How To Best Market Your Restaurant: 10 Tools to Help You Grow Your Business

Do you want to increase your restaurant’s revenue? Marketing is a key element in any business, however, marketing isn’t always easy for restaurant owners. In this blog post, I will be discussing 10 marketing tools Visual Manor uses regularly to bring success to restaurants across New England.

1.) Instagram 

Instagram is a great tool for restaurant owners because it allows them to share photos & videos of their food, atmosphere, and brand with potential customers instantly. It’s also a perfect way to interact with your followers, responding to comments, and answering questions about your menu or restaurant experience.  There are plenty of other features that you might not have considered before, like REELS, which make it easier than ever for people on social media to discover new people, places, and products. If your restaurant is not creating REELS, you are falling behind.

2.) Facebook

Facebook is particularly good for generations who aren’t on TikTok or Instagram.  It’s also a key platform when you are ready to invest in paid advertising. Social Media advertising is affordable, effective, and we geek out over the available data it provides. You have the ability to target your demographic specifically, it’s wonderful. On the ‘free’ side of things, Facebook Groups is a great way to showcase your restaurant’s menu, specials, and events. Believe it or not, but posting in Groups is far more effective than posting on your newsfeed

3.) Google My Business

Google is KING, we all know this, but one of the most important tools to utilize for local marketing is Google My Business. Many people forget this vital step. This is a platform that all businesses should have in order to get the word out and be able to manage their business’s visibility on Google Search, Maps, and Google+ Local. Without this tool, your business will be invisible to customers who are searching for you on Google. Since over 2 billion people use Google every day, can you afford not to be found there? With this tool, your business will show up at the top of search results when potential customers search for places to eat in your area. The benefit to having your business profile set up correctly is that it helps your listing show up at the top of search results when potential customers search for somewhere to eat. It also has a review section where past customers can leave reviews for others to read. And of course, setting up this site is free but there is a trick to getting it right, so reach out to Visual Manor! 

4.) Yelp

Yelp is an extensive tool for restaurants: it provides reviews from local consumers and can help you build trust among new visitors. Yelp also helps provide local search results to guests, so it’s a good way to market your restaurant to people in your area and make sure that all your efforts in marketing are quite robust. You could take advantage of Yelp’s Reach functionality which will reach out to customers who have visited your restaurant on mobile devices, but not on the platform itself, with relevant messages about deals and specials that they might be interested in. 

5.) OpenTable and Resy

OpenTable is not just a booking system for restaurants, it’s also an online database of previous guests with their unique preferences. It has tools to help you attract new guests and create various offers or deals that will entice guests; both new and repeat. OpenTable now has a new feature that helps restaurant owners promote their most popular experiences; from bottomless brunches to oysters & champagne, you can now stand out from the crowd with a few simple clicks of a button. OpenTable also integrates with email marketing tools such as Mailchimp to create and send custom emails to your targeted audience. Resy is another great platform to use for booking in guests and assists restaurants in keeping the dialogue going from the minute customers book into your restaurant, to a follow-up email the day after to make sure the experience exceeded expectations.

6.) Flowcode

QR Codes have seen a massive boom since the beginning of the pandemic offering a no-contact menu system, but they have been used in many different ways. One great use for QR codes is advertising with printed media to your local area and encouraging visitors to scan your code with their phone’s camera app - instantly taking them directly to your website! For those restaurants that offer online ordering services through mobile apps like Resy or Open Table, this makes it quick and easy to take customers from hungry to happy!

7.) Mobile Optimized Websites via Wix

Wix is one of the most popular website-building platforms out there, and it’s been used by many restaurants to host their online menu.  Wix offers diverse features that are all specific for each part of your restaurant: menus, delivery integration, customer reviews, reservation system, and more. If you already have a website…have you recently viewed it on mobile? How does it look? 90% of customers are browsing your website from their mobile devices, so make sure your website is easy to navigate & read!  Visual Manor offers web design with a niche market for hospitality and restaurants.

8.) Professional Photography

Get your customers drooling before they even enter the doors of your restaurant. If you want your food, your drinks, and even the atmosphere of your restaurant translated instantly by your audience, get a good professional photographer. The most important thing when hiring a professional photographer is making sure that they’re as invested in your success as you are. Check out Visual Manor’s Food + Drink photography.

9.) Professional Video

Social media video marketing is on an upward rise capturing the minds in a way we haven’t quite seen before. Instagram and Facebook’s algorithms have been updated to favor video content, which can grow your influence on those platforms quickly if you know how to leverage it. Now is the time to get a videographer and Visual Manor can help. Visual Manor provides video formatted in both landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical format) in :15, :30, and :60 seconds in length. 

10.) HIRE A SOCIAL MEDIA/MARKETING MANAGER

Owning a restaurant is a full-time job in itself and marketing the establishment is extremely important during these times of changes and digital growth. Investing time into these marketing tools will be a vital part of your business & a social media (or marketing) manager will help take the weight off your shoulders so you can focus on what really matters: the food, service, and the guest experience.

If you want to take control of your restaurant’s online presence and you have decided to utilize some or even all of my advice above, then let’s get in touch! Let’s have a no-obligation chat about where you are, where you want to go, and how I can help you get there!




Restaurant Photography at Parlor Bar & Kitchen

The Parlor has it all. Eclectic interior with retro seating, cozy fireplace area, and super large booths perfect for dining with guests. They also have a 120” project for all the games. My new friend Kristen has done amazing job with the interior design - and I’m also impressed with her efforts to adapt to today’s environment! Parlor’s menu has some new and exciting options – and I highly recommend making a visit ASAP



Drive Online Food Ordering with Instagram Stories

We are living in an environment (ew, yuck a pandemic) where online ordering is vital for restaurants, coffee shops and bakeries to survive. We are also entering the winter season where customer traffic is slowing down. The Visual Manor team wants to see the local business community thrive and is now offering support specialized in hitting your online audience.  

Using Instagram’s latest featured Food Order For Business, customers can tap the Order Food button on your Instagram profile or the Food Orders sticker in your Instagram story, and they’ll be directed to your partner’s website to order food delivery or take-out from your business. 

Supporting POS systems include; Allset, Caviar, ChowNow, delivery.com, DoorDash, Grubhub, LoyLap, Postmates, Ritual, Seamless, Slice, SpeedETab, Toast, Uber Eats. 

If your business uses one of these POS Systems, Visual Manor will assist in activating the feature on your Instagram platform. We will also provide you with a library of tasty photos and delicious videos to really get your customers inspired to eat! 

Please contact creative director Marial Maher for more information, cost, and availability! 

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