Most restaurants are looking for ways to improve their online presence in order to attract more customers. In the last few years, social media has become a powerful tool that restaurants can use to grow their business. Here are 8 smart ways your restaurant can use social media to increase its popularity and create more sales.
1) Develop a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter strategy
If your restaurant is on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter already, great! But if not, it’s time to get started.
One of the first things that you’ll want to do is sign up for a free account on each platform. Once you’re officially signed up with all three accounts, it’s time to start developing your strategy.
Here are a few ideas for what you can do:
– Share food photos from your restaurant so customers can see how delicious your food looks
– Engage with customers by commenting on their posts or asking them questions about what they love about your restaurant
– Promote specials and events in order to encourage new customers to come in
– Offer exclusive deals or discounts that only apply if they share their posts from social media with their friends
2) Make your website mobile-friendly
If you want your restaurant to be a success, you need to make your website mobile-friendly.
According to a study by Google, 68% of consumers now use their smartphone while in the store and 22% say they expect a mobile-optimized site when they visit.
In order to attract more customers, increase sales, and improve customer service, your restaurant needs to provide an easy-to-use website that can be accessed on a variety of devices.
To do this, there are two parts to making your website mobile-friendly: first create an optimized structure for the content on your site (such as navigation), and second optimize the code so that it’s compatible with most smartphones and tablets.
3) Engage with customers on social media
Engaging with customers on social media can be beneficial to your restaurant. For example, if you’re a restaurant and you post a photo on Instagram with a coupon code, this could send traffic to your website and increase sales.
Additionally, social media gives your restaurant the ability to create content that’s unique to what they do. This type of content will intrigue customers and make them want to visit your business in person.
4) Create a compelling blog that’s optimized for SEO
Blog posts are an important part of any restaurant’s online marketing strategy. Blogs can be an effective way to communicate with your customers and provide timely information relevant to your business.
Social media has made it easier for restaurants to share their blog posts across multiple platforms, but that doesn’t mean that every post needs to be shared on social media. With the right blogging strategy, you can set up syndication so that most of your blog content is seen by people who aren’t already following you. That way, you’re sharing valuable information with a potential new customer base that may not be familiar with your brand yet.
In order to attract more customers from a wider audience, make sure your blog posts are compelling and shareable. Write blog posts about topics related to the restaurant industry in general or about popular trends within it, such as veganism or gluten-free foods. The goal here is for your content to be interesting and informative enough that other bloggers will want to share it!
One simple way to optimize your blog posts for SEO is by using keywords in anchor text links. It’s easy for search engines like Google and Bing to index these links and recognize them as ‘related’ articles—they’ll know that you’re providing answers for
5) Use email marketing to increase sales
Email marketing is a fantastic way to reach potential customers. It’s an easy-to-use tool that can help you build a relationship with your customer base, provide support for your business and increase revenue.
In order to use email marketing effectively, it’s important to set up an email drip campaign. This would allow you to introduce new content at regular intervals with the goal of getting customers to buy more frequently.
Another idea is to integrate email into your search engine optimization (SEO). By incorporating search terms in your email signature, you’ll be able to send targeted emails to your audience while they’re looking for something on the internet. With this tactic, you have a 100 percent chance of reaching your target audience and increasing sales even further.
Let’s take a look at some other ways restaurants can use social media as part of their marketing strategy:
6) Develop your social media presence
You should be using social media to create a voice for your business. Think about the things that make your restaurant unique, and share those on your social media accounts.
This will give people a reason to follow your business on social media, and they’ll see how you interact with them. They’ll also be more likely to visit your restaurant or buy one of your products in person.
In addition to creating a voice for your brand, make sure you are using social media as an opportunity to market yourself as well. Think about what makes you stand out from other restaurants in the area, and share that information with potential customers on Instagram. It’s important for people to know who you are so they can identify with you when making their buying decision.
Another way you can use social media is by posting photos from events or parties that take place at your restaurant over the course of the year. This is a great way for people who may not be able to come into the restaurant to get an idea of what it’s like there, and it will also help increase foot traffic around the holidays when people are looking for special places to go out with their friends and family.
7) Develop your online design
Your restaurant’s website should be visually appealing and easy to navigate on a mobile device. Invest in good design, and you’ll be able to attract more customers from all over the world.
Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram use visual content, which is why your restaurant’s website needs to have images that are eye-catching and relevant to your brand’s identity.
Remember that social media isn’t just about restaurants—you can use it as a way to connect with potential customers who are interested in your business or industry. You can share fun facts about what goes into your menu, or simply provide information about what types of food people can get at your restaurant.
This is an easy way for restaurants to stand out from the competition, since they’re offering something different than most places. If you want to make sure that people notice when you have new offerings, try using hashtags—they’re a great way for people to discover your posts!