This age of digitalization and social media has made it almost impossible to be seen or considered if you do not blend in and be a subset of the online community. Those who need to get lunch or breakfast could go on Google to search for the nearest restaurants and learn about the type of food they sell as well as how professional their services are.
So, if you wish to put your restaurant out there and make it more popular, you need to create the ideal online presence for it. Let us look at some tips.
Build a website that is mobile-friendly and supports online ordering
According to viable research, 90% of people who want to visit a restaurant for some treat, check online for options. The remaining 10% are those who already know where they want to go and don’t need to check online. More than half of the number who go online do that from their smartphones and this is the reason why your website must be mobile-friendly and you must also have an online strategy. An option for your clients that are within proximity to be able to place orders online will be a great strategy.
You can employ the services of a digital marketing agency to help you develop your online marketing process. They can also help you improve your online presence too.
Add Google Maps
Some people use google maps almost all the time to search for places they need services from and it won’t be an exception that they may want to rely on it to find your restaurant. It will be a fantastic idea to get your business listed on google maps so that it would be easy to locate. All you need to do is to use Google’s business photos tool to upload an all-around pictorial view of your restaurant.
If you don’t seem to be able to achieve this on time, you can include a landmark area with your address online. This landmark should be on Google Maps and from there it would be easier to find you.
Embrace email marketing
One of the most effective ways of reaching out to your target audience is by email marketing. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) usually employs databases to automatically collect, store and analyze pieces of information like emails that companies store about their customers. So you can reach your target market using your CRM database.
Make it a point of duty to do monthly newsletters to your customers. You can also share zip files of your menu and other services that you offer online to your customers. It is better to zip the files since they may be heavy and take longer to transfer with all the videos and pictures that may be involved.
Publicize your restaurant with beautiful pictures on social media networks
More than 80% of internet users are on one social media platform or the other. So, it is needless to infer that if you want to make your restaurant known online, you must have a presence on all social media platforms. Everyone loves to eat and even those that are not hungry could crave your food if they did see pictures or videos of sumptuous meals you display on your pages. So, hire a professional photographer to take beautiful pictures of not only your meals but of the interior and exterior of your restaurant. Upload these on your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms you are on.
This move will make customers flood your website to learn more. If customers keep coming and you make a lot of money, in a few years’ time you might even be living off dividends.
Boost your revenue by selling gift cards
You can boost your capital by selling gift cards, however, it’s nice to firstly come up with a plan. Something like a funding comparison table would be helpful in this case. More than 70% of gift cards get redeemed within the first six months and after then, redeeming rate drops. In fact, 6% of gift cards never get used.
Also, most people who redeem their gift cards end up spending more than the card is worth and this will be beneficial to your restaurant. So if you are not already doing business with gift cards on your website or social networks, you are losing out on a big revenue driver. Selling gift cards is like taking short-term loans at no interest which you may not even get to pay back in full. This is because some of the gift cards do not get used. This isn’t your fault anyway. That is the way gift cards work.
Final words
Using the right tools to make your restaurant known is very important. Nobody wants to start a business and not get patronized. However, getting clients can’t happen if you’re sitting down and folding your arms. People get new ideas and pieces of information from off the web or social networks every day. Your restaurant could be that new thing they get to meet with on one of the days if you can create an ideal online presence for it.
Alan Ridgell
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If interested in learning more, you can contact the author (pictured) via email at alannridgell@gmail.com.
