Here Is A Method That Is Helping Small Restaurant Owners To Compete With Big Name Businesses
Let’s talk about online restaurant marketing.
I have friends who had made a good start with their businesses and are now enjoying a steady flow of transactions from both old and new clients.
Their line of services falls under different industries, not just foodservice. But they all did one thing in common, which I suggested to them on their very first day—that is, to make friends online and hopefully turn leads into regular customers.
This is called internet marketing, and as a restaurant owner you ought to call yourself lucky for being “just in time” to take advantage of it.
The one thing I like about online restaurant marketing—or online marketing of any commercial service—is that it levels out the playing field between small business owners and big name corporations. Before the internet, the majority of marketing is done on TV or magazines and newspapers. This means you’ll be spending millions of dollars just to let people know you are opening a restaurant.
For small business owners, this can be killing.
Modern internet marketing, on the other hand, is fought with ideas, not money. You could advertise your restaurant on the internet and not spend a single cent. Your competitor’s fat wallet isn’t a big factor here.
A tried-and-true formula is to advertise your restaurant on social media. Why not invest on a monthly cooking show to be shown, for free, on YouTube? Like my friends, why not sign up on popular social media such as Twitter and Facebook and get to know your market niche better so you could serve them what they want?
A successful business venture is one that takes the time to listen.
Money still plays a role here. Don’t take it the wrong way when I said it’s “free“. But even so, it doesn’t play as big a role as it does when advertising on any other medium outside the internet. You can pay for an online ad space, sure, but you can’t buy the sense of trust and intimacy between brand and client that result when you, the restaurant owner, form a relationship with your customers.
Did you know that only a handful of US restaurants use social media to get their names around? Don’t be one of them. Leave a comment below and tell me how you intend to make a difference by going online.