Running a restaurant isn’t an easy thing to do as it brings a lot of responsibilities and you have to be up to date with the latest trends all the time. And if you want your restaurant to be a highly successful one, you will need to invest in marketing strategies.
Most conservative restaurants are of the opinion that the best marketing is person to person marketing that will lead your restaurant to a great reputation and ultimate success. In the restaurant business, that’s having no free table for reservations for at least 2 weeks. They are right about one thing, the best marketing is done by word of someone you trust who is not affiliated with the business, but in modern times this tactic is outdated and slow. It takes years, maybe decades to get your place to a satisfactory point using this method and at best it should be complementary to other more efficient tactics.
Img source: rakacreative.com
The Best Marketing Strategies Out There
1. In this day and age, if you are not promoting your restaurant on Facebook and Instagram, you are losing money constantly. Facebook is probably the best tool for online marketing strategy. First, you make a Facebook page with your restaurant name, post some professionally made pictures and then start advertising through Facebook ads. This platform has a build in target marketing algorithm that will make sure that your restaurant is advertised to the relevant audience and bring in the type of client you want in your restaurant. As a result, it means that there is almost zero wasted marketing budget. In basic economic terms the supply you are offering will get to the demand that is seeking it, also, if you don’t have a website you should make one ASAP, companies like RiverCrabMarketing will be of great help considering their expertise in the online marketing business.
2. Second, you should use giveaways to promote the food you deem the best in your place. Giveaways attract a big crowd of people to give a shot at getting something tasty for free.
Img source: foodnewsfeed.com
3. Third, you need to be on Instagram so that when someone with a huge follower base eats at your restaurant and post a picture of the meal with the hashtag: “delicious!” they can put another hashtag with the name of your restaurant, and boom – free marketing!
4. Fourth, you should build a list of devoted restaurant goers that subscribe to your place through email. An email client base is even more intimate and loyal than one on social media. Some older people don’t even use social media and are more email oriented. You select a couple of nice promotions and new items on the menu, maybe even some reservations and send a collective email to your most loyal clients. This way they can feel special and privileged to be on your email list.
5. Fifth, mobile marketing. You should send mobile coupons through text messages since research suggests that over 90% of text messages get read. Sending gift cards via text is a great tactic. Imagine this scenario, it’s Sunday evening, and a young couple that lives together is thinking of going out to eat, but they can’t make a decision on what restaurant to go to. In just the right time your gift card text blips on the phone. Which restaurant do you think they will go to?
Summary
With all the strategies mentioned above employed, we can just wish you good luck doing business in 2019 – still you won’t need it when you prepare to destroy your competition using the right marketing methods!
