It seems like more people are trying to eat healthier than ever. As a restaurant owner, there’s certainly a market to exploit in that regard.
Don’t take my word for it of course. According to the National Restaurant Association, the availability of healthy menu choices had an impact on 70% of consumers when deciding where to eat.
As a restaurant owner, it’s your job to cater to these consumers. Here’s a few nutritional tips to revitalize your menu in the minds of healthy eaters.
Know your market. Is creating a more nutritional menu the right choice for your restaurant? This is one of the first questions you’ll have to ask yourself. Just because there’s a large market of people that are eating healthier doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily your market. It’s your job to discover just how much the venn diagram overlaps in your restaurant.
So with that, I’ll pose another question. How much work does your menu really need to be marketable with a health-conscious crowd? It depends. Having a couple extra nutritional meals can make all the difference when a group of friends or family are deciding where to eat. If one of them is dieting, then the group as a whole might be more likely to choose a restaurant that has something to offer the dieter as well as the group.
On the other hand, if you’ve discovered that there’s a large group of people in your market that are craving healthy choices, you’re going to want to familiarize yourself with terms like organic, vegan, keto, and more.
Plan your menu. What does a healthier menu look like for your restaurant? Only you can truly answer that. There’s a few strategies you can take. Here’s some examples.
- Add a completely new section to your menu. A “Smarter Choices Block” if you will. This is essentially a smaller menu composed of a few lighter options. You’ll probably list calorie counts here, ingredients, and nutritiously-worded descriptions.
- Offer substitutes. Do a quick Google search on just about every meal you can imagine and I guarantee that someone’s concocted a “healthy” version of that meal. It’s all about finding the right substitutes. For example, let’s say you run a burger joint? You might try switching things up by offering turkey burgers and wheat buns.
- Completely overhaul your menu. You’re probably only going to want to do this if you’ve decided that a healthier direction is exactly what your restaurant needs to stay in business.
Get healthy ingredients. It’s pretty difficult to create a healthy menu without healthy ingredients, wouldn’t you agree? Start stocking up on whole grains, organic goods, different varieties of veggies, lean proteins, healthy fats, etc. Take a look at what healthy foods are popular in your restaurant’s type of cuisine too.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Healthier ingredients tend to cost more. This is true. If you want to front a healthier menu, you’re more than likely going to have to spend more. However! Customers generally understand this, and are perfectly willing to pony up more money in exchange for a more nutritious meal.
Once you’ve got the right ingredients… list them! Health conscious customers want to know exactly what’s in their food. From ingredients to calorie counts, whether or not the options are gluten free or organic, you’re going to want to show it all off. Not only is it marketable, it’s important to the customer.
Promote your healthy choices with CoGoBuzz
Now that you’ve planned out your healthier menu, it’s time to start promoting it.
Enter CoGoBuzz, our state-of-the-art digital marketing service. Leveraging advanced WiFi, SMS, and Email solutions, our service promotes all of your healthy choices directly to customer mobile devices. Take advantage of a powerful text-based loyalty program, automatic Facebook followers, and more. Want to get more in touch with your restaurant’s target market? You got it. CoGoBuzz creates fully realized customer profiles for every single customer that logs into your HotSpot, cluing you into crucial customer insights.
To learn more about CoGoBuzz, check out the rest of our website to learn more!
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Have any nutritious tips to share? Sound off in the comments!