Online Marketing for Restaurants to Grow Customer Engagement

In honor of Dine Out Boston, formerly Boston Restaurant Week, I want to dedicate this week’s blog post to all of the delicious places I’ve eaten and those I will continue to discover.

You see, I am not a regular diner in that I don’t dine out regularly and when I do,  I don’t behave as a regular diner would. I am a hunter. I get in a mood for live jazz while I eat and I will read five “Top 10 Places For Live Jazz Dining In Your Area” blog posts. If I want a spot with a rooftop fireplace, I will search through 100 Yelp photos to find the exact atmosphere I’m in the mood for.

Let me be clear, I am a freak for this. This is not normal behavior. Most people will take one look at your Yelp listing and if they don’t like an adjective used in one of the reviews, they move on.

As a devoted diner and digital marketer, I would like this list to serve as a guide for restaurant owners, to ways they can simply grow their audience, define their brand and better penetrate their local market.

At the end of the week, I’m also publishing 3 bonus tips connected to this post. Read to the end of the post to find out how to unlock three bonus tips!

Make it easy to make porn… #FOODPORN!

Open Instagram, click the Search magnifying glass, type #foodporn and prepare to drool. There are whole visual communities developed online for sharing images of food and probably more specifically, food in just your local area. Try a hashtag with your town or nearest city immediately followed by the words ‘eats’ like, #BostonEats. At the time of this post there are just over 73,000 search results using that hashtag.

So how can you make it easy for your customers to create food porn?

Offer free Wi-Fi. I get it, you want to create a space that had a 90’s feel where everyone wasn’t glued to his or her phone and people were just talking. But when you try and impose those kind of restrictions on customers it can come off as controlling and actually damage your brand. As Simon Sinek said in his viral interview for Inside Quest:

“I do this with my friends; when we’re going out for dinner and we’re leaving together, we’ll leave our cell phones at home. Who are we calling? Maybe one of us will bring a phone in case we need to call an Uber or take a picture of our meal. I’m an idealist but I’m not insane.”

Sinek exaggerates while making a point that photographing our meals at restaurants has become almost part of the meal itself, so offer free Wi-Fi titled with the name of your restaurant so that there is no confusion.

List your social profiles, of course, only if it fits with your brand. Make it easy for your customers to tag you. This information can be displayed on a specials board, the menu or cocktail list, a centerpiece, business card or however fits with your brand. After all, what’s the point of all those delicious food pics going out across the Internet if no one knows where they can score a plate?

Reconsider your lighting. Have you ever seen a food post that someone is just gushing about but the photo itself has a weird hue that makes the food look off-putting? Often, ambient glow in person doesn’t translate well in photos. Of course, I’m not suggesting sacrificing overall ambiance for the sake of social media but it is something to be aware of. Is there a way to provide daylight color lighting options in concentrated ways at tables without killing the mood of the dining room?

Get Professional Photography

Nothing says #nomnomnom like detailed, clear, beautiful photos of your dishes.  Think you can do just as good? Watch a few episodes of Chef’s Table on Netflix and think again. A professional food photographer can stage a plate, color correct an image, and use lighting in ways that no Instagram filter ever could. At the end of the day, you want people compelled to visit by mouth-watering images. At that point, they’re already expecting to enjoy their food.

Don’t forget, your physical space is real estate! Have a real estate photographer come in to create images that convey a certain ambiance. This is particularly true for restaurants with private spaces available for hire. Consider showing these spaces decorated for a variety of occasions, during different seasons or in different light at different times of the day.

Professional photos can be used on the website and social media sites, but also on review sites such as Google, Yelp and Trip Advisor where you as the company owner, claim authority over company information and media there.

Claim Your Business

Speaking of review sites like Google, Yelp and Trip Advisor, make sure you claim you business on these platforms. Just because you have decided not to participate on a platform, does not mean customers and critics aren’t still going to discuss and review you there. This is the modern restaurant business. You don’t have the option to opt-out if you want to be responsive to your customers and practice the kind of great customer service you probably think you already have.

But just claiming your space and leaving is actually worse than not showing up at all. Once you claim your spot, fill out your profile completely. Be sure to reference all of the special features and comforts you offer. Do you host live bands on Thursday nights? Is Tuesday a pub quiz? Do you have a fireplace? Sofas in your bar area for lounging? All of these keywords help you when someone is searching for a particular creature comfort.

Be sure to list any dishes that you are particularly known for and post a prominent link to your menu, including prices. Hiding your prices only turns away potential customers. A potential customer should be able to tell from your online presence if you are an upscale eatery and will therefore expect premium pricing. Hiding that pricing only makes imaginations assume the pricing is exorbitant and turns these people away.

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Of course, these aren’t all restaurant can or should do to engage customers online but it is a great start and may already set you ahead of your competition. Sign up below to unlock 3 advanced tips to winning the restaurant game online.

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