Everyone’s heard that the best form of advertising is word of mouth… and right now the biggest mouth around is the internet. As the owner of a restaurant, you can put the power of the internet to work for you. You can hire a great restaurant web designer and create a website that is a commanding marketing tool. Your restaurant web design can help customers locate your business, show off your menu, and make it possible for them to place online orders and reservations. You can even take credit card payments through your site.
One other smart way to use the web to market your restaurant is to get online reviews. People tend to trust the opinion of their peers more than they do any advertising. Take advantage of that fact and let your customers promote your restaurant for you with their reviews. There are several ways you can go about doing this.
Use Social Media to Your Advantage Establish a Facebook page and use other social media to spread your name. Encourage customers to visit your page and leave comments there. You might even put an invitation to visit your page on the bottom of each check, on your menus, or at the tables.
This is also a great way to get feedback from your customers. If you do get the occasional negative comment, it may help you develop your business. Be sure to closely monitor your pages so you can stay on top of your customers’ opinions and keep your restaurant continuously improving.
Let Customers Leave Comments on your Website Talk to your restaurant web designer about creating a place for your customers to leave their comments. When prospective customers are researching potential restaurants to visit, they’ll see how satisfied your current clientele is. The designer can also recommend review sites that you may want to provide links to where your customers can express their opinions of your restaurant.
Don’t worry about the occasional negative comment that may arise. Most people will be skeptical if you only get rave reviews because it doesn’t seem realistic that you could please 100% of your customers all of the time. A negative review here and there will make the comments seem more authentic.
Get Listed in the Search Engines Register your business with Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local, and other helpful sites. Citysearch is one of the sites most commonly used by customers looking for reviews of eateries in their area.
Talk to your website designer about other ways to help boost your online presence. Don’t fall behind your competition because you failed to take advantage of the power of the internet.