Are you an owner or a manager of a restaurant?
If yes, you may already have an idea that you require a fun way to promote your restaurant to existing and new customers. Here we discuss some ways.
People cannot survive without food, which is why starting a restaurant is a profitable venture. This, however, doesn’t mean that anyone who starts a restaurant definitely succeeds at it. There are many factors to determine if the business will be a success or not. Many people have little knowledge of how to market a restaurant in Singapore.
Today, starting and running a thriving business is completely different from how it was two decades ago. The internet is one of the main reasons for the many changes in the restaurant industry. Hundreds of entrepreneurs get into this industry but don’t last for more than a few months.
With Singapore being such a huge city-state, it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to marketing a restaurant. Singapore is not your ordinary kind of place and the types of food and dishes that are typically served there are extremely distinctive. If you are considering marketing a restaurant in Singapore, here are some general suggestions that you may want to bear in mind.
If you are an aspiring restaurateur, you might also want to familiarise yourself which the following ways to market your restaurant and foodservice industry.
The Mobile revolution
Gone are the days when you would put up a colourful sign outside your restaurant or depend on word-of-mouth techniques to attract customers. Most people today don’t have the patience to look for restaurant signs in the streets. Welcome to the mobile revolution!
Almost every adult in Singapore owns a smartphone. These devices come with lots of conveniences. People can easily socialise with one another even if they are hundreds of miles apart. The e-commerce industry is doing well. Anyone with a smartphone would rather order a product online rather than pick it physically.
Some restaurant owners don’t make it because the business doesn’t cater to this large demographic. There have to be featured to allow customers to order their food online or find the restaurant via Google maps.
Reputation Matters a Lot
With all the competition on the internet, it is advisable to improve the reputation of your restaurant if it has an online presence. Restaurateurs will naturally turn online to attract people to their restaurants.
A review seems insignificant but it is one of the reasons why many restaurants fall. If customers have a bad experience, they are likely to post a negative review on the restaurant website. When someone looking for a place to eat lands on your website, they will see the negative review and avoid it. One way to build a good reputation and strengthen the brand is to offer the best service.
What Kind of Food does the Restaurant Offer?
Yes. Your menu matters a lot. There has been a lot of changes in the way people view their meals in the last couple of years. People are getting more specific about what they take. Some of the factors to consider include allergies, diet, sustainability, and sourcing.
While you may not satisfy each and every person that comes to the restaurant, it is important to consider these vital factors. There must be clear channels of communication with the customer in order to identify the types of foods they prefer. Once you have identified these foods, the next step is to promote the restaurant vigorously.
Having mentioned some of the main problems facing the restaurant industry, let’s now focus on the marketing strategies that guarantee an increase in profits.
Build a Website
We are in the digital era and almost everyone uses the internet in one way or another on a daily basis. Smart business people usually build a website so that they can easily reach out to millions of prospective customers on the internet.
A website should contain all details about the organization. It is like a virtual store and should mirror the physical restaurant. Have photos of the meals your restaurant provides and enable reviews so visitors can gauge the customer service.
The website also needs to be responsive. People should easily find their way around it. If the intention is to make an order, they should do so in a few clicks. Remember to optimise the website for mobile devices since that is what most people use to access the internet.
A firm customer base is crucial to your business’s success. Using social media is one of the most reliable methods of building lasting relationships with your existing and potential clients.
Creating a website for your restaurant business isn’t enough. To establish a solid online presence, you need to create social media accounts. Experts recommend that you use no more than three social media platforms. You could decide to use Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Being on social media will benefit your restaurant in many ways. These social media platforms are used by millions of people not only in Singapore but also in other parts of the world. Identify your target audience and start posting relevant content.
Make sure you engage the target audience regularly and find out what interests them. This is also the place where you will get feedback from current customers and improve on your weak areas. If people love your restaurant, they will gladly share your content with friends and acquaintances. If done in the right way, social media significantly contributes to the growth of your business.
Blogger Outreach
When you start a restaurant, you’ll obviously want to attract as many people as possible. There are millions of foodies in Singapore but you will be unable to reach a large audience if you’re new. This is where foodie bloggers come in.
You can increase your followers and have more people speaking about your restaurant and mentioning your restaurant to other people. Create engaging posts to build relationships with your clients and get them talking about your restaurant the same way you should. Engaging with your customs on social media helps you acquire customer feedback about the items on your menu and develop a loyal customer base. Also, it increases your number of followers organically.
There are hundreds or even thousands of food bloggers out there. Some of them have massive followings. You could invite them to your restaurant just to have a taste of your meals and customer service. This is even better if you are introducing a meal to your menu.
You could then ask the bloggers to give a positive review of your website. Most bloggers won’t hesitate to promote your business if you provide a great service. When they eventually do, you will be able to reach thousands of potential customers.
Use Photos to Your Advantage
If already have a restaurant or are considering starting one, you need to sharpen your photography skills. The rapid growth of Instagram shows that people respond to visual content. You will obviously need an Instagram account for this purpose in order to market your restaurant.
Post the best photos of your tasty-looking meals. You shouldn’t limit it to Instagram alone though. Place photos of your meals on other platforms as well. If you are just starting out, you could use your smartphone. If you want to produce high-quality photos, consider acquiring a professional camera and taking some photography lessons. You will be amazed at the results.
If you use Pinterest or Instagram to run your social media campaigns, then you need to develop gorgeous photographs for your food. Instagram is a platform that shows stories through pictures. Its followers are a good indication that people like visuals rather than text. It involves representing your restaurant in a creative way that engages your audience by consistently posting visually engaging content. Displaying quality images of your food will boost the organic reach and engagement of your posts.
Individuals expect you to update posts of your restaurant on a daily basis. They need food every day. You can use these techniques to ensure that your restaurant photos are successful:
- Adjust your camera settings to determine the best capture
- Utilise natural light
- Seek for a powerful contrast
- Make use of a white background
- Have one interest in the image
Although everybody likes a beautiful photo of food, ensure that you include a restaurant atmosphere too. It will draw in customers and give them a vibe of your eatery.
Adding hashtags to the content that you post on Instagram and Twitter is another great restaurant marketing strategy. They enable people to find your accounts on social media.
Hashtags can increase the growth and reach of your business on social media, leading to the overall success of your digital marketing strategy. They can assist you to boost the awareness of your brand, increase engagements, and increase the number of customers.
Research shows that in Singapore, posts that have hashtags get around 12.6% more interaction than posts that lack hashtags.
Instagram has over 20 million posts containing the hashtag #restaurant, over 23 million comprising hashtag #drink, and over 300 million carryings hashtag #food. This shows that people love posting about food and social media is the best place to promote your restaurant.
Using popular hashtags together with unique hashtags is the best approach. Your post will disappear quickly if you use only the popular hashtags, considering the new posts that get created every day using the popular hashtags.
If you have a unique hashtag for your restaurant, it encourages the clients you utilise it too. It develops a community around your brand and increases engagements. Ensure to use local hashtags for your posts to generate people in your geographical area.
Post Helpful Content
Posting content that is created based on the needs of your audience is another excellent way to develop long-term relationships with your clients. Publishing content that requests your audience to tag friends or asks open-ended questions is likely to get a unique engagement. They are among the simplest fun ways of promoting restaurants.
Some of these containers may be recipes, revealing the source of the produce, educating the public on the health benefit of some of the ingredients used, and even doing a cover of the culture of the restaurant and the region it originated from (or is inspired by).
Creating engaging content will assist you to reach massive numbers of customers from your area at a minimal cost. By using the benefits that come from social media, you can retain your restaurant in front of the minds of your clients.
Repost Material from Your Customers
Another great restaurant digital marketing idea is to repost photos that customers may have taken in your restaurant or taking your food. It will result in massive shares, and you can also tag them in your post to recognise them for sharing your brand with others.
Connecting to your follows using content can assist you to make your brand look authentic. 92% of internet users in Singapore trust recommendations from other people rather than businesses. People trust their peers, so use this chance to promote your brand.
Content created by the users is a typical indicator of brand reliability and trustworthiness. A customer who promotes your restaurant is the same as a customer who gives you an excellent review. Ensure that you add a sign in your restaurant that requests clients to take pictures of themselves having a meal in the restaurant. It is advisable to add a hashtag or a username that they can use to tag your restaurant in their posts.
Posting Customer Reviews
When you want to establish the credibility of your brand, use compliments, testimonials, and reviews from your clients. Studies show that 88% of Facebook users trust what other people say about businesses. Also, 70% of online sales can be related to social media. When you get a 5-star review on any online platform, ensure that you share the review on your social media platforms.
Reviews build trust with your audience. Posting a review that mentions a specific item on your menu can make new customers to visit your customers to have the same experience as the people reviewing it.
Increase Your Engagement and Brand Awareness by Boosting Your Posts
Paid advertising can improve your restaurant marketing strategy. Boosting your posts is an excellent way to enhance the engagement and awareness of your restaurant.
With the recent changes in Facebook’s algorithm, it is difficult for businesses to gain massive organic reach and engagement. Therefore, if you want to enhance your opportunity of interacting with the audience, you will need to use some paid marketing strategies. Without boosting your post, it will reach only 1% of your total audience.
The marketing elements that you can boost include specials, promotions, contests, or giveaways. Raising these elements increases interaction with your post. If you have a running competition and you would like to expand its reach, it is recommended that you allocate a larger budget and boost the post for a more extended period. However, you can use paid ads to promote your special offers and deals that are available for a limited period to increase your reach.
Use Reach Ads to Enhance the Awareness of Your Brand to Potential Local Clients.
Reach Ads is another paid marketing strategy that you can use to enhance the overall reach of your business. About 61% of individuals in Singapore require to come across something more than two times on social platforms before they decide to buy or visit your restaurant.
A reach campaign will make your ad reach the maximum number of people depending on your budget. It is an excellent approach when you have something that you need to share with a massive audience.
Reach ads are the most excellent when you want to add a call to action to your posts. Some of the call to actions you can include:
- “Learn More” to acquire more data on what the ad involves
- “Call Now” to contact your business
- “Get Directions” to know your location
Reach ads are very similar to brand awareness ads. The only difference is that brand awareness ads increase the reach of your business to people who are more likely to get interested in what you offer. Brand and reach awareness brands do not need a dedicated marketing budget to undertake. They usually happen on a continuous monthly basis.
Work with delivery companies
The whole point of starting a website for your restaurant is so people can make orders online and have meals delivered to their doorstep. With all the competition in the industry, you will be miles ahead of your competitors if you can deliver food to a customer.
You will discover that this requires more personnel and expenses. Partner with food delivery companies such as Food Panda, Grab Delivery, Deliveroo, etc. This is a surefire way to increase the number of customers.
Promote Your Business Using Email Marketing
When you have built a following and have thousands of people flooding your website, you’d want to keep in touch with them. Remember there are probably hundreds of other restaurants planning to snatch your customers.
Sending out newsletters once in a while is a good thing. It is vital because it enables the restaurant to develop a strong relationship with the customers.
If for instance you have a new meal on the menu or are giving discounts on a certain date, you can let the subscribers know. Remember to keep the newsletter simple and occasional. Many people hate getting spammed by businesses.
You can do this by sending exclusive updates, future events, discounts, and weekly specials to your loyalty program members.
Email marketing is another great way to promote your restaurant in Singapore. Having a reward or loyalty program is an excellent strategy to boost your sales. The first step to add customers to your loyalty program is o get their emails. You can simply do this by showing a pop-up on your website or social media ads that request subscribers to subscribe to the program. Loyalty programs urge clients to keep visiting your site to get a free coupon or dessert.
After developing an email list, you can start to create an email marketing strategy to send some of the restaurant marketing ideas mentioned above.
Some of the aspects you can add to your weekly emails to subscribers include:
- Discounts – let your subscribers know you care about them by giving them exclusive discounts from time to time. For example, you can give them a 10% discount or a free dessert on their next sale.
- Exclusive updates – if you have a special offer or an exclusive seasonal product or service in your restaurant, mail marketing is one of the best digital advertising strategies that you can use to send updates to your subscribers.
- Upcoming events – inform your loyal customers first when celebrating the anniversary, opening an event on holiday, or having a special offer to enhance your relationship.
- Existing specials – let your subscribers know what you are offering to draw their attention and attract them back to your restaurant. Sen a different special in each one of your emails, but don’t overdo it.
In general, marketing your website using email marketing is the best method of increasing your customer loyalty and enhancing the long-term success of your business. By implementing the tips highlighted above, you can increase subscribers in your email list and attract the attention of your audience on a regular basis, if you run your campaigns right.
Yelp reviews
When it comes to promoting your restaurant on the internet, Yelp should be on your list of strategies. Reviews are very important if you want to grow any businesses because it enables you to know how customers perceive your products/services.
It doesn’t matter whether you have a Yelp account or not-your restaurant will still get reviews through other channels. If you want Yelp to work to your advantage, your account should include the location of your restaurant, prices of meals, any extra services, and photos. Ensure that people can find what they are looking for.
When you’ve already set up an account, you will start getting reviews-both positive and negative. Remember to always be polite when replying to reviews, even if they are negative.
If a customer has put up a negative review, kindly inquire what you can do to improve. If people see that you actually accept mistakes and are willing to do better next time, they’ll be willing to give you a second chance.
Schedule your tweets
Twitter has gained millions of users in the past five years. It is one of the top platforms to market your restaurant. When you have gotten a few thousand people to follow your restaurant profile on Twitter, you can easily attract them to your restaurant.
The mistake that most restaurateurs make is to tweet without a plan. The goal of your tweets is to urge the follower to take action. If it’s in the morning, tweet about meals that people usually have for breakfast, accompanied by the necessary hashtags. Do the same for other times of the day.
Provide discounts
Who doesn’t love a free meal? Some people visit specific restaurants simply because they offer coupons and discounts. There are many ways to do this. One way is to offer a free meal to anyone who signs up for your newsletter. This means that a new follower gets to experience the benefits of buying from your restaurant from day one.
Another way is to advertise coupons and discounts on social media or on your site. Remember to offer these coupons and discounts regularly so that your customers can always have something to look forward to.
Target Nearby Neighbourhoods
Smart business people usually start a business after having identified a suitable environment. It could be a street that is highly populated, at a mall, near major business districts, or a place next to a school. This way, they are assured of a good number of customers each day.
The aim is to focus on neighbourhood traffic. When they are looking for a place to eat, they will naturally pick a nearby outlet. You can use Google ads to target your local area. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter also have the target-location feature in their ads.
Incentivise your staff
If you going to make your restaurant successful, your staff need to be good at what they do. If they do their jobs well and are friendly to all, they will encourage customers to come back. Share photos or even videos of your happy, smiling staff once in a while on social media. The public will see a happy employee and instantly view the restaurant as a good one. Make sure your staff are provided with tips, provide the better staff with bonuses and incentives, and named Employee of the Month with cash and offs to motivate them to work harder and treat customers better.
It’s not every day that a restaurant gets featured in a major foodie publication or media agency. When this happens, share it on all the social media platforms you are part of. People might not give much attention to your restaurant but when they see a feature of it in a trusted media source, they’ll notice it.
Host Contests and Giveaways
When you want a long-lasting affiliation with your clients, it is essential that you give them value. This gives people a reason to follow you and remains interested in your brand.
Hosting giveaways and contests is an excellent way of giving value to your clients. Offer rewards to the consumers, and at the same time request them to invite more followers to your business. The number of customers to your restaurant increases as your online followers grow.
The key purpose of hosting contests and giveaways on social media is to boost your engagements and followers. By giving away something to the audience, you can need your followers to complete some simple tasks including:
- Following you on social media
- Like your posts
- Tag along with friends
Try to run a giveaway for a month to give rewards like a gift card to your eatery and see the number of followers and engagements you will generate on social media.
Support local charities and fairs
We’ve talked about reaching out to internet users using your website. What about reaching out to the community? It is important to ensure that people living around recognise the restaurant. One way to do this is by attending fairs/exhibitions.
Local charities, for instance, a fundraiser, brings together a community. It is the perfect moment to promote your restaurant. Look up local exhibitions/charities/festivals that are set to happen and volunteer to provide food for free or at a discount.
When people come across your restaurant they will recognise it as the restaurant that supports charity. This is good for your reputation as well as building brand awareness.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Singapore foodies often ignore paid ads and reviews because they feel they could be biased or paid by the restaurant. So often they would click on organic rankings on SERPs on Google.com.sg as they feel that the truly high-ranking restaurants are there naturally because of their reputation.
So using an SEO agency to help you optimise your website would definitely increase your visibility online and obtain loads of bookings.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing involves promoting your restaurant website in search engines such as Google. Most people who search for restaurant services on the internet usually know what they want. Chances are they are looking for a restaurant like yours.
Google ads can help you achieve your marketing goals easily. Using these ads is that you can target either the local, regional or international audience. Your restaurant website appears above the normal results in the SERP and attracts more visitors.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) also produces the same results as with SEO only that it may take a little longer. SEO is the process of optimising a site for search engines, such that it ranks higher for certain keywords. One way to do this is by acquiring backlinks from high-authority websites.
Run Traffic Ads to Increase Traffic to Your Site
It is good to run traffic ads if you want to direct people to your landing page or website. It is similar to reach ads in that they are good when you need to add a compelling call to action. Traffic ads go well with the “Learn More” CTA to generate more traffic to your website or landing page because consumers will want to understand what your ad entails.
It is good to run traffic ads to your online marketing strategy for your restaurant to direct people to book reservations on your website. It will enable your potential customers to learn more about your restaurant and menu before making a decision.
In the long run, this will increase the number of physical customers in your restaurant. Another great benefit of increasing traffic to your site is the increment of online orders.
Using paid promotions to boost the reach of your brand is a great online marketing idea for your restaurant. It will enable you to increase traffic to your website and restaurant within a short time, unlike the long-term organic game.
Go Where The Locals Are
While it’s always great to have a presence in a highly populated city, you will find that in Singapore, you may have to battle it out with the many other restaurants for customers. This means that you should probably avoid over-trying to appeal to the general population and instead target audiences that are more likely to be found in smaller towns and rural areas. After all, at least the locals know what they are eating and if it’s something different, then so be it. It may take some time for your restaurant to gain a following in these areas but if you are determined, you will find your niche and start attracting customers from far away places like the city.
Consumers In Singapore Love Their Food
Marketing in Singapore is all about appealing to the maximum amount of people as possible. From an interesting factoring in that 90% of Singaporeans eat out at least once a week, you may decide that your target audience is going to be those who are adventurous eaters who try new things. If this sounds like you, then all the more reason to focus on marketing techniques that encourage people to travel to your restaurant. You may even want to consider offering something different each month to keep things fresh. One month you could offer frog legs, the next you could opt for shark’s fin or alligator pepper steak. Whatever it may be, make sure that it is something that will make your food stand out from the crowd. If you can pull this off, you will have a very attractive and lucrative audience in front of you.
Offer Something For Everyone
Eating out is such a broad activity and if your aim is to appeal to as many people as possible, then you should include something for everyone in your restaurant’s menu. This could be a light appetiser such as oysters or frog legs, a side of mackerel, a fillet of salmon, or even vegetarian option such as tofu or charred vegetables. Whatever you do, make sure that you have something on the menu that will appeal to the masses. If you can’t think of anything, then it may be a good idea to consult with a professional caterer who can whip up a delicious three-course meal for you.
Be Creative With Your Plating
Plating is the method of serving food in which the raw ingredients are displayed on a plate and the diner chooses the portions that they want. Creative plating allows you to display a variety of dishes on a single plate and give customers the ability to see exactly what is served, preventing them from being fooled by misleading menu descriptions. The trick is to make sure that your plating is innovative and distinctive enough that it will pull in customers while not being so crazy that it will frighten people away. The more plates you have to offer, the greater the chance of drawing in new customers. If you want to make your food stand out, then consider using locally sourced and organic produce whenever possible.
Avoid Over-Expanding
Even in a country like Singapore where land is at a premium, you will find that there are only so many tables that can fit in a normal-sized restaurant. If you want to boost your sales, then you will have to look for ways to expand your business. One way is through the use of delivery services. By having an online ordering system that delivers the food right to the table, you can cut out the middleman and save on cash that you would otherwise be spending on takeaway food. This is especially beneficial if you are looking to appeal to people in areas that are far away from where you are located. With the help of a food delivery service, you can target customers in the areas that you think will be most beneficial for your business.
Use Technology Wisely
Every day, people are discovering new ways in which they can further enhance their dining experience. From checking emails on their mobile phones while they eat to finding listings of nearby eateries on a GPS, people are utilising technology in innovative ways to make their lives easier and more convenient. If you are looking for ways to market your restaurant and wondering what is trending, then you can take advantage of this by integrating social media platforms into your strategy. Doing this can help you engage with your customers and see what they are talking about. It’s always good to know what is being said about your restaurant because you can learn a lot from this. This is especially useful if you have a small restaurant that is trying to grow its audience.
Be Brave
If you are considering expanding your business to include a restaurant in Singapore, then bear in mind that it’s a world apart from your home country. Although there are plenty of similar cultures, there are still many differences in terms of how people act, what they like and don’t like, and how the society functions. This can make a huge difference in how you approach your venture which, in turn, could impact the way you market your restaurant. Having said that, you should not let this fact deter you from having a go at it. Even if your restaurant may seem strange to you at first, you should still offer it a try and see how things go. Sometimes the best ideas come from the most unexpected places. Your customers may not agree but that is their own issue.
Singapore is a hugely successful city-state with a population of over six million. For those who want to get into the restaurant business, there are plenty of opportunities in the local food scene. If you do decide that this is the kind of place you want to set up shop, then make sure that you give it your best shot and everything you can. You never know what could happen.
Quick Visual Tip
source: https://hotelemarketer.com/2017/02/18/restaurant-marketing-strategy-101-infographic/
Add a Reservation Links to Google Business
It’s time you forgot about Yelp reviews. Learn to move with time, and it will show you that Google is now the new sheriff in town. This leader of online searches also dominates online searches for restaurants and food items.
If you’ve been keen on following tech trends, then it’s safe to assume that you already have an active Google Business account. This account is designed to show your location, website, link, and the product pictures you’ll need to run an effective way to online marketing campaign for your restaurant.
It’s after you’ve done this that you can take advantage of Google’s local delivery. The next thing you want to do is figure out how you’ll be using Google My Business to boost up your revenue.
Google partnered with food delivery apps at the beginning of the year and made it possible for customers to order food directly from Google search, without necessarily downloading a food delivery app or visiting a food delivery website
This functionality works on Google Maps and Google Search, where users are allowed to make a new order online whenever they hit the search bar with a search query on a supported restaurant. Users are allowed to choose between delivery and pickup, after which they can proceed to select which service do they prefer ordering their food through.
If the restaurant they choose supports it, then they won’t need to exit Google’s interface to make an order. They should be able to make their selection and place their order entirely on Google search.
To take advantage of this new Google feature, you can begin by getting your restaurant listed on Google My Business.
How to List Your Business on Google My Business
We guess that you already have a Google My Business (GMB) profile. If you don’t have it, follow the step-by-step guide we’ve provided below, and there’ll be nothing left to worry about.
For those who already have the profile, chances are it’s been a while since you last logged into the account to check it out. The point is that much has changed, and it’s not the same feature-deficient platform you last saw.
Here is a list of all new features that Google has managed to add to GMB over the past few couple of years.
- Service Area – if you deliver food, you can specify the areas that you’ll be able to deliver steaming hot food. With this option, you can list up your site as one of the restaurants delivering food within a certain locality. In so doing, customers can order food directly from you without necessarily having to visit your website.
- Coming Soon Restaurant – if you’re still in the process of opening your restaurant or maybe you’re planning to extend your services by delivering food to a new location, then Google allows you to list it as a ‘coming soon restaurant.’ The restaurant will then show Google Map with the launch date and other details.
This is an option you’d want to consider if you’re seeking to create some awareness around your restaurant by getting it in front of potential customers before you can go ahead and get started officially.
- FAQs – Google introduced this feature to allow you to address some of the questions and concerns your users might have without necessarily making them type it down. This is good marketing, especially so since it allows you to rank your profile on relevant keywords.
You can optimise this section of your profile for relevant keywords. Google will then pick on it and be able to tell what kind of restaurant you run. It’s an opportunity you don’t want to waste.
Reserve a Table: Google has been teaming up with different booking apps to allow customers to reserve a table or be included on a waitlist straight from Google maps, without being forced to install an app or check out any web portal. This feature is bound to get even better with the advancement of voice search. You can only imagine yourself saying “hello Alexa, mind reserving a table for three at Candlenut.”
How to Create a Google My Business Page for Your Restaurant
Step 1: Create a GMB account. If it already exists, claim it.
Head over to Google My Business, and try searching for your restaurant or if your restaurant page already exists. If you find it, go ahead and lay a claim to it by clicking on the “Request Ownership” button. You’ll then be presented with a request ownership form that you’ll be required to fill up before proceeding with anything.
If you can’t find your restaurant, then scroll down and click on “add your business to Google.” Follow the steps to add your business and enter the rest of the details you’re asked for.
Once done, head back to Google My Business and try completing the process.
Step 2: Fill in Your Restaurant details.
Here, you’ll be required to enter the name, address, and other details of your restaurant. Remember to tick on ‘check’ if you’re planning to do food deliveries, after which you’ll be required to choose your exact food location on Google maps.
Step 3: Choose the Right Restaurant Category
You have no room for mistakes here. The restaurant category you choose must clearly define what you’re involved with to avoid confusing your customers. You have multiple options to choose from including Asian Restaurant, Buffet Restaurant, Ice Cream Shop, Barbecue shop, bar, and so on.
If you can’t find a more specific category, then consider choosing a more general category.
Step 5: Enter Your Restaurant’s Contact Details
This is where you enter your restaurant’s contact number and website’s URL.
To this end, you’ve managed to create a Google My Business account for your restaurant. What Remains is for you to verify it and you’re done.
How to Verify your GMB account
Google has several options for verifying your Google My Business account. However, for location-specific businesses such as a restaurant, the only way to verify your account is via a postcard.
Google will send a postcard containing a verification code to the address you specified while creating your GMB page. In Singapore, you have to wait for at least ten days to receive this postcard.
After you receive the code, enter it on your Google My Page and hit the ‘verify now’ button.
After you’ve verified the account, you’ll be allowed to go through the information you provided and update it where necessary. Make sure you entered the correct information and that everything is up to date.
Google also lets you enhance your GMB profile by uploading quality pictures or videos (or both), and by adding a description of your restaurant.
You also want to make sure that you’ve updated your operational hours. You’re also allowed to offer coupons to your customers. And most importantly, post your updates in real-time. This is a section you’ll be revisiting from time to time whenever you have a new update to make. For instance, you can offer festive combos, weekly offers, and so much more.
Congratulations on successfully listing your restaurant on GMB. Customers should be able to find your business now, and with so much ease.
What next?
Other Ways to Market Your Restaurant and Increase the Number of Sales
SMS Marketing
SMS Marketing allows you to make a follow-up on your customers and try establishing a relationship with them, however fleeting it will be. Now that you’ve already collected your customers’ information, why don’t you go through your database and use it to sell even more plates for your restaurant?
SMS marketing is good for advertising offer updates. You can send a message to your past customers to announce discounts, offer coupon codes, and announce a new menu item. The messages you send must contain a link to placing an order.
This should compel them to want to visit your site or mobile app to place an order or shop around for a more convincing offer. Consequently, you should be able to increase your sales and set the ground for customer loyalty.
Online customers are known to being more receptive to not -so regular text messages. As long as you’re not SMSing them all the time to be considered a nuisance, you’d be surprised by how much you can achieve through SMS marketing.
Upselling
Upselling isn’t a marketing strategy, per se. But it’s a strategy for increasing your sales. It doesn’t matter how big your restaurant is or how much success you’ve had thus far. An opportunity to sell one more plate with every customer that you serve isn’t one that you would want to pass up.
Upselling can be defined as the art of getting your customers to purchase more than what they had initially intended. You can do this by convincing them to upgrade their plate. This is a common strategy among restaurants that wish to stretch their profits margins.
If you plan to get your staff to do the convincing for you, then you might want to make sure that they’re well trained for the task. First, your wait staff must focus on developing a rapport with underlying customers. The wait staff must also be in sync with your restaurant’s menu items.
A simple trick would be to offer samples of a new item that you recently introduced on your menu. Once a customer gets to taste the new menu item and likes it, there’s a fair chance that they’ll start ordering it.
There are so many upselling tricks and techniques that you could employ today and grow your sales by a significant amount.
Learn to Analyse Reports
Using a POS will help you run your business more effectively and even help you boost up your sales. A POS is your ace in the hole, a not-so-exactly marketing tool that you wouldn’t want to miss in your sales arsenal.
It’s what you use to find out what’s happening in your restaurant even when you’re not physically available at the restaurant to oversee it.
Do you want to find out how many sales you’ve been able to make at your restaurant and all of its outlets? Do you want to find out how many bills have been generated so far and the amount of discount you’ve given out so you can work your profits? Or find out which item on your list is about to expire and cost you?
Well, you can get all this information on your POS. With the information you get, you should know how to adjust your menu. You should know what item to introduce and what item to strike out from your menu.
Cross promoting your restaurant with Influencer Marketers
Maybe you didn’t know, but influencer marketing could also work with a restaurant business. And it’s more effective than you think.
Get a few video bloggers to talk about your restaurant by inviting them over for a free plate of food and let them review your restaurant on their channels. Instagram celebrities are also among the bunch of people you should be thinking of targeting. Find a way to get them to your restaurant and let them snap your meals, restaurant setup, and so on to post it on their Instagram page.
Word of mouth is another powerful marketing strategy that you would want to take advantage of today. The trick is not to sit down and wait for your customers to hype your restaurant or some blogger to show up with a story.
What you need to do is to get out and try establishing a meaningful connection with the people you interact with regularly. Make as many friends as you possibly can so they can all have something positive to say about your restaurant.
A simple approach would be to try using locally available items. For instance, if there’s a local vendor of hot sauce near you, don’t go elsewhere to purchase it. Instead, try promoting the vendor and their business by, first, buying their products and, second, by putting a positive word out there for their business. Eventually, they’ll learn to pick on this simple gesture and reciprocate the favour.
Start a blog and consider palling up with other bloggers within your locality. Your blog doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple recipe blog where you get to talk about some local recipes and food shopping primers should be enough to get you noticed.
Now what you want to do is find a way to befriend as many bloggers as you possibly can. News blogs aren’t exempted from this. Check out if they’re organising for any meetup, and make sure you avail yourself.
If you have any new ideas that you think they can write about, share them with them, and don’t shy off from asking them to consider writing about your restaurant as well.
This is some nice PR strategy that you wouldn’t want to make light of.
Conclusion
As you can see from the strategies outlined above, you can easily market a restaurant in Singapore. To ensure you are successful a few weeks/months into the businesses, analyse the industry to see which marketing techniques are appropriate.
While all the above restaurant online marketing strategies are a bit irresistible, it is not easy to accomplish this without an online advertising agency, hire professionals to do the marketing for you while you concentrate on improving your restaurant. Marketing is critical, but don’t give away your business just to gain customers, measure the outcome of various advertising strategies.
For digital marketing (SEO and SEM), do not hesitate to contact MediaOne. The company has a team of experienced individuals ready to improve your marketing techniques.
