Getting traffic to your restaurant can be simple and cost-effective – if you use digital marketing to your advantage. Digital marketing is a powerful tool in getting more traffic to your restaurant, but there’s more to it than posting a few images on social media and having a website. To increase the effectivity of digital marketing for your restaurant, we’ve gathered our favourite tips that you can easily implement in your marketing strategy:
Use Social Media for Your Marketing
Social media loves visuals and is the perfect medium to advertise your restaurant. Thanks to smartphones with great cameras, you can easily shoot high-quality images of your signature dishes, beautiful décor and helpful staff. Shoot some good-looking images, add your location (a function on most social media channels) and post it to social media. These posts will entice hungry clients in your neighborhood to drop by and experience your ambience. Don’t forget to add relevant hashtags to help your audience find you.
Bring Digital Marketing Home with Your Own Website
If your restaurant doesn’t have a website, it is basically invisible to a large number of people. In this digital age, a website will lend your restaurant credibility and will help potential clients to find valuable information (like trading hours, address and contact details) quickly. You need to invest some time (and possibly a little bit of money) in getting a website so you are visible on the digital map. A website also gives you a home for your content and can help you to connect with potential clients through a contact form or newsletter sign-up.
The most important aspects of a restaurant’s website? It should load quickly and be easy to navigate. Keep it simple and stick to your brand.
Use Content Marketing to Set Your Restaurant Apart
Content marketing takes the approach of educating or stimulating interest instead of explicitly promoting a product or service. Experiment with creating a blog to showcase inspiring recipes, give tips on seasonal ingredients and educate your followers on topics related to your industry.
Make the most of special events and holidays to create highly shareable content. This can include special cocktail recipes for Christmas or New Year, yummy cookies for the school holidays and food-related crafts your followers can make with their kids.
If you want to outsource your content marketing, why not collaborate with local bloggers or personalities? Offer incentives and set-up ways to post each other’s content that will be beneficial to both parties.
Get Listed, Everywhere
Make use of the myriads of business listing platforms and focus your attention to platforms specially created for the restaurant industry. You want your restaurant to appear on every possible listing website, restaurant app and local entertainment guide.
We have some fantastic resources that will educate you on the various facets of digital marketing. So, if you’re ready to learn more, visit our blog at http://www.blog.wsioms.co.za/.