For Restaurant Owners
We know that, although it’s an important part of your business’ strategy and success, marketing isn’t always your first thought or priority. That’s why we’ve created a really easy tool that’s budget friendly, user-friendly, and effective – our platform. Today, we wanted to go over the most cost-effective marketing tactics and tools (including ours), so that you don’t have to search and find them.
Direct Mail
ZaHub’s services are the first tool we’ll mention, and although we’re a little biased, we know it’s one of the lowest-costing, most budget-friendly tools in the industry that can deliver you with higher ROI than most. With our platform, you can target specific audiences, personalize your marketing to receive higher engagement and response rates, and get easy-to-understand reporting so you know how well your campaign is doing at any time.
Digital Ads
Paired with other marketing tactics or used alone, digital ads can be fairly cost-effective and can similarly target specified audiences. Instead of wasting time marketing to a broad, generalized group of people, digital ads can be shown to those who matter (and will likely enter your shop). ZaHub can pair digital ads with your direct mail campaign – just ask!
Social Media
Social media is a great, mostly free (unless you pay for social boosts and ads) engagement tool where you can easily connect with customers and other companies. With social media platforms, you can build a community and network with that community. But, be aware – you get out of social what you put in, so make sure that, if it’s one of your focuses, it is a true focus and is actively used. We’d recommend using one or two social platforms as to not get overwhelmed.
Plus – social media provides you with a pathway to word of mouth marketing, which is absolutely free. “…When we talk about marketing ideas, it’s important that your restaurant offers great food to begin with, because word of mouth will do all the heavy lifting for you.”
Social media is also yet another place to showcase existing and new food items, products, offers, coupons, specials, events, and more. Additionally, it encourages user-generated content (people tagging your shop in photos, videos, and stories) that can be used as additional, free marketing.
One last bit of social media advice? Make sure that, whether there’s positive or negative feedback, that you or someone at your shop is able to actively and appropriately answer back. This will help your shop and its staff seem more human, will showcase that you care, and will protect your reputation.
Delivery App Partnerships
Apps like these have become increasingly popular since the pandemic – and for good reason. More than ever before, people are ordering from the comfort of their own home and expect it to be quick and easy. It’s simple to sign up and partner, but, “note that the time it takes to get approved on these apps can vary depending on how many store locations you have and which apps you decide to sign up with.” There are several to choose from, and among the most popular are UberEats, Postmates, DoorDash, and GrubHub.
Any of these apps can serve as additional revenue streams that help you spread awareness and acquire more customers.
Gift Cards & Discounts
Using enticing coupons, discounts, rewards programs, and gift cards within or separate from your marketing can increase your customer base – and make your consistent customers even more loyal. Perks like these help people feel seen, heard, important, and, well, rewarded.
“But be careful here, you don’t want to rely (too) heavily on this. Abusing coupons and discounts can make people question why you can’t just sell at a regular price and have to rely on discounted rates to get customers. It’s not a good look. Instead, you can be strategic with this by using coupons as a tool to get existing customers to come back. For example, if you were to collect emails from customers, either through your website or physical location, you can send them occasional emails offering these discounts. Key word here is occasional. Don’t over-do it.”
Gift cards, specifically, are a great way to build awareness and get new people to try your food (or entice existing people to come back). “On the other end, gift cards also help you drive upfront revenue. The idea of ‘you pay me now and I’ll supply later’ can literally save a business during tough times.”
Restaurant Discover/Review Apps and Online Reservation Tools
Apps and tools like Yelp, Urbanspoon, Zagat, Restaurant.com, Foursquare, and TripAdvisor are all possible review apps you can exist on. “…much of consumer decision making runs on referrals and external reviews. In fact, 88% of consumers put the same weight on online reviews as they would from a family or friend recommendation. That’s huge. So, using restaurant review apps is a great way to give potential new customers the opportunity to make a decision. On the same token, adding your business to one of these apps can help you gain awareness from other users browsing the app.”
Additionally, reservation sites like OpenTable, Waitwhile, and Resy can help you manage reservations and attract new customers.
Advice on Choosing Marketing Partner Platforms
While many of these tactics involve partnerships, we know it’s not always easy to choose who you’d like to work with or what platforms you’d like to work on. We’re here to help. Read this short blog to get a better idea of how you can knowledgeably choose your partners and partner platforms.
You may think marketing takes a ton of time and energy because of what you’ve heard or past experiences – but it doesn’t always have to. If you’re interested in quick, inexpensive, and effective marketing, give us a call or try out our platform.