I’m lucky to stay in a metropolis that has a thriving restaurant scene (it’s most identified for its barbecue and Tex-Mex, if that offers you any trace). And whereas I don’t take into account myself a meals connoisseur by any means, I used to be a meals journalist in a previous life, so I proceed to remain on high of the newest tales and developments surrounding the restaurant trade.
To do that, I comply with numerous eating places on social media. I additionally subscribe to their newsletters, attend their particular occasions, enter their giveaways, and join their rewards packages.
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And since my advertising mind by no means shuts off, I can’t assist however be interested in these restaurant advertising methods. How properly do they work? Which channels do these eating places carry out finest on? How do established eating places preserve curiosity after the grand opening buzz wears down?
To determine the solutions to those questions, I’m digging deep into restaurant advertising concepts, methods, and real-life campaigns.
Restaurant Advertising Methods That Work
I needed to get extra perception into the world of restaurant advertising, so I spoke with Rachel Ayotte, the founder and CEO of Bread and Butter, a communications company that works with hospitality purchasers.
Why do eating places of all sizes want a advertising technique? What does an efficient marketing campaign seem like today?
“In New York Metropolis alone, there are over 25,000 eating places, which might take the common individual 22 years to strive,” shares Ayotte.
She provides, “With an enormous stock of choices and a comparatively quick time to succeed, individuals should know your restaurant not solely exists however can be someplace they wish to go.”
Because of this having a restaurant advertising technique is crucial.
If you wish to stand out on-line and convey extra individuals into your restaurant, listed below are examples of profitable restaurant advertising methods and campaigns to take inspiration from.
Buyer-First Content material
A necessary restaurant advertising technique is to focus in your prospects. This is applicable not solely to the way in which you market your restaurant but in addition to the menu gadgets and merchandise you create.
One inventive instance of that is Chipotle’s restricted version Serviette Holder, which is impressed by its prospects.
Right here’s the backstory: It’s widespread for Chipotle prospects to seize a stack of napkins to retailer of their vehicles on their method out of the restaurant.
As a substitute of reprimanding its prospects for stocking up on napkins, Chipotle created a possibility for elevated model loyalty by making a branded automotive serviette holder.
As a bonus, the marketing campaign launched across the holidays, making it an ideal gifting alternative. Every serviette holder additionally got here with a present card for a free entree to encourage prospects to go to a restaurant to “restock” their serviette provide.
Chipotle’s restricted version Serviette Holder was not solely a superb customer-inspired product, however the marketing campaign was additionally an ideal instance of social listening in motion.
By taking note of their prospects’ behaviors and what they’re sharing on-line concerning the restaurant, Chipotle was capable of create a viral second out of it.
Chipotle’s aim on social is to “meet [their] followers the place they’re,” according to Candice Beck, the restaurant’s director of social, influencers, and Web3, and this marketing campaign fully aligns with that technique.
To make use of this technique, get to know your prospects on a deep degree. Immerse your self within the platforms they spend their time on, whether or not that’s Instagram or TikTok, and make word of their pursuits, behaviors, and targets.
Nostalgic Advertising
To at the present time, I can’t hear the phrases “child again ribs” and never consider Chili’s. That’s as a result of I, like many millennials, grew up listening to the long-lasting “I need my child again ribs” jingle on TV and the radio.
Chili’s has tapped into its Y2K previous and created a number of nostalgic advertising campaigns this 12 months to focus on its now-adult millennial viewers.
The campaigns embrace a industrial that introduced again the restaurant’s well-known jingle, now sung by Boyz II Males (one other popular culture fixture of the 90s and 2000s).
Utilizing nostalgia in advertising has been a well-liked technique lately as many companies’ goal audiences are rising up. For those who’re a longtime restaurant, don’t be afraid to rehash the previous.
This might imply bringing again an outdated menu merchandise, promoting merchandise with retro branding, and even sharing flashbacks from all through your restaurant’s historical past.
Nostalgic advertising works not solely as a result of it faucets into individuals’s recollections and feelings but in addition as a result of it serves as a reminder of how lengthy you’ve been round.
Social-Pushed Content material
In my expertise, eating places that prioritize social media of their advertising technique are inclined to generate numerous on-line buzz.
An instance of a restaurant that creates social-driven content material is Austin-based El Arroyo. Despite the fact that El Arroyo is a Mexican restaurant, you received’t discover any footage of meals on its Instagram.
With nearly 700K followers, the restaurant is as a substitute identified for its real-life marquee signal that shows cheeky jokes and ideas, usually submitted by followers.
The account shares an image of its signal with a brand new message on daily basis on Instagram.
El Arroyo has constructed a big following round its day by day signal, giving its viewers one thing to sit up for seeing — and sharing — on daily basis.
The restaurant additionally makes use of its signal to tie in present occasions or make main bulletins. For instance, when the hit Netflix present, Queer Eye, was filming in Austin, El Arroyo partnered with the solid to generate buzz.
If you wish to use social media to drive site visitors to your restaurant, create one thing shareable. This could possibly be a mural or an indication that individuals wish to take footage of or a singular menu merchandise that may stand out within the feed.
Signature Model
Once I consider a restaurant with a signature, distinct, and memorable model, the primary place that involves thoughts is Taquero Mucho.
The Austin-based restaurant is understood for utilizing the colour pink in every thing — from its decor to its margaritas — even the tortillas are pink.
Pink is splashed throughout its model imagery, making it unmissable on-line and in social media feeds. The colour pink usually evokes a sense of playfulness, optimism, and femininity, that are all phrases I’d use to explain Taquero Mucho.
Creating a powerful model is an effective way to make your restaurant memorable, as a signature model basically markets your restaurant for you.
Model Partnerships
“One in every of our favourite and simplest advertising concepts for eating places to maximise consciousness is a partnership with a like-minded model to faucet into their viewers,” shares Ayotte.
Ayotte says this can be a low-lift method to attract on what you have already got — a terrific restaurant and a terrific menu. You may “leverage that by means of one other model that shares an analogous ethos and has entry to prospects the restaurant may not,” she notes
An instance of a profitable partnership Ayotte’s group developed and executed was between the dessert model, Lady M Confections, Netflix, and Pearl Studio upfront of the discharge of the extremely anticipated musical Over the Moon.
To celebrate the release, Girl M created a mooncake lantern. As soon as the partnership was able to be introduced, Ayotte’s group reached out to media and influencers to share the information, in addition to samples of the mooncake lanterns.
“The partnership was a convincing success,” Ayotte remembers. “It [resulted] in an enormous bump in gross sales for Girl M [and generated] over 1.7 million impressions and 19,804 complete social engagements.”
10 Restaurant Advertising Concepts for 2024
Based mostly on the methods above, together with extra perception from Rachel Ayotte and my private encounters with restaurant advertising that works, listed below are ten restaurant advertising concepts and finest practices to do that 12 months and past.
1. Construct a easy but efficient web site.
Whether or not I’m trying to find a restaurant close to me on Google or I’ve found a brand new place by means of Instagram, my subsequent step is at all times to take a look at the restaurant’s web site. Having a web site in your restaurant is a necessity.
“Even when a restaurant has one of the best service and finest meals on the earth, company want a strategy to discover out data and join indirectly,” states Ayotte. “In our expertise designing web sites for eating places, we emphasize the necessity for commonly up to date, user-friendly codecs that make it straightforward for company to see the menu, hours, location, and how you can make a reservation.”
What we like: The excellent news is you don’t have to have web site improvement expertise to construct an efficient web site. “Eating places don’t want a massively complicated web site to achieve success,” says Ayotte. “An internet site may be comparatively easy if designed properly.”
2. Handle and replace your Google Enterprise Profile.
Along with their web site, one other factor I instantly check out when trying to find eating places is their Google Business Profile.
Your Google Enterprise Profile is the profile that pops up on the suitable aspect of the display when somebody searches for your online business. This snapshot of your online business creates a primary impression to searchers who wish to see what kind of meals to anticipate and what the ambiance is like.
It additionally shows data they’re most definitely searching for instantly, corresponding to hours, location, and critiques.
It’s essential to maintain your profile up to date so prospects have probably the most correct and up-to-date data. Eating places that actively preserve this data get 89% extra calls, web site visits, and course requests, and 79% extra critiques, in keeping with knowledge from Mobile.io.
Right here’s an instance of a Google Enterprise Profile for a neighborhood pizza restaurant right here in Austin known as Via 313:
The profile consists of the restaurant’s important data corresponding to location, hours, and cellphone quantity. But it surely additionally consists of issues that may assist diners make their choice, just like the menu, service choices, critiques, and loads of photographs.
Professional tip: You may add your personal photographs to your profile in the event you don’t need it to solely function photographs from buyer critiques.
3. Monitor on-line critiques.
“Folks like to broadcast detrimental experiences and critiques,” Ayotte states. “This may hang-out a restaurant for years.”
Whilst you can’t management what individuals write of their critiques, you possibly can select the way you reply. Take the time to learn and reply to each constructive and detrimental critiques.
Right here’s one other instance from By way of 313, the pizza store I discussed above. The restaurant takes the time to thoughtfully reply to each buyer overview on Google, even acknowledging their suggestions when prospects share it.
Greatest for: Monitoring your restaurant’s on-line critiques isn’t solely so you possibly can keep on high of detrimental critiques. You can too use buyer suggestions to enhance your restaurant service, get inspiration for brand new dishes, or accumulate constructive critiques as social proof in your web site and social media posts.
4. Share UGC (user-generated content material).
For me, seeing posts created by different accounts and prospects helps persuade me to strive a restaurant. That is known as user-generated content material, or UGC.
UGC establishes social proof, which is the idea that prospects are influenced by different prospects’ experiences, conduct, and suggestions.
For instance, the Reel beneath was created by a meals influencer sharing their expertise on the New Orleans-based restaurant Willa Jean (which, by the way in which, I can verify is a good brunch spot within the metropolis!).
The restaurant shared the video by itself web page to amplify the influencer’s constructive suggestion.
What we like: Not solely does UGC present social proof in your restaurant, nevertheless it additionally offers you loads of content material to share, so that you by no means run out of issues to put up.
5. Be part of a reservation platform.
If you wish to get prospects within the door, you must make it straightforward for them to return. This usually means assembly them the place they’re, which, within the case of upscale eating, is on the reservation platforms.
Reservation platforms like Resy or Tock are nice channels for eating places to extend their discoverability and get in entrance of latest prospects.
On the shopper aspect, these platforms are handy. Reserving platforms usually curate eating places for patrons, organizing them into classes corresponding to “Prime Rated” or “Greatest Brunches” so individuals can navigate their choices higher.
Resy, for example, even has a class known as “Guide Tonight” that shows openings for last-minute reservations.
Professional tip: For those who supply reservations or group eating, make it straightforward in your prospects to ebook a desk by including a reservation web page or plugin in your web site.
6. Have interaction prospects immediately with e-mail advertising.
In 2023, I had considered one of my most memorable eating experiences at Bar Marilou in New Orleans. From the library-inspired inside design to the mouth-watering bites and flavorful drinks, the expertise has caught with me for practically a 12 months.
So, in fact, anytime I see the identify “Bar Marilou” pop up in my inbox, I instantly open the e-mail simply to be reminded of my magical expertise.
That is the ability of e-mail advertising. When executed proper, emails can be utilized to extend buyer loyalty and function a reminder of your story, your menu, or your occasions. Electronic mail is a strategy to attain your prospects immediately, whereas social media posts can get misplaced in a sea of content material.
Bar Marilou solely sends out emails as soon as a month (generally much less) to share upcoming occasions or updates. This cadence is sufficient for me since I don’t even stay in the identical metropolis and might’t simply drop in at any time when I need.
Nonetheless, you probably have sufficient knowledge in your prospects, you would ship extra customized emails relying on their places, demographic, and eating historical past with you. For example, if you understand your prospects’ birthdays, you possibly can ship them rewards to redeem on their particular days.
Greatest for: If you wish to talk essential data or share upcoming occasions together with your prospects, e-mail advertising is usually a extra direct channel than social media.
7. Create shareable moments.
Shareable content material is vital to succeeding on social media. While you create content material that pulls and resonates with individuals, they’re extra more likely to share it and enable you enhance your restaurant’s on-line attain.
There are just a few methods to create moments or content material that individuals wish to share. A method is to make your dishes Instagram-worthy so prospects are compelled to take footage and share them.
Right here’s one other instance from the pink restaurant, Taquero Mucho, I discussed earlier. The restaurant creates a enjoyable new drink each month and shares it on Instagram. This one aligned with the Barbie film that premiered final summer season.
One other method is to design your restaurant in a method that’s share-worthy by creating an Instagrammable spot inside or outdoors of your area, like a mural.
8. Begin a loyalty or rewards program.
Everybody loves free stuff. A rewards program is usually a enjoyable strategy to encourage prospects to develop into frequent guests to earn free meals and drinks.
McDonald’s affords a terrific instance of how you can execute a rewards program. To encourage individuals to make use of its app, McDonald’s affords prospects free giant fries once they make a purchase order.
The extra orders you make within the app, the extra factors you get and might use in the direction of future orders.
However you don’t have to have a elaborate app or be a big restaurant chain like McDonald’s to begin a loyalty program.
My native espresso store, Sorrento’s Coffee, affords a rewards program that’s arrange by means of its POS system, Square.
Each time you purchase a drink, you get factors. 140 factors get you one free drink. (Which jogs my memory — seems to be like I’ve a free espresso or two ready for me!).
Greatest for: Loyalty packages are supposed to reward frequent prospects. In my expertise, the rewards packages I’ve been most definitely to take part in are locations that I already frequent.
These packages work nice with espresso outlets or lunch spots in a busy workplace space — wherever the place you’re more likely to see the identical prospects frequently.
9. Create branded merchandise.
Creating bodily merchandise or branded merchandise is an effective way to let your prospects do your advertising for you.
Just like the Chipotle marketing campaign I shared above, branded merchandise is a good advertising concept for eating places with a loyal buyer base. The important thing to creating branded merchandise is to create a product that not solely displays your model however can be one thing your prospects would take pleasure in.
For instance, El Arroyo, the restaurant with the well-known marquee signal, additionally affords a full line of merchandise that’s synonymous with its signal. The cheeky nature of the signal lends itself properly to different gift-type gadgets like doormats, coasters, and taking part in playing cards, just like the merchandise beneath.
What we like: Branded merchandise is an effective way to encourage prospects to advertise your model for you and enhance word-of-mouth.
10. Companion with comparable manufacturers.
As Ayotte talked about earlier when speaking about restaurant advertising methods, model partnerships are an efficient strategy to amplify your model by getting it in entrance of latest audiences.
To get probably the most out of your model partnership, associate with a model that has a unique but like-minded viewers. It doesn’t even must be one other restaurant or meals model. The aim is to be launched to a brand new viewers that may profit from or take pleasure in your product.
For example, in the event you’re a small native restaurant that simply opened in your city’s fundamental avenue, you would associate with different small companies on the block for an in-person occasion or a social media giveaway.
Professional tip: Model partnerships must be mutually useful. Contemplate what the opposite celebration will obtain in return for partnering with you if you make your pitch.
What I Realized About Restaurant Advertising
The largest factor I’ve realized from digging into totally different restaurant campaigns and methods is that there’s a ton of room to be inventive with restaurant advertising.
There’s no proper or improper method. Eating places can incorporate developments of their social posts or persist with publishing high-quality photographs of their dishes. They will attempt to get in entrance of latest audiences by partnering with comparable manufacturers, or they’ll construct loyalty with present prospects by means of e-mail advertising.
The important factor your restaurant must succeed is a web site with the next key data:
- Menu
- Hours
- Location
- Telephone quantity
- Electronic mail
- Reservations (if relevant)
The most effective restaurant advertising technique is to grasp your model and your prospects. From there, you possibly can experiment with totally different on-line and in-person channels to execute your imaginative and prescient and convey extra individuals into your restaurant for years to return.
