FoodfindsAsia.com | How to Market Your Restaurant During the COVID-19 Crisis | Since the Coronavirus outbreak, people have been advised to follow social distancing and to not leave their homes except for emergencies. While many small businesses have been affected by the virus on many levels, there is still a chance to reverse the damage that has been done. Restaurants, specifically, have been deeply affected by this pandemic. The top priority nowadays for most restaurant owners is the health and safety of their team and customers. However, innovative solutions must be thought out to reduce the aftermath of the coronavirus. Proactive marketing is considered to be the knight in shining armor to weather this storm. Even if you had to shut down your operations, you still have to remain engaged with your customers through online platforms.
Right here we have collected some important tips that you should follow to protect your business.
Invest in Your Marketing
Having an online presence is essential in our technology-driven world. During this crisis, there is no room for ignoring online platforms because they are the only way that can reach your targeted audience and keep you relevant. This downtime is the best opportunity for small or medium businesses to focus on revamping their marketing strategies. Make sure to prioritize working on your online website and creating interesting content.
To get a better reach, you will need to learn more about search optimization engines (SEO). This way you will ensure that your page will be on the top of Google search pages. If you don’t want to seek help from professionals, you can use an online SEO Competitor Link Analysis Tool to compare between your backlinks and the top 10 ranking pages. These comparisons offer great assistance in figuring out how to stay on top of the marketing game.
Get in Touch with Your Audience
People prefer some restaurants over others for many reasons. Besides your delicious food, regular customers appreciate cozy vibes and comfy seats. Taking your audience behind the scenes to show them your cooking process with all safety measures you have taken will have a great impact on your business. Social distancing has led many people to crave connecting with others. Also, many have started missing their favored meals and the familiarity of their favorite restaurants.
Connecting with your audience gives you a great chance to build a bond between you both. Walking people through the measures you are taking and how you and your staff are coping under these circumstances will not only make people more comfortable about ordering from your place, but it will also show that you care. You can create content on what made you interested in opening your own restaurants, your inspiration, recipes, or you can even share live cooking shows. These types of stories will pique the interest of your customers to learn more about it.
Irresistible Offers
You will be surprised at the number of people who don’t have the desire to cook their own meals during this time of self-quarantine. While it might not be safe to dine out, you can still make use of this period to give your customers offers they can’t refuse. First, you need to make sure that you have proven your good food quality and how much you have put into applying all the standard health precautions. You need to implement a “zero contact” policy to assure your customers that they don’t have to take any risks while picking up their orders. You can also allow people to leave special instructions about how they would like their food delivered; maybe they want the order to be placed on the hood of their car or in their backyard to ensure the safety of your customers and your delivery guy.
After that, you can start promoting your pickup services and offer them for free. Getting your business to bloom after passing this storm by including coupons or gift cards with the orders you send out. This will prompt more future visits for people who want to make use of these coupons. Make sure to avoid adding expiry dates to these coupons to encourage people to use them when this outbreak ends. While people might not be able to dine out right now, they can still enjoy your offers at your place later on.
Encourage Reviews
Focusing on your existing customers doesn’t mean that you have to miss the opportunity to gain a bigger audience. Most people nowadays depend on reviews to set their expectations about the services and goods they are interested in. It comes as no surprise that people tend to choose restaurants with higher ratings and more stars.
Before this step, you need to make sure that you are offering a superb service. A bullet-proof SEO strategy is also essential to get your page ranking on top of search pages. SEO will not only increase your website traffic, but it will also help you in making more money, since orders and reservations are more likely to increase. These two simple steps will allow you to reach a bigger audience. Only then can you start encouraging people to write their feedback and their experience at your place and your food. If you have had some unfair reviews that don’t match your restaurant quality, you will need many other good reviews to bring up your rating. There are a few online platforms that are available to check restaurant reviews. This works great as an indication of how well your local ranking is going.
We are all going through this critical situation together. You are not the only one who is affected; the whole food industry is shaking. This is a great opportunity for all business owners to lean on and start helping each other. With a few simple steps, you can still limit the damage without the need to panic. Working on your online presence and your ranking by perfecting SEO will not only help you with your current customers, but it will gain you new ones and a wider reach. You also need to start connecting with your customers on a more personal level to build strong bonds between them and your restaurants. Assuring people of your food quality and the health measures you have taken is essential to give them some peace of mind during these rough times.
