A number of recent reports are calling 2021 the year of local digital marketing for restaurants. It makes sense: Travel could still take some time to return to pre-pandemic levels and consumers will continue to rely on local businesses – and their smartphone searches – to connect with businesses they like in their neighborhood. Making sure you’re as visible as possible online to people in your area can have significant benefits: According to data from Hubspot, 97 percent of consumers searched online to find a local business and 64 percent of those searching for restaurants online followed through with a purchase within an hour. If you’re just ramping up your local digital marketing efforts, claim and optimize all local pages (via Google My Business local packs), respond to online reviews in a timely and professional way, and then optimize your ranking factors (these tips (http://bit.ly/3rosIMV) may help you improve your local search engine optimization if you need help). If you’re curious to know what restaurant brands are generating the best sales growth as a result of their local digital marketing efforts (and what they’re doing to stand out), check out this recent report from the marketing technology firm SOCi (http://bit.ly/3aGuW4w ).
In these takeout-heavy times, your menu is often viewed on a smartphone and needs to be readable and understandable on one – with minimal scrolling and waiting. To accomplish that, keep your menu in a format that is easy to navigate vertically and uses short lists or clickable boxes to differentiate categories. Use contrasting colors and standard fonts to enhance readability. Finally, help people see your food – but don’t let images of it drag down your site: Low-resolution images (around 96dpi) will have the same effect as higher-resolution images without slowing down your site.
If you typically do a bustling business around the holidays with corporate events and private parties, many of the organizations and people you serve may have leftover budget dollars – and more certainly, some pent-up demand – for fun and festivity. Even if you can’t host parties in the same way you could last year, can you find ways to help people connect with each other? Consider creating a series of virtual events that companies can offer their employees to keep them engaged with their work and colleagues. Double down on your social media presence with behind-the-scenes videos of your chef giving winter menu planning tips, contests to generate more engagement with your brand, or winter-themed promotions designed to increase your pick-up business. (The Rail offers some tips on driving engagement through Instagram Stories at https://bit.ly/3o5FCx1 ) Create a pop-up wintertime-only concept to bring people out and test new menu ideas. Offer limited-time-only offers of meal or appetizer bundles for families watching movies or games at home on the weekend. Or, help pave the way back to some kind of normalcy in 2021: Restaurant Business reports that the Brazilian steakhouse brand Fogo de Chao launched a “Journey Back to Joy” winter wonderland event to help engage and energize employees. Rethinking this concept as a weekend celebration for guests could work too, if outdoor events are happening where you are.
This year is all about stepping outside of your comfort zone, right? If you haven’t harnessed TikTok to promote your brand yet, it may be worth your while. Restaurant Business says TikTok is among the most downloaded mobile apps in the world, with about 800 million active users around the world. It can be especially effective at targeting Gen Z consumers and the simple, quirky videos it allows users to make can help a brand create the kind of content that goes viral. Case in point: Chipotle’s recent TikTok video showing a montage of people mispronouncing the brand’s name has generated millions of views.
“More reviews equal more success.” That’s what restaurant consultant and coach Ryan Gromfin told FSR Magazine recently, adding that operators need some kind of well thought-out system for generating reviews – whether it’s a simple reminder on a guest check, or better yet, a text or email reminder that is automatically sent after a visit. What kind of structure do you have in place? At a time when consumers are heavily researching their dining options online, ironing out any weak spots in your feedback loop can give your business a much-needed boost. First, make sure your business has an updated profile on the main review sites including Yelp, Google and OpenTable. Next, ask and you shall receive: Post a request for reviews on your website, social media channels and on table cards if you have a dining room. If you can, use an automated system for requesting reviews electronically – if a guest receives a prompt on their phone that includes a link to where they can post a review, you make it easy and quick for them to help. (If you offer them loyalty points or another incentive for taking the time to share their thoughts about you, all the better.) If you get a less-than-positive review, make sure you respond professionally and helpfully – a quality response to a negative review can neutralize it. Promote your positive reviews as testimonials on your website and social media.
A recent Kantar survey of 25,000 consumers in 30 markets found that as the pandemic has persisted, web browsing has increased 70 percent and social media engagement has increased 61 percent over normal rates of usage. As a result, you should consider your primary storefront to be your website and the other channels that comprise your online presence – including social media networks, online business directories and review sites. If you have longtime, loyal customers, how seamless is it for them to place a takeout order with you online? Do you have readily accessible information about their past orders – and are they earning rewards for their repeat business? If they recommend you to a friend and that friend searches for you online, will the person find accurate information about your hours and menu? Are there quality images of your food on your website and social media accounts? Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has never visited your restaurant and discovers you online – or better yet, ask a new acquaintance to research your restaurant online and provide feedback. What impression do you give them?
It’s not the eye-catching ambience on display through your front windows that is drawing people to your restaurant right now – your website is more likely the place responsible for making a good first impression and enticing people to support your restaurant. Are you making it as easy as possible for people to find you, be assured of the hours you will be open, access your menu and place an order? First, review and update your information on GoogleMyBusiness to manage your presence across both search and map functions. Beyond that, make sure your hours, phone number, webpage link and physical location are up to date, and that your website (with minimal clicks) allows people to access your menu and new safety and hygiene practices. On your website, consider a pop-up invitation to join your email list – and preview the benefits of joining it. Your online information – including what is viewable on a search engine or your site itself – should be just as easy to read on a phone as on a computer or tablet screen.
In the COVID-10 era, restaurant reviews are changing – and for better or worse, so are operators’ responses. At a time when consumers are placing elevated importance on restaurant cleanliness and may be more selective about the occasions when they eat out, a negative review can have extra power – and many professional restaurant critics are suspending their critiques right now to avoid adding to operators’ challenges. A recent Eater report detailed how Yelp is imploring reviewers to consider the challenges of the current environment before leaving a review – and some operators are shelving their “customer is always right” approach to review responses by actively challenging negative feedback. But focusing on generating positive reviews is generally the best approach – if restaurants routinely make the request. BrightLocal research found that more than 85 percent of customers are willing to leave a review. Can you ensure your staff knows to ask customers to provide feedback – and also make it easy and fast for them to respond? The Rail suggests including review link on your newsletter and email marketing campaigns, as well as using online reputation management tools to solicit views via email or text. Further, urge guests to come to you first when they have a complaint or concern. Make sure they know you want the opportunity to address a problem when it happens. It can also give you a chance to explain how the current climate has changed the experience customers are used to having with you – before they unload about it over Yelp.
Late last year, Forbes conducted a survey of 500 consumers in Generation Z – those aged 15 to 24 – to get a sense of how they interact with restaurants – and what promotional strategies work best with them. Not surprisingly, the approaches that resonate with them are far different from those that, on average, appeal to the generation before them. All of this is to say that your marketing strategy should evolve in step with your customer base to ensure it continues to provide a return on your investment – especially at a time when every dollar in your budget needs to count. Many operators are using everything from their website to social media platforms to email lists to market their restaurant to guests. But these channels may not be rewarding your business equally. Managing your restaurant’s marketing data streams via a one-stop social wifi platform that integrates with your existing wifi network can help you determine which channels serve you best. For example, how are people finding your website? What pages do they visit and how long do they stay? Is your email newsletter opened at a higher rate than the blog entry you post on social media? Do people engage more with your Instagram stories than with your Facebook posts? Having a solution that combines your data, helps you deliver content across multiple channels, and then allows you to analyze it in one place can help you adjust where needed and expand on what is already working.
Even as restaurants around the country reopen their dining rooms, the experience of sitting down and enjoying a meal with someone – nevermind as a group – likely won’t be quite the same for a while. But at a time when people are sorely missing the restaurant experience – and operators are straining to make the numbers work – can you assess the best parts of your pre-pandemic service and brand and virtualize them somehow? The chef and restaurateur Barbara Lynch told Food & Wine that she has been developing virtual cooking classes and demonstrations, and is thinking about creating a virtual restaurant concept as a partner business. Virtual reality (VR) dining experiences are even happening – and while they’re currently offered at a high price point, costs are likely to fall as adoption of VR and 5G technology expands. Even if you’re not ready for that, it’s time to assess the elements that make your brand memorable – from your music selection to your servers’ quirky personalities to the art on your walls – and determine how to deliver those things to guests online and in their homes.
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