Let’s say you own a restaurant. This restaurant has the sleekest bar, the best filet mignon, and the largest wine selection. The decorations are handpicked from your most recent exotic vacation. Your staff provides the best service in the county. All of this and…no one is showing up. Why is that? Does it have to do with your digital marketing strategy?
A business can provide as amazing experience and service. It means nothing if nobody is walking through the door or, even worse, nobody knows your business exists. That’s why promoting your business via digital marketing is now more important than ever before. Using the right strategy can help you reach over a million locals per year if implemented correctly.
How can your restaurant reach thousands of more locals online effectively and affordably? Here are a few ways that we help our clients.
Search Engine Advertising
Search engine advertising can be incredibly effective if utilized correctly, especially for restaurants. Why? Hospitality digital marketing spending is incredibly cheap! Hospitality PPC (pay-per-click) doesn’t even crack the top 20 highest spending industries in search engine advertising according to Word Stream. That means restaurants can reach a lot of people on an affordable budget.
Restaurant cost-per-click can be low as a majority of restaurants do not utilize pay-per-click advertising. On average, large chain restaurants use search engine PPC advertising. That means nearly none or only a small few of local and small business competitors are doing this! Any restaurant, with an effective strategy and budget, can market through search engines with real results.
At Advanced Hospitality, we’ve found the best way to promote our customers’ restaurants online. AHS’ Google Ads strategy takes a tailored approach towards meeting your marketing goals. Every business is different. Driving traffic to your reservation page can have a different process compared to trying to increase your online ordering sales.
One of our clients did not utilize Google Ads at all before signing up for AHS. In March 2022 alone, this customer reached over 106,000 locals in their area with over 400 clicks to their website on an affordable budget. Our ads strategy has helped them be more visible on Google Maps and Search, resulting in more reservations and foot traffic to their restaurant.
Social Media
Social media is a massive part of any business’ identity, especially restaurants. Many of your customers visit your social media pages in order to judge whether they should patron at your business or not. Social media pages with messy whiteboards, blurry pictures, or – even worse – stock photos, can damage your restaurant’s digital reputation.
Advanced Hospitality has helped our customers improve their social media status with real results. Here are a few strategies we implement for our customers in order to improve their social media and bring in new customers:
Reels – Reels is a video published on Instagram and Facebook that can easily reach thousands of locals. Billy’s Downtown Diner of Bethlehem, PA, has reached almost 15,000 locals with our Instagram Reels content in only 2 months. Publishing 2-4 Reels per month at minimum can help you gain new followers and more business. Advanced Hospitality can help you with this with our content creation services.
Events – Scheduling recurring Facebook events can help you remain visible in follower’s news feeds. Yianni’s Taverna (also from Bethlehem, PA), utilizes several recurring events to reach thousands of more locals for free on a monthly basis. Their Jazz Tuesday’s, Sunday Brunch, and Wine Thursday events reaches thousands of locals with minimum dedicated labor every month.
Advertising – Organic reach, or content that people have seen through unpaid distribution, is beginning to shrink and becoming harder to track. Apple’s new privacy policies have allowed users to block apps from tracking them. From an advertising perspective, this can skew your ability to organically reach locals. Paid advertising is incredibly effective on social media. Our social media advertising services can help you reach direct locals in your area to convert them into real business. AHS’ customers average a $0.20 cost-per-click and helped our customers reach hundreds of thousands of locals in their areas.
Google My Business
Your Google My Business profile is more than a simple listing on Search or Maps. A GMB can help detail a massive amount of information for your restaurant and can attract or deter customers from dining at your business. A simple GMB may list your hours, website, and open. What makes a great restaurant GMB? Here are a few ways AHS helps our restaurant clients properly utilize their GMB:
Reviews – If you see a review, answer it! Google responds better to GMB’s that answer Google reviews in a timely manner. Taking time to answer positive and negative reviews can show a potential customer that you’re an active business focused on customer engagement. Furthermore, it can improve your GMB according to Google’s algorithm.
Menu – More ore customers are now reviewing a restaurant’s GMB menu before deciding to eat there. Programming your menu into your GMB can reduce the amount of clicks and make a customer’s decision easier. Less time scrolling around = more of a chance they’ll select your restaurant. A
Pictures – Utilizing professional quality pictures can help shape your restaurant’s identity to a potential customer. Pictures of your dining room, building, and food can all help a picture of why someone should eat at your business. Plus, photos make you more visible online. Some of our customer’s GMB photos attract 15,000 views on just a single picture! That’s a lot of eyeballs that can turn into real revenue.
Is your restaurant digitally marketing?
Do you need help with search engine advertising, using social media correctly, and properly utilizing your GMB? Advanced Hospitality can help you craft an effective social media strategy at an affordable price. Reach more locals. Bring in more business. Contact us today for a free consultation on how to build your restaurant’s digital profile.
