Does Online Marketing Work for Restaurants?

Does Online Marketing Work for Restaurants?

I had an interesting conversation with a local restaurant owner in Costco the other day as he tried to push his enormous cart of mozzarella, spices and tomato base towards the checkout counter.  As a former Italian restaurant owner myself, I knew his story without even having to ask- his vendor undoubtedly messed up and good old Costco is always a solid last-minute bail out for our kinds of businesses.  I could instantly feel his pain since I was in the exact same position myself dozens of times.

After sharing war stories for a few minutes about incompetent delivery drivers and the perfect blend of cheeses for pizza, the owner asked me if I knew anyone that would be interested in buying his restaurant.  He explained that while the business was still profitable, it seemed like his customer base had continually shrunk over the past five years even though he’s remained highly competitive on his pricing and delivered a great product.

Then I told him what every restaurant owner needs to hear- online marketing is essential for every restaurant in the Spartanburg area, regardless of how big or small they are.
Why?  Think about this for a moment.  How do you order a pizza these days?

For my family, we hop on our smartphones, look at the current specials and then submit our order online…and that’s how over 70% of America does it these days.  That means if you’re still handing out flyers, placing newspaper ads and using other forms of traditional marketing these days, only 3 in 10 people are even noticing you.

For example, my family loves Sidestreet Pizza over in Tryon.  Besides the long wait times, I honestly couldn’t say a single negative thing about it.  The service is great.  The food is great.  I love the atmosphere.  Yet, I haven’t eaten at Sidestreet in at least 4 years.  But I’ve ordered from Dominos, Papa Johns and The Pepperoni Express in Inman dozens of times since then, all because they have a solid online presence and I can see their specials quickly.
Are franchises like Pizza Hut better than Sidestreet?  I don’t think we even need to dignify that with an answer.  But the big chains are making a huge effort to cater to today’s consumer and that simply makes them more relevant.  People will literally settle for food from an inferior brand simply because that’s what they see in the search engines.

And as I explained this to this restaurant owner in Costco the other week, he sort of hung his head in defeat since he didn’t know anything about internet marketing.  Even if I built him a great website, he said, there was no way possible that he would be able to keep up with updates and things that would make him stand out.

He also mentioned that cost was a major issue…and I realized that he wasn’t just trying to sell his pizza restaurant; he was on the verge of going out of business completely.  That’s the only reason why I’m not sharing his name or his location (yet).  Stay tuned for updates though, because I am actively working on his search optimization as we speak.

Now, I could completely relate to his situation.  When that bad ice storm hit Spartanburg back in 2003 and my restaurant was without water/power for over a month, I had no idea how to get my customers back fast enough for it to really make a difference.  I was underwater in debt and the idea of a website would have been laughable for me just like it was for this person.  But then again, I didn’t know back then what I know now…and you can’t ignore that 70% of all consumers perform a Google search before heading towards a local restaurant.

Since I definitely don’t want any other local restaurant owners to feel this way, here’s a quick cheat sheet of simple things you can do to drastically increase your online presence on a tight budget-

  • Build a Facebook and a Google Local business page, and start a campaign for people to like your page. My favorite for restaurants is giving customers a $3 off coupon or a free side item for following you on social media…and you’d be amazed how quickly it will be shared and deliver traffic to your doorstep.
  • Take the time to register on at least a dozen directory sites like the Yellow Pages, Zomato (formerly Urban Spoon), TripAdvisor, etc. Create complete profiles there and offer a special unique to each website, and be sure to add some photos of your mouthwatering food.
  • Ask your best customers to leave reviews for you on those directory sites in-house for an instant $1 off their check total per person (per review). If you’re doing this regularly, then you can simply raise your menu prices by $1 and all the reviews are free.
  • Build a restaurant website using one of the free online tools or contact me to create an affordable website for you. Then add the essentials- great photos, a full menu, daily specials, directions via Google Maps, a food blog, etc.
  • Use the same tactic to get customers to opt into your email marketing campaigns; just give them a great one-time special to share their email addresses.
  • Once you’ve completed the social sites, directory sites and your own personal website, start sharing fun facts about Spartanburg, cool photos, daily specials and other information people wouldn’t mind reading.
  • Likewise, every time you post a blog or a new special, share it straight to your social sites for people to see it. Then send out a weekly email recapping what you’re doing for customers.

Now, you may be thinking that most of those things are far outside your comfort zone, which is exactly what the restaurant owner inside Costco told me as well.  But then I asked him- how many times a night do you have to tell your younger employees to get away from their smartphones?  Fifty?  A hundred?  Every one of them is a social media genius- they just don’t realize that their talent for wasting time online can actually become a massive resource from a business standpoint.

And honestly, I do not recommend the free website builders like Weebly since they are hard to customize and rank effectively.  But if you have to choose between doing nothing and launching a basic website…go the free route every single time.  While it certainly can’t hurt, the help it could deliver is enormous.

So if you can’t afford to hire me right now, then put your youth to work knocking out the above list and improving your online presence.  You will be absolutely amazed at how quickly it makes a difference…I’ve seen restaurants go from on the verge of closing to being on track for $50k+ months in a matter of weeks.  It just takes a substantiated effort of communicating with your customers and giving them reasons to pay attention to you online.

If you have any questions about how to market your restaurant online or you need a little more guidance on making your location profitable; then feel free to contact me through my online form to set up a consultation.  Since restaurant management will always be in my blood and I love having the chance to make a difference here in Spartanburg, the initial consultation will only cost you lunch.  Hopefully you know somewhere good to eat.  =)

Why is Reputation Management Essential for Business?

Why is Reputation Management Essential for Business?

upstate reputation management

Not too long ago, we were doing a routine internet search to learn about a potential client, and we stumbled onto something pretty surprising regarding his online reputation.  On YellowPages.com, this company had only one review and it was set to the lowest possible rating.  More importantly, it accused the one of the business’s employees of selling drugs to another customer, along with several other slanderous accusations that almost couldn’t be true.  In fact, it was easily one of the harshest, most damaging comments that we’ve ever seen…and we’ve been doing this for quite some time.

While we’d love to let you read this particular review, it is no longer anywhere on the Internet thanks to the Yellow Page’s staff.  Since it grossly violated their Terms of Service, they agreed to remove the comment immediately and it is no longer an issue for that business owner.  Or is it?  Let’s find out below-

How an Unfair Reputation Can Quickly Build

After doing a little bit more research, we learned that the particular review was posted in 2012 and that page had been visited well over 1,500 times since it was posted.  So it’s entirely possible to assume that over 1,500 local Upstate residents believed that the business in question sold drugs, and this was further proven once we checked the backlinks feeding into that page.  There were three social media posts with over 60 total comments bad-mouthing that business on Facebook and Twitter, with every one of the responses revolved around illegal drugs.

So here’s what we did, just to show the math for future clients-

  • Of those 48+ social media comments that various people shared about this Yellow Pages listing, it was viewable by over 14,000 people on friends’ lists.
  • Of the 12 Twitter comments, there were an additional 3,400 that could have seen this messaging.
  • Since the comments were frequently talked about, “liked” and shared, it is more likely than not that these pages were ranking towards the top of Facebook’s news stream. This conversation lasted for over a week as well on two different occasions.
  • In total, over 21,000 potential customers to this business were exposed to these comments, and there is absolutely no telling how many others heard about it secondhand.

The Biggest Mistake in Reputation Monitoring

For the sake of argument, let’s say that this particular business owner happened to see this comment within 24 hours of it being posted.  He probably would have contacted the website where it was posted on, and a few minutes later this nightmare would have ended.  Even if the site wouldn’t take it down though, there were still a number of options available-

  • The business owner could have replied to the comment.
  • The business owner could have contacted the site and asked for the poster’s contact information.
  • The business owner could have started a campaign to get additional reviews on that site, which would limit the damage of the particularly bad review.

The problem here is that the business owner did nothing at all, because he didn’t know that a problem existed in the first place.  Remember, online reviews rank for your business name just like your website does, so they are extremely visible over time.

How to Monitor Online Reputation

There are actually several ways to check up on your reputation online, and the easiest way is to perform a Google search for “<business name> review”.  While it may not return every single mention that’s ever been made about a particular business, it will show the ones that potential customers would likely find…and those are the ones that are the most important.  Additionally, there are several reputation monitoring tools available online that can meet any sized business’s needs, and they range from completely free to thousands of dollars for enterprise solutions.

Upstate Synergy is the only Spartanburg web design firm that has helped out clients keep up with their online reputation for a number of years now, and we know every trick in the book when it comes to defending your good name.  If you’d like to learn more about reputation management, feel free to contact us for a more thorough explanation.  We will happily train one of your staff members to do this on your company’s behalf, or we can completely monitor your reputation for you.

Four Critical Elements Every Successful Website Needs

Four Critical Elements Every Successful Website Needs

website elementsFar too often, Upstate business owners place far too much emphasis on website design instead of what the site actually does for them.  Because just like every other aspect of your company, a website is a powerful tool that can either drive in new business or drive it away.  Don’t get us wrong, a good looking website is very important to impress new customers, but ultimately they care far more about its functionality and the available information.  Here are a few more tips to keep in mind-

Fast Loading Times

Three seconds.  That’s how long you have to grab the average consumer’s attention from the very instant that they click on your link.  If your website is hosted on a slow server that takes a few seconds to load, then you’d better have the Holy Grail of homepages to convince them to stay.  Google, the king of all search engines, recognizes this trend as well and they reward websites that load quickly.  Optimizing a website for all of today’s digital devices is a win/win scenario.

Complete Search Optimization

If you think SEO stands for “Southeastern Oregon” or anything other than “Search Engine Optimization”, then your website is probably in trouble.  From proper page formatting to building backlinks to adhering to the dozens of other requests made by Google and Bing, this is the only way for new customers to find you online without paid results.  For now, we’ll spare you the technical details, but know that these are steps that have to be taken if you have a realistic expectation of a good return on your investment.

Lots of Fresh Content

Since recent studies have shown that upwards of 82% of all Americans price-check from their smartphones before visiting a retail store, having a search optimized website is absolutely crucial for your success.  While we won’t go too much into technical detail, every successful website has to have a steady stream of content talking about their business to achieve proper search results.  In fact, even sponsored campaigns are now taking your site’s optimization levels into consideration, so there is simply no substitute for frequent updates.

Other Reasons to Get Involved

Then again, a successful website has a lot more than just words on a page- it gives consumers a reason to stick around and/or visit more often.  That’s why so many sites these days have social media contests, news clips, games and hundreds of other unique features…they want you to stick around.  Not only does it help their site optimization efforts, but it also creates a company sub-culture that your customers become a part of.