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The Secret To Attracting More Customers: Restaurant Marketing On Instagram

While making a business profile for an eatery or restaurant, restaurateurs who are new to Instagram must keep in mind that creating an Insta page for your restaurant and establishing presence is just the tip of the iceberg. To stay at the forefront by keeping those coveted spots and mastering Instagram marketing for your restaurant is a whole new ballgame – one that requires a lot more groundwork.

It’s impossible to ignore how fast Instagram has risen to the top in no time and is now the holy grail of social media channels. Over a decade since Instagram came into the picture, it has changed many faces over the years and proven worthy for all users like no other platform out there. Playing on the Instagram gamefield calls for a sizable time investment and effort on your part as a restaurant owner, but if you play tactfully, you can come forth as a winner!

Safe to say, if you use Instagram for marketing your restaurant in order to get more customers or garner more sales, you are on the right path.

Those who are familiar with the fundamentals of Instagram and its workings will agree that it is built on the grounds of engagement and strong visual storytelling. Successfully decoding how to ace restaurant marketing on Instagram requires you to look at what the Instagram algorithm is seeking out of your content.

Safe to say, if you use Instagram for marketing your restaurant in order to get more customers or garner more sales, you are on the right path.

Those who are familiar with the fundamentals of Instagram and its workings will agree that it is built on the grounds of engagement and strong visual storytelling. Successfully decoding how to ace restaurant marketing on Instagram requires you to look at what the Instagram algorithm is seeking out of your content.

That being said, the ultimate goal for you with your restaurant marketing on Instagram should be to keep your customers hooked on longer by building a stream of content that they are likely to find relevant, appealing and interesting.

Consequently, Instagram algorithm also favours accounts who can garner more screen time from users. This is all the more reason for you to abide by the rulebook because the success of your restaurant largely depends on it. Understanding what the Instagram radar is on the lookout for can spell success for your restaurant.

How Effective Is Instagram For Marketing Restaurants?

If you’re wondering how much value Instagram can actually add to your restaurant, remember, it’s not fate or pure luck that brought Instagram to the top. This social media platform of choice for over 2 billion global users has evolved to serve a diverse audience in ways that could help them amplify their reach and optimize their content further to gain more customers. Influencers, bloggers, artists, brands, and everyone in between has jumped on the Insta bandwagon since its inception 12 years ago.

Today, Instagram is one of the most sought after social media platforms for multiple reasons. The emergence of business profiles, insights, advanced metrics, geotargeting capabilities, paired with the platform’s original unique value proposition – visually-centric, instant and high brand visibility, certify Instagram as an extremely competent marketing tool, even for local businesses.

As a restaurant owner, you’ll also feel at ease knowing that the popularity of Instagram remains undisputed with over 135 million Instagram users clicking on shoppable ads everyday! This is definite proof of its effectiveness and the degree to which Instagram could work for your business.

7 Strategies For Successful Restaurant Marketing on Instagram

Allow Online Direct Ordering via Instagram

By now it’s established that your business needs to be present on social media but in the modern-day context, you can’t be running a restaurant without integrating a sales channel on social media either! If you haven’t already, it’s high time that your restaurant business gets in on the social commerce movement which enables you to sell across any social media channel. 

With Instagram being a vital medium for such a diverse audience, it becomes a prerequisite for setting up a direct channel between your restaurant and your customer. One of the easiest ways to sell on Instagram is by integrating an order generation system into your Instagram account.

Let’s take Radyes as a case in point. Using Radyes, you can add your restaurant’s direct ordering link to the Instagram bio. Customers who are visiting your Instagram profile don’t have to take the extra effort of looking up your website to find out how to order from you; all they need to do is click the link in your bio and they can instantly place an order! For restaurateurs who are looking to keep the customer base growing, you can count on this direct ordering link on your Instagram to get the job done.

Use Interactive And Relevant Hashtags

The thing with hashtags on Instagram is that people seldom use them correctly but do it right and your restaurant will instantly grab attention. Moreover, you have a higher likelihood of being noticed by new users who are interested in your restaurant. On the flipside, using irrelevant hashtags can do you more harm than good, or worse risk getting reported by those pesky followers, only to get penalized by Instagram’s algorithm.

Users of Instagram follow popular hashtags and if you happen to end up using one of these hashtags, this new audience subset could view the hashtagged posts from your restaurant in their feed even if they don’t follow you! This is a sureshot way to garner a following. 

Collaborate With Food Bloggers and Influencers

Influencer marketing is the new age word of mouth. As a restaurateur who is frugal with the funds, at first, collaborating with bloggers and influencers may not seem like a budget-friendly method to market your restaurant. But without a doubt, it can bring you an entire flock of new followers, with the added advantage of the influencer’s endorsement of your restaurant. 

Even a brand like McDonalds which doesn’t seemingly need to shell out extra marketing spends is still joining forces with micro influencers to generate awareness and more importantly generate positive reviews about their brand. If your restaurant is missing that little bit of a nudge to gain more followers, running campaigns and teaming up with influencers might just do the trick for you. 

Post Interesting Instagram Stories

Instagram stories have become a hit because they always pop right up on top of the feed and are consumed optimally by all users on Instagram. Creating intriguing stories is a great way to maximize your impact and further expand the reach of your content as a restaurant. 

Even the Instagram algorithm favors accounts that post unique and engaging content often and are quick to promote such accounts. Which brings us to our next point with respect to stories – apart from showing up on your feed, stories also make an appearance on the explore page! Needless to say that potential customers can discover your restaurant just from you posting stories. The more stories your post, the more they will appear on the explore page, and the more followers you can gain!

Respond To Your Instagram Messages And Comments

It may not seem like much at first if you turn a blind eye to that one negative comment you didn’t think would make any difference. Unfortunately, you’re going to be stuck with far greater consequences if you mess up your customer engagement. Believe it when we say, every message and every comment that is going unanswered is detrimental to your restaurant business. 

The whole process of answering queries and complaints may feel overwhelming but it’s underrated how much responding to your comments and messages can pivot your business for the better. Not only can replying to your customers reinforce their belief in your restaurant, it can also position you as a credible brand. Consequently, you can expect ore customers who’ll see you as a restaurant that is actively focussed on delivering an exceptional customer experience.

Advertise To Reboot Your Restaurant’s Instagram Marketing Strategy

Running digital ads as a part of your marketing strategy can be quite productive for you as a restaurant because you aren’t really spending till your ads attain the desired result. Your marketing budget is set aside and only tapped into when you have a new or potential customer clicking or engaging with your ad for instance. 

Another reason you need to consider advertising as part of your marketing is to have a competitive edge over your competitors. As a restaurant, if you’re not running digital ads on Instagram, you’re probably a few steps behind your competitors and that means your chance of attracting new customers becomes bleak. 

On the other hand, if you do decide to incorporate digital ads into your restaurant’s Instagram marketing strategy, you can even the playing field and increase the chances of your success in gaining customers. 

Integrate Instagram with Other Social media Platforms

To come across as an in-demand restaurant with a notable web presence, few options will work for you like Instagram would. However, the gram will only account for a fraction of the cumulative impressions you could be leaving behind. 

What will do wonders for you to enlarge your overall digital footprint would be linking your social media platforms to Instagram. This would give your restaurant the leeway to keep Instagram as your primary social channel and route followers to other social media handles that your restaurant owns.

Integrating Instagram with other social media platforms can additionally attain goals such as increasing your brand reach and awareness. It promotes engagement on your website, driving more traffic and can even help you extract a larger following out of your social media.

Being a restaurant owner is a crucial responsibility on your shoulders to give your customers more ways of engaging and interacting with your restaurant. The effort you invest towards this will be directly proportional to the number of customers you can draw as a result. 

While there is no specific combination of strategies that has proven to be successful, these strategies will serve as a pathway to create your own Instagram go-to plan as a restaurateur. Don’t restrain from testing the waters and experimenting with strategies that could work for your restaurant. Anything that could get you more customers should be given a shot.

Restaurants Who Are Marketing on Instagram Right

The great news for you as a restaurateur is that your experimentation process can be narrowed down, if you look for inspiration in the right places. In fact, there are several notes that you could jot down from restaurants who have been dedicated to slaying their restaurant marketing on Instagram.

We have rounded up some restaurants who have much to teach aspiring restaurant owners and those without any experience on how Instagram works as a marketing tool. 

Krispy Kreme

You’d imagine that a highly loved brand and an enthusiastic fan base would be prone to succeed naturally but for Krispy Kreme the real hurdle to cross was making the most of that fan engagement. A few factors contributed to their Insta win – first and foremost, they resorted to adopting User Generated Content as a key part of their marketing strategy that allowed them to grow their customer base by 1.6 million followers! 

Secondly, they came up with brand-centric hashtags that triggered a banter around their content and helped them penetrate an untapped market.

Finally, they organized giveaways and contests that brought them right on the top tier of customer engagement. 

They also integrated a link for direct ordering which adds up to the seamlessness of it all. 

The totality of all these activities have paved the path for acquiring more customers, ultimately securing a win for Krispy Kreme with other restaurants who’ve decoded what it takes to own the digital space on Instagram. 

Taco Bell

One could argue that Taco Bell’s widespread presence offline has given them an upper hand with their Instagram marketing but the truth is that they have aced their engagement and are miles ahead of their competitors simply because of the power of their content. 

Whether it’s from a visual standpoint or the ability to create witty content, they have been able to build a connection with customers on so many levels. Their campaign building game is strong and has customers seeking more! Exact why it’s no surprise that Taco Bell has managed to create a powerful brand recall with over 1.4 million followers! 

Chili’s

On a global scale, Chili’s humbly found its way onto its customers plates and is now making its way on their screens. What really stands out about Chili’s Instagram page is how they have diversified their content with a mix of pop culture, branded messaging, and humor to come off as a relatable brand. They have a relatively smaller follower base than Krispy Kreme and Taco Bell or even some other eateries but one of the biggest takeaways from a restaurant like Chili’s is to sprinkle your content with personality.

The scope of what one can do with Instagram marketing can’t simply be boiled down to just a few aspects. It isn’t necessary to be amusing and fuse pop culture like Chili’s, or run giveaway contests like Krispy Kreme. The key learning here is that it is absolutely essential to find a unique voice for your restaurant and discover your place in the digital world.

The Opportunity Instagram Presents For You

The Instagram frenzy has reached even the remotest corners of the globe, and for most users, Instagram has secured its spot as the most engaging social media platform that exists today.

As of April 2022, roughly 31 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 25 and 34 years. Over two thirds of total Instagram audiences were aged 34 years and younger, making the platform particularly attractive for customers and brands alike. It can’t be more obvious that being on Instagram is the direction your restaurant business needs to take.

With a comprehensive checklist that can ensure the success of your restaurant’s marketing on Instagram, you now have what it takes to gain new customers. But you need a solid support system to make your life easier and your restaurant business more organized. 

And that would be our cue.

We’re not here to tell you why Radyes is ideal for your brand but rather to show you that Radyes is built in with the formula to ace marketing your restaurant on Instagram and other social media platforms. You can also benefit from various other solutions that will enable you to get a higher volume of orders and a whole lot more customers! 

How To Increase Your Restaurant Sales: Tricks Of The Trade

The advancement of technology and changing consumer trends amidst the pandemic have proven to be a boon and curse for restaurants, who are experiencing a transformation and facing their toughest predicament yet – attuning to the changing customer demands in a technology-driven age as they discover how to increase their restaurant sales in a dynamic market environment.

Whether you’re a successful restaurant owner or an aspiring one, having a consistent revenue stream for your restaurant can be a really intimidating task at any level of your business. But what is actually holding you back is the lack of proper resources on how to increase your restaurant sales in the digital era.

Without a doubt, restaurants have a lot of unlearning and relearning to do amidst the overhauling customer behavior patterns but increasing your revenue is not as challenging as it appears on the surface.

The thing about your revenue is that no matter how much you are already garnering, there comes a point where you realize you could be doing so much more. This is why restaurants have always dabbled between the constant need to create an exceptional experience for their customers and still striving to grow, without losing sight of their business bottomline.

At any point in your business journey, if you have ever pondered upon how you can get more customers in your restaurant or how to increase your restaurant sales, you’re just a few simple steps away from actualizing your most important business goal!

How To Grow Your Restaurant Business

The question that lingers in the mind of every restaurant owner – “how do I get more customers in my restaurant” actually stems from their incapacitation to generate a constant revenue or in some cases, no revenue at all.

There are many strategies to increase restaurant sales and it’s most imperative is to make a mark wherever your customers are. For your restaurant to increase sales and scale your business, your strategies to increase sales for your restaurant must revolve around integrating platforms and channels that your customers use and prefer.

Let’s find out how you can get more customers and do everything to keep the revenue stream flowing!

1. Offer Takeout and Delivery

As a restaurateur, you shouldn’t be left wondering how to get more customers at your restaurant. Keeping your options open is always a safe bet when it comes to serving your customers because it will undoubtedly widen your customer range. With COVID-19 and social distancing looming in the picture, dining in has been replaced by takeout and delivery services for the most part.

Technomic’s May 2020 report titled Menu Monitoring the COVID-19 Pandemic, states that “46% of consumers said they were still ordering food and beverages from restaurants” and of course the trend continues to make great strides.

The demand for delivery and takeout is on the rise and customers are leaning towards services that offer them convenience and safety. At the same time, it’s a great chance for businesses to recalibrate how they have fulfilled customer expectations so far. Although the importance of creating a great experience for customers dining in is imperative, take out and delivery services can not be ignored any longer.

2. Optimize your online menu

What you need to make note of when it comes to your menu is that the digital era calls for convenience and the simplification of things to a point where customers can experience something with minimal time or effort. And this also holds true for how they experience your menu for instance.

This is why your online menu should be comprehensive enough to answer all of your customers’ questions about the items that are on it yet also be concise enough to not confuse them more. Since the menu is the essence of your restaurant, it should be a reflection of what you truly hope to offer to your customers as a restaurant brand..

On the digital spectrum, customizing an order should be a painless process for customers otherwise they’ll be on to the next restaurant before you know it!

As a restaurateur, you must plan a menu that travels well because not all the food that is on your dine-in menu will be in an edible condition by the time it reaches your customers. Streamlining and optimizing your menu to stitch together a seamless experience will get you a lot more customers and subsequently, a larger order volume and higher sales!

3. Enhance your mobile presence

Mobile accounts for approximately half of web traffic worldwide and this is reason enough for any restaurant that is not present on mobile to get their restaurant mobile-ready. Customers have adapted to the convenience of mobile and this has maneuvered a lot of their habits in that direction, as far as shopping and buying preferences are concerned.

Earlier, if being present on mobile was synonymous to a competitive advantage, in this day and age, it is an absolute necessity for any restaurant that wants to be ahead in the game. Today, the need to build a mobile presence has become more essential than ever.

Augmenting your mobile presence is a great way to grow your restaurant business as it can make your restaurant more accessible and approachable, help you build a digital brand, expand your audience online, improve your search engine rankings, open up a key outlet for you to sell and market your restaurant more effectively.

4. Develop a customer loyalty program

Rewarding customers for their loyalty has been an age-old strategy for businesses to keep their customers coming back and consequently increase their restaurant sales. Fast forward to the current day and applying this success formula to the modern-day customers is still prevalent.

Although marketing aimed at engaging potential customers is a prerequisite for growth, retaining customers is where the real value rests. Building a relevant customer loyalty program lets you foster meaningful relationships with existing customers in the long-term.

A customer loyalty program can have multifold benefits – it is a solid cornerstone of customer engagement, can deliver unique customer insights and market research, and is extremely cost-effective in driving sales for your restaurant.

While being on the lookout for new customers will certainly get your restaurant more orders, there’s nothing that will benefit your restaurant more than gratifying old and loyal customers who are true to your brand.

5. Focus on SEO to increase restaurant sales

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be a focal point for any new-age business, not only because it can amplify your visibility and reach online, but also because it can boost sales by driving more traffic to your website. For a restaurant owner, it is essential to leverage the free traffic to your website that is offered by search engines. Even though it may be free, there is a lot of groundwork that goes behind earning and keeping those coveted spots.

Optimizing your website ensures that search engines rank you higher, allowing you to elevate your overall user experience, and ultimately lending your restaurant business a lot more credibility.

Considering that your content is already optimized, being device-responsive is definitely a big tick in any search engine’s books. It is exactly the kind of thing that can lead you to the top of search results, and help your restaurant get noticed. Your website should be easily accessible across various devices especially if you consider that different audiences are likely to use a device of their choice to search for your restaurant.

With a whopping 5.03 billion unique mobile users globally, getting your restaurant equipped for mobile becomes a no-brainer. Making sure that your website is optimized and responsive for mobile will serve you well from an SEO perspective.

What you need to remember is that centering your attention on SEO will prompt your customers to engage with you (and the bottomline will prosper!)

6. Optimize your Google My Business listing

Let’s say you’re a customer and you want to order from a restaurant for the first time. Your automatic response is to Google the restaurant, take a quick peek at the reviews, note down the contact information, website and order away! Within seconds, you’re on the restaurant website and are now ordering your favorite food. That is the power and simplicity of ordering for your customers if you have a Google My Business profile in place.

It comes as no surprise that over 90% of worldwide search engine traffic comes from Google. This goes to show the sheer magnitude of Google’s impact. Needless to say, creating a Google My Business profile for your restaurant can definitely magnify your reach and help you tap into a massive revenue stream.

But before we jump the gun, as a restaurant owner, you need to understand what creating a Google Business Profile means for your restaurant business. Since you’re on the Google playfield, you must abide by the Google Business Profile guidelines or risk having your listing suspended.

Keep in mind that your Google Business Profile is a community profile, not just yours. Anyone can post their experience with your restaurant so it becomes all the more essential to ensure that you create a sublime one at that.

Now you’re probably wondering if it’s worth the effort to invest all that time on building and maintaining your Google My Business account. The reason to create a Google My Business profile may just be the fact that people are actively surfing the most popular search engine platform out there. With almost 92% of the market share, Google has monopolized the industry and is the default choice for customers to search for their favorite restaurants.

7. Run digital ads to increase profits

Performance marketing is one of the most effective additions to your overall digital strategy and social media marketing plan. Digital ads that are run on a cost-per-click basis give you the advantage of limiting your marketing spend and reserving it only for those leads or potential customers who are likely to engage with your restaurant in some way or form. Basically, you only shell out money when you get a desired result from your ad. This is the secret sauce to scaling profitability and saving yourself a big chunk of your marketing spend while still reaching out to your target customers.

All the strategies to increase restaurant sales and traffic, while they are great on paper, must be put into action. Taking the time and effort to strike these off your checklist will work wonders for your restaurant business.

But what’s next once you’ve set up this game plan for your restaurant?

We’re about to reveal some extremely useful tips – an action plan to increase sales for a restaurant.

4 Simple Ways To Get Started With Increasing Your Restaurant Sales

Start by choosing the right ordering platform for your restaurant

As an independent restaurant owner, depending on aggregators to get you sales will only eat into your profits. This is why you must select an ordering platform that can give your business a cohesive edge and complete claim to all of your profits.

So how would you know which platform is the right one for your restaurant? For starters, you need a direct ordering platform that entrusts you with full ownership of your restaurant. Also, one that caters to the end-to-end needs of your restaurant is definitely a plus point. You could really gain from having a full-fledged ecosystem that takes care of every business touchpoint for your restaurant.

This is where we enter the playground. At Radyes, we have integrated the different steps of the customer journey into our vast direct ordering ecosystem – from ordering, to managing stocks as well as tracking your invoices to finally delivering them. There are many reasons you may see Radyes to be a good fit for your restaurant, one main factor being that with us, you’re not forced to pay high commissions just to keep your restaurant business afloat. In fact, you can be assured that you’ll be reeling in a consistent flow of revenue.

Additionally, Radyes also gives you:

  • An automated dashboard to organize your restaurant business
  • Deep business insights to maximize your profits and sales
  • Customer behavior data points to build a seamless experience
  • All your profits hence no bleeding money on commissions

What do you need to do? Just plug and play and you can reap the numerous benefits. It’s that simple!

Master the art of restaurant menu engineering

For restaurants that sell items with varying levels of profitability and popularity, menu engineering could help in increasing your profits. Menu engineering can be broken down into these key courses of action:

Costing your menu

Even though costing a menu is a highly time-consuming process, it is one that must not be skipped at any cost! Costing your menu involves putting a cost against each individual ingredient and henceforth, determining the cost of each item on your menu. This can give you a margin for profits and make some room for the revenue to stay.

Categorize your menu

Segmenting the menu based on common categories such as “entrees”, “sides”, “mains”, “beverages”, “desserts”, etc. is one of those must-have features on your menu. It is also advised to go more specific with your categories like “Pastas”, “Pizzas”, “Grills” or whatever best suits your restaurant’s cuisine.

While most restaurant owners already follow this best practice, further splitting up your menu on the basis of popularity and creating categories accordingly is also recommended.

Design and test your menu

Part of the design process involves highlighting the items that sell the most but it goes beyond this and can’t be accomplished as easily as just shortlisting the best-selling items on your menu. When designing your menu it pays to consider your customer base: what types of customers order which items and what items they may be curious to try.

Testing the menu can really help you strike the right chords with your customers and give you real insights into what it is they are really looking for on your menu and what they’d like more of.

Offer online ordering through website, social media and whatsapp

In the digital-driven era, it goes without saying that having a strong web presence can be a crucial factor in ensuring the success of your restaurant business. A digitally armed restaurant is not only more likely to rope in more customers but also multiply the incoming revenue by creating sales channels across various social media platforms.

The name of the game is social commerce and is taking the restaurant industry by a storm. There is a clear distinction between your restaurant’s offline sales and online sales but social commerce blurs those lines with ease of convenience while placing an order.

Social commerce is quickly becoming the buzzword around the block and one can only imagine why! Social commerce is capable of transforming your social media platforms into a sales engine.

Giving your customers the option to order from any social media platform that they are browsing is a blessing to the world of direct ordering!

Invest in fast delivery

Even as the food-delivery industry continues to expand, it is still evolving. This trend toward convenience and fast food delivery has grown more pronounced during the pandemic. Increasing restaurant sales with food delivery is a sure shot at getting repeat customers.

Not only can quick and hassle-free food delivery increase your restaurant sales but it can also tighten the knot on a wholesome customer experience. Partnering with delivery partners who can help you fulfill your orders seamlessly is going to add up in the bigger picture.

With such a detailed action plan to increase your restaurant sales, you may have gained a fair idea on how to get started but there are a lot more things you’ll need in place to really nudge the growth of your restaurant sales.

What’s Next For You?

A comprehensive sales strategy is the first step to building a sustainable business that readily generates revenue and has an influx of customers at any given point in time. However, it is also vital to carefully implement everything you know about increasing sales for your restaurant, with little margin for error.

We know it’s a lot to take into consideration but at Radyes, we can mobilize your restaurant sales with our expertise, filtered from years of experience. Having empowered over 1000 brands with their direct online ordering experience, we have all the tools in our arsenal to manage every aspect of your business with dexterity. Let us lead the way and help you discover how to increase your restaurant sales and broaden your customer base.

The Honest Social Media Marketing Guide For Restaurants To Get More Orders

Let’s be frank! As a restaurateur, the mounting pressure of trying to stand out in a crowd can really weigh you down; now more so than ever, with restaurants continuing to witness a complete overhaul in the way they function.

The changing patterns in customer behavior have left restaurants with real challenges on navigating an uncharted territory. Going in with a solid plan dedicated to social media marketing for your restaurant could be a real gamechanger.

The Truth About Social Media Marketing For Restaurants You Need To Know

When the pandemic first hit, most restaurants struggled to build an online presence and eventually realized the importance of being on digital platforms. In the digital age, it is a necessity to integrate social media marketing for your restaurant business. But the advent of social media marketing for restaurants is a tale we’ve all heard before.

To ensure that your restaurant prospers in a cut-throat environment can be a daunting task. Juggling between the need to grow your customer base while simultaneously trying to get more orders is quite the balancing act; one that you may find is worth your time and effort.   

In a study conducted on the restaurants of the future, 64% consumers said that they don’t anticipate returning to their pre-pandemic habits of dining in restaurants anytime soon. 

Consumers are now choosing convenience and frictionless experiences prompted by their safety concerns. With online ordering replacing the traditional dining experience for the most part, the need to make your voice heard where your customers are, becomes critical. 

What you really need to know when it comes to the social media marketing plan for your restaurant is that consumer psychology has spun on its own axis. The next step is to understand how your customers think and build a meaningful relationship with them, wherever they are. 

Which Social Media Platforms Could Work For Your Restaurant

For your restaurant to make a mark on social media, it is crucial that you understand and define who your customers are, where they are present and how you can gain their trust by coming across as a genuine brand. That being said, there are social media platforms that could potentially work for your restaurant, based solely on the magnitude of their impact. 

Facebook 

Anyone would tell you that Facebook has etched its way into every digital user’s screen space over the last decade. Almost 15 years after it went live, Facebook has transcended customer expectations and continues to constantly evolve with the changing technological landscape. Today, everyone we know is on Facebook and it’s no wonder that Facebook has earned a reputation as the most popular social media platform with over 2.91 billion active users! 

If you’re still doubting whether Facebook would be the right fit for your restaurant, these whopping numbers should give you the assurance that it is the most sought after social platform there is! 

Instagram 

If you mull over how clean the entire user experience and visually driven Instagram is, you will conclude that Instagram is the kind of niche platform that your restaurant is cut out for. Moreover, Instagram is easy to explore and discoverability is definitely one of its unique selling points. All this considered, you as a restaurant owner, would be wise to build a social media presence on Instagram because it offers an incredibly cost-effective way to advertise.

Again, much like Facebook, Instagram too has over a billion users which makes it a great channel for your restaurant’s customer engagement. And the odds of your target audience being on Instagram are extremely high! 

WhatsApp

Although many would consider WhatsApp to be an instant messaging platform, it qualifies as a social media platform because it checks all the boxes of a social channel including the ability to communicate, share audio plus video files, and social networking.  

Coming to the prospect of WhatsApp being a top contender for restaurants, it follows through by offering what other platforms may not. The very essence of engaging customers is to know them and get their data. By the virtue of being an instant messaging and social media channel, WhatsApp adds immense value to your business by giving you direct access to your customer data. As soon as you receive a message from your customers, you have their name and number. This makes WhatsApp the reigning king of social media and is a must for your restaurant! 

While these are the default platforms for most restaurants, you will have to deep dive into your customer profile and figure out where your customers are scrolling. Let’s say your customers are into video content, then you may want to look at YouTube as an option. If your customers are consuming bite-sized content pieces, you may consider TikTok. 

The thing to remember here is that there is no one-size-fits-all rule that applies to choosing the right channel for your restaurant! So don’t be afraid to experiment with platforms and see what best suits you.

What Restaurants With Great Social Media Marketing Ideas Have Taught Us

A single compelling picture of your food can certainly help you widen your reach. However, when it comes to social media marketing ideas for your restaurant, there’s a lot more than just fancy food pictures that you’ll need to make it work for your business. Thankfully, there’s much to learn from restaurants that continue to push the boundaries on social media marketing. 

Along the way, we have gained some key insights on the different nuances of social media marketing from restaurants who seem to have discovered the mantra to their success. 

We have seen restaurants using social media marketing ideas in an ingenious way, allowing them to acquire new customers and increase their order volume. Let’s detail out the lessons that we have learnt from other restaurants:

1. Social Selling Is The Future

Until recently, social media was a way to communicate with people across the globe. On the surface, businesses were making use of social media to connect with their customers so far. Enter social selling and now the entire customer journey gets clubbed on social media – right from discovery to sale, social commerce offers a wholesome shopping experience and ensures authentic connections between customers and the brands they interact with. 

As a restaurateur, you’ll be happy to know that enhanced audience ad profiling, targeting, better customer understanding, and deeper insights have presented a tremendous opportunity on social media. And this can be attributed to the rise of social commerce. 

When executed with perfection, social selling strengthens a brand among existing customers and lets businesses acquire new customers that are keen on innovative social shopping formats and experiences.

Social commerce is expected to grow three times as fast as traditional commerce to $1.2 trillion by 2025. This is great news for restaurant owners who can now utilize social media not only to reach out to their customers but also elevate their entire ordering experience by letting them make a purchase wherever they are.

2. Performance Marketing Is An Investment Not An Expense

Restaurant owners have always been conflicted on whether to take the organic path to marketing or allot a budget towards their paid marketing. However, there’s a lot more than meets the eye here. 

Truth be told, while organic marketing may appear to be the ideal option, it can actually limit your growth as a restaurant; so much so that you may just end up lagging far behind. This may be the reason behind some of the best restaurants relying on performance marketing and not just on their organic marketing.  

Performance marketing leverages the paid social media marketing strategy for your restaurant based on your relevant business objectives and intended results. The conversions that you would pay for, typically fulfill objectives like downloads, leads, purchases or clicks. But the great news for you as a restaurant owner is that you only pay when you get the desired action and if you don’t, you can optimize your ad campaigns further in the future, without losing a penny! 

Using the right performance marketing channels can scale your marketing to meet the needs of your restaurant and not drain you monetarily. However, looking at performance marketing as an investment and not an expense, is the shift in perspective you need because there is no doubt that it can get you a lot more traffic and orders than you are hoping for. 

Since you can specifically target audiences, instead of waiting for them to stumble upon your restaurant, performance marketing is one of those social media marketing ideas for your restaurant that will become the beginning of your own masterstroke.

3. High Engagement = High Recall Value

Engagement is proof that your audience is invested enough to make a positive action. And it is clear as day that engagement is directly correlated to conversions.You can garner high engagement by using interactive content, or asking questions and creating polls – something that most marketers would agree has reusable value and plays a key role in ensuring repeat visitors. Although, this is not the full stop to customer engagement. 

There are restaurants who have shown us, time and again, that meaningful engagement could prove fruitful in leaving a lasting impression on customers.

By diving into more sensitive issues such as mental health, Nando’s is engaging their audience on a deeper level, while coming across as a brand that can positively contribute to the progressing dialogue on such topics. 

The advantages of running a campaign like this are multifold – first, it shows us that customers are seeking relatable experiences that strike a chord with them and makes them feel cared for. Secondly, they are bound to remember such campaigns that go beyond the stereotypical conversations used by brands to wow customers. Also, they make a statement that reverberates with a large segment of their audience, giving them the confidence that this brand is really listening to them.

Earning your customers’ trust and support can take your restaurant places. It can also occupy space in your customers’ minds and truly build a sincere relationship with them. When customers are happy with the experience you create, they are likely to refer friends and family, and those friends and family members will in turn bring you more customers. So start interacting with your social media followers if you hope to get more customers for your restaurant. 

4. Customers Are Everything

Customers are the essence of every business. We’ve heard it all – “Customer is God”, “Customer is king”, “Customers are always right” and this is because your restaurant wouldn’t be a talking point at all if it wasn’t for your customers. 

Everything that you do on social media or for that matter, even your restaurant business, is undeniably for your customers. Customers give your brand meaning and a reason to improve your experience on the whole. 

There is a competitive edge in seeing the world through the customer’s eyes. 

We have all seen and love restaurants that go the extra mile to please their customers. The lesson we learn from such restaurants is that great customer service echoes the type of deep-rooted culture that takes years to build, and then it just feeds itself. Being a restaurant owner gives you the means to dig into your customers’ preferences by starting a conversation with them and really listening to what they want. 

A Social Media Marketing Plan For Restaurants That Spells Success

Social media has not only impacted how we communicate with each other but it has also changed the way restaurants connect with their customers. This is a clear opportunity for restaurants to take charge of how they interact with customers and earn their trust.

Not leveraging social media for all it offers, is bound to hamper the growth of your business!

For restaurants, conceptualizing a social media marketing plan can be rather tricky because you’re always trying to figure out how you can stay ahead of the competition and still come across as a reliable brand to your customers. But social media marketing for your restaurant business can go a long way in realizing both these goals. In fact, as a restaurant owner, you may just find yourself propelled into gaining new customers and getting more orders. 

Social media marketing amplifies reach and building a social strategy that hinges on customer centricity is vital to the success of your business. That’s why your restaurant’s social media marketing plan must consider placing customers first. If your restaurant has to succeed, taking a route that is authentic and highlights your journey, would certainly put you in a favorable position with your customers and widen your influence. 

How Radyes Can Support Your Restaurant

As a restaurant owner, you’re obviously wondering how to get started. Engaging customers on social media is one thing but trying to convince your customers to make a purchase from you on social media is another. But fret not! This is where we come into the picture. 

Radyes works seamlessly on all social media channels and enables you to sell directly to your customers, absolutely anywhere. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp you want to sell on, Radyes works on a plug-and-play basis which means you can quite simply add it to any social media platform and get started with your direct ordering journey. Furthermore, the social media strategy for your restaurant business can be amped up with end-to-end solutions that we offer. 
We can lead the way as you crack the code to successful social media marketing for your restaurant and write your own success story!

What The New-Age Customers Expect From Brands

The customers of today are flooded with choices. But what they are truly seeking is a more wholesome and seamless experience in the digital world. 

In the post-pandemic world, customer experience must be recalibrated with transforming customer expectations. In fact, research reveals dramatic shifts in customer preferences and expectations which boil down to the overall experience they receive from a brand. 

In this day and age, how customers choose to shop has pivoted and brands must now be agile enough to reflect these changing patterns in customer behavior. 

There is a trend amongst consumers who are more inclined towards interacting and transacting with D2C brands. A whopping 88% of consumers prefer to buy directly from a brand! The result of these morphing customer expectations for brands is to stay ahead of the curve. Brands must step up their D2C game; even more so now with customers gravitating towards brands who are going direct. 

It’s no more a secret that the modern-day consumer is more than willing to go the extra mile and buy their favorite products directly from brands. 

For this reason, “It is no longer enough for organizations to sell a product or service they need to win the client’s heart. Consumers are demanding more… they want to be part of something greater than just buying a product or a service.”

Brands must be willing to build close-to-perfect shopping experiences to meet the needs of their customers.  

Embracing the leap 

The need of the hour for brands is to adopt an omnichannel strategy and D2C approach. By not providing your customers a direct channel, you are making it easier for middle men to get in the way and stunting your own brand engagement and loyalty. 

Even though it may seem like the long haul to take the D2C route and actually make it count, there is also enormous scope to improve your brand’s standing by disrupting the status quo and delivering on the expectations, values and experiences that the modern shopper desires. 

It so happens that customer loyalty is synonymous with the experience that you stitch for your customers. Going direct to your consumers is a sure shot way of being in control of your brand message and consumer engagement. 

D2C channels become an ideal platform for brands to articulate their values in driving higher demand. 

One of the most effective paths to standing out in the crowd is to share what makes your brand unique. Consumers find that when they buy directly from brands, they can make choices that align with their personal values based on the brand’s values. 

Another research conducted states that values such as “convenience” and “ease of use” top the list of benefits that a D2C brand has, with 94% of customers choosing at least one of these as a reason to opt for a D2C brand.  

With this D2C trend making the headlines, the door of opportunity is wide open for numerous brands out there. But the trick is to create a brand that customers feel connected to.

As a brand who is looking to tap into the D2C movement, you must have a lot of questions on how it all works. The good news, we’ve got you. At RadYes, we have empowered hundreds of brands to take charge of their direct ordering journey and cater to their customers’ expectations. 

Reach out to us today and let’s discuss the best way for your brand to seamlessly transcend the dynamic and ever-changing needs of the modern-day consumer.

Brand Advocacy: 4 Simple Steps To Build It From Scratch

Existing customers are one of the most valuable assets to market your business.

Sure, you might be leveraging your existing customer base for repeat purchases through loyalty programs, retargeting campaigns, etc but have you utilized it as a marketing asset for brand advocacy?

A significant number of businesses focus on new customer acquisition when the fact is that acquiring new customers is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones. 

Providing exceptional quality and service is pivotal to business success, but going that extra mile to convert a satisfied customer into a brand advocate boosts your marketing effort tremendously.

Brand advocates are the people who genuinely believe in your products and will recommend them to others. They will leave positive reviews, tag you in their online content and vouch for your brand. Brand advocacy in today’s age is simply your traditional word-of-mouth with an online twist!

If you are wondering, why do we need to draw our focus to these brand advocates rather than resort to other advertising channels, we have the answers.

According to Neilson, 90% of customers find recommendations from people they know trustworthy. This is higher than any other channel of advertising.

As per Social Toaster, word-of-mouth advocacy increases marketing effectiveness by 54%, making it one of the most affordable and cost-effective ways to bring new customers.

The four stages of building a customer advocacy channel are as follows:

  1. Find and Engage Your Potential Advocates
  2. Request for Action
  3. Reward Your Advocates
  4. Repurpose User-Generated Content

1. Find and Engage Your Potential Advocates

Not all customers will become your brand advocates. There will always be a set of customers who will visit or order online and not return for a repeat purchase. Some will become regular customers, but a handful of them will go out of their way to share content and reviews about your brand.

It is essential to recognize the right advocates and engage them in a manner that makes them feel affiliated with your brand.

Starbucks ran a low investment advocacy campaign in 2013 called #tweetacoffee, allowing customers to buy a 5-dollar gift card for a friend by tweeting the friend’s Twitter handle and Starbucks. The campaign clocked a revenue of $180,000 and helped the brand identify advocates and potential customers for Starbucks. The campaign’s real win was that it helped link 54000 customers’ Twitter IDs to their mobile phones and customer IDs for future marketing endeavors.

2. Request For Action

On average, Food and beverage posts on Instagram drive an engagement rate of approximately 1.06%, which is the highest amongst all social media sites making Instagram an engagement powerhouse. 

Within Instagram, User Generated Content (UGC) is considered the most authentic, garnering a higher average engagement rate.

With user-generated content, users get authentic reviews about products and are more likely to trust it over any other marketing content.

Encourage your audience to engage with you online through contests, giveaways, taggint them in your posts/stories etc. Actively look out for hashtags related to your restaurant and location tags in case someone hasn’t tagged your restaurant directly. It is essential that you document reviews, comments, feedback, and tags to repurpose it for marketing. One way to encourage user-generated content is to create a photo-op at your restaurant – a tiny corner with a cool sign or a mural that creates an iconic, “gram-worthy” background for photos. Keep the restaurant’s hashtags and social media handles near it so that people don’t miss out on tagging you.

Upshow is a tool that takes user-generated content and automatically displays it on the screen at your restaurant.  It is an effective technique to encourage your audience to generate content for you as it gives them the thrill of seeing their content displayed on your restaurant screen.

3. Reward Your Advocates

You might wonder, “Why do we need to incentivize our advocates in the first place? Shouldn’t they want to promote my content? After all, they love it!”

An incentive is a perfect way to thank your brand advocates and forge a long-term relationship. Some simple ways to do this are by incentivizing writing a review, sharing a photo by offering gift cards, personalized thank you notes, or giving free appetizers to such customers. It is essential that optics focus on the organic nature of this association and the reward does become the driving force but remains merely an encouragement factor.

Psst, ensure you give credits or seek permission before sharing user-generated content. 

4. Repurpose user-generated content

There are many things you can do with user-generated content apart from resharing them on your social media handles.

Diners often check out the restaurant’s website before deciding where to eat, so prepping the website with user-generated content will add to the authenticity. You can embed such content on the website by picking up 3 or 4 pieces to serve as testimonials.

Another innovative way is to use it on marketing collaterals to bridge the gap between an inquiry and action.

You can also create opportunities to involve your audience to be a part of your growth story. Kadalas a see-facing restaurant in Kozhikode, India conducted an online photography contest where the customers were encouraged to click photos in the restaurant and share them on Instagram using their hashtag to win an opportunity to get them featured on their anniversary special menu.

This unique content created by the customers adds to the trust and involvement of existing and potential customers.

Use this simple four-step Radyes strategy to build a brand advocacy strategy for your restaurants. We are all ears for more ideas. Let us know if you’ve got any other brand advocacy-building tactics or examples in the comments below.

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