Restaurant Digital Marketing

There are five main ingredients that we encourage our restaurants to consider when it comes to being seen and found on search engines.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

It’s our favourite ingredient. Through high quality content and relevant keywords, we will help your brand to rank higher in search engines.

SEO does not always require paid search, however you need to continuously create quality content for blog posts, social media platforms and guest articles. This requires time and the right people to do it. We pride ourselves on having an incredible team of experts in SEO strategies.

Third-Party Platforms

Consider affiliating your restaurant to third party platforms to increase its visibility on these websites. It will also help your restaurant to rank higher on search engine result pages.

Get your restaurant listed on TripAdvisor and Yelp. It’s a great, free way to engage with their communities and also make your restaurant more visible. Both sites have millions of people visiting each month to research for accommodation, restaurants and attractions.

You can list your restaurant for free. You have to provide specific information about your restaurant, which will help potential customers decide to dine at your restaurant.

Also, if your restaurant has a reservation policy, you can partner with OpenTable, Book a Table, or other booking systems to add the reservation widget to your website. Top tip: Make sure you place the reservation widget near the top of your restaurant’s website.

Finally, if you offer a “take-away” service but you don’t deliver, you can make use of a wide range of food delivery services. We suggest partnering with Hungry House, Deliveroo, UberEats and Just Eat.

Mobile Marketing

Whatever you do, go mobile! Do you remember the last time you searched for a restaurant on your laptop? Right, we can’t remember either. Mobile usability is crucial for increasing conversions in the restaurant sector. Do not waste all your SEO efforts by having a website that isn’t optimised for smartphones.

Pay-Per-Click Campaigns (PPC)

It’s an effective and quick strategy, allowing you to be at the forefront for potential visitors who are looking for a restaurant or dining experience, ensuring your restaurant features prominently in their search results. When done properly, PPC can drive traffic straight away and convert potential diners into real diners booking a table at your restaurant.

For restaurants, PPC campaigns remain the most effective short-term strategy. Running paid search campaigns on Google and Bing generates immediate online visibility, and when using the appropriate keywords will bring diners right to your website.

At FireTap, we run unique PPC campaigns, using a logical, organised structure, comprehensive keyword research and ongoing management and maintenance, which is proven to successfully drive results.

Social Media Platforms and Paid Ads

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. It’s essential for your restaurant to maintain a strong social media presence to create and foster relationships with customers, build communities and develop brand loyalty.

For Social Media platforms, you need to create a tone of voice for your business that defines the personality of your restaurant and to engage with your audience.

Share tasty content on your social media platforms. Feed your hungry audience with delicious content that entices them to your restaurant for the next meal. For the best results, mix quality content with strong visuals – nothing performs better than rich content with mouth-watering pictures or a sneak-peek behind the scenes at your restaurant.

When it comes to Social Media channels, we encourage our clients to use it properly to communicate with specific audiences and not having it for the sake of being everywhere. Inactive or infrequently updated social media accounts are a turn off.

The timing of your social media activity is also very important. Try to stay active at times when your audience are likely to be thinking about lunch or dinner.

Run paid ads on Social Media platforms on a location basis, to reach the right audience near your restaurant. This local approach will allow your restaurant to use more controlled targeting, giving you the ability to hit an audience that is most likely to visit your restaurant.

Through paid social ads, you can promote happy hour or meal-deals, target your specific audience and connect with customers who are already on these social media platforms to start engaging with them.

Conclusion

If you are a dining out brand, you need to make sure that your brand stands out and is at the forefront of the latest trends and technology. Being too slow to adopt these trends can put you behind your competitors, who are also trying to get their brand to stand out above the rest.

At FireTap, we know that restaurant digital marketing can be challenging. Just remember, you don’t have to do it alone. You can rely on our expertise to effectively integrate all the right ingredients for your perfect digital marketing recipe. We help restaurants to deliver the right Digital Marketing Strategy, which will help you to succeed in the increasingly competitive dining out market.

We are seriously good at what we do. If you want to know how we can help you develop your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch by calling us on 020 7842 5983 or making an Online Enquiry.

We’re here to help every step of the way, navigating you through restaurant digital marketing