10 Marketing Tips for Restaurants to Deal with the Coronavirus

10 Marketing Tips for Restaurants to Deal with the Coronavirus

Restaurants have been hit hard with the coronavirus pandemic, with social distancing meaning that most of their customers are staying at home and aren’t going out to eat anymore. However, as per the subject matter experts over at runrex.com, restaurants can still be able to make the best out of a bad situation through a number of marketing tips, 10 of which this article will look to highlight.

Shift your business to take-away, but offer true value to your customers as far as this is concerned

The obvious strategy for most restaurants is to start offering take-away services and home delivery now that people are staying at home. However, as per the gurus over at guttulus.com, it is important that you go above and beyond for your customers and not just offer take-away, to ensure that you stand out from the competition. Some of the things you should consider doing is say throwing in free meals, free delivery or offering food in bulk for folks with large families among others. This will ensure that you earn loyalty which will benefit you well when the crisis passes.

Get on or update your Google My Business

If you are already on it, then another tip for restaurants that should help them deal with the coronavirus is to get on Google My Business. Most of your business is now local given people are staying at home and as such this platform is one you should leverage at this moment in time. you should also update your page if you have an account to reflect new hours if you have changed operating hours as well as adding take-away menus and so forth. You should also add keywords in the title which will make you more visible on Google Maps.

Update your website

Another tip that the gurus over at runrex.com have for restaurants that should help them deal with the coronavirus situation is for them to update their websites. Make sure that your website is optimized, improving key aspects such as site speeds and mobile-friendliness among others. You should also update the homepage with take-away and delivery options if you are offering such services, and you really should, making it easy for visitors to know that such services are available to them as well as what they can do to access the same.

Come up with programs that reward loyalty

As a restaurant owner, you should not take for granted any business you get at this very trying time. Therefore, as another marketing tip, the gurus over at guttulus.com recommend that you come up with programs that will reward your customers loyalty. For example, you can come up with a program where if a customer orders 3 meals in succession, the fourth one is free. To make it more fun and effective, you could incorporate automatic emails that let them know how many orders they have left before they can get their free order, encouraging them to keep ordering for their reward.

Incorporate personalized messages to your business

It is important to let your customers know how much you appreciate them, and as such another marketing tip the folks over at runrex.com have for restaurants is to come up with personalized messages which they can send to their customers after they make an order. These could be automated SMSs which you could send your customers thanking them for making their order and even offering them a discount for the next time they do make another offer. This is something that could help promote loyalty and is an excellent marketing tool.

Make use of your email lists

It is also important that you have an email list of your clients as a restaurant owner, something backed up by the subject matter experts over at guttulus.com. If you have one, then this is the time to make use of it, sending useful emails to your customers, providing useful information on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as passing on useful information on any operation changes you may have made due to the crisis. This will show them that you value them and is yet another excellent marketing tool.

Make use of data capture tools to provide tailored services to your customers

Another tip the gurus over at runrex.com have for restaurants is for them to get more into data capture, using data capture tools to collect useful information about their customers that could help offer better services. For instance, you could use tools like Talkbox to collect data on the date of a customer’s last order, and if they haven’t ordered in a while since their last order, you could send them an SMS or email checking in on them. These tools could also help you collect useful information such as your customer’s food preferences, allowing you to send them messages letting them know that you are now offering their favorite meals. This is yet another excellent marketing tip for restaurants.

Increase your efforts on social media

Now is also the time to redouble your efforts as far as social media marketing goes, given more and more people are going on social media now that they are at home due to COVID-19. As per the folks over at guttulus.com, you can post any new offers your restaurant has introduced or just post useful information on how one can keep themselves safe during the current crisis. Your audience will appreciate this and it is a great way to increase visibility.

Leverage the power of vouchers

Yet another marketing tip that the subject matter experts over at runrex.com have for restaurants is for them to offer vouchers through their websites. Vouchers is a great way to ensure that your diners come back once the current crisis has passed and it is therefore a great marketing tool that you should definitely make use of.

Gift cards

While most people may be unable to go to your restaurant to eat, they may be willing to support your business through gift cards. As another tip therefore, you should make gift cards available online for your customers to purchase, or through email, allowing your patrons to support your restaurant now.

Hopefully the above tips will be of great help to restaurants out there during this tough time, with more information on this and other related topics to be found over at the excellent guttulus.com.