SimplyCast can improve your business and return on investment with social marketing and help you reach out to your customers more effectively. There. We just told you what we can do for you in 140 characters or less. Now isn't that a good example of a social media hook? Social media and quick, easy advertising connects with customers who will then do their own research in order to tell what you're all about based on the interest you gathered in those 140 characters. Encourage visitors to follow you for news updates, contests, events and more. Social media literally allows you to promote anything and link to places where customers can look up more information or learn about you. Sites like Facebook and Twitter both allow video and image sharing as well. All those posts can be viewed and interacted with within seconds of their posting, and they drive customers through to your site and your restaurant. So here are some tips on how to market a restaurant effectively by taking advantage of social media.
Know Your Restaurant Niche and Customers
If you want to know how to market a restaurant effectively, first things first. Find your restaurant style and take advantage of that. If you want to market on social media you want to emphasize the things that make your restaurant stand out among competitors and take advantage of that distinction. You're the best at what you do, and you want to make that apparent to your prospective customers. You can learn a lot about your restaurant style or what your customers love about your restaurant by collecting data. You can also use that data to tell who your customers are. By employing the use of SimplyCast Sonar and our Contact Manager, you can populate profiles with anonymous lead data that is added to the correct customer profile when they sign up to receive updates from you or download something like a recipe.
Take Advantage of Social Media Communication
Encourage your customers to market for your restaurant, through online reviews, shared pictures and check-ins at your restaurant location. Those social media engagements will be things that current customers find memorable. For example, to stand out from competitors, some restaurants ask that their customers put up photos of their meals on Instagram with a hastag "#<restaurant name>menu" in order to generate buzz and show people what they can get. Reviews can be posted on places like Yelp and TripAdvisor, where customers can review without feeling that their views may not be heard. Automate posts on social media.
Show Your Customers You Don't Just Appreciate Reviews and Social Comments - You Reply
Part of how to market a restaurant effectively is to make sure your customers feel listened to. By replying to poor restaurant reviews and answering questions on social media, you increase customers satisfaction by providing a quality customer experience. Reply and tell the customer what's being done to fix their issue. Provide automated online surveys and regularly ask customers on your site what your restaurant can do to improve. Those survey forms can easily be constructed in our platform, as can signup forms for your mailing list and landing pages for your advertising campaigns. We make sure that you have the resources to keep in touch.
Social Media Engagement - Get Them Excited About Your Restaurant's Activities
Hold contests and advertise social media exclusive "password" specials or other similar promotions that encourage customers to come in to the restaurant and interact with you, having seen special social media or email deals they gained. This will make customers feel valued by your restaurant, and help get customers excited about your deals and your restaurant as a whole. If your customers are excited, engaged and receiving exclusive deals, prizes and more, they are more likely to share the word. On top of that, you can use email or SMS to hold contests and run a loyalty program. These are all opportunities that you can capitalize on, particularly the password option, as you can schedule several posts in advance, so your restaurants just have to be kept informed of the password for that week or day.
Now that you know how to market a restaurant effectively using social media...
As you can see, there are plenty of marketing options for a restaurant social media campaign, and plenty of ways that automation can benefit your restaurant. Check out Smart Restaurant to find even more tips, tricks, and strategies for how to market a restaurant effectively. Then be sure check out our marketing automation page to learn more.
