The restaurant industry is one of the oldest industries in existence, and one of the most economically important. The phrase “restaurant industry” is vast, covering any business primarily concerned with supplying food to clients who would consume it on the premises. This encompasses everything from little snack bars attached to shops and other enterprises to luxury dining places offering gourmet cuisine, and everything in between cafés, work canteens, fast food outlets, and more. A subset of the larger hospitality sector, which includes everything from bars to hotels, is the restaurant business.
In this section, you’ll learn about ten of the most important trends in restaurant advertising for 2023.
1. Your Website & SEO
Restaurant advertising in today’s marketplace starts with your website. Think of your restaurant website as the hub for all your online activities. When visitors are thinking about your place of business, they will visit your website. Consider what your visitors will want to see and how you can best represent your company. In order for visitors to your website to find the information they need, it must be organized well. You need to make your menus simple to obtain, and you should include appealing pictures of your location and the food you are serving in addition to brief, insightful descriptions. Visitors should be able to make reservations for tables, order food for pickup or delivery, and locate your restaurant’s contact information and social media accounts. Your location and opening hours should be among the first things that your guests see. Good SEO (search engine optimization) ensures that your website is at the top of the search results.
2. Emphasis on Cleaning
Cleaning and good hygiene have always been important in the restaurant industry but now they’re something that customers are highly alert to. Guests returning to restaurants after the pandemic are more aware of cleanliness than ever. In a post-pandemic world, people visiting your restaurant need to know that the place where they’ll be eating is clean and safe. Sanitation stations near the entrance are common.
You can reassure your customers and help maintain cleanliness by using contactless restaurant POS systems, air purification, and ultraviolet sterilization. Letting your guests observe cleaning in work might also help to calm anxieties. Making thorough cleaning protocols available keeps both your staff and visitors safe.
3. Social Media Marketing
When it comes to restaurant advertising, social media marketing has never been more important. A huge percentage of potential customers now turn to social media when they’re looking for a restaurant. There are more opportunities than ever to market your company on social media, from straightforward text posts to video marketing, as more people spend more time there. One big advantage of social media marketing is the level of detail available regarding your audience.
It’s now feasible to target adverts quite specifically. You can serve social media ads that are targeted not just by location but by demographic, interest in dining out, and food preferences. Social media marketing goes well beyond paid ad spots.
4. Local Community Engagement
Because your customer base will be local, it’s important to engage with your community. There are plenty of potential guests who live nearby but who haven’t visited your restaurant yet. Community engagement lets you reach these people and creates a good image for your business in the area. The majority of restaurateurs use direct mail, ads in local media, and local transportation, but community engagement goes far beyond these standard methods.
Consider partnering with local organizations to host fundraising events at your premises. Provide sponsorships to local schools and sports clubs. Try revenue-sharing events to help out your neighborhood charities. Donate meals to shelters or for important local events.
5. Google Business Presence
Making sure that customers can find your restaurant is part of good restaurant advertising. That translates to Google visibility in the 2020s. For better or worse, Google has taken the top spot when it comes to locating anything—including restaurants. Customers are very likely to utilize Google’s search engine and Google Maps to find restaurants in their neighborhood. Fortunately, Google My Business makes it simple to set up your restaurant on the search engine.
You can register your company with Google using this free tool. You can include your website, the address of your restaurant, your operating hours, and other details. You can also offer menus and images.
6. Customer Loyalty Programmes
It’s crucial to keep existing consumers as well as attract new ones. Customer loyalty programs can help with that. At a restaurant, maintaining client loyalty is crucial since the more returning customers you can keep, the less new consumers you’ll need to grow your business. By concentrating your marketing efforts on this small but devoted group, you can maximize their efficacy.
Customers may return frequently if a business offers them a free hot beverage or small side dish after a specific number of visits. You may communicate with your customers in new ways by encouraging them to connect with your company on social media or by email. You can then provide them promotions, exclusive deals, coupons, and other rewards for coming back often. Your entire revenue might be significantly impacted by a strong loyalty program.
7. Personalization
All aspect of the hospitality business that involves clients must focus on building great relationships with them. This goes further than the above-mentioned loyalty programs. Consumers enjoy feeling recognized and valued. To leave a good impression, you should make an effort to personalize the experience for each consumer. Even something as straightforward as remembering a customer from a prior visit and addressing them by name can significantly enhance their perception of your company.
It can significantly impact a visitor if you keep in mind their culinary choices and nutritional needs. While it’s crucial to not disregard this kind of traditional personalization, technology also provides new opportunities for enhancing a visitor’s experience. There are even more personalization opportunities with social media and email.
8. Online Ordering
Both customers and restaurant management benefit from online ordering. Nowadays, a lot of clients choose to buy meals online rather than pick it up or have it delivered, even if they intend to eat it in. Online ordering makes for a more positive consumer experience because it is quick, convenient, and saves time in a busy world. You may boost sales and improve the appeal of your restaurant by making it simple for clients to order food through your website or a restaurant app.
You can utilize a variety of specialized ordering schemes. Ensure that the link to place orders is simple to find for clients and that the instructions are understandable. Several payment options should be available to customers.
9. QR Menus
Although the QR code craze has subsided in recent years, QR codes are still a frequently used and accepted method of swiftly and conveniently distributing information. The customer may easily scan the QR code to acquire the information they need without having to enter a Link into their browser. This is particularly beneficial in a restaurant setting. Customers can scan QR codes to view the restaurant menu on their phones rather than managing a physical menu.
These touchless digital menus can be updated with modifications and special offers without having to print a fresh batch of physical menus, making them more hygienic and practical than traditional menus.
10. Restaurant Chatbots
Chatbots are becoming more and more common in restaurant marketing and advertising. Restaurants are increasingly turning to chatbots as a method to provide exceptional customer service while lessening the burden on their busy workforce because many regions are experiencing staffing problems. Artificial intelligence (AI) is used by chatbots, software tools that can interact with customers and respond in a meaningful way. A chatbot can provide useful information like operating hours and the day’s deals, but it cannot answer every query a consumer may have.
Even reservations and orders can be placed by more advanced chatbot systems. Chatbots are being included by certain eateries into their websites and apps.