to the exact same target market. By way of instance, get in touch with realtors in your area. They have access to new folks moving into city, and may do things to spread the word on your restaurant such as such as a voucher for your restaurant at a welcome packet.

If your customers are largely corporate, get in touch with the office supervisors and provide to give a free lunch to the workplace. You might also inquire to see whether you’re able to leave a pamphlet with your restaurant info and menu at neighborhood companies around town. Give to have their pamphlets on your restuarant in return.

If you want even more local advertising and marketing hints, have a look at our 35 neighborhood advertising ideas from the professionals.

How To Get The Attention of Local Press

Finding the media to detect your restaurant may seem difficult, but not if you follow this rule: Always have the reporter and the audience’s goals in mind. Develop the connection with your reporter until you need a story, then tell a meaningful story if you do.

Launching a restaurant may not be news, but giving away one year of free pizza into the lucky raffle winner at your grand opening might be.

We have laid out a terrific guide on the best way to get local media coverage, and we also share how to utilize HARO to get media for your business.

Measure 6: Turn Newcomers into Repeat Customers

You’ve gotten clients to visit your restaurant, excellent! However, your marketing efforts must not end there. Repeat clients are valuable to restaurants, and a raving review from a present customer to their buddies goes a very long way. You also want to make sure your menu is set up to become as rewarding as possible.

Coaching is the Ultimate Fulfillment of Your Marketing Promise

Your hosts, servers, bussers, prep and line cooks, chefs, even the dishwashers need to be aware of what your brand is all about and why guest service and an excellent experience count. They need to understand what to say, how to say it, when to say it. They must know how to treat every guest with the utmost respect and courtesy and with the ideal attitude/approach to your brand.

You have to clearly demonstrate to your employees, your commitment to the guest experience and hold them accountable to do the same. Investing in marketing without backing this up in the table is like leaping out of a plane with no parachute.

View our ultimate guide to client service training to understand how to educate your employees to provide stellar customer support.

How To Get The Most Out of Your Menu

Most independent restaurant operators do not know the simple techniques to create the most money from their menu. Guests on your restaurant are there to purchase, not browse. Make it easy for them to devote their cash, have a fantastic experience and be profitable for you in precisely the same time.

Five menu electricity hints:

1. No boss dots………………………………………………………………… to prices. Leader dots create your guest handle your menu like a price listing. They will immediately be focused on price and select as such.
2. No $ signs. Does not this: $ make you consider money? Do not make your visitors think of cash. Your cost should say 13.99 instead of $13.99.
3. Descriptions sell:”Our big, tasty omelettes are ready with four farm fresh eggswhipped to fluffy perfection then folded with locally sourced freshly prepared vegetables, hand-sliced meats and hand grated cheeses.” This is much superior than,”Four eggs, poultry, eggs, meat and cheese.”
4. The top right hand corner would be the single most valuable piece of real estate on your menu. Research shows that this is the first place a guest’s eyes proceed. Use the top right corner sensibly to highlight and attribute your greatest profit items.
5. In addition to great descriptions, pictures are crucial to your success. Complete color, superb food photography makes things fly off your menu. Choose your most rewarding or highest buck contributors to incorporate with food close ups!

View these 25 restaurant menu templates that will help you begin creating your menu.

With a great menu and excellent customer service, you’re well on your way to driving repeat business. However, there’s absolutely no harm in providing your past clients gentle reminders of why they should return. We are going to cover the best means to do this at another section.

Step 7: Keep Marketing to Your Best Customers

You have already got guests coming from your door, you want to find another date, a third date, your purpose is to set a long-term relationship. Obtaining your existing visitors to opt-in is crucial.

You wish to be top of mind if a guest is contemplating where to go eat. You get there by communication with them always through postcards in the mail, newsletters, email, text messages and rewarding their loyalty by offering them valuable promotions, exclusive offers and benefits for joining your team, VIP program, house list.

Our preferred restaurant POS system, Toast, offers many of their customer connection functions we discussed above so that you may easily maintain contact with clients. Read about why it’s our recommended supplier in our restaurant POS system buyer’s guide.

Bottom Line

Spreading the word on your restaurant requires some time and effort, but after studying this guide, you need to have the info you want to begin!

Interested in even more restaurant marketing ideas? Check out these 50 restaurant advertising tips from the pros.