Will we not agree that customers are the bedrock of your restaurant? From regular customers to new visitors who stop in for the wifi but end up leaving a 5-star on your Google business, every customer is important to push your business forward. While you can handle your regulars with the best dining experience, you need a creative restaurant marketing strategy to attract new customers. But, the restaurant business is booming. There is a tough competition to gain attention and attract new customers towards the restaurant. So, unless you do the same marketing differently, you can’t be the winner. This blog will discuss three essential and three creative marketing strategies to help you optimize your efforts for rewarding results.
Why is Restaurant Marketing Necessary?
The most obvious answer is to increase revenue through more sales. But, have you ever considered how restaurant marketing can benefit you in the following ways?
Increased customer lifetime value (CLV)
CLV represents how much profit you generate after customer acquisition costs. You generate repeat business by constantly offering personalized offers to your new customers through email campaigns or social media marketing. This increases the lifetime value of each customer.
Attracting new staff members
Marketing about your restaurant’s culture and values in line with customer satisfaction makes your restaurant an attractive workplace for talented staff. This can help you save $2000 (the average cost of training an employee with no experience) per hire.
Facilitating new partnerships and collaborations
Creative marketing also involves partnering with local communities and influencers to expand reach and exposure. As your brand value grows, your restaurant gets an organic promotion from local influencers and word of mouth from local online communities.
6 Restaurant Marketing Strategies (3 Essentials + 3 Advanced)
First, discuss three essential marketing strategies you shouldn’t miss in 2024.
Create an Online Food Delivery System
Do you know online ordering accounts for 40% of total restaurant sales? Today, online food ordering is the new norm in the restaurant industry. If your website offers an online food ordering system, work on menu engineering to maximize your restaurant’s success with ease. Add your website address to your Google My Business profile for customers to easily order food without much hassle. However, you need to optimize your website as well, as discussed below.
Improve Your Website SEO
Optimize your restaurant website for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is one of the best ways to drive organic traffic online. Hire an SEO expert and optimize your restaurant website to appear first on Google, Bing, and Yahoo for your business’s most popular search queries. For instance, if you are good at making pizzas, optimize your website for popular search queries like “best pizzas home delivery near me” or “best pizza near me menu.”
Promote on Social Media
57% of Gen Z diners prefer to check social media reviews before selecting a new restaurant. Social media platforms are for more than just promoting offers. Be creative with your approach. For instance, post images of your dishes at least once a day or share happy dining moments of your customers with beautiful captions. This might influence viewers to place orders or visit your restaurant at no extra marketing cost. Take the help of hashtags to maximize impressions of your posts when promoting on Instagram or Twitter, especially.
Let’s discuss three ways to get creative with your marketing efforts.
Turn Your Existing Customers into Promoters
Restaurants generate more income with regular customers than new customers. There are two ways to make them generate more business for you. First, make them feel needed and valued. Remember their ordering choices, give them special offers, and suggest new dishes they might like. This will ensure repeat business. Second, turn them into affiliates. Offer rewards or cashback against every new customer they bring to the table. This will create a win-win situation for both you and your customers.
Encourage Your Customers to Leave Online Reviews
94% of US customers check online reviews before dining in a restaurant. The reason is simple. People want reassurance that they are selecting the right restaurant for the best dining experience. In this regard, online customer reviews on your business pages are the biggest source of social proof. That’s why you encourage customers to leave online reviews on your business pages. If possible, incentivize them to leave reviews by offering a discount on their next meal. This will also incentivize customers to return to your restaurant to claim the discount.
Use Email Marketing
50% of US diners agree they get influenced by email marketing. It is cost-effective and highly fruitful if done correctly. The acquisition cost is very small, requiring no overhead or upfront cost. All you need is the list of verified emails of your new and existing customers. You can easily collect the list from the CMS by running an online ordering system. Send them promotional offers, special day wishes, culinary jokes, and personalized discount coupons to maximize conversions.
How to Optimize Marketing Strategies?
Optimizing your marketing campaigns as per periodic performance feedback is important. You need to analyze your live performance, total revenue generated per campaign, and possible improvement windows with historical data comparison. However, it is easier said than done when you do it manually. You can take the help of an ideal restaurant analytics software to do the job for you without any scope of human error. A good restaurant management software would help you monitor performance at different levels of campaigns with real-time insights into your sales.
End Thoughts
An ideal failure-proof restaurant marketing strategy doesn’t exist. You must adopt the minimum marketing essentials and try more creative alternatives to see what works best for your restaurant. Moreover, you can leverage restaurant analytics software to track, analyze, and improve your marketing efforts with real-time performance data. In this regard, Restroworks’ fine dining software would be your ideal bet. You get data-driven insights on sales, feedback, and reservations to optimize your marketing campaigns for maximum results.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should you spend on restaurant marketing?
There is no magic number when it comes to restaurant marketing budget. It depends on a lot of factors, such as the size of your business, current growth stage, crowd-handling capacity, etc. As a general rule of thumb, allocate 7-8% of your revenue to marketing but wisely. Some marketing mediums, such as social media marketing, can be completely free. You can also choose paid methods such as email marketing and SEO. Initially, start with a small budget, measure your ROI over a few weeks, and keep increasing the budget till you hit the maximum returns.
How can you market a new restaurant?
A new restaurant requires a lot of exposure but at the cost of a moderate marketing effort. In this regard, creative social media promotions or influencer marketing are the best choices. Updating your Google My Business profile, advertising on social media platforms, and email marketing could also help get that big initial exposure.
How do I market my small restaurant?
Small restaurants should focus on building a strong online presence to market their business effectively. That requires an SEO-optimized website and active social media profiles. Also, they should engage with their community by participating in local events and running promotions. Highlighting USPs like special dishes or ambience in the marketing would help attract potential customers with ease.
