5 ideas to promote your restaurant online 👩‍🍳👨‍🍳

The food is delicious, the menu is varied, the atmosphere is fantastic and the service is wonderful. Even so, you still haven't managed to fill every table in your restaurant. But that can change!

Running a successful restaurant takes much more than serving tasty dishes and looking after your customers well. Yes, those two things are absolutely essential and should always come first. But they only work to their full potential if you have a fair number of loyal customers who are always ready to book a table and come back, whether your restaurant is in Porto, Paços de Ferreira or Braga.

Never forget that these are the people who will spread the word about your business and tell all their friends to try the dining experience you can offer them.

Stop for a moment and think about the restaurants you like to visit yourself. Why do you prefer some over others? How and why do you decide to try a new place that has just opened in Lisbon, Aveiro, Viana do Castelo or even near your home?

Most importantly, after a long and tiring week, which pizzeria or sushi restaurant do you want to go to because you know you will leave satisfied and happy? For most consumers today, it all comes down to the reviews of the people closest to them, and by that we mean friends and family.

In a city you are visiting for the first time, for example, recommendations from locals or location-based search platforms are the best option.

Picture this: if you really like a restaurant, its food or the dining experience itself, you will most likely subscribe to its newsletter and follow the brand on social media, right? That way you can find out about new dishes on the menu, upcoming events and all the exciting news that will make your experience even better.

For food lovers, getting that news through social media, by email or even by phone is always welcome.

And that is all it takes.

So let's look at the list INDIGIT has put together for you, with marketing ideas and trends that work in the restaurant business, tailored to delight your customers time and time again.

Never forget that marketing for restaurants is completely different from marketing for hotels or the food industry in general. These trends are always changing and evolving. What matters is keeping your strategy up to date and understanding how "what's in fashion" affects your restaurant in particular.

So which trends actually work? There are many that can take your restaurant's marketing further, but focus on these tips. And good luck not getting hungry! 😋

1 - Social Media

Social media platforms are an advantage for every industry, but especially for restaurants. Social media has become the shop window customers of all ages turn to most when they look for recommendations, reviews and suggestions.

Reaching people on these networks and building engagement with them gives you the chance to keep your restaurant's name in their minds. However, you really have to put in the effort to create mouth-watering content, and even mix photos taken by customers with professional ones.

Never leave originality aside. In other words, use real photos of your dishes or your premises.

Live videos on Facebook and Instagram are one of the most recommended social media trends and are well worth exploring. You can take your followers on a guided tour of the restaurant, go into the kitchen or even introduce the staff.

The focus should always be on images that genuinely show your staff and customers in action. Running competitions and getting people to share your page on their personal profiles is the main goal.

Visuals and design play a very important role in catching your audience's attention. Here you really have to think hard and let your creativity flow to create images that speak for themselves.

Let's look at another example: imagine you are creating an Instagram post to promote a flavour festival organised by your restaurant. The idea behind the image is to show the different flavours, using the caption to give more details about the event. Look at these two possible images:

This is a great photo that does support the idea, but does it grab attention straight away? What about this one?

The same concept, the same idea, but far more appealing. A photo like this is sure to grab attention instantly and make people want to know more about the festival your restaurant is promoting.

This is the real power of the image, combined with a well-thought-out concept built around photography.

2 - Email marketing

If you are not yet using email marketing to talk to your subscribers, start right now! It is a highly effective way for restaurants to promote themselves and build engagement with customers.

Drawing up an email marketing plan that gives readers quality content and information, so they become more loyal to your restaurant, also takes you a long way towards raising your brand's profile.

You can include news about dishes or recipes added to the menu, information about events, discount coupons and even scratch cards, or simply stories about your staff or happy customers.

Many people will remember your email when they are choosing where to eat in Vila do Conde, Amarante or even Matosinhos.

It is also an effective way to ask customers for feedback, recommendations and referrals. Look at this email, which promotes a special meat dish and lets people book quickly.

This could be the perfect email to send just before the weekend starts.

Let's say your restaurant is holding a special night to celebrate International Women's Day. Start sending emails about the event a few weeks in advance, offering, for example, a 20% discount and a welcome drink to anyone who books a table through that email.

Segmenting your database is also a good idea, so you can be sure you only send this information to women.

To build an email marketing plan for this particular occasion, you should answer at least the following questions:

- what will each email say?

- how many emails will I send?

- how will I reach customers who are not regulars?

- what will the second email look like for subscribers who click the booking button?

Once you have answered these questions, you can set up a series of automated emails so that every woman on the list gets the right message at the right time.

3 - Restaurant apps and online booking services

Reports on technology in this industry tell us that the tools that most help customers make a decision are online booking, free wifi and online ordering.

Partnering with popular restaurant apps lets your customers see your restaurant and join loyalty schemes that give them benefits such as discounts or special offers. On top of that, letting people book and order entirely online makes it more likely that they will enjoy a good meal without the frustration of waiting for a table.

With more and more customers choosing these digital tools and using them regularly, you have the chance to increase your bookings and get more genuine feedback, as well as more positive reviews.

4 - Location-based search

Nowadays almost everyone goes online to look for food and for restaurant recommendations or reviews. Platforms such as The Fork and TripAdvisor are well known and trusted in this business.

Good reviews attract the positive attention you want, from regular customers and occasional visitors alike, and they will certainly be seen by people looking for a meal nearby. Ideally, create a page where you can show your restaurant exactly the way you want, with the right images, and always keep up with your reviews. Never forget to reply, even to the negative ones.

Another step to consider is how your Asian, traditional Portuguese or barbecue restaurant appears on Google. Whenever someone in your area searches for "restaurant", make sure all the information about yours is correct. Remember that reviews show up there too.

Look, for example, at what appears when we search in the Freamunde area:

5 - Bloggers and influencers

Today's generation of internet users consumes content that reaches them through food blogs or food influencers. Partnering with these influencers can give your business the boost it needs to grow even more.

Invite them to lunch or dinner at your restaurant, offer them the very best you have and ask them to share honest reviews on their favourite social media channels.

Doing live videos with these influencers, and asking them to do the same, can bring more potential customers to both pages and, ultimately, to your restaurant. Today, people follow influencers' recommendations and suggestions to the letter.

It is important to work with them so that they share more than just their experience: a full review of everything they saw, tasted and tried at your restaurant.

Don't just serve food; offer an experience.

Restaurant marketing is nothing more and nothing less than creating an unforgettable experience for your customers. The way you promote your restaurant can really encourage people to visit for lunch or dinner, or even to try your brunch.

It is great when people speak well of your restaurant, online or offline, but it is even better when those reviews lead more people to book and get to know your brand. This is called word-of-mouth marketing, or word-of-mouth advertising.

In any place that serves food (yes, even a small café, an ice cream parlour or a self-service restaurant), reviews are the foundation of success. Creating marketing campaigns that get people to share even more recommendations is essential, and you can then use them to attract even more customers.

With restaurants big and small on every corner, you need to convince your customers that you are the best choice. Do it with delicious food, an amazing sensory experience and innovative marketing strategies. Find all the ingredients you need to put together a strong marketing plan, and cook it up into an experience that leaves your customers truly satisfied.