Online restaurant advertising: Best ways to win new guests

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Do you ever fancy a certain type of food and go straight to your phone to search for the nearest source to satisfy that craving? Or, do you find yourself hopping onto Google whenever you travel to find the hottest restaurants in town?

Sure, there are times when we hit up a new restaurant because of word-of-mouth. There are even those rarer moments when we just walk into a place without ever being bombarded by any form of restaurant marketing. But, most of the time, it’s our curiosity paired with our phones, social media, and digital marketing that direct us to where we’ll be eating on any given night.

Restaurant owners know that the current and future state of restaurant advertising exists primarily online. While traditional methods are relevant (eating out itself is still a market that exists beyond the internet), in this article, we’ll focus on some effective online marketing strategies. First, we’ll find out why online restaurant advertising is important, and then we’ll show you how Yelp products can take ad campaigns to the next level.

Why is online restaurant advertising important?

We’ve come a long way since the internet was just a space for desktop computer enthusiasts and gamers. Pretty much every person you know is walking around with a superfast computer in their pocket that’s connected to the internet. The reach of online restaurant advertising is enormous, and most people are potential customers.

You can target your demographics with social media marketing and use tools such as Yelp Ads to determine who your demographics are in the first place.

Or, you could tell your loyal customers all about important restaurant promotions through an email marketing subscription service.

Understanding how digital marketing channels work can put you alongside the search results of restaurant industry giants. For instance, by using search engine optimization best practices, you can appear on the first page of Google with little to no investment.

Online advertising has leveled the playing field and can potentially be way cheaper than advertising in the traditional sense. Now, let’s look at some easy-to-learn yet hard-to-master online restaurant advertising techniques to get you headed in the right direction.

Create an email newsletter

An email newsletter is a great way to keep loyal customers interested and entice new customers too. You may fear that regular emails appear spammy, but if a customer has signed up voluntarily, they have already shown interest.

An easy way to get opt-ins to your email newsletter is to offer a discount on their next meal by signing up. It could also coincide with the launch of a new loyalty program you are running. This works well since you already know the customer plans to be a regular.

If you can afford it, hire a copywriter to set up your email templates and share your marketing plan with them. Use your emails to relay stories about your restaurant or updates like new menu items. Make sure to always end with a call to action that directs the customer back to your restaurant website too.

Work with local influencers and get social

It’s hard to believe that there are people in the world who make a living by enjoying the finer things in life and showing it off on social media platforms. They promote hotels, restaurants, gyms, bars, you name it, by simply participating in said activity and documenting it online. Partnering with these influencers is an excellent way to drum up new customers.

Check out the influencer’s social media post history before approaching them. Make sure that they align with your brand and check their like-to-follower ratio. Influencers with 100,000 followers but less than 100 likes on a day-old post have bought their followers and don’t have a real, organic following.

Once you have picked your influencers, slide into their DMs and offer them a free meal with the caveat that they share it on their socials. Be aware that big-time influencers may expect higher payment than this, though.

Instagram posts are a haven for food pics. This photo-obsessed social media platform is the perfect place to promote your online presence. Make sure users include your hashtags and link back to your socials and restaurant website so diners can easily make a reservation or online order.

Understand and find your audience with Yelp Ads

Not everyone browsing social media is interested in your latest restaurant menu, even though they may enjoy an eye-catching picture on your Facebook page. Generally, people are just fulfilling the addictive habit of browsing random user-generated content.

Why not take your restaurant advertising directly to where you know people are looking for a place to eat? Yelp gets 95 million unique visitors monthly, meaning your reach is enormous and direct!

Stay top of mind with Yelp Ads and build customized ads that hit your targeted demographic with chosen SEO and location data. Impressions are free, and you only pay when someone actually clicks your ad (you can set budgets so you don’t overspend on successful campaigns too). You can even track your metrics so you know what’s working and how you should change up your advertising ideas for even better ROI.

Share your restaurant stories with Yelp Connect

Yelp Connect works well alongside Yelp Ads, and it’s how you turn your Yelp Business Page from just an empty shell to an informative site that feels real and cared about. It’s the perfect place to broadcast your new restaurant promotions. New outdoor space? Share it. New high-profile chef? Share it. New sustainable practices? Share it.

Loyal customers who use the Yelp app and email subscription service will receive updates directly to their devices without even checking your page.

Also, just like Yelp Ads, you can see who’s engaging with your posts. You’ll see their demographic information and the neighborhoods they regularly visit.

Start your online restaurant advertising journey now

Hopefully, reading this article has stirred up some marketing ideas in your mind. Society’s rapid shift to online obsession has created tons of opportunities to create high-quality online restaurant advertisements that are massively more effective and direct than an ad in a random magazine.

Remember, an email newsletter can help to create a stronger bond with loyal customers (employing the services of a copywriter could help). Your local influencers could bring a surge in followers and produce all kinds of user-generated content to round out a digital marketing content plan.

Yelp Ads put you in the driver’s seat. You can create bespoke ads aimed at the right people who are already looking for a spot to dine. Yelp Connect is what makes your business page come to life, and you can show the world just how ethical, relevant, and cool you can be.

A well-promoted restaurant could grow faster than you think–one of life’s ‘good’ problems. Solve it by using Yelp Guest Manager, a software solution that allows customers to check themselves in, handles waitlists and reservations, and works in conjunction with these other Yelp software products mentioned above.

Restaurants that start using Yelp Guest Manager experience up to twice the traffic on their Yelp Business Page.* Get a demo today!