If you run a restaurant, you probably know exactly how many bookings and covers you serve on a daily basis.
You know what the average bill is, what your most popular dishes are, and what time of day, day of the week, and season you get more bookings.
Why? Because these, and many others, are factors and metrics that show how well your restaurant or cafe is doing.
Many restaurateurs get so carried away with these “obvious” metrics that they forget all about the importance of measuring their digital marketing success. And let me tell you – digital marketing stats and analytics are just as important as the real life ones.
After all, we live in a world where the majority of people find their next place to eat online. That’s why we would recommend putting a digital marketing strategy front and centre of your restaurant.
So, here are the 10 questions you need to ask yourself about your digital marketing:
1. How many visitors do you get to your website per month?
This is a biggie, just like the number of actual visitors. Use your Google Analytics to see how many visitors you’re getting, and track that metric every month. This is your chance to see how well your website is performing and how many people are actually finding you online. The more people who find you online – the more will visit your restaurant!
2. What do your online customers like? What pages do they visit on your website?
To answer this question, you can look at your Facebook audience insights. It will give you a deeper look at your audience and what they like. Make sure to check out what pages, websites, and brands your followers are most engaged with, and see what those pages are doing right.
3. Do you have an email newsletter?
Some of the people who visit your site won’t be ready to actually book a table or pay a visit to your restaurant. The good news is that you can stay in touch and nurture those relationships into real customers. An email newsletter can help you do that. So, create a great landing page and lead magnet to get people’s contact details, and then keep in touch by sending value-filled emails every few days or weeks.
4. How are your customers finding you online and where are they spending most of their time?
There’s no need for you to be everywhere online – writing a website, blog, and having a strong presence on every single social network. Instead, figure out where your audience is spending most of their time. Then track where most of your traffic (your visitors) are coming from. That’s where you need to be most active. To help guide you we recommend Instagram proven by a study we conducted on Instagram.
Source: Only Way OnlineIf you want to go deeper into the benefits of Instagram, we have you covered.
5. Are you easy to find and contact?
Make sure your website is easy to navigate and visitors can easily find your address and contact details. The same with social media (especially Facebook). Optimize your profiles to include all the contact details. Consider adding the option to book a table online, both on Facebook and your website.
6. Are you sharing customer experiences on Social media?
Don’t make your business and your social media one-sided – showing your restaurant from your point of view. You need to showcase real customer experiences and share their side of the story. One of the easiest ways to do that is through user-generated content. Create a hashtag your customers can use or make it easy for them to geo-tag their social posts to share their experience with you. Then, all you need to do is choose the best ones and share them on your channels!
7. What are people saying about your restaurant?
It’s very important to listen to the “word on the street” or “word online,” in this case. If they’re great reviews, get people’s permission and use them as testimonials about your business. If they’re bad, see what you can do to make it up to the client and change their mind. Even if you can’t – you can still learn from every negative experience and improve.
8. What value do you bring to your audience online?
Content promoting and showcasing your restaurant is great, but you will never get loyal followers and customers with that. You need to bring your customers value! Something that helps them solve their problems or makes their life better. It could be tips, or valuable insight, facts, or simply entertaining content that brings a smile to their face.
9. How much of your online audience converts into actual visitors to your restaurant?
This can be difficult to measure and you won’t always have the opportunity to do so, but if you manage to track this, you’ll know what digital marketing strategies are actually improving your visitor rate. One of the easiest ways to track this is to have an option to book a table online.
10. Do you engage with your audience online?
You can’t create an online presence and forget about it. You need to constantly engage with your audience. Answer their questions and concerns. Track brand mentions and respond to people talking about your restaurant.
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