RESTAURANT MARKETING - TIPS AND SERVICES

Building a website for your restaurant? How to display your menu?

March 19, 2014 By Paulo Calisto Leave a Comment

Do you like to download files to your computer? If you answer is no, please read this through.

After researching on restaurant websites, I noticed that there are quite a few restaurants that do not “write down” their menu at the website pages, but instead, the user have the possibility of downloading the restaurant menu in a pdf format.

Below are 4 reasons why you should display your menu in your website instead of asking the users to download a pdf menu.

1- Your potential customers may “run away’ lazy to download the menu to their computer. People nowadays want things fast and are afraid of downloading files to their computers. This can make them “run away” from your website when they understand that they will need to download the file in order to see what is available at your menu. [Read more...]

Restaurant online ads- Google or Facebook?

February 24, 2014 By Paulo Calisto Leave a Comment

Both of them are very powerful advertising tools that can make your ads only visible to your potential clients. This way you won’t overspend by paying more to show your ads to people who will never patronage your restaurant. If you want to start by only using one of them, I strongly recommend Facebook. The reason why I recommend Facebook is because of its viral opportunities.
When you create an ad on Google, people will see it on the google search page when they perform a search related to your ad. After seeing your ad, potential customers may click on it and be transferred to your ad page/ message. However, if you want to send them another message, you will need to spend money again to create another ad. On the other hand, if you create your ad on Facebook, first your target market will see it even when they are not searching for something similar of what you are promoting, and if that ad is linked to your Facebook fan page, they may like your page and be connected with you “for life”, giving you future possibilities of promoting and engaging with them for free. Have you tried Facebook or Google advertising platforms? What are the results?

Why you should spend 30 minutes building a facebook page for your restaurant?

February 24, 2014 By Paulo Calisto Leave a Comment

We all listen about the “power” of Facebook. Facebook is the most used social media network in the world (more than 1.2 billion), and almost everyone from developed countries uses it or at least consider using it. People use it mostly to communicate, share experiences and search. This search is mostly on friends, but nowadays people also use it a lot to search for businesses.

Today, I will talk about the importance of spending 30 minutes to build a Facebook page for your restaurant, even if you don’t spend the time commenting/ sharing/ liking.
The reason why I think you should create a Facebook page, even if you don’t plan time to spend on it, is because Facebook users (more than 1.3 billion) can search nearby restaurants according to their physical location at the Facebook platform. So if your restaurant is within their location, your page will appear at the search results only if you have spent 30 minutes to create your restaurant page. This may not bring a dozens of customers daily, but it will for sure bring you a “couple” sometimes for the next decade.
Do you have a Facebook page? Have you tried the search nearby restaurants function in Facebook?

The basics of Restaurant Marketing - Rule No 1- Who is your restaurant ideal client?

February 24, 2014 By Paulo Calisto Leave a Comment

To define your restaurant ideal client is the first thing to do when you want to start to do marketing efforts for your restaurant. Many restaurateurs start by creating the end product (ex: special dish) and spend dollars on marketing before they think if that dish will create interest in their ideal client.

This is wrong! You need to define your ideal client even before you open your restaurant and then, everything you cook, promote, or even mention is to please that ideal client. Some restaurant owners try to please everyone and then they soon realized that their efforts are not working! Of course it won’t work! You can’t pleased a 16 year old with a boring old style ad, a 67 year old with an ad full of yellow smiles, and you will not attract people living away from your restaurant with an ad at your door.
So please, before you start spending dollars on marketing, create your ideal client profile. This profile should define as much as possible: how old are they? Male or female? What are their interests? Where they live? Where they hang out? What is their profession? Why they chose your restaurant…

After creating your ideal client profile, you should create what is called of client persona. These are fictional descriptions of your desired customer.

After you created your client persona/s, all ads you make are with the goal of attracting this ideal client to your door.
What about you? Who is your ideal client?

The 5 most important pages of a Restaurant Website Sitemap

February 20, 2014 By Paulo Calisto Leave a Comment

So, you have decided to create a website for your restaurant and the web designer told you that you needed to create a sitemap? If this is the case, below are the 5 important pages that a restaurant sitemap should include:

1- Home Page- This is the page where your site visitors will “land” when they type yourrestaurantname.com, and it should include the following:
- great photo of your restaurant.
- introduction to your restaurant.
- your unique selling proposition (USP) (click here if you don’t have an USP for your restaurant).
- contact/ reservations, social media icons & operation hours (sidebar).

2- Menus – This page is where the website visitor will understand what kind of food you are offering and should include:
- menus of your restaurant.
- signature item photos.
- contact/ reservations, social media icons & operation hours (sidebar).

3- Gallery – This page is where your visitors will get the first impression of your restaurant ambience. Because the first impression is very important, make sure that you display photos that showcase the best of your restaurant. And these are:
- photos of your restaurant, your team, signature dishes, events at your restaurant etc…
- contact/ reservations, social media icons & operation hours.

4- Story/ About us – At this page, you should create a story why your restaurant exists, who are your team members, why website visitors should come and try it.
- your story.
- contact/ reservations, social media icons & operation hours.

5- Location and Contact- this is also a very relevant page. This is where your guests will find their way to visit you, so make sure that all information is correct and easy to understand.
- your address.
- your telephone number.
- your email.
- google map of your location.

These 5 are the pages that I consider fundamental for any restaurant website. If you can add more pages, add some client reviews and testimonials. These offer an independent indication of your service and food quality and increases your business credibility.
Are you building your site? Did you add any extra pages that you believe relevant to your business?