It’s always been a dream to open your own restaurant since you were a teenager
It’s what you were born to do and your food is out of this world. You’ve literally spend the past 10 years travelling the world dining in the best restaurants perfecting your dishes along the way
And then you open doors to your restaurant and after friends and family have disappeared the customers are a trickle at best
You realise that unless you do something the business will fold in 12 months and you know from experience that signing up to 12 months of local newspaper advertising isn’t the best way to go
Here are 5 Easy Ways Your Restaurant Can Win New Customers
SOCIAL MEDIA FIRST POLICY
Every business should include Social Media in it’s induction training
You train on customer service
You train on health & safety
You train on every aspect of how to do a job
Why should social media be left to the untrained?
Restaurants should have a social media first policy where social media is at the heart of everything you do from the restaurant design to the menus to your customer service
Often though it’s something an untrained manager does when they have a spare moment
Social Media should underpin everything you do in the business
If you genuinely don’t have the time to do social media (and this can be the case in hospitality) – look to a reputable Social Media company to outsource to
WORK WITH LOCAL INFLUENCERS
Local influencer marketing is a simple effective way to get the word out about your restaurant
Now – you can spend a fortune on getting down a “celeb” from Real Housewives Of Cheshire or someone who once worked on Hollyoaks 15 years ago
Or – you can have a search on twitter for your local town and city and look at which local accounts actively promote what is going on in your town
The latter is the most effective
Build relationships with them – and by building relationships we mean spending the time talking to them
And then further down the line – let’s say a new menu launch or this months specials – you invite them down to try out some new dishes and to chat about why you do what you do
And then repeat on a regular basis as you know new customers come to try out your business each time after
COMPETITIONS
“We can do a Facebook competition and regularly reach 80,000 people”
That was what someone said in a recent training session with us
Now that is unusual to reach such a large audience, but competitions can regularly put you in front of 10-30,000, attract a huge amount of engagement, attract new fans and attract new customers
There’s a lot more info on this on our How To Use Facebook Competitions To Build Your Business blog
Each week Essence in Altrincham run a Facebook competition that reaches over 10,000 people, regularly gets 5-600 entries each week and wins over new customers
It’s the most popular weekly competition in a town with a population of 50,000 and ensures that everyone in the town knows their name.
And importantly it’s something that people will talk about in social circles in pubs and bars around the town – like the best elements of social media it’s a real conversation starter
DELIVEROO / JUSTEAT
You have a successful brand and people love you
And you’re turning people away from your restaurant on a Friday and Saturday night
It’s a big leap and you need the infrastructure in place before leaping in – but Deliveroo is a great way to win over new customers that want the best restaurant meals in the comfort of their own home
Sure they take a big cut, but to win over family audiences who can’t always get a babysitter every single week it’s a good way to generate brand awareness and win
Justeat is associated more with takeaways than restaurants, but had a much larger customer base than Deliveroo
Just being listed on these platforms gets you in front of customers who may not be aware of your existence
REVIEWS STRATEGY
84 Percent of People Trust Online Reviews As Much As Friends
Some restaurants hate TripAdvisor. Some restaurants love TripAdvisor
Whether you like it or not isn’t the issue
Your potential customers are reading them … and they’re reading your google reviews and your facebook reviews as well
Having a written down strategy to acquire new reviews should be at the heart of what you do
And then amplifying those said reviews on social media is key
We’ve had customers walk into clients restaurants off the back of reviews, customers who had walked past the restaurant for 5 years and never walked in until seeing huge amounts of positive reviews
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Chat to about Social Media Marketing for YOUR restaurant , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
Or
Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
