Top 10 Marketing Strategies for Your Food and Beverage Restaurant

Hey guys. My name is Wilson. Today, we’re going to be talking about the top 10 marketing strategies for your food and beverage restaurant, so then that way you can have lineups out the doors, people begging to give you money because of how much they want to have your restaurant and your offerings.

A lot of times, we are spending thousands of dollars getting people to be able to do our Instagram, write captions for us, create content for us. Actually, you know what, check out this video here. We’re talking about how do you create a month of content all in one day by yourself without paying thousands of dollars for these different agencies that we’re talking about? Anyways, today, we’re going to be talking about these top 10 strategies that are going to be timeless for you.

We’re not talking about something that’s been working in the past. We’re not talking about something that’s working in 2017, ’18, ’19, whatever the case may be. We’re talking about strategies that’s going to be timeless, that you can be able to use for years to come. So make sure you guys buckle up and start taking notes because we’re going to be diving right in.

1. Review Sites

The number one marketing strategy are review sites, review sites like Yelp and Google. Because when we are deciding where to eat, there are three places that we look at. First of all is the word of mouth. Second is through that restaurant’s social media platform. And thirdly, it is through review sites. According to a very, very prestigious study, more than 35% of the people that are deciding where to eat, they go on and review sites before they make that decision.

And what that means is that a lot of the times if you do not pay attention with how intentional you put up your content, if you do not pay attention to engage with your feedback and with your reviews, then you’re missing out a lot of customers and potential people that are going to be able to enjoy your food and beverage establishment. In today’s world, review sites play such a crucial role in people’s decision-making process. So just think about the last time you chose where to eat. You probably went on your mobile. You probably searched up the restaurant, and the first thing that probably popped up would be the review site. You read it. And if it’s no good, then the review site would be reviewing similar restaurants around the area. And in turn, you are so unforgiving. You would just click on that competitor’s restaurant.

And when you click into it, and you see a 4.5 star or you see a 3.5 star. And you read some of the comments and you’re like, “Hey, you know what? They actually have really cool offerings, but their service is not that great. But hey, you know what? Their owner is actually replying to it and they have a legitimate reason of why it is at 3.5 stars.” And in turn, you’re going to be able to actually make that decision right there and then. This is the power of review sites. Like it or not, this is what people rely on when they have a decision to make, whether they come and consume at your restaurant or your competitor’s restaurant. So if you have a bad review on your site, make sure you guys reply to that.

If you have a good review, make sure you reply to that as well. So how do you reply to bad reviews? You’re like, “You know what? I can actually acknowledge when people say my stuff is good, but how do I reply to a bad review?” Well, if the bad review is warranted, make sure you guys acknowledge that and provide a solution to fix that. For example, if someone came into your restaurant, waited for 45 minutes and told you that they had a bad experience, that’s the reason why they gave a two-star, then yes, you can own up to that and say, “Sorry about your experience. Sorry about this. Because of the fact that our chef got into an accident, he didn’t come in on time and that’s why we were super short-staffed that day. In the future, we’ll make sure that we let our customers know so that way they can manage their expectation a little bit better.” That itself is a legitimate response and people are much more forgiving if it’s authentic to actually what’s happening and people are actually owning up to their mistakes.

On the other hand, if this bad review was a troll, if that all they’re saying is giving you a one-star saying they disliked their customer service and they didn’t really say too much, then you know what? Feel free to troll back in the reviews. Tell them, “Hey, you know what? If you want to try out our competitors, here is the address of our competitor.” Something along the lines to show the character of your business, to show the other people that you’re not scared and you’re confident in your food offering. That’s how you’re going to be able to take care and take your review sites and intentionally provide that experience for your customers. So in turn, giving them a much better decision-making process. So now that we know the importance review sites make for a customer’s decision-making, we need to have much more reviews.

Okay? And a lot of times. how you get more reviews is by incentivizing your customers. Whether, if for example, they write your view, then they get an appetizer, right, an honest review. And when you’re able to incentivize your customers to get something in return for them to write something that’s honest about your food and beverage establishment, a lot of times they’re going to write their reviews.Ask your customer to write your review. And when you ask them to write your review, they’re much more prone to be able to write for it. When you ask, you shall receive, okay? If asking doesn’t work, incentivize them with an appy, with a free drink, with a dessert, whatever the case may be. This itself is a really, really underrated marketing strategy that not a lot of people use. So make sure when you guys go out there to market for your food and beverage establishment, to always incentivize people to write reviews for your site. Because when it comes down to it, would you choose someone that has a four-star review with only two feedback, or would you be able to choose some restaurant with a 3.5 star but has 4,000 reviews? That itself is much, much more authentic when there’s more reviews for your food and beverage establishment.

2. Amazing, Beautiful Photographs

The second marketing strategy for your food and beverage is to have amazing, beautiful photographs. And what I mean by that is so many restaurants actually skip out on this fact. They actually just take their iPhones, they just go around their shop and just take the pictures of their food, their restaurants, and they just post it online. This itself does not work in today’s age. A lot of our customers, once again, the decision-making process really comes back down to how pleasantly they interact with your food and beverage establishment on their phones. Okay? That’s because when we are always outside, we’re trying to figure out where to eat with our friends, with our loved ones. We;re on our phone, trying to figure that out. And if the pictures does not do the real thing justice, then how are people going to be able to actually know and want to or be tempted to come and try out your place at all? They won’t be tempted. So make sure you invest in a professionally done shot.

Because at the end of the day, if you already invested tens of thousands of dollars on renovating your shop in marketing, in equipments, in hiring staff, what is another few hundred bucks for professional shots of your menu, of your interior, of your staffing? This itself goes a long wait, so do not oversight and underrate the importance of professionally-made photographs. And having a beautifully set of pictures does go a long way. Because for example, if I want to be able to wine and dine my significant other and if I’m able to see that the core of how the place looks like and then I’m going to be able to see whether this is fitting for that occasion.

And if it is, then it allows me to have more information to be able to make a decision, which is the reason why it’s so important for you to be able to invest in a professionally-shot set of pictures, not only of your food, but also of your interior. And of course, when you have all these professionally-shots done, not only can you put it on your website, review sites, but also your social media, also any of your marketing campaigns. And that’s exactly what we do at 720 Sweets. Every single time, we take professionally-made shots when we have new flavors, when we have new promotions. And we are able to recycle all these photos and repurpose them for different outlets and repurpose them so then that way people can and are able to see how amazing our food looks. And in turn, that itself draws in a lot more customers because of appealing pictures. So once again, do not ever cheap out on professionally-done pictures.

3. Website and SEO

The third marketing strategy that’s going to work for your food and beverage shop is your website and your SEO. And what I mean by that is website needs to always be up to date. When you are thinking about, “Hey, you know what? It’s fine, I’m just going to do my website by myself. And guys, it can be outdated or whatever the case may be, it doesn’t have to be professionally made.” I strongly suggest you to think otherwise. And the reason for that is because when, like I was saying, when people are doing research on where to eat, they’re going to go on the review site, they’re going to go on your social media, and they’re going to go onto your website.

And when they come through your website and they see pictures are out of date, they see friction. They’re trying to figure out where your location is, and they can’t find your location. They’re trying to check out what you have to offer and it’s completely out of date, they’re not going to have a pleasant experience. And when they don’t have a pleasant experience, they’re going to check out something else. This is your opportunity to impress your customers. And at the end of the day, you spent tens of thousands of dollars renovating the interior of your food and beverage establishment.What is another $1,000, $2,000 for your website? A lot of times, websites are not up to date for restaurants. And when they’re not up to date, your customers will go to your competitor’s website and they’re going to be able to have much more pleasant experience. And when they do, they’re going to choose to eat at your competitor’s over yours. And key thing to note is that your website needs to be compatible with mobile nowadays. In today’s world, many, many people, I would say majority of the people are on their phones scrolling and trying to figure out where to eat. And when they go on your website, it needs to be compatible with your phone, not just the desktop. Okay? So this is something that you must note down. And when you’re thinking about what to include into your website, always include directions to your website, always include your menu, and always include your contact information in case they want to call you for any questions or to make a reservation.

Okay? These are the three key elements for your website. Now, when we’re talking about website, we’re talking about SEO as well. What is SEO? SEO is search engine optimization. What that means is that if someone goes online, on Google, and they search for best ice cream in Vancouver, 720 Sweets would pop up because we are able to actually put those keywords into our website. And in turn, when Google searches the most relevant website of best ice cream in Vancouver, then 720 Sweets pops up. If you’re confused about how do you do SEO, find a professional to help you get the foundational elements embedded on your website. So for example, when people search for your restaurant name, you would pop up.When they search for your specific cuisine, your website will pop up. And if they search for anything that’s relevant to you and your restaurant, your website will pop up as well. This is what we mean by SEO and this itself would allow you to show up a lot more in front of your customers. And the more people that are able to go and land on your site and the more people that have a pleasant experience with your website, they are going to make sure they’re going to convert into your customers.So make sure do not oversee the importance of having a properly done website with proper SEO for your food and beverage establishment.

4. Social Media

The fourth marketing strategy for your food and beverage establishment is social media. Like I was saying earlier, this is the top area and platform that people use to decide where to eat. So for example, when me and my wife decide where to eat, we’re always on social media. We’re on their platform, scrolling through where we should eat because this act as a digital menu for us to decide, and a lot of times we save all these different pictures of amazing-looking food. And every time when we’re thinking about, for example, a brunch place, then we open up our saved archive and then we click on the Benedict that we really enjoyed because it looks so visually stimulating. We click on it. We see that it’s from a certain restaurant in Vancouver, and then we go to that restaurant because of the picture. So what that means is the importance of social media is that it really dictates how we shop nowadays.

So make sure that we are actually spending quality time and nurturing our customers by posting out beautifully appealing pictures of your food. Okay? Or you can post pictures of how people feel when consuming your food offerings, right? So this is all stuff that you can actually post on your social media to engage with your customers. If you have trouble finding about what I’m talking about, finding content to write about or finding content to post, check out my video right here. We talk about how do you create 30 days of content in just one day. Nowadays people use social media to decide where to eat, so do not ever neglect this platform at all. So for the more advanced users on Instagram, okay, instead of posting pictures, you can actually post videos of how you prepare your food or how you shop for your food and something that is a little bit more engaging aside from appealing pictures.

And other very, very important and effective tool to use is IG stories, Instagram stories. You can actually show how you actually go and purchase ingredients. You can show how the chef prepares the food before the service. So then that way, it’s much more behind the scenes, much more exclusive, and much more insider feel. A lot of times, you can actually use more interactive features of Instagram as well, such as stickers and ask them, “Hey, know what? What do you think about the plating of this food today?” Start a poll, so then that way people can actually engage, and when they are able to engage, they feel much more connected with your place, and they feel like that they are able to make a change in your restaurant offering as well.

Try reposting your customers’ posts, your customers’ journey, because that allows you to show much more that you have people who love your product. Okay? And this itself adds to that social proof element to your food and beverage establishment. At the end of the day, make this whole process fun and make it engaging because that’s how your customers would be able to connect with you and your restaurant. And in turn, they’re going to be able to decide to choose you over your competitors because you much more engaged with them.

5. Word of Mouth

The fifth marketing strategy that you should definitely focus on is word of mouth. By far, this is the most important strategy out there. And a lot of times, what other people say about your restaurant has much more weight and strength than what you say about your establishment, which is the reason why you need to be super intentful when creating this whole customer journey.

So every single touchpoints, you should be intentful with that. And what I mean by touchpoint is how people interact with your brand. What is that experience like, from the moment that they hear about your brand to the moment that they do research on your brand online? How does that look? How does your review sites look? How does your social media look? How does your website look? These are all different touchpoints, which allows people to have a certain experience and a certain feeling for your food and beverage establishment, so whenever there are any conflict or any resistant and friction that can happen. So, for example, if people are trying to walk by and look for your restaurant, but the signages are not there and it doesn’t look good or that people have difficulty finding your signage, that itself is something that you can improve on. That itself is a touchpoint which you can improve on, and in turn when you improve on all these different touchpoints, that itself allows your customers to really praise how well and how good of an experience they had with your food and beverage establishment.

So that itself allows you to be able to constantly improve in delivering a better experience for your customer. And in turn, this becomes a fly wheel cycle. Better experience that you serve, the better than word of mouth is. The better the word of mouth, the more customer comes to you. And that itself is an amazing marketing strategy for your food and beverage shop.

6. Host Events

The sixth marketing strategy is to host events at your food and beverage shop. If, for example, your restaurant has down times, then make sure that you fill those down times with events. Try reaching out to other establishments or other talent or other suppliers or small business talent that can actually come in and provide a certain service. So for example, for us, we invite and collaborate with calligraphy artists to make sure that they come to our spot and host an event.

And for them, it would become a free rent event, and they love it because, hey, know what, they have an establishment which they can actually host an event at. In turn, they bring in their own customers, and when their own customers come, then we can actually provide them with our service. We’re able to expose our brand to their customers, and in turn we’re able to cross promote. And because of the fact that our place, we are offering events during the slower times, we’re going to have this space regardless. We’re going to

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