Digital Marketing Strategy For a Restaurant Business

Restaurant businesses in contemporary times are witnessing cutthroat competition, and to navigate these challenges and stand out in the crowd, digital marketing has emerged as a crucial strategy that assists restaurant merchants or food delivery businesses to expand their services online, inviting a larger consumer base to the website. Moreover, the restaurants listed online aim to offer an advanced user experience paired with a good culinary experience. A business owner can avail numerous industry benefits by promoting their business online and taking advantage of the hyper-connected digital landscape.

The blog introduces restaurant merchants or business owners to digital marketing strategies that drive business growth. Get detailed insights into the result-oriented digital marketing strategy that assisted many restaurants in yielding high profits.

Digital Marketing- An Overview

Digital marketing has harnessed the internet to promote services and drive more sales. The digital transformation of a restaurant business assists owners in attracting numerous customers to their one-of-a-kind eatery by strategically promoting it online. A well-applied digital marketing strategy has increased revenue generation for multiple enterprises.

• 93% of web traffic is generated through search engines.
• 97% check the internet for a reliable and authentic service provider. 
• The search volume for ‘near me’ has surged by 500%
• According to the NRA ( National Restaurant Association), 83% of restaurants have successfully used technology to gain a competitive edge and market their restaurants online. 
• 62% of restaurants fail to associate their restaurants with the audience because of the lack of personalisation. 

Indulge in a high-return digital marketing strategy for restaurants and promote your services online to acquire a large consumer base.

Why Every Restaurant Needs a Digital Marketing Strategy? With Examples.

A carefully tailored digital marketing strategy for your food joint will personalize the customer experience and create a higher sales opportunity for restaurants. Before getting started with the plan of action that assists businessmen in attaining online success, this section highlights the benefits of digital marketing with real-time examples.

1. Reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) 

An efficient digital marketing strategy for restaurants assists in reducing customer acquisition costs by refining the process through targeted audience marketing, retaining existing customers, leveraging referrals, and more to generate high profits. Moreover, it helps restaurant businesses garner a loyal customer base.

Case Study

Uncle Julio’s is spread across different parts of the United States. The restaurant has been serving for 30 years and has managed to transform and promote its service digitally, leveraging social media marketing platforms to create a strong brand identity, a loyal customer base, and has assisted in reducing customer acquisition costs for the restaurant.

Source: response.agency

2. Increased Customer Engagement 

With a large population of restaurant consumers on digital platforms, to stay competitive, restaurant businesses need to take advantage and embark on building connections with their customers in cyberspace, with engaging social media content, online campaigns, and challenges. Additionally, a convenient and intuitive restaurant website invites consumers to the platform with its efficient functionalities. According to the statistics, around 61% of users connect with a business with a user-friendly website. Consequently, this increases customer retention on the platform.

Case Study

Chipotle invested in revamping its website, increasing its usability with easy navigation, high-quality designs, and pictures. This one step majorly assisted the food industry giant to expand its restaurant sales and customer retention on the restaurant website.

Source: newsroom.chipotle.com

3. Online Reputation Management 

Online reputation management is a digital marketing strategy that protects, manages, and enhances business interactions to promote sales. Engaging in positive and negative online reviews of a restaurant business plays an important role in influencing sales, amplifying user interaction, and improving credibility. Moreover, around 90% of customer decisions are influenced by online reviews.

Source: digitalthirdcoast.com

Case Study

Eegie’s utilised this digital marketing strategy to increase its restaurant sales operations. Based in the US, the restaurant chain improved customer relationships by actively responding to all positive and negative reviews on Yelp and Google and showcasing consumer testimonials on social media. This increased their brand visibility with a growing 18.2 % social media following growth and a 5% average social consumption.

4. Customer Loyalty and Retention 

Acquire new customers while retaining the existing ones. Consumer loyalty is an important factor that increases customer retention and loyalty, with a reduction in marketing costs.

Case Study

Little Jumbo, an exceptional dining and cocktail restaurant, expanded globally, leveraging a digital email marketing strategy to garner revenue of USD 2,805 through just one personalized email. It increased their customer retention and satisfaction.

Source: guestgetter.co

5. Profit-Driven Results

Digital marketing assists in increasing business ROI (return on investment) at a reduced cost compared to traditional marketing strategies. With around 97% of internet users surfing the web for local businesses, around 46% of all searches have a local intent. Consequently, this increases the chances of a breakthrough followed by increased revenue generation.

Case Study

Kae Sushi generated a huge return on investment, recording a 400% revenue increase with a tailored digital marketing strategy that increased their online visibility and customer engagement by optimising spending on targeted online advertisements and Google Ads.

Source: kaesushi.com

These examples bring forth the benefits of employing a successful digital marketing strategy for your business. Restaurant owners can now easily increase their business’s profitability using the right strategies. Next, the blog covers digital marketing strategies that can be leveraged to increase returns, along with expanding the consumer base of your restaurant.

Digital Marketing Strategy for Restaurant Businesses

Finding the right digital strategy for your restaurant will positively affect the business’s sales and operations. Conveniently– attract, engage, and retain customers while converting them into loyal patronage. Maximize visibility and profitability by taking the right steps. Given below are various techniques to increase your online presence.

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Before anything else, you need to ensure that your restaurant business has a solid online presence and has everything you need to acquire a higher ranking on search engines to attract more traffic.

• First of all, make sure your restaurant website has key SEO elements in place, such as user-friendly URL structure, manageable meta tags, sitemaps, 301 redirects, image alt tags, duplicate content control, etc., to be able to rank better in search engines. As the search engine algorithms have become smarter, follow advanced SEO techniques to ensure the best performance of the website for the present and as well as for the future.  
• Optimize the website with local neighborhood and city keywords. Ensure accurate listing on Google My Business and local directories with an added focus on local SEO. 
• Start a blog that allows you to produce content on a regular basis. As much as people love eating, they also love reading about the recipes, nutritional value, new cuisines, etc. Besides, a blog will also allow you to target relevant keywords & attract traffic to your website.

2. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing adds to the promotion and community-building factors of the restaurant business with continuous customer engagement and targeted promotion of the services online through regular posting.

• Publish regular updates engaging with the consumers along with the behind-the-scenes, new menu items, seasonal specialities, discounts and offers, events, and more. 
• Social media marketers run offers & loyalty programs exclusively on social media to solidify their presence there. Leveraging all these ways to promote a restaurant through social media can help generate more leads and create a buzz around the brand.
• Tailored social media ads targeting specific demographics, paired with consistency, promote increased sales. The US businesses are estimated to spend USD 80.55 billion on social media ads in 2025, converting web surfers into customers. 

3. Email/WhatsApp marketing

Efficient food marketing strategies are all about sending the right message to the right person at the right time. Reach out to potential consumers with offerings and details about their orders on time, with the most reliable means of communication– email & WhatsApp. Here are some tips on effectively implementing Email & WhatsApp in your digital marketing mix.

• 90% of the text messages are read within 3 minutes. So, for limited-period offers, broadcasting the message through WhatsApp is a great way to reach your customers timely manner. 
• Emails are ideal for delivering long-term offers or informing customers about future offers in advance. The look and feel of your email directly impacts its click-through rate.
• Other than these, text messages & emails can also be used to send out important notifications to customers, such as for order confirmation, delivery, etc. Offering such service works greatly towards customer retention.

4. Video Marketing

Around 78% of digital marketers acknowledged the importance of video marketing for increasing the sales of a restaurant business. Showcase your brand through high-quality visual content and promote increased shares and engagement to attract food enthusiasts to your restaurant.

• Explainer and marketing videos are effective methods to put across your brand message while ensuring it stays in customers’ minds, converting them into prospective loyal patrons. 
• As a food ordering marketplace, you have so much to offer through video content besides just the explainer video. Share restaurant ambience, kitchen recipes, videos for the nutritional value of ingredients, and much more during marketing in the food industry. 
• To precisely understand every aspect of video marketing, popular video genres, length, aspect ratios, and more. Take advantage of complete social media video marketing to engage the right audience.

Source: thesocialshepherd.com

5. Influencer Marketing 

Influencer marketing assists restaurant merchants in attracting their established audience with their strong online presence. Partnering with influencers is a cost-effective digital marketing strategy that assists by increasing credibility, more targeted reach according to the demographics, all while driving sales.

• The influencers increase engagement of the partner restaurants through their reviews, blog posts, and social media posts, offering numerous benefits and added credibility. Select the influencers with an audience that aligns with the restaurant’s target audience. 
• Increase the authenticity of your restaurant business by following the strategic framework of the 3 Rs– relevance, reach, and resonance. Expand your services with enhanced visibility. 
• Influencer marketing also supports celebrity collaboration, aiming towards an expanded consumer base. For Example, Oji Seichi– a Canadian local ramen restaurant collaborated with Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, a famous Netflix celebrity. This collab created a buzz around the brand. The restaurant invested in a menu collaboration, introducing a new menu called the Ramen Krishnan with a limited-time ramen and ice cream. 

6. Paid Advertisement (PPC Marketing)

Pay-per-click campaigns are a cost-effective digital marketing strategy with an ROI (return on investment) of 200% for Google PPC ads. This strategy complies with the targeted approach, with payment on clicks, reducing total cost.

• For Pay-Per-Click marketing, use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to choose the right keywords. The keywords should relate to what people are searching for.
• When running a PPC ad campaign, pay special attention to negative keywords. For instance, suppose you offer food ordering service in city A, so you wouldn’t want your company name to show up if a user searches for “online food delivery in city B”. Negative keywords help in keeping the cost down by saving you from unnecessary clicks
• Focusing on high-intent keywords produces better results and performance for this dedicated marketing strategy. Moreover, according to Clutch, around 65% of small to mid-sized businesses invest in PPC. 

7. Partnerships/Brand Collaboration 

Partnership and brand collaboration involve joint promotion with shared goals. There are multiple facets to the brand collaborations done by restaurants. These types of collaborations are cross-promotion, sponsorship, limited-time menus and offers, joint events, and more.

• The restaurant merchants can collaborate with the local artists and restaurants, attracting common interest, and supporting local events to gather a targeted consumer crowd. 
• Cross-promotion with the nearby shops brings forth the opportunity of shared advantage for all the involved parties. Invest in boosting awareness and generating traffic to your restaurant by indulging in an innovative and strategically advantageous brand collaborations or partnerships. 
• Doritos and Taco Bell collaborated to produce sales worth 1 billion by combining crisp Dorito shells and mouthwatering Taco Bell ingredients. This example brings forth the benefits of partnerships and brand collaboration once integrated into your digital marketing strategy. 

8. Trend Inclined Discounts and Offers

A restaurant can introduce numerous trend-inclined personalised discounts and offers on its fully functional food delivery app or website.

Trend Inclined Offers	Personalised Discounts
Cloud Kitchen	Loyalty Card
Hyperlocal Deliveries	Limited Time Offers
Quick Deliveries	Group Discounts
Health and Sustainability	Birthday Discounts
Holiday Specials	Happy Hour

Managing restaurant operations along with successfully running a digital marketing strategy to increase business, sales, and reach for your restaurant can be a cumbersome task with late or unsatisfactory results.

Consequently, if the restaurant owner wants to expand their services online, it is ideal to outsource a conversion-centric team of Google-certified professionals. Fortunately, FATbit is a specialised service provider that offers result-oriented services to its clients.

How can FATbit Assist Develop a Well-performing Digital Marketing Strategy?

FATbit Technologies is a veteran company with 18+ years of experience in offering digital marketing services to its global clientele, with certified and professional strategists. The team of experts leverages technology and delivers an improved conversion rate to the clients. The dedicated project manager at FATbit follows a transparent process and provides innovative and tailored digital marketing strategies to businesses of all sizes– SMBs and large enterprises.

Tailored Digital Marketing Services Offered at FATbit

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 
• Pay-per-Click Ad Campaigns (PPC)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Video Marketing
• Conversion Optimisation, and more. 

Why Choose FATbit?

FATbit Technologies offers expertise in conversion-centric, demand-derived keyword integration, specialising in SEO strategies, and more, providing client-centric services to its global clients.

• Improve Visibility
• Drive Organic Traffic
• Cost-saving Lead generation
• Enhanced Credibility 
• Improved Conversion Rates
• Provides Result Longevity
• Delivers Efficiency in Reduced Time
• Relentless and Comprehensive Support 

Conclusion

The advanced cyberspace has witnessed an astounding growth, accommodating all businesses that can expand their services through an effective digital marketing strategy and scale along with an increased revenue. Restaurants have also leveraged the internet to maintain a robust online presence, interact with their consumer base, and offer increased visibility.

Attend to your end customer requirements– who are tech-savvy, use multiple devices, live in urban areas, have a busy schedule, prefer convenience over price, want quality food without prior planning in a timely fashion, and so on. Once you have outlined these factors to define the buyer persona, you will also get a clear picture of how to implement the above-mentioned digital marketing practices effectively.

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