Restaurant Marketing 101
Are you finding it challenging to enhance traffic in your restaurant through social media? Are you stuck looking for the best tips and ideas which will help promote your restaurant ? Recently, there is high competition between restaurants. To attain a competitive advantage you should focus on using social media as a marketing tool. Research shows that social media is the best way to reach your potential customers. Scientific research shows that 52% of adults have two or more active social media platforms. For the betterment of your restaurant business, you will need to know how to use social media and you’ll have to invest in such platforms which will concurrently enhance your output.
Using social media to enhance traffic is not an easy task as many individuals would view it. Therefore, it is essential to do some research on various social media platforms to know which is more suitable when it comes to promoting a restaurant. This can clearly show how it is important to identify your target customers. The suitability of social media platforms depends on the type of field you are specialized in. Below are 10 social media marketing tips for your restaurant.
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Facebook Advertising
Research shows that more than 93% of businesses uses Facebook ads as their main social media advertising tool. This tool provides one of the best advertising for restaurants. Facebook ads have high customer targeting power. It is more convenient since you can use geo-targeting which allows you to limit the advertisement to your neighborhood. This is key to saving money because you will not waste time advertising to people who is less likely to be your customers.
If you’re using Facebook ads as a marketing strategy, consider studying some key tips and techniques which will enhance traffic in your restaurant. These tips will help you identify the perfect strategy which will soon amplify your output.
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Create Relevant Social Media Profiles
Recently, research shows that almost all restaurants involved in social media marketing tactics utilize three distinct social media platforms namely Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Instagram is considered as the best social media platform that improves engagement with restaurant brands. Twitter engages better with the restaurant business in comparison with other types of industries. When uploading helpful information on social media accounts, ensure that your information is relevant to your target customers. Your profile should entail information such as your business hours, your location, a link to your website, and your phone number. It is, therefore, important to ensure your information is consistent with your listings in the internet such as sites like Google My Business. This will concurrently help your restaurant business be ranked higher on the search engine optimization. With higher search engine results you’ll boost the number of your loyal customers.
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Use Restaurant Marketing Videos
Your restaurant should consider using videos as a social media marketing strategy since it works better compared to images and texts. Videos may help you feature your staff and employees, offer cooking tutorials, promote new specials, or do a question and answer with your cook or chef. Facebook live is one of the best ways to use video marketing for promoting your restaurant business. This is because an average individual spends a lot of time watching Facebook live. Recently, many restaurants flourish by using video marketing tools. This will help helps them generate more traffic on their restaurant’s website.
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Create Social Media Contests
The creation of a social media contest helps a restaurant owner build loyalty, rapport, and provides the opportunity to engage with the restaurant’s followers and customers. Some social media contests gives out free gift cards, free dinner for a certain day, and free events. Research shows that 79% of individuals only like a certain company’s Facebook page for their discounts and incentives. Use social media contests to offer incentives and discounts to your loyal customers to gain more engagement and likes on your profiles. In addition, you can share your menu on Instagram which is the perfect platform that provides you with a visually-stimulating way to advertise your business. You can also take advantage of google alerts. These are very fundamental because they help you as well as your customers stay current. Google alerts are able to track both positive and negative reviews from your target audience.
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Respond to your Reviews
Managing your reputation is a key factor in promoting your restaurant. Unchecked reviews may leave your potential customers with a negative perspective on your restaurant. It’s very important to respond to all the reviews to show your concern. Answer all reviews as quickly as possible whether it’s a positive review or a negative review. Replying to a negative review in a short period of time can resolve the situation in the right manner. These reviews are important since they help you identify your weaknesses and strengths in running a restaurant.
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Re-share Customer Content
Social media marketing becomes more effective if your customers start posting information about your restaurant on their social media platform. Re-sharing your customer’s content has an additional advantage to your restaurant as you will be able to brand awareness and social proof. This will help your restaurant to be more exposed to social media marketing.
Re-sharing your customer’s content helps spread the information which you’ve not created. Include your hashtag in your biography to identify content as fast as possible . This allows you to see photos that have been linked to the hashtag. Also, it will help you have multiple re-posting options.
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Optimize Your Photos
Studies show that close to 93% of individuals who use Instagram are influenced by the visual appearance of an item or product before they decide to buy it. This is why it’s necessary to post beautiful and attractive pictures on your social media platform to improve traffic on your restaurant’s website. The target audience should be influenced and enticed to pay the restaurant a visit by the uniqueness and quality of the photos you post on your social media account. The content of the photos should not be limited to your food, it should also capture the essence of your brand.
When posting quality photos you should have multiple perspectives because your aim is to give your audience a good impression. Quality photos will make your potential customers have the urge to visit your restaurant.
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Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing works in the same perspective as re-sharing your customer’s content. The only difference is you need to collaborate with someone who has a social media audience, influence, and authority. For instance, a marketing influencer may post a photo of your restaurant’s food on their social pages. Focus on influencer marketing because it will help you enhance engagement. The key reason behind this is that the influencer tends to trigger conversations with your target customers using your content. This will help in enhancing your brand’s conversions and awareness as you will be reaching more potential customers by the use of the influencer marketing.
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Cross-Promote Your Channels
Rely on multiple forms of social media to enhance traffic in your restaurant. Cross-promotion can be a perfect move because one social media channel might be getting more engagement than the other.
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Post at Optimal Times
The time factor is key when dealing with any kind of business. Your restaurant will flourish well if you post on your social media accounts at optimal times. It is important to identify what particular time most of your potential customers are online to enhance engagement. This will increase the way your message spreads.
Identifying your target customers gives you an additional advantage because some tourists normally seek restaurants from the social media platforms. Social media monitoring will be helpful at this juncture because you will be able to identify these posts on social media.
Finally Improving Your own Business
These tips and tricks can help you manage the social media marketing of your restaurant. Social media might act as a way of staying at the top of your potential customer’s mind. It helps potential customers to become your loyal customers, especially if you’re satisfying their needs. Implementation of these ways will help you enhance engagement across all your platforms and will help you boost your restaurant marketing strategies.
