If you’re a restaurant owner, chances are you thought it’s going to be as simple as turning the oven on and doing what you do best: cooking.
However, just because you know how to cook a dish perfectly doesn’t mean that you’ll attract a lot of visitors. Most of the restaurants that get a lot of customers actually know that good food will take you far, but great marketing will take you even further.
So if you want to start working on your marketing, why not start with Facebook? Everyone uses it so it’s the right place to start a campaign that’s sure to bring in more customers and raise the rating of your restaurant.
If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry.
We’ve got five wickedly effective tips to market your restaurant on Facebook.
1. Start using Facebook marketing for your restaurant with posts
It’s best to start off nice and easy to get acquainted with the community and connect with your customers. The reason why everyone loves Facebook is that it connects them to their friends and family, so your restaurant on Facebook should be just like that.
Every potential customer should feel like they’re getting to know you as a person. That means that a bit of humor, spontaneous images, and behind-the-scenes photos are a great start
The content you post should also be engaging. Imagine you’re starting a conversation with a friend. Sometimes just small talk will cut it — but if you want to see the spark in their eye, you’ll do something interesting.
In short, that’s your long-term and short-term strategy.
2. Encourage customers to leave reviews for your restaurant.
Did you know that a whopping 90% of people’s buying decisions are influenced by online reviews? So if you aren’t making an effort to encourage your customers to leave ratings or reviews of your restaurant on Facebook, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to drive more visits to your restaurant.
It doesn’t matter if you operate a burger joint, operate a food truck or are the owner of a high-end dining establishment.
Publishing the opinions of your patrons is an important part of marketing your business and can help with persuading new customers and even with increasing web traffic to your site because reviews are one of the most important factors to climb up in local search rankings. But how do you encourage customers to leave reviews? Check out these ten tips from other, small business owners, just like yourself, that have proven to work well.
3. Use Facebook Live
Facebook Live is a great way to supercharge your restaurant’s marketing.
Live streams get prioritized by Facebook, so you can be sure that more of your fans will see your stream on their feed than, for example, a regular post.
When using Facebook Live for advertising your restaurant be careful not to overdo it. No one likes too much content, even if they love your food.
Use Facebook Live for special occasions when you know that your followers will be in the right mood. This can be around lunch and dinner time when you can show the behind-the-scenes preparation of food in your restaurant.
Some great Facebook live ideas from marketing guru Neil Patel include hosting a Q&A, tech your viewers how to do something (like a recipe) or give a live tour.
You can mix and match this by offering a special discount every now and then. Do it a couple of times, and your fans will be quick to click on your live stream, wanting a piece of the discount cake.
4. Facebook Stories for Your Restaurant’s Storybook Success
Facebook posts are more formal, but stories are definitely the place where you can show everything about your restaurant.
The format is also different, making it perfect for short videos and interesting photos.
These can be:
- mouth-watering images of the food
- the staff joking around
- birthday celebrations
- special offers
- user-generated content such as your fans photos of your restaurant or food
While we said that you should be careful not to overdo Facebook live stream, you can absolutely share much more content on Facebook Stories. They’re snapshots of your restaurant’s day-to-day, and hardly anyone can resist good food and great atmosphere.
5. Use Messenger bots for customer service and marketing
Facebook Messenger bots are great tools for customer service and that automatically includes marketing. They also work wonders with increasing engagement and attracting even more visitors to your page (and consequently, your restaurant).
They’ll automatically provide customers with responses. Setting them up to answer simple questions like “When do you open?” is no problem, and it makes your life that much easier.
Just make sure you tell the customers that they are talking to a bot so they don’t get confused.
Extra tip: follow up on the customers’ questions with a special message designed to stimulate engagement. Discounts and special offers work best.
The most important option that Facebook Messenger bots give you is the ability to reach your fans directly. It’s one thing to see a post on your News Feed, and another to see it in your inbox.
The notification system is different, which means that your message will get through to your followers. This works especially well if you’ve got a Facebook Live event planned out, or an event in your restaurant. You can advertise this with a little help from the bots, and even ask your customers to RSVP.
You can also involve your followers in your restaurant’s decisions. What should be the special this week?
Just make sure you always reward them because everyone loves good food and a good discount. When you pair the two, you’ve got a winning Facebook marketing strategy for your restaurant.
