4 Online Methods for Helping Your Restaurant Gain More Customers

As a restaurant owner, you will already be well aware of the difficulty and continual challenges it throws into the mix. Not only does operating a restaurant require strong dedication and consistency, but you also need to put in long hours on a daily basis.

With so much work that needs to be done every day, it can be even more challenging to find the time to do any marketing. Yet for your business to grow, you need to be able to get the word out. The more people who know about your restaurant, the more likely you are to attract new visitors ready to sample your cuisine.

Thankfully, this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go around posting leaflets or attending events – although these are useful promotional methods. With the power of the Internet, you can reach more potential customers than ever before without stepping foot out of your restaurant. For proof, here are four effective online marketing methods:

The power of social media

Social media is an incredibly effective tool for marketing your restaurant. It’s an easy way to interact with your customers and advertise your business in a visual manner. Social media is also the perfect platform for running competitions, which can gain your eatery an extensive level of visibility among the local community.

Reviews = validation

In the world of restaurants, reviews are king. They serve as validation for the quality of your restaurant, and they are an easy way for potential visitors to know what you’re about. As a result, you need customers to supply positive reviews – the more, the better – on the likes of TripAdvisor and Facebook.

To gain business reviews for local SEO purposes, you could give customers a reason to leave feedback. Entice them with the offer of, say, 10% off their next restaurant visit. You could even run a competition where everyone who leaves a review is added to a competition for a free meal.

Build an informative website

Don’t just rely on social media and Google My Business to deliver your business information to customers. This should be done through a dedicated website, one which is modern and professional in appearance.

By doing this, you can customize and add as much information as you want. Want to detail the history of the restaurant? This can be done with an ‘About Us’ page. Perhaps you want to detail the meals and drinks you serve?Post an easy-to-read PDF of your restaurant menu.

Reservations are not only done over the phone

That’s right. You might be used to only accepting reservations over the phone, but it’s time to move into the present. Nowadays, restaurants offer the opportunity for customers to complete their reservations online. This added convenience is a subtle yet effective method for increasing visitor numbers.

To provide the option of online reservations, you could hire a professional web design company to implement a platform on your website. However, there are third-party platforms such as OpenTable which give you the opportunity of setting up online reservation functionality with little trouble.