Creative Restaurant Marketing Ideas for Revenue Generation

Restaurant marketing procedures are not just complex, but dynamic too. They constantly change. But, with the assistance of creative ideas powered by restaurant customer and operations data, a restaurant can successfully engage in a marketing drive that can generate revenue.

A restaurant website forms an important part of the marketing agenda. Create a restaurant website using a platform that is template-based, yet customizable. Make use of a food web constructor that is DIY, affordable and does not levy any commission per order. Ensure that you use a platform that gives you unlimited orders and enables you to activate online food ordering and receive secure payments.

Restaurant marketing is essential not just for retaining current customers and attracting new ones, but also for maintaining a robust long-term growth.

Before kickstarting a marketing campaign, it is essential to first have a clear understanding of the target audience.

Does the target audience consist of young millennials or families with children?
Does the target audience consist of empty nesters or teenagers?

Asking such questions is essential because different groups respond to the same advertising message in different ways. Only by understanding the audience, one can understand that the brand’s message is distinctly heard by the target audience and be confident that the marketing resources are being spent wisely.

The following is a list of 12 creative restaurant marketing strategies that can help generate revenue even during the pandemic period.

Mobile Ordering and Delivery:

The modern-era customer demands more personalization and flexibility in the way they order food. Restaurants are, thus, experimenting with all available options — from self-serve kiosks to ordering food from the table using a mobile device.

The greatest shift in the industry has been the way restaurants are developing their food delivery services to increase revenue. Trends have clearly indicated that customers who order food online follow it up with frequent visits to the restaurant than people who have not. Thus, restaurants are increasingly promoting themselves through delivery apps and websites.

If you are adding delivery services or expanding your existing one, ensure that you use an operational software that tracks the financial impact of delivery expenses in an automated manner. This will guide you in making informed decisions regarding the marketing priorities.

Menu Engineering:

A restaurant’s menu is one of the most important pieces in restaurant marketing. Create a menu that is relevant and profitable. This requires a restaurateur to maintain a balance between profitability and popularity, based on real-time, precise data.

Use the menu engineering data in your marketing strategies. Make sure that the promotion you are going to run features a high-margin, highly popular item. This can ensure that your food cost decisions enhance the customer’s dining experience and also improve the restaurant’s bottom line.

Menu engineering is extremely helpful when you possess accurate, up-to-date data about each menu item’s contribution margins and sales record.

Local SEO:

Local SEO is the method of optimizing a local restaurant website so that it ranks highly on Google pages when local area residents use a particular set of keywords. For example — ‘Best pizza in New York’. Create a list of the most important keywords that local users might type while searching the Internet for information. Then, use free tools like Google Keywords Planner or Keywordtool.io to optimize the restaurant website for local SEO. Lastly, focus the website development in a way that ranks well for these terms.

While local SEO is definitely an arduous task, it can bring big rewards. 75% of Internet users do not move past the first page of Google results. So, securing a place on the first page during local search results can directly have a positive impact on the number of footprints and revenue.

Google My Business Profile:

Have a complete Google My Business profile and Yelp profile. This can help win the attention of customers instantaneously, particularly, when they are in a hurry. If any crucial information about your restaurant is missing, potential guests will simply do another search and bid goodbye to you forever. So, make the restaurant listing complete and accurate. Complete profiles have the potential to improve your SEO rankings as well.

Encourage User-Generated Content:

When loyal customers snap beautiful pictures of your food and share it freely on social media, it is user-generated content. This is a very valuable, non-paid form of advertising. By leveraging the content created by loyal customers, you elevate them and give them the image of influencers. Customer testimonials and word-of-mouth recommendations are reliable and authentic. By using it well and encouraging the creation of more content, you get to retain existing customers and advertise to potential customers as well.

Re-target ads:

A restaurant’s online advertisement strategy can be made more robust by including remarketing ads. This is a part of Google Ads. Remarketing ads will not be placed on Google search result pages but on a website where Google advertising space has been bought.

Promote Yelp Reviews:

Even if a restaurant does not have a Yelp account, people will be able to review the establishment and its food. So, it is better that you be active and proactive on Yelp to maintain your reputation. Through your business account on Yelp, fill all the necessary details and make your profile complete. Add accurate photos, details about open hours, location and menu.

Mobile Friendly Online Presence:

More than 50% of the site visits are now done using mobile devices. Thus, having a mobile-friendly website and menu is imperative. Optimize the restaurant website and menu in addition to the restaurant’s presence on search engines and review platforms. Customers accessing the restaurant menu using their mobile device expect it to be accurate and legible. Information about open hours, location and contact details should also be prominent so that mobile customers do not face any barriers.

Social Media Marketing:

Social media platforms literally rule the world today. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat and what not. The good news for restaurateurs is that it is not necessary to use all of these platforms for promotional activities.

Instead of setting foot on all social media platforms and failing miserably, understand the target audience and find out the social media platforms that they use. Focus all your efforts and resources to share content on platforms where your target audience already is. This will ensure that you reap the largest social media ROI.

Impactful Visuals:

Leverage beautiful visuals of your restaurant’s food. This is one of the best marketing tools. Lately, Instagram has made snapping a plate photo the new trend. Restaurant owners are also shooting short videos for Instagram and YouTube to catch the attention of their millennial audience.

YouTube is the second largest search engine. So, create a video channel exclusively for your restaurant and tell the world what you do and how passionately you do it.

Post a small portion of a video on Instagram and ask the visitor to navigate to your website to watch the rest of it. This will generate more web traffic to the restaurant website.

Post short, racy and interesting content like interviews of chefs, a preview of a new introduction to the menu, behind the scenes at an event, etc. to develop an interest amidst the people in your business and also expand traffic to your online platforms.

CONCLUSION

Keep the above points in mind while developing your creative restaurant marketing strategies. Make decisions that are based on accurate data so that your efforts are meaningful and fruitful.