Marketing your restaurant online is vital for bringing in new business and thriving in today’s digital world. We’ve put together a few tips for you to reboot your digital marketing campaign and help increase traffic to your restaurant.

Figure Out Where You Are Now

Looking back on past advertising campaigns is a great place to start. Figure out what worked well, where you could improve, and find new ways to reach your audience. Using tools like Google Insights and Google trends is a great way to dive deep into your campaigns.

Figuring out where you went right—and where you could improve—is a great way to chart a course for future success.

Revamp Your Website

While having standard contact information and an updated menu on your website is vital, you want to go beyond the basics. Highlight your chefs, add vibrant pictures, or leave a space for customers to review your restaurant.

Adding a blog to your website is a great way to showcase events you’re hosting or new dishes you’re trying. A blog will also help you appear in more searches, as each blog will be indexed by search engines.

Get Creative

One great way to reach a lot of potential customers is to partner with a social media influencers. An influencer is someone who has a large social following and can help bring in new customers.

You could also ask people to share their dining experiences with you. Get them to post videos or images to your social media pages. Maybe you could run a contest and pick out the best images to display on a wall in your restaurant.

More Video

Today, we view videos more than ever. It only makes sense to add video into your digital marketing campaign for your restaurant.

Take live videos in your restaurant. This will give your audience a great sense of your environment. Use video to highlight dishes or to capture special events you might hold in your restaurant.

You can use any number of platforms to highlight these videos: Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram.

Use Facebook

Facebook Ads are a great way to maximize returns on your advertising budget. Use their targeted ads to reach an audience who is going to be interested in coming to your restaurant. Campaigns such as pay-per-click can be useful, but they tend to waste money as they don’t differentiate between those who may want to try your restaurant and those who likely don’t have an interest, as targeted ads do.

Target interests and demographics and make the most of those advertising dollars instead of wasting them. Make sure your Facebook page is up-to-date and post new content there whenever possible.

Stay Active on Social Media

Being active on social media is a great way to stay involved in the conversation. Chances are a lot of your target audience is hanging out on social media, and if you’re continuously showing up there, not only will you stay top-of-mind, but your audience will know exactly what’s happening and what you’re currently offering.

An active social media presence is also a great place to address concerns or answer customer questions.

Events

Make your restaurant a must-attend place. Hire some local talent to come and play. Have theme nights and drink specials. Have game nights. Give people even more of a reason to get out and enjoy themselves at your restaurant. And don’t forget: highlight all these special events on your social media and website.

Rebooting your advertising may take some time, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Taking a few simple steps to get the word out about why your restaurant is awesome is a great way to bring in a fresh audience and create loyal customers.