More than 60% of newly opened restaurants fail in the first year and almost 80% close their doors before reaching 5 years of activity. Such statistics are a bold reason to make you pin your restaurant on the map and attract as many customers as you can with your services and cuisine. As hard as you worked on your menu, training your staff or the interior design, you must invest at least as much time and attention in promoting your restaurant to your target audience. And because we live in the age of technology, in this article we will talk about how you can put your restaurant on the map using modern online marketing tools.

1. Use Social Media to your advantage

Social Media gives brands and restaurants a great opportunity to connect with potential customers and draw their attention to your services - that's because 61% of people discover new restaurants through Social Media channels. Before you can actually start posting, you need to identify which social media channel your target audience is using. Each channel is different, with different audiences - so you must know your target audience, all in order to make the most of your time and money resources.

Regardless of the social media platforms you will use, your goal is to provide your audience with all the information they need to help them make a decision. Thus, it is important to fill in all the fields in the "About Us" section of each social media channel separately. Add the story of your restaurant, physical address and hours of operation, the website and a contact email, but also a phone number - as well as pictures of your cuisine or reviews of happy customers.

Instagram

Instagram is the perfect platform for restaurants and pubs - here you can show how appetising your dishes are and how good the decor looks - these are two of the most important competitive advantages of a restaurant. In addition to posts with food, you can also celebrate the experience of your employees on Instagram - such posts humanise the brand and help customers connect with people who make their dining experiences possible. 

To make it easier for locals to discover, use a hashtag strategy. Analyse which are the most popular hashtags in your city and add them to each post - so the images you post will be displayed to a much wider audience, increasing the visibility of your restaurant. In addition, create your own hashtag with the name of the restaurant and encourage your customers to use it when posting.

Facebook Live

The platform allows you to broadcast live up to 90 minutes - we advise you to limit yourself to 30-40 minutes, so the audience doesn’t get bored, but go live for at least 10 minutes, to give them the opportunity to catch you live. You don't need a well-crafted scenario to go live, but you can easily use the events you organize (an evening of live music, or an evening of karaoke or maybe a party you host) or you can transmit only a few pictures with the atmosphere of the restaurant. You can also live broadcast from the kitchen, when preparing a special dish - or showing your employee who has a special talent for spinning the pizza dough, or handling the knife. It's all about being open, creative and having your smartphone close! Promoting a restaurant should always be fun :)

2. Build a strong online presence

The decision to visit a restaurant is most often made online, so it is important to find it easily - in fact, search sites and review portals such as Foursquare have become very popular with people who search for new restaurants.

There is a large number such platforms dedicated to discovering restaurants in our country and it is recommended that you join all - or at least the important ones such as TripAdvisor or Opentable. It is worth the effort to spend a few hours online to be listed, as the exposure generated by these portals can be huge.

Freachly is another app you can have a look at - mainly useful for Influencer Marketing.

The idea behind all these sites is to appear in front of your target audience when looking for a new restaurant - so details such as the phone number for reservations / orders or the physical address should always be available. If your restaurant is not listed on such platforms, it will definitely be someone else's - so it is definitely a good idea to be listed on as many such sites.

Respond to reviews

When 92% of customers read online reviews and more than half of people between the ages of 18-34 give online reviews priority over the opinion of friends and family, you certainly cannot underestimate the power of these online "labels".

People tend to leave a review only when they are dissatisfied with their experience - it is important to respond to every comment separately, providing an explanation and, where needed, compensation. These answers will increase your credibility and give you an overview of the services or products that are a problem among your customers, issues that are likely to influence the restaurant. So you can consider that every negative review is an opportunity to improve your services. It is important to be proactive and ask customers to give your restaurant a rating and honest review, so the review section won’t be only negative reviews, after all.

3. Build a website that reflects the brand image

Unlike review platforms, where only a few aspects of your brand are presented, a website for your bar, pub or restaurant gives you the freedom to present yourself to potential customers exactly as you want to, and all focus is on your brand and your services. Do not develop a restaurant website just for the sake of having it, but keep in mind that it must have a specific purpose: to provide customers with the information they are looking for, while the design reflects the identity of your brand. In addition, with 70% of Internet traffic coming from mobile, having a website optimizsd for these devices is essential today.

We recommend that you have dedicated pages for presenting the menu, the restaurant team, to make reservations or orders at home, but also a separate contact page, where you can add information such as the physical address where you can be found, a phone number for reservations and an email address for collaborations or any complaints (hopefully not the case).

Do not forget to include quality photos with your dishes - consider even hiring a professional photographer, because you want the images you use to attract the attention and lust of those who look at them, but also to convey professionalism and high quality.

In addition to having an attractive and user-friendly website, which is the basis of the marketing campaigns carried out, it is also important to keep track of the behaviour of the users on your website - keep track of which pages are most visited, how much time they spend on the website, what keywords are used to find your website and demographic data. This data will help you optimise the website according to the preferences of your visitors. We recommend that you use Google Analytics to monitor such data.

4. Encourage the production of UGC (User-Generated Content)

User-Generated Content (UGC) is an effective way to increase your exposure to new audiences. Nowadays everyone owns a smartphone - so everyone can be a photographer, and if your dishes look as good as their taste, you can easily use this to grow your business.

For example, you can encourage restaurant guests to post photos of the food through a contest organised on Instagram - and as a prize, you can offer a free dinner at your restaurant. In addition to the fact that these photos will be exposed to the network of friends of your customers, thus increasing your audience with hundreds or even thousands of people, you can use them on your social media channels, precisely to increase the confidence and validation of the brand.

5. Use influencer marketing to expand your audience

When you open a new restaurant it is difficult to generate reviews and discussions about your business - an excellent way to do this is through Influencer Marketing. Already on everyone's lips for several years, this method of recommendations is made by trusted people, followed by tens or even thousands of people, has proven to be very effective if your target audience is common with the influencer’s audience.

Find someone with a relevant number of followers in the city where your restaurant is open and invite them to test your restaurant's preparations and concept in exchange for an online review posted on their blog or social media channels. Our advice is not to ask for a positive review directly, because it would not be honest, but to simply ask for an objective review of your food and services.

Many people follow bloggers / vloggers who try food on social media, only to find new restaurants to try, so you can definitely expand your business, the name of your restaurant becoming well-known in the community around the influencer. Freachly is - again - a great app that has been picking up around London (and no, we are not affiliates :) )

These are the main digital marketing strategies that we consider essential in terms of the marketing activity of a restaurant. Whether you have a new restaurant or a locally renowned one, potential customers should easily find you in the online environment and easily find out about the concept of your location - use the tips above to effectively reach your target audience and provide them with experiences to make them want to share it online too. 

We wish you the best of luck, and if you ever want to discuss these tactics in more detail and find ways to significantly increase the number of customers at your restaurant, contact us at hello@marketiu.com.