Essential Guide to Restaurant Marketing | BestBuzz

E S S E N T I A L G U I D E T O

RESTAURANT MARKETING

BestBuzz supports business owners by building tools that make marketing simple. With that in mind, our team has created this guide of essential tips and strategies.

In order for your business to succeed in the highly competitive restaurant industry, you need creative, relevant, frequent, valuable and measurable marketing strategies. Here are five simple, yet effective, tactics that you can use to kick-off a marketing plan that will generate buzz for your restaurant.

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Mobile Friendly

Market Digitally

Social Good

Fresh Look

Make it Easy

Mobile Friendly

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Mobile Friendly

In the always-on-the-go world we live in, a mobile-friendly website is a must. According to digitalbuzzblog.com, 1/2 of all local searches are performed on mobile devices.

Your customers are on their mobile phones and your business must be at their fingertips. Commonly referred to as responsive design, a website should automatically resize and adjust for the size of the screen it is being displayed on.

Pinching and zooming will push your customers away.

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What are the benefits of a mobile website for my restaurant? You want your customers to have a great experience with your restaurant, and your website is your first impression. Mobile-friendly websites allow your customers to easily view and access your menu, make reservations, complete customer feedback surveys, click-to-call to place orders, get directions, connect on social media, enter to win prizes, and stay up-to-date on special events and promotions you may be offering. A mobile website gives your business the opportunity to engage with your customers when they are making a decision on where to dine and spend money.

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How do I know if I have a mobile-friendly website for my restaurant? Testing your website is easy: take out a mobile phone that has a web browser, type your restaurant’s URL (ex. www.myrestaurant.com), and hit go! If you have to pinch and zoom to see your website, or if some items are missing because your phone doesn’t allow flash content, then your website is not mobile-friendly. What you are looking at on your phone is what your customers are seeing right now, and with over 55% of US consumers using mobile devices to search the web*, you can’t afford to miss out on this captive audience. Talk to your web developer to see if he or she can adjust your site to be mobile-friendly. You may have to create a new responsive design website if a plug-in doesn’t exist or if you are not using an adaptive website service like Wordpress. Does your restaurant need a mobile website? Request a free website assessment and demo of BestBuzz.

* Mark Walsh “55% of Cell Users Access Mobile Web,” 2012, <http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/177598/55-of-cell-users-access-mobile-web.html> (accessed April 10,2013)

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Market Digitally

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Market Digitally

Once you have a mobile-friendly site, it’s time to explore the world of digital marketing so that you can reach out and start connecting with new customers. You can always use the more traditional online marketing tactics like banner ads and paid search, but here are some organic ideas to get your creative marketing juices flowing.

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is marketing communication that is delivered through an electronic device. Devices include computers, tablets, smartphones, digital billboards, and even game consoles. The digital marketing process typically leads to the development of a organization or brand by using a variety of digital channels such as emails, social networks, mobile, etc.

Digital marketing-

Ideas on how to reach more customers through digital marketing.

Socialize with your customers through social media networks. Did you know that 91% of mobile internet access is to socialize? (DigitalBuzzBlog, 2013) The majority of social media sites have an app or mobile-friendly page. Encourage your loyal customers to like your business on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, post pictures on Instagram, and pin photos on Pinterest.

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Claim your business on location-based platforms that allow check-ins such as Foursquare or Yelp!

You also want to make sure that your restaurant is showing up in Google Places because it will allow your business to be found on Google searches, Google Maps, Google+ and mobile devices.

Claiming your business will allow you to monitor who is “checking-in” at your restaurant and allow you to do promotions.

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Ideas on how to reach more customers through digital marketing.

Interact with customers by using QR Codes in your advertisements or on menus. QR codes are like barcodes, but they can hold much more information than tradition UPC barcodes.

Once your customer scans a QR code, they can be taken directly to a mobile website, Facebook page, or one other specific action.

If you are using BestBuzz, your QR codes will take you to a mobile landing page (MLP) that is dynamic and can be altered at any time.

Your MLP can host a menu, a contest, and many more actionable items that can be changed by an easy-to-use dashboard at any time.

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Ideas on how to reach more customers through digital marketing.

BestBuzz has a free QR code scanner, so customers on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile can scan your QR code.

Text the word BUZZ to 63566 to get the free BestBuzz mobile app.

Then scan this custom QR code with BestBuzz to see an example of how QR codes work for restaurants.

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Lastly, use email marketing for your restaurant.

You can gather email addresses through traditional means such as a comment card or through digital channels like using your website. The best and simplest way to gather email addresses is by using a QR code that takes your customer to a mobile landing page where they can join your newsletter.

Sending exclusive offers, special event details, and helpful information via email is a very cost effective method that increases engagement and drives customer loyalty for repeat purchases.

There are several email marketing services available through providers like Constant Contact and MailChimp to get you started.

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Ideas on how to reach more customers through digital marketing.

Here are two videos to help create a newsletter for free!

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http://youtu.be/ad4tywpYkPA

http://youtu.be/mGSPj4CyOMQ

Like what you see? Get the rest of the Essential Guide to Restaurant Marketing here:

http://bbuzz.bz/BBEssentialGuide

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