How To Market a Restaurant Using These 8 Simple Steps – Part II

Welcome to part two of Text Republic’s ‘How To Market a Restaurant Using These 8 Simple Steps’. If you missed part one you can read it here. Here are the remaining five steps:

Step #4: Use free social media

Utilize social media to brand and promote your restaurant further

Use Facebook and Twitter.

• Take lots of pictures and even videos if something is worth pressing the record button on.
• You’d be surprised how media gets attention.

I know of a local restaurant that decided to take videos of themselves cooking food up the mountains and even graphic videos of them chopping up the victims to fill the dinner plates. It got them the attention they deserved for their amazing food, believe me! Check out their YouTube channel here.

• Add a ton of people or use word of mouth to get loads of likes & followers! It’s all about networking now and you can’t miss out.
• Promote your daily specials on your page.
• There are social media tools you can use if you find it hard to keep on top of it all the time. If you want to do a lot at once, Buffer allows you to update content you want shared on your social media sites and you can set them to be posted at scheduled times.
• Don’t forget to promote local businesses through social media and share the love.

They’ll repay you in some way too!

This brings me on to my next point.

Step #5: Collaborate with your neighbours

Get involved with the community on what’s going on around the place.

Don’t cut yourself and your business off from civilization.

• I’ve seen before in a quaint little village, that when you order your food they send you into the pub next door to order a drink while you wait for your food. This is a nice touch and says a lot for community spirit.

Collaborate with business of interest.

• There are many ways to do this, and it really helps if you live in a close knit town. If you live in a large city for example, see if there’s any way you can work with a business to refer one another. e.g. a town guest house, a bar, a night club or a golf club etc. All it costs is some goodwill on both sides.

Step #6: Hold events

Hold events in restaurant to attract more customers to your restaurant

As well as getting involved with the community, if you have the space, hold events.

A really popular way to boost your restaurants reputation is to hold an “in restaurant” fundraiser.

• This is a social event held for members of a charitable organization.
• A percentage of their sales goes towards their chosen charity. This will more than likely bring large groups to your restaurant who might fall in love with a dish on your menu and come back. It also shows these people and others that you’re a caring company.
• Advertise your restaurant or cafe as a book club meeting place and reward their loyalty by offering free refills or free chocolates. Even if you can collect some books yourself and off friends, provide your own collection for customers to read, and therefore your restaurant is the go to place for chilling out.
• Talk to some local talent and see if there’s any way they could busk outside your restaurant. Depending on the theme of your restaurant, these are crafty ways to pull in business.

Step #7: Get intimate with customers

Directly contact your customers to effectively build a relationship with them

Find a way to directly contact your customers to show you care. Find ways to reward them for their loyalty and give them the best service possible.

Whether it be a rewards club, email coupons, SMS marketing, a free coffee or a loyalty card, there are tons of ways to build a relationship with them.

• Segment your customer profiles and directly target them depending on their wants and needs. There’s no such thing as a “one size fits all” approach to targeting your customers.
• Build up a customer database; you can do this either by asking them to sign up to a mobile/email club or holding in house competitions where customers provide contact details and are welcome to promotional material.
• Directly market to customers. Start a birthday club and email or text opt ins a happy birthday message with an offer to eat at your restaurant and get a free bottle of wine. Again, from experience, this works!

Step #8: Get on TripAdvisor

Your customers and potentials will find you on TripAdvisor and rate you.

Last but not least, list your business on TripAdvisor if you haven’t done so already. This is a subject we already discussed in this blog.

• If you have business cards, at the back of them thank customers for their business and request them to review your restaurant on TripAdvisor.
• After they finish their meal and they’re paying, request staff to ask them how their meal was as well as encouraging them to visit TripAdvisor and give the restaurant a review.
• Thirdly, you could place a TripAdvisor review widget directly on your company website.
• A key point taken from all this is not to be afraid to network with others. There’s always a way to find out what your customers want from you and your restaurant.
• Network with other local businesses for mutual benefits. Ask your staff to network with their social groups and network to your customers through social media.
• Service is as important as your product. The restaurant industry is an area to get creative.You need to have some unique selling propositions in order to attract, retain and regain customers. You need that something different and unique.

Have you any other ideas on how to market a restaurant and beat off your competitors? We’d love to hear from you!

Image references: Featured Image, Use free social media, Hold in restaurant events , Get intimate with customers, Get on TripAdvisor

Sarah Woulfe

Categorised in: Grow Your Business