Restaurant Digital Marketing – How to achieve success through Digital?

Restaurant owners heard the saying "Jo dikhta hai wohi bikta hai?"

It can't be any more relevant than today! Today's consumer lives in the digital era. They consume your offerings virtually first and then in reality. And yes, if you fail to lure them online, the chances are grim that you will be considered on-ground. So make sure you are out there and just in the way you should be.

Marketing your product is just as important as the core product. You have to consider what your customer likes, provide what they like in the right quantity and quality, take timely feedback, incorporate suggestions, and keep communicating and engaging them.

Digital Marketing makes this easy. All you need to take care of is constant efforts and continuous improvement (that's what you do to your menu as well isn't it?)

Not sure how to start? Let us serve you here with some DIY tips that you can use and make your customers fall in love with you (just as much as they love your food):

1)    Use Social Media

People bond over food which is your core offering so how can you not be Social? And by being social we don't mean that you appear once or twice a year on birthdays and occasions. Talk to your audience daily. But hey, no non-sense talks.

Go beyond regular topics (food, food, food).

Show them short videos of how food is made, share what's special today, take them behind the scenes, introduce your staff. Doing this makes the audience aware about you and your products and services.

Conduct quizzes and contests to excite your audience and gratify them by something yummy.

Take regular feedback and respond to them all. The audience should feel heard and acknowledged. This strengthens your bond with them.

Share the content they generated for you. This is the smartest way to reciprocate love; especially on Instagram where you can leverage the power of hashtags along. 

Seems like a cakewalk? No, it's not. Though these are DIY ideas and seem doable in a nick of time, consider how you want to come across as a brand and then consider how busy you are with other tasks at hand. So while you have amazing food served to your customers, let us serve you with amazing service. We specialize in social media marketing services in Mumbai and have a perfect recipe for success for each one of you.

2)     Leverage blog marketing

Experimental foodies are not only in love with eating a variety of cuisine but also cooking it. And now that you have decided to share what your audience loves, you have to give out something relevant here. Start blogging!

Share recipes, interesting facts about ingredients, highlight different types of cuisines and what's special about each of them...

Just give your audience relevant content to consume and they will love you.

But again, not as easy as it seems. Understand the specifics of the audience you are catering to, analyse what they, in particular, would like to know., what would their tastes and preferences be. Chalk out their persona and evaluate the platforms they would use for becoming social and serve relevant content there. Also, don't miss on images as they are the beloved ones.

Seems daunting? Leave it to us. We have bloggers who will make your audience just as excited about what you have to say as they are about what they have to eat.

3)     Enhance your local-SEO

Imagine someone asking the way to your restaurant and no one knows. What happens next? They go to someplace else.

Not what you want? Ensure local SEO is done right. It helps your business rank on top Google pages when people close to/ in your vicinity, search for your offerings.

How to do that? Well, start with registering your business on Google MyBusiness. Fill all the required details and ensure your business is visible on  Google Maps. Now list your business in relevant online directories which will help you gain citations; this will further help your restaurant rank well on search result pages when someone from your vicinity searches for “Restaurants near me”.  Also, ensure that you respond to Google reviews prompt enough as they help in establishing credibility.

This is important as people now search and prefer their nearest restaurants when it comes to grabbing a quick lunch or spending a peaceful evening. So if not done, you will miss something important and easy.

Seems technical? We, being a leading, SEO agency in Mumbai are here to take your orders.

4)     Register on Food Portals

When we tell you to find a restaurant or order online, what are the top few sites that come to your mind? Yes, we hear you - Zomato, Swiggy, DineOut, etc... So how can you not be here? 

These portals are a great way to sense audience emotions and interact with them often. Through these portals, you can communicate your location, timings, menu, specials, share images, and more. Other customers and including influencers can rate and review you here which serves as a benchmark for a new audience. The way you tackle criticism, as well as appreciation on these portals, speaks volume about you; and mind you EVERY ONE IS SEEING YOU!

Not sure about handling this ingredient of success? We have a recipe.

5)     Facebook Paid Advertising

Willing to shed some extra? Run paid ads on Facebook. For running these ads, you can set targeting based on geography and demographics of your audience. For instance, if you own a small cafeteria in Borivali, then you can target audience between the age of 17 to 28 (as these are most likely to hang out at a café).

Following are the different types of campaigns that may be ideal for you:

i)                Page Likes: Promote your page and increases the number of page likes and followers.

ii)              Promotional offers (when you are running a specific offer): Buy 1 Milkshake and get another one FREE!

iii)             Promote coupon codes (which can be redeemed at your restaurant) – The coupons could be offering a 20% - 30% discount or whatever you intend to offer!

6)     Mailers/SMS

Now, this is your old friend, isn't it? Good news? They still can help you. However, to make them work well, what's more, important is that you should have a thorough database.  The best way for you to collect this database will be feedback forms. Include this practice in your restaurant process. Along with the bill, do give a feedback form to your customer where they can rate you on critical parameters and also provide their contact numbers and mail ids. You can also ask for the details like their birth dates and anniversaries. Doing this will help you not only to create a database but also enable you to attract these customers again by sharing customized offers for them on their special days (remember you know the dates).

Nevertheless, just like salt, use these tactics in the right proportion else you may end up in Block and Spam list.

Wondering how to leverage this? Mail or SMS us - Simple!

7)     Get Influencers on Board

Word-of-mouth is more important than ever now with the freedom of speech and powerful medium of expression i.e. the internet. Having said so, know that these platforms have their own celebrities called Influencers! These influencers are people with large fan following and engagement on their page. They can be food bloggers and critics (with a great following) or even food enthusiasts. Invite these celebs to your restaurant and see the power of one post or tweet. You can collaborate with them and create content that generates buzz about your restaurant.

But who to contact, how, and for what? You can leave that worry to us, we know them :-)

If you or your teammates have time on your hand side, certainly go ahead and pursue above as they will be very foodful! But remember, persistence is the key.

If not, simply do what your customers do with you - Visit or call to order our offerings!