Opening a new restaurant? Trying to bring in some extra business? Or maybe you’re just making sure you’ve covered all your bases? You’ve come to the right place. When it comes to restaurant marketing, there’s a ton to consider.
Let’s run through everything you’ll need. Here’s our complete checklist on restaurant marketing.
Loyalty Program. To kick things off, let’s talk about your restaurant’s loyalty program. In short, having a loyalty program can make all the difference in your restaurant marketing efforts. Not only will an effective loyalty program help you keep customers around for the long term, but it also sets you up with an easy way to get in touch with your best customers. It doesn’t get better than that!
Website. Every restaurant needs a website. And every restaurant needs to make sure their restaurant covers all the bases. Make sure your menu is easily accessible (at a minimum, within a single click from the home page). Feature your locations, if you have more than one. Show off quality images of your food and restaurant. For more on perfecting your restaurant’s website, check out our blog post here. While we’re on the subject of your website, don’t forget to invest time into SEO. Want to ensure your restaurant shows up on Google? Make sure you know a few things about search engine optimization.
Social Media. Alright, so your restaurant is probably already on social media. I mean, who isn’t it? But creating a Facebook or Instagram page isn’t just something to set and forget. If you want to get the most out of social media (which you should), you’ve got to maintain those platforms with content, updates, and community engagement.
Content Marketing. While we’re on the subject of social media, let’s not forget to mention the content side of things. Content marketing can get particularly interesting for restaurants, as there’s a lot of creative opportunities to keep your audience engaged. You can try everything from recipes, to behind-the-scenes kitchen videos, and beyond.
Events. Holding the occasional restaurant event is a great way to energize your customer base. Events like parties, stand-up shows, or concerts provide a good incentive to get customers out of the house, and into your restaurant. Alternatively, holding a fundraiser or a charity auction can give your restaurant some good press.
Reviews. Have a restaurant? You’ve got reviews. Probably both good and bad. But more importantly, you need to question what steps you’re actively taking to ensure you’re getting more positive reviews and less negative ones. In order to improve, you need to put in the work. Courtesy of our blog, click here for 7 quick tips for improving restaurant reviews.
Specials. Your specials menu is one of the best ways to get customers dining in, but on a recurring basis. Varying your specials menu on a consistent basis keeps things interesting, and encourages even customers intimately familiar with your main menu into coming to see what’s new. Click here for 4 easy ways your restaurant can create an awesome specials menu.
Holidays. Speaking of specials, don’t forget to crank out a set of specials for every holiday that rolls around. Whether it’s Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, Easter, or even just St. Patrick’s Day, make sure your restaurant is prepared for the inevitable onslaught of celebrating customers.
Birthday Marketing. Birthdays are happening every single day. And the most common place people celebrate birthdays? Restaurants. It’s in your best interest to capitalize on that. Want to make your restaurant the spot to dine in on birthdays? Click here to check out our quick guide on birthday marketing.
Gift Cards. Does your restaurant have gift cards for sale? Maybe it’s time to. Gift cards are extremely popular for restaurants, so there’s no reason to not sell them. Click here to find out 4 ways your restaurant can sell more of them.
Marketing With CoGoBuzz
Want the whole restaurant marketing package? You’ve come to the right place. Get started with CoGoBuzz, our state-of-the-art digital marketing service. Our service will automate your marketing, affordably and effortlessly, setting you up with WiFi Marketing, Mobile Marketing, and Email Marketing solutions straight out of the box.
Our service tracks consumer metrics, boosts your social media presence automatically, and optimizes your digital strategy, targeting your customers both in-store and out. We develop full profiles for every single customer that logs into your in-store HotSpot. On top of that, you’ll take advantage of a powerful text-based digital loyalty program, automatic Facebook followers, and more!
Click here to learn more about CoGoBuzz!
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Have any restaurant marketing pointers to add? Let us know in the comments!