4 Marketing Mistakes Restaurants Make & How to Avoid Them
The competition is fiercer than ever. You’ve got everything running the way you think it should. Customers love your restaurants food. But there is only one problem; you have no idea how to get more customers to love your food and tell their friends and family. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Stop making the same restaurant marketing mistakes repeatedly.
Here are the four biggest mistakes I witness restaurant owners make on an daily basis:
No Strategy. Most restaurant owners that I’ve personally come across simply do not have a marketing plan. If they have a social media page there’s no consistency in the frequency of posts or their messaging. They barely post, don’t interact with their audience and don’t have very engaging content. You must have a plan, a strategy for getting new and repeat customers. Sit down with your management team and talk through what is going to attract people to your restaurant other than the food, service, and experience. Put it on paper, identify your objectives, goals and determine how you’ll measure success. I’m surprised how many restaurant owners don’t have a real marketing plan. It’s mind boggling to me.
Not having a website. This is an unthinkable no-no in our modern age. Think of a website as your virtual storefront. It is a representation of your business before they shower, gas up the car, and get the kids dressed for dinner. If you have a website make sure it's legible for laptop, tablets, and mobile devices. Studies show that 92% of consumers search for restaurants online, and 75% choose a restaurant to dine at based on those search results. Most people like to look up a menu or reviews online before going to a new restaurant, and without a website, they might decide against taking the risk.
Paying an unqualified family member or Agency to do “social media management” for your restaurant. Just because someone knows how to post on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram doesn’t make them a social media marketer. You don’t need social media management, you need social media marketing. And the amount of people who truly understand “marketing” is very slim. Most will keep your pages updated with boring content and do nothing for you except waste the few hundred dollars a month they are sucking out of your restaurant marketing budget. If their efforts are not bringing in new customers from your social media sites, then fire them as soon as possible.
Not taking advantage of the power of local digital advertising. If you aren’t reaching your audience through social media advertising you are completely missing out on. I’m not talking about boosting Facebook posts. That’s a shortcut and the lazy man’s way of advertising on Facebook. Now, while you will get some results from boosting posts, it is not half as effective as using Facebook Ads Manager or Power Editor. Using boost gives up your power to Facebook and lets them decide everything for you. Of course, this makes more money for them and they’ll gladly take it. Everything must be specific to each social media platform’s community. Facebook ads with Facebook, Live stories with Instagram, geo filters with snapchat, the wave of the future is now and those who swim with it instead of against it will not drown.
In future posts, we’ll share some more tips and guide you along the way. Restaurant marketing has changed a lot over the last decade and it’s often difficult to change with it. Our goal is to help you to see and understand why digital marketing is not just an enhancement to traditional marketing, but a cost-efficient alternative and necessity if you want to stay abreast with the competition.
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