Successful Restaurant Marketing Ideas: Digital Marketing Tips & Strategies

There are a number of benefits to going into hospitality marketing, especially restaurant marketing. No doubt it’s a right industry, but it does pose lots of challenges as far as a competitive marketing is concerned.

During the business plan meeting of our company Ci Corp FZE, while discussing to expand our digital marketing automation after establishing ourselves as leader in Education and Healthcare sector, hospitality came as a natural choice. The majority of our team members opted for the hospitality sector.

For me it was more of a passion, because, being a hotelier myself and worked for several big brands in India and the UAE, after getting my diploma in Hospitality Management. As a failed restaurateur, as a consultant to my father-in-law’s restaurant in Mangalore, I had lots to offer to this ever growing business sector.

Our first month into restaurant marketing had good results, and we were lucky to sign a deal with upcoming restaurant WoknRoll to automate their digital footprints. Stay tuned, more blogs about this unique restaurant will be posted here.

I’m here to let you know some marketing strategies that will work in restaurants. The below strategies were the results of our research and questionnaires during the meetings we had with restaurant managers and owners.

Restaurant marketing isn’t the same as it has always been. It is critical that restaurants embrace Digital Marketing and cultivate a strong presence online. Online is the new marketing tool for every business, but there is still much you can (and should) do offline to promote your business.

I personally feel that it’s time to dust off your restaurant marketing plan and take a closer look at current trends. As a restaurant owner or manager, you shouldn’t put all your faith into traditional advertising and word of mouth marketing. By all means, do NOT skip those methods, but DO take advantage of all the opportunities that the Internet offers. If you are looking for in-depth restaurant marketing digital marketing tips and strategies, please call us for a FREE consultation or email us at [email protected]

Believe me, the competition among restaurants is fierce, and you’ll need to give your all to be successful. We’re here to help you through this blog, with some restaurant marketing ideas and strategies that promise to help you improve your business and get attention from food lovers across the emirates.

Please note, to make blogging simple and interesting to read, I have kept the content simple and straightforward, google can come to your rescue or you can always contact me or our office for in-depth detailed analysis of each topic. Remember our company is always there to help and execute these strategies if you ever need help.

Restaurant Marketing Ideas:
Tips & Strategies to Win in the Food Business

All the below tips and ideas will be connected with visual contents, aka images, and arguably high quality photos are the best way to promote your restaurant simply because having delicious looking photos of your marketing contents and across various social media channels is essential for drawing hungry eyes. Visual content is in high demand these days, so invest and capitalize this trend.

• Stay Fresh and Current.
• Invest in a website and make sure is mobile friendly.
• Invest in good Food Photography (Ci Photography can help you with this).
• Make sure your restaurant has dedicated social media page, if you own many restaurants.
• Sign up for Google Places and verify your business listing.
• If you have PPC Ads budget (Google Ad words or Facebook ads), make you sure you bid for Geo Targeted Ads, convert your locals as clients.
• Engage in local SEO practices.
• Use Google Ad-words Express.

• Get into Yelp, (this network still not available in the UAE) Zomato, Trip Advisor and Talabat.
• Monitor reviews sites and make sure you answer them all, don’t forget to thank both negative and positive reviewers.
• Constantly post in Instagram and be active.
• Grow your email database and send monthly email newsletter with special offers.
• Start profiling your customers and surprise them on their special occasions.
• Run contests on social media, especially on Facebook.
• Manage your online reputation.
• Leverage the free content generated by your users and promote them. Ask them to check-in.
• Show off your staff and their skills in small videos and slideshows.
• Use Pinterest and promote your restaurant through the recipes.
• Share positive press.
• Set up Google alerts for brands (check our previous blog about google alerts).

• Start a blog and tell your stories, a good content marketing strategy practice.
• Food Blogger Outreach.
• Perfect time those tweets and also use twitter as a customer support tool.
• Make sure your menu is online on your website and social networks.
• Offer coupons and discounts.
• Sign up with online reservation tools.
• Source local ingredients.
• Partner with other local business.
• Occasionally sponsor a charity event.
• Implement a customer loyalty program.

Before I end this blog, remember that the online world is always changing, so it’s important to keep your eye out for new marketing ventures that have the potential.