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Labor Day is almost upon us and with that the official end of summer. Before the summer season is over, we would like to continue our series on digital marketing for businesses. Earlier this month, we wrote a blog about digital marketing for law offices. For this blog, let’s talk about something that we all enjoy. Why not see what kind of digital marketing needs restaurants have? 

It has been an extremely challenging time for the restaurant business. Some people might be afraid to return but, according to the CDC there is no evidence that people can catch the Coronavirus from restaurant food.  As with other industries we have covered in previous blogs, the competition in the restaurant industry is extremely fierce, to say the least. Alright, let’s dive right into it. Instagram is a huge platform for restaurants. Food porn is at home here and good visuals can make your stomach growl through your eyes. Of course, all your reputation management ducks need to be lined up and you cannot take this lightly in the food industry. Good reviews are gold nuggets. Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Open Table, Zamato – they can all make you or break you. Nurture these like you would nurture and groom your yard. 

Most people are probably looking for a place to eat close to home so geo-targeted ads should be incorporated in your digital marketing strategy. Facebook, Google Ads, and Bing are good platforms for this. You need a specialist to handle these. It requires knowledge, analysis, and optimization to get the most bang for your buck and to attract customers. A good SEM (Search Engine Marketing) strategy doesn’t need to break your bank and you can beat your competition by having a seat at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) when people are searching. 

You might have heard something about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is a way to drive organic (free/natural) traffic to your site. One excellent way to achieve this in the restaurant industry is to write blogs. They help build your community and engage people and who doesn’t like to read about food or food-related topics? Engage your audience and build your brand with good and consistent blogging. You should also engage your audience with a good social media strategy. It will help your restaurant to create a uniform ecosystem of brand identity, which will drive more traffic to your site. Brand consistency is key here across all platforms that you are using in your digital marketing strategy. 

A trend that restaurants need to capitalize on is voice search. An increasing amount of consumers are using devices such as Google, Alexa, and Siri to find nearby eateries. It just happens that we wrote a blog on making your brand voice search ready. Read it here. Here are some more statistics you cannot ignore:

1. 55% make calls to restaurants via their voice device
2. 45% make reservations using their voice device
3. 35% order food using their voice device

Restaurants will go to battle for customers to come back post COVID-19 and a good digital marketing strategy is a must. There will be pent up demand to go out, eat, and enjoy time with family or friends. If the competition has a digital marketing strategy for these customers, your establishment will be on the sideline. Who wants that? If you want more information about what 4Elements Digital can do to help you catch some of these customers, contact us here. The pandemic has put a monkey wrench in many businesses and personal lives. Let us look forward to an end and to much business and personal success in the world to come after COVID-19. For now, be safe and order from your local restaurant to support local business. Cheers!