The competition for diner’s attention is at an all-time high. With the rise of digital marketing options and changing consumer preferences, traditional restaurant marketing strategies no longer suffice. This article explores forward-thinking approaches that restaurant owners and marketers can adopt to enhance their brand’s reach and appeal.
1. Create Unique Content
Creating unique content regularly is a great way to boost a brand and keep customer attention. Here are some content ideas to boost your restaurant marketing strategies:
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Behind the scenes
People go to restaurants not just for the great food, but also for the experience and the service. To connect with your audience, you can bring them along behind the scenes. This helps them understand the idea behind your restaurant and what it takes to run it. Some ideas for behind-the-scenes content include:
- Tell the story behind your restaurant and why you started the restaurant business
- Ask regulars and other members of the community to share their experiences in your restaurant
- Discuss the ups and downs of running a restaurant
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Share Recipes, Tutorials, and Live Cooking Shows
With the rise of food delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, many diners have become accustomed to ordering food deliveries. While you start providing food delivery services, why not give your customers some online cooking classes? You can teach your audience about your most popular dishes. This helps build interest in your brand and gives them an appetite to eat your food by cooking it themselves.
Sharing your secrets may sound counter-intuitive, but you can offer a simple recipe that people can follow to make them feel more connected to your brand without divulging any secrets. That way you can show your audience every step to make a dish from your restaurant, but you are still the expert. Consider going live on Facebook or Instagram. When customers attempt a few of your recipes at home, they will still want to come to your restaurant for the full experience.
2. Reach a New Audience on Social Media
Test different social media channels and features for your restaurant marketing strategies. You can connect with your regulars and reach potential customers through experimentation with other social media channels.
To stay relevant in the restaurant industry, you need to embrace platforms like TikTok have been creating recipe videos. This could be the best place to try and reach a new audience.
However, don’t forget to stay active on other popular social media channels.
3. Optimize Your Online Presence
Take some time to optimize your online presence and ensure that your social media channels are consistent so that consumers can find you easily. You could also submit your restaurant to foodie or traveler blogs like New Hope Restaurants for a chance to be featured in their list of recommended restaurants. Featuring on a list like this will help your visibility.
You can also set up a “Google My Business” profile. It is free, easy to use, and allows you to manage your online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. Along with your business profile, you should also be updating your website. The questions that you need to ask yourself when you are updating your website are:
- Is all the information up to date?
- Does your menu display well on desktop and mobile devices?
- Do you have a reservation system integrated into your website for easy booking?
- Are your images up to date?
- Are you capturing contacts and building a mailing list?
- What else can you add to your website that might be valuable to your audience?
You should also add online ordering (if you don’t already have it) to maximize your takeout and delivery business. Using website integrations for online ordering allows customers to place orders directly on your website and all the information about their order is processed through your restaurant POS. It benefits both you and the customers because it is easier for them to order from you. On the other hand, your restaurant gets to keep 100% of the profits instead of using third-party ordering apps.
It is also important that everything that goes onto your website is updated on all your social media channels.
4. Collaborate with Influencers
Start some outreach to influencers in your city and collaborate with them to market your restaurant. Influencers have a loyal following and act as voices of authority in the community. Their endorsements can significantly increase your restaurant’s visibility. In addition, you can partner with journalists in your area or the general travel and hospitality industry.
While it is possible to do marketing and public relations on your own, sometimes you can also hire professionals to do it for you. After all, PR can be time-consuming. PR professionals know exactly what needs to be done to create an effective marketing strategy.
Do you need help generating positive publicity for your restaurant? Consider partnering with the PR specialists, expert writers, and certified designers at Pressfarm. We can help you build a memorable brand image with a professional press release, compelling guest posts, and an eye-catching media list. By submitting this content to the right media outlets and startup directories, Pressfarm can help boost your online visibility.
Finally, as a client, you get custom media lists and access to a database of 1 million+ journalists, influencers, and bloggers. With these contacts, you can share your brand story widely and win customers.
With any of Pressfarm’s PR packages, you can start generating the publicity your restaurant deserves.
