Creative Online Marketing Ideas for Restaurants

If you are a restaurant owner or you have any as clients, here are some creative ideas you can try out in your business to provide guests a modern, interactive, and enjoyable experience.

 

I’m a foodie and a wino so I am at restaurants a LOT and I can’t help but notice all the missing opportunities in their digital marketing.

 

Here I’m going to be going through ideas for online marketing strategy for the hospitality industry, specifically restaurants. This might end up being the first of a little series, because I just get a lot of ideas when I am out and about living my life, about how different industries and businesses can utilize online marketing more. But we’re going to start here with restaurants.

 

Fun fact about me: when I first wanted to start my freelance business, I wanted to niche in hospitality marketing. I wanted to specifically be a copywriter for restaurants, wineries and hotels. I still love all that stuff and I do still have some clients in that industry, but that was kind of my roots in online marketing when I first set off to be a freelancer. Also, in real life, I’m just a total foodie. I am in restaurants all the time, multiple times a week. My daughter probably thinks it’s normal and will end up being confused when she learns that not everybody eats out an insane amount of times per week. But she’s only 2 and luckily loves restaurants so far, so hopefully it stays fun for her for a while. Anyways, tangent over.

 

Let’s get into some tips for online marketing for restaurants. If you have a restaurant, work at a restaurant, or if you are a copywriter, or online marketer, which is probably the case, I’m going to go over some ideas you can use. Try these out and what is going to happen is you are going to be providing your guests a more modern, interactive, and enjoyable experience when they come to your establishment.    

Spruce Up Your Website

 

First things first, please spruce up your website. More and more people are looking online before they go to restaurants and most of the websites are $hit, sorry. I say that with so much love, but it’s true. I am the type of person that Googles the restaurant a few days before to start studying the menu and start strategizing what I’m going to order. There are even Tik Toks going around that joke about this, so I’m not alone. A lot of us do this, and if your website is shit, then it’s just really frustrating. 

 

Don’t make me download a pdf to see your menu. Put the menu on the site. Make sure all your hours are up to date, and that your menu is current and up to date as well, that’s not an extra downloadable pdf. I don’t want that. I just want to scroll, see the menu, have everything up to date, and find the correct address. Also, make sure that your website is mobile friendly. I don’t want to open it up on my phone and then have to scroll left and right to see the different menu items. That is another important reason why your menu should not be a pdf because it’s just not user friendly at all when I am on my phone. I want it to be really easy to scan, read through, and envision my wonderful experience when I get there. It just doesn’t happen when it’s a pdf on the site. So do that. 

 

It doesn’t have to be extravagant, it can be a one page thing with a little intro, your hours, your menu, a contact button to make reservations, and if you get on OpenTable I will love you forever. I make all my reservations on OpenTable. If not, cool, but having an online reservation service on your site is a huge bonus point these days, especially for us tech generation people. And Bonus points if you fill out your website even more and have a separate About page, give us some history of the restaurant, some chef bios, or owner bios, etc. The more robust you can make it, the more SEO friendly it’ll be. But just having that one main home page that is easy to navigate and mobile friendly, is going to be huge. 

 

Make sure you have a link there for people to leave you a yelp review as well, just for ease and convenience. Have your social media linked up to your website as well, and make it all a cohesive experience. If you want to go even deeper or get even more bonus points – I don’t know who’s giving these points and who’s keeping score – but you can also have a blog on there. It will be a way to keep your website active so that the search engines notice it, and you’ll come up in searches. Oftentimes, since you are a brick and mortar establishment, you’ll want to do more location specific articles and stuff like that. So let’s say you are a restaurant in Green Bay, WI. You’re going to want the location of where you are to show up in some of those blog titles and some of your content, so when people are there, your restaurant will show up when they search for restaurants.

 

Invest in a Professional Photographer!!

 

Next, please invest in a professional photographer! People eat with their eyes first, and people also don’t like to read a lot of words. So go in one day, and invest in a photographer to photograph your food. You might want to cook the whole menu, depending on how big it is. Get your best of the best chefs, whoever plates the best, and have them show off your stuff. Make your food look amazing. Hire someone to come in with the right lighting, who knows how to get the right angles, who can help you stage the restaurant if you want. You can hire some extras, or friends and family to come in and dine, and get some action shots. Please invest in professional photography. 

 

If you cannot do that, all I’m asking is that you pay attention to lighting. When you are taking a picture, on your phone specifically, of food, tap the screen and you’ll be able to adjust the lighting. You want it bright, light, and appetizing looking. Sometimes I see food pictures and they are dingy and dark, and it just doesn’t look the best. Keep in mind, when you see food on commercials, that’s not actually food. That’s lacquer and inedible objects, created by people who are really good at what they do, because it looks great, but it’s not food. You’re photographing actual food, so you have to pay special attention to how to make it look as appetizing and appealing as possible, so outsource that. You only have to do it maybe, once a year as a nice little treat for your restaurant to have new photos done. I also know restaurants that have it done every month or every quarter. It’s just so worth it. And you can use those photos everywhere, on your website, social media, in emails, on printed materials, on promotional materials, signage inside of your restaurant, and on the menu itself. It’s just worth it. 

 

Get Active on Social Media

 

Next, please get active on social media. I want you to post your daily specials on social media. I want you to give me a behind the scenes video, I want you to do a live stream and share a special recipe that you are known for, that won’t be posted anywhere else, so people will have to show up live to see it. Pretend you are on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives and just have your own show where you are sharing a recipe. Share cooking tips, do mixology lessons, or do staff features. Part of your photo shoot can include headshots for your staff and that can be a nice little extra bonus of working there. Everyone should have a nice headshot. You can do that and then have them share their bio, then people can get to know you more personally as a friend and family type atmosphere. You can also collaborate with surrounding businesses. See what they are up to, cross promote, cross post, tag, tag, tag, make connections, and referrals are going to come your way. 

 

One thing that I would do, if I had a restaurant, is I would make social media part of the host’s or someone else’s sidework. Part of their job everyday would be to update the social media. Whoever is updating the chalk board with the specials should just go ahead and update social media too. It’s just such a missed opportunity. What if someone is scrolling through Instagram and they are having a major craving for a bloody mary, and you make amazing ones and you have a special today that includes a blood and a burger? You can get someone to come in just by doing that free post, that will take about 10 seconds to do. So, I just highly recommend making it part of sidework, because your staff is already conditioned and trained to have sidework everyday.  A lot of times there is a printed list of extra things to do. So that can be an easy task to add to a host’s work. 

 

Share Reviews and Tag on Social Media

 

Also, make sure you are sharing reviews on social media. This is an easy idea for a post. You can even just screenshot the review itself and just post that as the image on Facebook or Instagram. You want to share all of those amazing testimonials, because people trust people to invite them into your restaurant more than they trust you, the owner. Also, don’t be afraid to ask people to leave a review. This could be a little blurb on the bottom of your menu, on your website, or on social. Have your servers casually mention it – hey, no pressure, but if you guys had a good time and feel so inclined, leave us a little note, we would really appreciate it. Keep it casual and friendly, and just remind them that it is possible to write a review that’s positive. Most of the time, it’s just psychology, that we are more inclined to complain about things and make that public, then we are to take time out of our day to share a compliment. You can just sprinkle that seed right at the table and let them know – hey we’re on Yelp, if you have a second to leave a review, that would be really cool. See how it goes. 

 

Also, open up the conversation about social media. Encourage them to take the food pics with no judgment here. Encourage them to tag you. If it goes with your decor, you can have the IG handle written out somewhere, like maybe on the chalkboard with the specials. A lot of times it’ll go with the vibe of the chalkboard to include the handle there or wherever you are showing up online. You can even run contests encouraging people to tag you. If they tag you and screenshot it, offer a free dessert at their next visit. Encourage people to ask. 

 

I have been approached by servers, managers, or hosts that have said – Hey I’m in charge of social media here, if you wouldn’t mind tagging us in any of your pictures that would be great. And I love it, I think it’s great! Cheers to that person, manager, restaurant owner for encouraging their staff to get involved and to have conversations with guests. Social media is social and restaurants are social, so it all kind of ties in together and just makes a lot of sense. So make it fun, make it casual, and encourage people to participate.

 

Create an IG Worthy Experience

 

Another idea is to have an IG worthy area in your restaurant. So, this could be a really creative art piece on a wall where people do selfies, or a neon sign that says something funny or kitschy, just a place where you are inviting people to take a selfie because it’s going to stand out on their feed and be something beautiful that they want to share on their feed. You can create a video opportunity, or a special filter that only works at your restaurant. Come up with a shareable experiential moment in your restaurant where people will have to come in to experience it to post about it. That’s how these little things go viral. Or if you have a menu item that is very unique and different, like when the rainbow bagels were all the craze for example. People go out of their way to buy that food item, just to take a picture of it. So think about how you can incorporate something like that into your restaurant, into the menu itself, or into the physical space.  

Activate Your Email List

 

Next, you can start or activate your email list. There are a lot of different ways you can get people to share their email. You can just ask, or there are freebie opt-in options. The cool thing about restaurants is that you are personally interacting with people, so you can train your staff to do this. Just be really transparent about it. Say, we’re revving up our email list and and we want to share with you guys all the fun cool things we have going on in the community, and if you want to join, sign up here. Just have them sign up on a pen and paper, or a tablet, or a form on your website to join. There are a lot of different ways to grow restaurant email lists. 

 

Get some people on the list, and then you can send out a monthly newsletter or more often if you want. But monthly is a reasonable and approachable schedule to get on. Just share your menu, specials, highlight a staff member like your chef or manager, share drink recipes, invite people in on holidays, and let people know what’s going on. Make it really fun to get people excited about opening it. Your email list audience is super targeted because they chose to be on this list. Once you start sending out really valuable content to them, they are going to see your restaurant’s name in their inbox and get really excited to see what the latest and greatest is.

 

I live in Southern California and there is a restaurant by us called OC that has awesome food. They send out these lovely little newsletters with a simple design, beautiful photos, say what’s on their menu, what has changed, invite people to come in and join them, the end. It’s a nice little marketing reminder, because we have to constantly tap people on the nose over and over and over just so they remember us, especially these days when we are so inundated with content, content, content all the livelong day. To have something that stands out is just really important and we have to keep at it. It used to be 7 times before people recognized you, it’s probably up to 11 or something now. Just keep pumping it out consistently and you’ll see a return. 

 

Another great opportunity with email, with social, is to collaborate with other businesses. Maybe do an email trade. If they have an email list ask if you can send over a blurb and photo to include in their next newsletter. Let people know you are open, your hours, or a new menu item, etc. That’s how you will kind of cross pollinate and get referrals from their list over to you.

 

Get Creative With Your Menu Copy

 

The next idea I have for you is to get creative with your menu copy. Whenever I see a menu with fun, amazing descriptions with lots of creativity, it lights up my senses even more. Restaurants are such a multi-sensory experience. You are tasting, seeing, smelling, and when you can read something that extra tantalizes you too, it just gives that extra level of love, attention, and detail that really makes things stand out. Having really clever menu copy is also a great shareable moment that can be used. The other day I was at a restaurant – the same one that sends out the great newsletters actually. On their wine list the bold copy wasn’t the name of the wine, it was quippy descriptions like “Goes Great With Oystas”, “Not Your Average Red”, etc, and I just thought that was so creative. I shared it on Instagram just because it was so creative and well thought out, and these days I think people really appreciate human touch and attention to detail and that refined experience, and your menu copy is a great opportunity to do that. 

 

Ramp Up Your Restaurant

 

Of course I recommend hiring a great copywriter to tackle all of this, and then you should probably treat them to lots of food, wine, and drinks from your restaurant, ya know, for research. Or just get someone creative from your team or whatever works for you. But pay attention to those little details and opportunities. Most, importantly with digital marketing for restaurants and hospitality, is to have fun and stay relevant. Think outside the box, do something creative like those unique spaces in your restaurant, or create a really cool dish, and then tell the world about what you are doing on social media.

 

I know you are doing some really cool things, like I said I’m in restaurants all the time, and there are so many really creative dishes, drinks, and decor, but it’s hiding in the restaurant. So I encourage you to post it online and get your reputation out there and get more people in the door. I know the restaurant industry especially has been through so much during covid with all the shut downs and everyone is trying to come back from that. Trust me, I’m doing my part and supporting you as much as I can. I want to see you all continue to thrive. So, establish yourself online so that God forbid if you had to shut down again, you can at least still communicate with your people. Come up with a solution to help you stay up and running, and then that presence online is going to be a really great channel direct to your customers, to keep them in loop of what’s going on. 

 

Keep in mind, the next generations are coming in hot, getting older, making a little money, and going out to eat more, so don’t resist, just embrace. Join us/them who like to Google your restaurant and study your menu days before they come in, and set them up for a beautiful experience. 

 

I love this stuff. I love restaurants, food, and marketing so much, but I will stop nerding out now and invite you, if you are a copywriter, to come on into the Copywriting Girls Club on Facebook. You can have more conversations like this, you can talk about your specific niche or industry, get some brainstorming and creative ideas from other writers, copywriters, freelancers and marketers, and come have some more fun with the rest of us nerds. 

 

I also have a content repurposing guide that is great for restaurants in particular called Spread Your Magic. You can start out with one big article, newsletter or blog, and I give you a bunch of ways you can use that one bulky piece of content and spread it out over many different platforms. There are over 20 ideas in there and it’s FREE, so grab a copy here. 

 

If you want to learn more about email marketing, you can check out my blog on how to grow your email list, Email Marketing Crash Course here.

 

You can also find me on Instagram @amyleisner or Tik Tok @amy.leisner. Or learn other ways we can work together on my website A18media.com.