Restaurant digital marketing is essential for any restaurant owner who is looking to serve more people their delicious food!

For most restaurants, it can be exhausting trying to keep up with the ever-evolving digital sphere. Imagine having millions of competition around the globe, how do you follow through with all the trends and get the same amount of recognition as the top businesses in your field?

This question has been on the minds of those in the food and restaurant business because the competition is vast and stiff. For small restaurant business owners, it’s essential to learn how to maximize digital marketing strategies in order to keep up in our digital age.

We are here to help and have outlined the best recipe to succeed in promoting your restaurant business using digital marketing.

Conquering Social Media Management For Restaurants

It’s the dawning of the age of the Instagram/Facebook Foodie, Food bloggers, and the #FoodPorn posts. I bet you’re no stranger to hearing these terms on social media because on Instagram alone we are exposed to millions of recorded food pictures. Food pics are all over the internet, scroll down your feed and you’re bound to see at least one.

You can use social media as your tool to reach a wide array of people from all over the world. People who plan on travelling might see pictures of the food you offer and put your restaurant on their bucket list.

When managing your social media account it’s best to post ⅓ of everything. This means you should post ⅓ of brand posts, ⅓ of share posts, and ⅓ of sell posts. So what does this actually mean?

Restaurant Digital Marketing: Brand Posts

The main goal for this type of content is to engage with people online, so you need to post contests, giveaways, reviews, or anything else that interacts with your audience in some way.

Don’t underestimate the relevance of these posts as they help to increase your following and exposure. Remember to include a clear call to action because you want to give your audience a chance to engage with your account. Some common calls to action are “tag a friend,” “comment and let us know below,” or “use the hashtag…”

Share Posts

These posts usually include links to blogs, videos, articles, websites, or any other type of external content. Sharing content will help increase your website traffic and, in turn, improve Google rankings. It can also help you with credibility. It’s all about building and establishing relationships with your audience. The goal is to build long-term relationships with customers who will want to keep coming back to your restaurant and to further solidify your credibility (which is essential to retaining customers).

This is where reposting content comes in. Reposting photos from your followers can make them feel important and seen. This could lead to great reviews and build brand awareness but don’t forget to tag them so they can see!

Another angle is to encourage customers to take photos of your food to post online with clever hashtags. Don’t forget to remind your followers to tag your account when sharing.

Research shows that 84% of people trust online reviews and recommendations as much as their friend’s opinion. It’s a fact! So always remember to repost customer reviews and photos to get the most out of social media management.

Restaurant Digital Marketing: Sell Posts

Sell posts are typically hard sell advertising content. These posts are straight to the point promotions and immediately direct people to your website along with other ways they can reach you.

Fully maximize this opportunity and showcase menu items by previewing your dishes in conjunction with promotional offers.  You can direct followers to link to your full menu or directly to a page where they can book a reservation.

Build Your Food Aesthetic

Posting quality photos online is a must these days and because everyone is after the likes and views it’s imperative to continuously stick to a high standard of content. It’s practically become a source of validation, especially for businesses. Having an aesthetically pleasing feed on Instagram could be your path to success.

It’s time to prioritize the look of your feed and the quality of your photos. These photos can entice people to lust after your food. This is where most #foodporn posts are seen.

Don’t these photos make your mouth water? If it does, then that’s just proof of the power of food photography.

Consistently posting new, visually pleasing content can entice your audience to engage and share. It shows that you always have something new to offer. Investing in good photos will help you go a long way with your marketing strategy.

Social Media Advertising For Restaurants

Social media advertising requires you to prepare a budget, unlike social media management that only requires your time. If you want your ads to be seen on social media, you have to invest a little bit of money.

Facebook and Instagram Ads – Do They Work for Restaurants?

Millions of people are on Facebook and Instagram so it’s a huge platform for advertising. The best way to increase your brand exposure is to boost your posts. Boosting your ads isn’t free but it is effective. If a sudden ad pops up in your feed then it’s most likely a boosted post.

Boosting your ads is a great way to increase traffic and create leads for your business. You reach more people and get more bang for your buck.

Another advertising strategy is to retarget your ads. Retargeting is a type of online advertising that only target people who have visited your website or have previously bought from your site. If you want to know more about retargeting click this link.

Retargeting can help previous website visitors see a fresh new ad of your products and is one of the best ways to convert past visitors into actual customers.

Restaurant Digital Marketing: Conclusion

All of the tips we’ve mentioned can be quite intimidating and time consuming, but using these tips can help you execute a successful digital marketing strategy for your restaurant.

If you’re overwhelmed and just don’t have the time to invest in your strategy don’t worry, that’s where we can help out.  Leave us a message and we’ll get started on getting your business online.