Parts of our world are now facing the virus pandemic at a varying degree. Humanity has been advised to quarantine itself as a preventive measure. Silent city centers, empty parks & everything else is teaching us a lot these days. While most businesses are affected due to the COVID-19 shutdown, people are finding new ways not to let their social activity get pulled down. Either to beat the boredom of quarantine or to utilize time- people have found content to post it on the web. Starting from taking their dining experiences online to pilates or yoga classes – one can find all sorts of interesting videos online.
The web is filled with online videos, whether fun or learning- it is certainly helping enough to keep the community engaged. A few have also taken up the challenge to try restaurant dishes at home during the lockdown. One can also see a couple of trends in the foodservice industry offering online restaurant discount codes either for a food or restaurant review or to receive cashback on the bill.
In today’s world, the credibility of a restaurant business is surely judged by the number of likes and followers on various digital platforms. Most of the small restaurant owners are also not behind in the race, even during the current lockdown. When you mix technology with restaurant marketing, the result is as simple as a giveaway Instagram contest or any other marketing strategy that helps to increase revenue, Instagram followers as well as restaurant reviews and, in turn, boost restaurant sales. Most of these small restaurant owners were quoted saying, “It’s great we started offering online food delivery. That’s how we continue to do well for our restaurant business even during the lockdown.”
It is one thing to continue to create the best restaurant experience amid ongoing lockdown and another to try your hands on preparing unique or serving eye-catching dishes. However, it is worthwhile to note that your restaurant business could still be operational between the global shutdown with a restaurant website.
Let’s discuss a few marketing tactics that might be useful for a quick-service restaurant, even in the current global health crisis.
1) Aim To Deliver Quality Restaurant Dishes
Having a couple of unique dishes is excellent. Today’s foodie customers and food influencers are both well-read & smart enough to differentiate between quality & quantity. Not only do your recipes have to taste well, but also, a lot depends on the presentation. Social media accounts of food influencers are flooded with images of quality food dishes.
It also drives excitement for a customer to quickly post an image of the dish on various social media platforms. A simple ‘tag’ or recommendation for the meal could create a wave for word-of-marketing in no-time.
Amid the current lockdown situation, one can even start a contest, “Finish a Jumbo Pizza or Burger Meal In 10 minutes.”Such competitions and food events encourage owners to derive strategies based on restaurant contest ideas for customers. The foodie customers or influencers can also share their experience via LIVE streaming over social media.
2) Aim For A Few Good Words
Nothing works more charming for a dish as much as a useful review from a satisfied customer. Leave an impression with your dishes so well that your customers would want to give a review of the dish. If not, you can also approach them to share their views about the serving or restaurant.
Reviews & ratings on Google My Business page will be the primary source of selecting the restaurant for millennials and upcoming generations.
One can even allure customers to win a discount on their next billing once they successfully submit the review on Google. This will not only persuade customers to provide the review but also revisit the restaurant to redeem discounts earned on a previous visit or the online order.
3) Target For Higher Likes & Followers
The more, the merrier. The same can be applied true to increase Instagram followers. The higher number of likes and followers for your dishes & restaurant brand means an increase in your restaurant business.
One can indulge in the community in the Instagram giveaways or any other Instagram marketing strategy that is suitable for the business. This would also help you to grow your Instagram followers for your restaurant brand.
Whatever works for you as a restaurant owner, one thing is sure that via social media, you can increase the reach of your published content. Going with this strategy only works if you periodically post the content online. It is essential to gain a position and get positive results if you wish to continue making profits from your restaurant business even during the current pandemic shutdown.
4) Engagement Strategy
Smart generation restaurant owners could even go a step further with various Instagram hacks for maximizing engagement. You can create a food event story or run a contest story. Instagram marketing strategy works effectively with shoutouts, polls, ask questions, event countdown, or even go for an instant quiz.
Using the “Create” story section on Instagram engages the audience. Well-engaged customers’ opinions & views can then be well utilized to draw marketing campaigns.
To Wrap Up
For a restaurant business to flourish- the restaurant owners have to adapt strategies starting from the most popular & unique restaurant dishes to running restaurant contest ideas for customers. It is quite clear that amid the COVID-19 coronavirus has proved that the foodservice industry should adopt digital transformation. Leveraging online ordering, maintaining a social media presence, upselling, and implementing a loyalty reward program remains a few of the undeniably good strategies to increase restaurant sales.
