If you own a restaurant in New York City, it can be challenging to get noticed. With so many restaurants competing for customer attention, it is important to ensure that your restaurant stands out and markets itself effectively. If you're stuck and don't know where to start, we've got you covered. Here are nine tips that will help you to improve your restaurant marketing strategy.
One of the easiest ways to grow your presence is through social media marketing. Social media is a great way to connect with your customers, create excitement over new offerings or events, and highlight what makes your restaurant unique. In addition, using social media will give your restaurant an authentic voice and personality which customers can connect with more easily.
There are plenty of platforms to choose from to create an online presence, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Regardless of the platform you choose, it's essential to stay active, post consistently, and upload quality content.
Yelp isa restaurant marketing powerhouse with over 178 million monthly users. Yelp reviews can make or break your restaurant, so it's essential to ensure that you're doing everything in your power to maintain good ratings and manage any negative feedback.
To get the most out of Yelp, take the time to fill out the information on your profile page, including pictures of your restaurant space, hours, and contact info, as well as integrating paid advertisements to help your restaurant stand apart from the rest.
Many restaurant owners forget that customer loyalty is an integral part of restaurant marketing. One way to ensure your customers return time and time again is through a successful restaurant loyalty program.
By utilizing a restaurant rewards system, such as btwn, you can incentivize frequent visits with special perks such as discounts or cash back incentives which will help to increase loyalty to your business.
It's no secret that word-of-mouth buzz is one of the most powerful marketing tools. To create restaurant word-of-mouth, it's essential to find ways to engage your customers and keep them talking about your restaurant in a positive light by building loyal customers.
You can use many different strategies, such as creative incentivized referrals, hosting an exclusive event, or rewarding your loyal patrons with freebies or discounts. For example, using the referral program, such as btwn, allows restaurants to get started for free while ensuring that customers will be rewarded for referrals, all without your business needed to do any extra work.
Having restaurant guests take and post pictures of your food or restaurant will not only prove that you have incredible food, but it gives potential customers a more authentic view into the experience they can have at your restaurant.
You can encourage this content by promoting a hashtag, enabling users to tag your restaurant, or even running a contest. In addition, simply having a centerpiece at each table encouraging photo reviews or leaving a business card with this information at the end of your customer's visits can persuade visitors to create content about your company.
While traditional restaurant marketing methods like print and billboards are still alive and well, the best way to get your restaurant in front of new customers is through geo-targeted advertising. This will help your each potential diners in an area near your restaurant who are much more likely to become loyal patrons.
Geo-targeting pays off because people nearby are generally more inclined to visit a restaurant that advertises locally versus one with wider coverage where they would need to go out of their way to find you. Great ways to do this could be through Facebook Ad Manager or Google ads.
If you're looking for an easy and effective way to get people into your restaurants, you're going to want to consider offering special promotions. While your regular menu might be enough to get customers through the door, special promotions keep your regulars coming to your place of business.
Examples of special promotions may include deals such:
There are many ways to advertise this, either through social media or using free applications like btwn, which offers engagement tools such as coupons, invitations, surveys, and more without any cost to your business.
If you're looking to give restaurant marketing a boost, e-mail is one of your best bets.
Utilizing restaurant e-mail marketing will increase customer loyalty and open the door for more effective retention strategies in the future. For example, you can send e-mails out for customer's birthdays, reminders for special events, enticement to re-visit using a coupon, or even offering a reward for their continued patronage.
To do this, you'll need to create an e-mail list that includes accurate information about your customers, such as their name, birthday, and correct e-mail. You'll also need a restaurant e-mail marketing service likeMailChimp that allows you to send out newsletters. While you can collect all of this information by hand, you can also use digital applications to do the work for you.
If you want a way for your restaurant to stand out and attract the attention of audiences you wouldn't be able to reach through traditional advertising, then connecting with restaurant industry influencers would be the right move for you.
Influencers are individuals who have authority or expertise about a specific topic. For example, maybe they're well-known food bloggers or have a passion for finding the best unique spots. They will be able to promote your restaurant through their social media channels as well as use videos onYouTube that may target specific audiences such as millennials or people living near the restaurant's location.
If you are looking for some expert advice on how to improve your restaurant marketing, we hope this article has helped! It's important that you keep these tips in mind when designing and executing your next campaign to ensure your NYC restaurant stands out among your competition.