Why should a person eat at your restaurant instead of the one next door? Or, to put it another way, why would someone order online from your restaurant instead of one of the hundreds that also offer online ordering?

There is a role for good word of mouth. But it’s not enough to just have great food and great customer service—you need to let everyone know.

So, let’s take a look at 10 of the best ways to market your restaurant and get people to start ordering from you, from the basics to the more complicated.

1. Define the scope and targeting of your restaurant marketing

When making a marketing plan, it’s important to take the time to build a strong brand identity and figure out who your target market is. So, you can make a plan that is very specific and has a good chance of working. You need to explain the following:

1. Who are you going after?
2. How much can you spend?
3. Which tools and strategies will help the most?
4. How much are they going to cost?
5. How will you keep track of progress and measure results?

It’s also important to keep up with the latest digital marketing trends to make sure your marketing strategy has the best chance of working.

You can also hire a digital marketing agency to help you if you want to save a lot of time and effort on planning. To find out more, use our free and easy-to-use digital marketing services comparison tool to compare some of the best agencies in the UK.

2. Have a stunning website with an easy-to-use restaurant reservation tool

Booking site OpenTable did research that showed how diners’ habits have changed since Covid-19. Before the pandemic, walk-ins were very common. Since then, though, online reservations have become the norm, and most people who eat out do so two or three days in advance.

Whether you use a website builder with table reservation features or add an order and pay platform to your website, the user experience must be smooth and easy to use in order to get people to book online.

The last thing you want to do is make a complicated online reservation tool that is hard to use and doesn’t meet the needs of users. Wix is an example of a website builder that is easy to use and doesn’t cost a lot of money.

You might also want to think about the tools that your payment provider has to offer. For example, Square’s all-in-one POS and payment system lets businesses start operating online for free. Your website would be pretty simple, but customers would be able to look at your menu, order and pay, and choose whether they want delivery or to pick up their order.

3. Make the most of Google and restaurant review platforms

As long as you give your customers the best experience possible, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to restaurant review sites and Google reviews.

But don’t forget how important they are. TripAdvisor found that 87% of people in the UK choose a restaurant based on what other people have said about it online. Having these reviews on your site shows both visitors and Google that you can be trusted.

It will also help you get on the all-important Google local pack, which is the top results that show up on the map for your area.

Josh Wood of the marketing firm Bloc tells restaurant owners, “Make sure your restaurant has great SEO so it shows up on the map and can be found by people looking for a place to eat.”

And Wood has this to say about the main things Google looks at to decide which restaurants to rank:

Don’t forget to add to the conversation as well. TripAdvisor says that 88% of UK respondents read management responses, and most of them feel more likely to try a restaurant whether the first review was good or bad.

So, take the time to respond to both good and bad reviews by thanking people who took the time to share a good experience and trying to make people happy who had a bad one.

Also Read: The Top Foods You Have To Eat In NYC

4. Master your social media marketing

Social media is a great way to promote your business, but it’s also a great way to interact with your customers, build loyalty, and find new customers. Even better, many online ordering platforms work with social media or let you link from your social media accounts, so it’s a great way to get customers.

That’s why being real is so important. Don’t try to copy the way a brand you like does things. Instead, use market research to develop a voice and image that will connect with your audience.

Mark Smith, who runs the social media marketing firm Double Up Social, also tells restaurant owners that they shouldn’t sell a dish, but rather the story behind it.

“Instead of marketing individual dishes, think about how they fit into a bigger story, because that’s what makes them valuable. Think about where the ingredients came from. Are they made or grown in the UK? Think about where the recipes came from. Tell the story of how that dish came to be, and people will understand it better and appreciate it more.

Smith says that restaurants shouldn’t use the same photos they took for delivery partners like Uber and Deliveroo for their marketing in general. As they don’t “tell people anything about your dish or what it means.”

If you are having trouble with your social media marketing, you might want to hire a company to help you. Visit our review to find out more about the best social media marketing agencies in the UK.

5. Restaurant email marketing campaigns

One benefit of online reservations is that you can start to build up a very useful list of people who have eaten at your restaurant before. People who have already tried you out are more likely to stick with you. POS providers like Square make it easy to get customer emails and create email marketing campaigns based on how each customer spends.

But you have to follow the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if you want to keep email addresses and use them for marketing. To be compliant, you must tell all customers why their information is being stored and give them the option to not have their information stored.

Remember that this isn’t a chance to send them a bunch of emails begging them to come back. Make an email campaign that helps people get to know and trust you.

• Here are our golden rules for a good email marketing campaign for a restaurant:As the first email, ask everyone to leave a review of how they liked the meal.
• Offer good deals that people will actually take advantage of. Remember that we are in a cost-of-living crisis right now.
• Sort your database into groups of users who are actively using it. Don’t send follow-up emails to people who don’t open them.
• Instead, send a lot of mail to the people who do open it…and make your emails as personal as you can

Also Read: Reasons to Make a Date With a New York Restaurant