Category Archives: Restaurant

Restaurant

Getting Reviews for Your Restaurant Online

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.

Restaurant

Tips For Marketing Your Restaurant Locally

In any city or town across the country, there are a large number of restaurants which can make marketing quite difficult. Every restaurant owner understands that the right marketing strategy is essential to success. Fortunately, there are many strategies that can be implemented locally to bring in diners.

Local Promo Distribution: On a slow day, have your employees go out in the business community and drop off fliers, free sample cards, menu fliers, and business cards. The staff can meet all the businesses and get to know them on a personal level. As well, provide information about special events. Make sure the staff is wearing clothing with the restaurant name on it.

Keep Your Restaurant in the News: Continually come up with ways to make public announcements about the restaurant. Such announcements can be a new dish, special event such as a sponsoring a charity or sporting event, restaurant anniversary…etc. You can make your announcements by sending out press releases. Online press releases are an effective tool that can be used to target your geographical area.

Utilize Online Local Business Profiles: MSN, Google, Yahoo help local businesses by providing a local search engine. These local engines help local businesses get more local exposure online. It is an effective tool as more people are now using online search methods to search for businesses in their area.

Email Marketing: Email has become an effective way of maintaining contact with customers. You can send emails to customers that contain surveys, newsletters, information about up coming events, and special coupons.

Social Networking: The internet contains a number of excellent tools to promote your restaurant. Your own website, Blog, and joining such social sites as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace is effective because you have the ability to target your local community. You can write about a variety of restaurant related things such as healthy ways of eating, new recipes, special events, food related topics, and much more. Make sure you use plenty of keywords that target your geographical area.

Local Advertising: Make use of direct mail, local newspapers, magazines, tourist bureaus, radio, and television to promote your restaurant. Create special and unique ad campaigns that will make your restaurant stand out from the other local dining establishments. It is a great way to announce special deals and provide discounts. Take advantage of a variety of different types of discount offers.

Sponsoring Local Events: Sponsoring local events will definitely increase visibility. You can hold these events either in the restaurant or in another location such as a sporting event. It is important that you have plenty of free stuff to give away that contains you restaurant’s name and address on it. Inexpensive items to give away can include mugs, baseball caps, pens, notepads, and T-shirts.

The restaurant industry is very competitive so it is essential to keep your restaurant visible in your local community. During slow business hours, tough economic times, or if you want to keep customers coming through your doors, it is important to develop innovative local marketing techniques to ensure you restaurant continues to thrive for years.