3 Tips on How to Increase Awareness for your Restaurant

1/ Create a Brand Identity

Before you do anything else or even think about digital marketing, you need to create a brand identity. But what does this include? Your brand identity should represent who you are and how you want to come across. This typically includes: brand personality, style, voice, brand guidelines for your designs, etc.

You want your brand identity to be unique, something that will allow for you to remain at the top of customers minds and relevant amongst the myriad of competition. A strong and consistent brand identity will help you remain relevant and true to yourselves across all digital marketing efforts.  Picture your brand as a human being, what do they look like, are they introverted or extroverted, are they funny, what are they in to? These are important questions that you need to ask yourselves in order to get the full picture and really get into the nitty gritty of who you are and how you want to be perceived.

2/ Develop a Digital Marketing Presence

When we talk about Digital Marketing people often assume that this means social media, right? Wrong. There is so much more to digital marketing than just social media.  Digital Marketing includes a variety of different aspects, such as: email campaigns/newsletters, social media, review platforms, Google business listings, Ads and so much more.

Email Campaigns

These campaigns are super important to help push out relevant information. Newsletters can cover more than one topic (we recommend 3-5) and can be a great tool to help bring awareness to aspects of your brand or restaurant. Such as: menu items, opening hours, a positive review you might have received, etc. The trick to newsletters is that you want to make them visually appealing and use concise enough messaging to get your message across without flooding recipients with too much information.

Social Media

It is really important to develop a strong social media presence (i.e., on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc.). Do your research and find out what platform or platforms are best suited for your target audience. Create eye catching and unique designs with attention grabbing captions. Instagram can be super critical to the success of a restaurant because many potential customers will go to Instagram to browse through your feed to see what type of items you offer. They will also check to see comments, and tagged photos to learn more about the experience of previous diners. Social media can hold so much valuable information and will be the go-to platforms when potential customers want to learn more about who you are, what you have to offer and what makes you unique.

Review Platforms

Review platforms (like Yelp, Google and TripAdvisor) can make or break your brand reputation. Like social media, potential customers will go to these websites to find out about the experiences other people might have had with your restaurant. It is SUPER important that you remain active on these platforms and keep track of all reviews (whether positive or negative). Some people might not have social media, and therefore the first place they go to find out about your restaurant is review platforms. Be sure to keep all the information up to date and populate your page with photos.

Google Business Listing

‍The first thing people will see when searching your brand or restaurant is your Google Business Listing. Like other digital marketing platforms, your google business listing will host many different types of valuable information, such as: reviews, hours, about your brand, images, etc. Did you know you can even post on Google? Yup, pictures, captions and so much more. It is crucial that this information is always correct and up to date because this will be the first point of contact between your brand and a potential customer.

Basically, in case we have not yet made it clear, make sure your information is always up to date (across all digital marketing platforms); and be sure to post regularly to help maintain your presence!

3/ Engage with the Community

Engaging with your community lets people know you are real, you care about your community and you value your customers. Engagement allows for you to give your brand an identity, a tone of voice and a brand presence; thus, increasing awareness as a whole.

When you interact with your community, whether they are current customers or potential ones, it allows for them to feel valued and as though they are part of something bigger. You want them to know that you welcome their feedback, opinions and stories about their previous experiences.

This is especially important if you receive a negative review or comment. People want to feel heard, they want to know that you care and that you are genuinely interested in hearing what they have to say. Make sure to keep your response (in these situations): clear, concise, relevant, thoughtful and sincere. An apology can go a long way.

Brands who engage with their communities always have a leg up against the competition because it allows for people to better be able to trust your brand and resonate with who you are and what you have to offer.

Do you still feel like you might need some extra help creating brand awareness and setting up your digital marketing efforts? Give us a call, and let’s get started, we are here to help!