How To Market
Your Restaurant Online?
The good news is, it doesn't have to be difficult or complicated to accomplish.
If you're considering how to do digital marketing for your restaurant, cafe, or even coffee shop, you understand how critical it is. To establish a baseline, let's examine the growth in the number of persons searching via search engine.
It is common for a customer to remain loyal to a business for a long time—and in some circumstances, for the rest of their lives.
It is, however, your marketing strategy that will help them find you. To get it right, you may have to go through a few trial and error.
In 2019, more than 13,000 food and beverage establishments were established in Singapore. Restaurants, fast food outlets, caterers, cafes, food courts, and other eating venues were all included in this list.
You are looking for potential customers when you embark on a digital strategy or design a marketing plan.To do that, you need to grow your online presence in order to get more people to know about your food and beverage business.
Of course, to do all these, there must first be people online.
For our various market outlet sharing sessions, we tracked Singapore Food Delivery Market, and here is the result:
- Jan 2020 Online Food Delivery: SGD$ 90 million
- May 2020 Online Food Delivery (circuit breaker in Singapore): SGD$ 191.8 million
- July 2021 Online Food Delivery (after Heighten Alert in Singapore): SGD$261.45 million
- Dec 2021 Online Food Delivery: SGD$ 244.53 million
A few variables to note from the stats:
- Food delivery grew despite the COVID situation.
- Every time there is a restriction, the food delivery grows.
Dec 2021 shows that even after most restrictions have been lifted, the volume of transactions online remains.
So, why is digital marketing important?
- “Your potential customers are all online”.
- Website
The first step in promoting a restaurant online is to develop a website. Bring in pros to assist you with this procedure. Ascertain that your website is functioning and responsive.
A website is just as crucial as a physical location for your restaurant; therefore, promote your restaurant's website on advertising, promotional materials, and stationery.
Your website must contain all pertinent information about your restaurant and must be regularly optimized and updated to serve as a single point of contact for all of your consumers. - Ensure Your Online Presence Is Optimized
Claim your restaurant's listing in local directories and review sites.
Additionally, you can distribute press releases to local newspapers, journals, schools, and neighboring manufacturing enterprises to inform them of your restaurant's opening.
Create an online menu for your restaurant on your website or through a third-party supplier such as an online delivery platform.
Nowadays, clients make appointments and place orders via their smartphones, which means your restaurant and menu must be easily accessible online, (mobile responsive).
Additionally, you must be able to utilize your restaurant's point-of-sale system to supplement your restaurant marketing strategies. - Make Use of a Variety of Promotional Channels
To advertise a new restaurant, avoid becoming fixated on a single method of marketing. Experiment with various methods of marketing.
Unless you explore them, how will you know whether they will benefit your restaurant or not and how will you budget accordingly?
To promote a new restaurant effectively, allocate 80% of your budget to digital marketing and 20% to traditional advertising such as newspaper, directory, radio, television, and billboard advertisements.
All advertising should be directed to your website to maximize cross-promotional benefits.Take Advantage of Social Media Platforms
If you're not utilizing social media to attract customers, you're almost certainly losing income. According to Statista the typical person spends 135 minutes every day on social media.
This audience is easily accessible for the purpose of promoting a new restaurant online via numerous social media channels.
To begin, experiment with all social media channels to determine which one works best for your cuisine and format.
When it comes to restaurant marketing on social media, Facebook has emerged as the clear winner, closely followed by Instagram. Post images of your restaurant's interior, food, and events.
Additionally, you might launch paid advertisements on social media in the opening days to establish a presence in the eyes of customers.
You can also submit instructional articles on culinary topics and donate to philanthropic or communal projects. All of them will boost your social media credibility, which will help you grow.
Integrate Your Product With Online Distribution Platforms
Online ordering has become a popular method for clients to place meal orders for delivery or pick up at restaurants.
Not only is it easy for customers, but it also provides an excellent opportunity for restaurants to enhance sales and improve customer service and engagement.
Ensure that your restaurant is registered with the numerous online delivery services, as this will improve your internet presence.
These websites often charge a registration fee of roughly 10-15% of the total amount of the online order.
By partnering with these platforms, you automatically increase your visibility and make yourself discoverable to potential clients.
How to do Digital Marketing for F&B?
Temasek Polytechnic Webinar:
Stats to Increase Online Food Delivery Sales. . .
Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:30 - 12:30 +08
Free Admission
Scroll Below To Sign up!
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**All Participants will receive a free Customised Report. The research for your brand, environment and competitors will be done after the webinar - it will be a customised insights report.
Latest event/Webinar
Learn more about the event on The Power of Market Research organised by Alumni of Adelaide University.
**Gain insights into Singapore Industry with a free F&B industry report valued at $495.
See you on 24 August 1630 hr. (Sign up below)
Free tickets code: adelaide0823
By Douglas
Looking for ideas to market your F&B outlet?
Read about OCM's restaurant marketing strategy examples
About US | OCM Profile
OCM (OnCoffeeMakers.com) was started in 2007 with the first webpage about coffee machines. And for a number of years, we focused on helping people find their desired coffee machine (we still are helping folks with that! So, if you are looking for coffee machines for office or restaurants - check out the link).
In 2010, we started getting enquiries on restaurant marketing and we start to help food and beverage brands with their marketing. Below are campaigns and events that we have done over the years:
OCM's campaigns: F&B Marketing Ideas by OCM
OCM's Events: F&B Industry events by or with OCM
Check out this restaurant marketing guide to learn more about the many campaigns and companies we have worked with.
Since then, we have also created many marketing workshops and classes for the F&B industry. Many of these modules are still running in tertiary institutions such as Temasek Polytechnic Skillsfuture Academy and also ITE College East COC classes, below are some snippets of our lectures and workshops:
OCM’s F&B workshops: Food and Beverage Marketing Lectures | Workshops - click to watch classes on customer journey map, JTBD and more.
So, if you are looking for industry practitioners to help you scale your coffee or F&B businesses, do drop us a message or book an appointment. Do also check out our various social media platforms on regular F&B and coffee market updates:
For regular coffee (F&B) related videos: OCM Youtube
For Daily Coffee Inspiration (fun coffee content): OCM IG
For insights into the coffee (F&B) industry: OCM LinkedIN
PS: For the coffee lovers, we continue to share coffee articles (and videos) and have also started a free coffee class section (with free online coffee training supported by coffee partners).
