Even in the best circumstances, there is fierce competition in the restaurant business. Standing out from the crowd is more crucial than ever to stay in the game.
This is where restaurant marketing becomes important. But how do you plan your restaurant marketing strategy?
Restaurant marketing in an ever-changing digital environment can be difficult as you try to keep up with day-to-day restaurant operations on one side. But we all know that restaurant marketing is critical for both retaining current customers and bringing new customers in.
As you plan your restaurant marketing strategies, it is critical to know your target audience because different audiences respond to marketing campaigns distinctively. Do you want to attract families with kids? Or, do you want to boost your business by bringing millennials to your restaurant?
To allocate your marketing budget wisely, it would be better to get to know your audience first. Once you understand your target audience, you can make sure that your brand's voice is heard loud and clear.
Keeping your target audience in mind, you can get inspired by the restaurant marketing ideas we have gathered for you to make a difference in this fierce competition.
Isik Onal
Restaurant marketing on social media
Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways for restaurant marketing as you can reach out to local customers that have the potential to be your regulars. Also, visuals are the best means to express the uniqueness of the dining experience your restaurant provides.
But a proper social media marketing for restaurants requires a lot of dedicated time and energy. You need to manage multiple accounts, provide high-quality content, engage with your audience regularly, publish your posts at the right times and monitor your performance.
As these to-dos wait for you on the digital platform, you most probably have a lot on your plate to keep up with the daily operations of running a restaurant business. That is why we suggest you discover Circleboom Publish, the ultimate social media management tool that can be your greatest social media assistant.
With Circleboom Publish, you can schedule your posts on the best times for Facebook, Instagram, Google My Business, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Moreover, if you have a food blog on your website, you can RSS feed your social media accounts to auto-post your new content with Circleboom Publish.
Restaurant Marketing Ideas and trends!
If we are on the same page about the importance of social media marketing for restaurants, we can move on to ideas for restaurant marketing to get inspired and ramp up your restaurant marketing strategies!
We have gathered various outstanding ideas and trends in restaurant marketing to help you increase your brand awareness and reach out to new customers.
Restaurant marketing on Instagram
Promote user-generated content
You most likely already have devoted customers who take gorgeous photos of the dining experience you provide. This free advertising tool is called "User-generated content," or "UGC" in marketing.
Reposting this content on your Instagram account can make your loyal customers feel valued and appreciated. Also, using loyal consumers as a resource of advertising is one of the best restaurant marketing strategies as you provide word-of-mouth trustworthy recommendations.
To originate more user-generated content, you can initiate a social media contest on Instagram by giving incentives such as free desserts or drinks. But you also need to be careful about the quality of the content you are reposting as it is important to maintain your brand identity integrated as you launch your restaurant business.
Enhance your visuals with Canva
Your ultimate social media management tool Circleboom Publish offers its users a built-in version of one of the greatest design tools, Canva. As you are scheduling your content on Instagram, you can enhance your visuals with the unlimited graphic features of Canva without leaving the page.
Canva's limitless graphic features can help you find the right elements in line with your brand identity. As your content gets more creative and attractive, you can generate more engagement with your audience on your Instagram.
Zeynep Morelli
Announce time-based deals and discounts
Time-based offers work really well in restaurant marketing. If you have special deals such as buy one get one or free coffee with desserts, you can use your Instagram account to promote your offers.
A good way to do so is to make use of Instagram Stories to announce time-based deals. You can give your customers a reason to stop at your restaurant on that specific day or time.
Use Instagram Questions for customer insights
Instagram questions are a great way to promote engaging content for your customers in restaurant marketing. While doing so, you can also benefit from them in terms of customer insights.
Let's say that you have a pizza restaurant. You can ask your audience about their favorites in your restaurant. As you begin to receive responses, you may post them to your Stories along with beautiful images of your meals.
This way, you can engage with your customers by giving them a chance to share their ideas and get customer insights about your dishes.
Offer Instagrammable dishes
In the realm of restaurant marketing, there has been a lot of hype around instagrammable dishes, especially desserts. Many people tend to share dishes that have a unique and outstanding look.
As they share these visuals on Instagram, they initiate general curiosity on social media and attract new customers through word-of-mouth restaurant marketing. In some cases, these instagrammable dishes even become the signature product of the restaurants!
Zeynep Morelli
Restaurant marketing on Facebook
Use retargeting ads!
Retargeting is an advertising technique that displays ads to individuals who have visited your website but have not completed a sale. The sale can be interpreted as an online reservation or a phone call in terms of restaurant marketing.
There is a great chance that most people who have visited your website leave it without any purchase action. To convert these potential customers, you can use retargeting ads on Facebook to remind them about your restaurant.
Time your Facebook posts!
Restaurant marketing on social media may become more appealing to hungry stomachs! So, you can publish your Facebook posts with delicious meals specifically targeting breakfast, lunch, or dinner times.
But on the other hand, most probably these are the times when you are busy as a beaver in your restaurant. So, it can be a challenging task for you to keep up with your restaurant and manage your Facebook posts at the same time.
Thankfully, with Circleboom Publish, you can schedule your Facebook posts for a future date and time in one sit. So, all you need to do is log in to your Circleboom Publish account in your free time and schedule your posts beforehand to be visible on social at the right time.
Location-specific ads
Most of the time, people prefer to eat in the neighborhood they live in. So, as part of your restaurant marketing strategy for Facebook, you can make use of location-specific ads. These services can help you reduce social media advertising costs by narrowing your audience with geo-specific limitations.
Humanize your brand
Sometimes marketers may forget that Facebook's initial goal is to communicate with friends and loved ones. If you always provide product-related content, your audience may feel targeted all the time, and it can scare them off.
To avoid this scenario, we suggest you humanize your business by displaying the people behind the brand as part of your restaurant marketing strategy.
Isik Onal
Highlight the quality of your ingredients
Facebook is an excellent social media platform to inform your customers about the ingredients you use in your dishes. Everybody wants to know about what they are eating, especially in restaurants.
You can create a video showing the backstage of preparing a meal and what is going on in the kitchen as part of your restaurant marketing strategy if you have the means. Or, you can simply let your customers know about your food composition through visuals.
Kevin O. Frank
Wrapping up
In recent years, restaurant marketing has grown considerably more difficult with the increasing competition in the industry. So, as the competition gets fiercer, restaurants are looking for new restaurant marketing ideas and trends to reach out to more customers.
One of the most effective restaurant marketing strategies is to benefit from social media platforms as drool-inducing visuals are the key to promoting restaurants.
That is why we wanted to gather some ideas about restaurant marketing on social media for you to get inspired. We hope that these ideas can help you to create a storm of hype!
Zeynep Morelli
