Article contributed by David “Rev” Ciancio
Walk down any street in America. How many restaurants will you find? Seriously, is there a strip-mall anywhere with just one restaurant?
Consumers not only have a myriad of restaurant options to feed their needs but now restaurants are getting into the game with in-store dining options and more prepared foods. Heck, even banks now have coffee shops in them! The choices are unlimited.
So what makes somebody choose a restaurant for their next meal and more importantly, what makes them keep coming back? Cue Steve Harvey, “What is the top answer? …
Good food, convenience, great service, word of mouth …. these are table stakes and something EVERY restaurant, regardless of size, service model or number of units, will tell you they have.
The truth is that all of these are a factor but the way people discover a restaurant is through marketing and advertising. Yes, some people find new restaurants because they walk or drive by one but hoping someone passes in front of your store is not a successful marketing plan.
Successful restaurants are not just marketing to attract and retain customers, they are fine tuning their efforts to draw in the right person and get them coming back over and over again.
Think about it. Do you eat at the same three restaurants all the time or are you constantly seeking out new places to eat? As consumers, we are loyal and we are lazy. We have a favorite place for coffee, quick lunch on the go, pizza on a Friday night and a nice restaurant where we like to take Mom out. Once we find a restaurant we love, we order and order and order again.
So given all the competition, what can you do to outperform them?
1. Tell your followers what to do next
Brands often think posting organic content to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram is a great way to attract new customers. The truth is that most people dont follow a restaurant brand on social media unless they have already had a brand experience or plan to in the near future. So who is following your accounts then? Current guests and likely your content doesn’t give them instructions on what to do next.
The wrong way: Posting pictures of food with some witty or creative text that doesn’t also give them instructions on what you would like them to do.
The right way: Give clear calls to action on what your customer should do like place an order, join your loyalty program, download your app etc. *Pro- tip* Make sure the visual content holds their hand in showing them what to do.
Example: Asking them to download your app? Create a carousel post or video that shows them step-by-step how to download and get started. This is called a “hand hold close.” Use it.
2. Personalize marketing
The number one way to drive retention, that is to make recurring visits and orders happen, is to market to your guests. There are a number of ways to market to your guests and one of the best is email. You can wait for them to drive by your store to be reminded of how much they love the food, or you can put a message right where their eyeballs are all day … their inbox.
The wrong way: Spray and pray emails sent to everyone in your database regardless of their preferences or where they are in their journey. Don’t send an email about veggie burgers to someone who has never ordered them from your restaurant.
The right way: Use software like Bikky to quickly analyze and segment your guest data. Send emails to key segments that personalize the messaging to their preferences and their current relationship to your business.
Example: Guests who have just had their first transaction enter a welcome flow (a series of 5-7 messages) that puts emails about your brand, your food, your values, etc … right into their inbox several times in the first 30 days of being your customer. I have a client doing this and they typically see 1 out of 5 guests return in the first 60 days!
3. Convert guests from third-party
GrubHub, DoorDash, Uber Eats and other third-party delivery apps charge an arm and a leg with their high-commissions and worse, they own your customer’s data. They are literally outsourcing food production to your restaurant. DoorDash didn’t create the restaurant. GrubHub didn’t cook the food. UberEats didn’t package it up. They just paid someone to deliver it. The customers love you, not the apps.
If you want to profit on a per order basis and increase lifetime value, you need to convert guests over from ordering via third-party delivery apps to ordering directly from the restaurant.
The wrong way: Increasing your prices on third-party apps to make up the difference of the high-commissions and not working to get YOUR GUESTS to order from you directly instead.
The right way: Using follow up marketing like an in-bag customer conversion tool to get guests to order from you directly instead on the next purchase and following that up with personalized marketing that gets them to not switch back to ordering via third-party delivery apps. Solutions like Ovation for order feedback and Bikky for marketing automations will superpower this for you
4. Spend money to acquire new customers
People are scrolling through social media all day long checking in on what their friends and family are doing. The #2 most popular form of content on social media is food which means that people are used to seeing food while they do this. Your restaurant should be right there when they do it.
The wrong way: Sharing to social media organically while the algorithm barely shows your content to 10% or less of your followers but not maximizing your reach to a local audience by spending money to reach hungry locals.
The right way: Budgeting $10-$12 per day per location and running awareness campaigns 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on Facebook and Instagram that target people interested in your food or service model that live or work within a 2-3 mile radius of your location. For a few dollars a day you can have your business in front of the right people all of the time. Make it even easier by using a tool like Targetable that can create the ads for you based on your data and best practices across the industry.
5. Own local search.
One of the top ways consumers discover new restaurants is using Google or Yelp to search “best [food item] near me.” If you aren’t actively managing your information, especially your menu, on all the sites where consumers go to choose where to get their next meal, you are leaving it up to those sites to decide if they have the right information to assist in your customer’s journey.
The wrong way: Leaving your information for every location unmanaged and out of date.
The right way: Use software like Marqii to easily manage all your information for all your locations on all the discovery sites. Update your menu online as often as you update it in store and be sure you are uploading new brand approved photos monthly. Be sure your hours of operation are also always 100% accurate.
In summation, any marketing is good but the right marketing is great and oftentimes measurable. Tweak your efforts with these 5 solutions and you’ll see higher acquisition, greater retention and increased lifetime value.
Do you have questions or want some suggestions on any of these points? Send me a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn. I have worked with hundreds of restaurants to help them attract and retain guests. I’m happy to answer any questions you have.
Learn more at https://bit.ly/followersorders
David “Rev” Ciancio is a former New York City bar owner and knows exactly how hard it is to operate and brand a hospitality business.
He is now a hospitality marketing consultant, customer and technology evangelist with more than 20 years experience in B2B digital marketing and business development, specializing in hospitality marketing, content, local SEO, reputation management and influencer marketing. He helps technology companies, brands and restaurants to acquire and retain customers. Rev is known as an “expert burger taster,” pens hospitality and marketing tips on his Instagram @revciancio, as well as his LinkedIn Profile. He believes that Pizza is a religion.
