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For Grow ing Aus t ra l i an Res tau ran ts
Digital Marketing Guide
OCTOS helps Australian restaurant ownersget more customers with digital marketing.
Today’s society is deeply entranced by their smartphones, tablets and laptops. Whether they are walking down the street, on trains, buses, in coffee houses, or at home - the digital world is only an arm’s length away.
The world has gone mad for digital, and it’s not just the under 30’s any more. A growing number of people have an email address, a Facebook account, a Twitter handle, an Instagram page, and even a Snapchat profile. They are glued to their smartphone to search for information, or to check for updates, messages, and comments every other minute
These trends are significantly affecting Australian restaurants, as 1 in 6 restaurant visits are directly impacted by an online search or interaction. Because before someone has even tasted your food, they are Googling your business, reading online customer reviews, and checking out your Facebook Page.
The real question for restaurant owners is not about whether they should have a digital presence, but more about how they can use digital marketing so that it actually helps them get more customers. There are so many options available, and a lot of conflicting advice about what works.
That’s why we created this Digital Marketing Guide for Australian Restaurants, to help you make educated decisions about where you should invest your digital marketing budget.
We hope you enjoy this comprehensive guide, and if you have any questions at all please get in touch with our team.
Regards,Team Octos
Introduction
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and out of your depth as a restaurant owner when first taking on the digital world. After all, you’re most likely juggling 101 other priorities at the same time, and the last thing you need is to become a generalist at something else.
Not to mention that there is a long list of potential tactics you can use for attracting new customers to your restaurant online. Social media, content marketing, SEO, Google AdWords… where do you start with all of this?
The good news is that it doesn’t need to be as complicated as it looks. At OCTOS we’ve had the privilege of working with restaurants of all shapes and sizes to improve their digital marketing strategy. From that experience, we have simplified everything into a 3-step process for establishing your digital presence and getting more customers through the door:
Step 1: Optimise Your Restaurant WebsiteStep 2: Attract People To Your Website With SEOStep 3: Use Smart Advertising To Get More Of The Right Customers
The rest of this guide will look at each step in this process in more depth.
Optimise Your Restaurant Website1
Attract Website Traffic With SEO2
Use Retargeting To Get More Customers3
50%BURGER ONLINE
OFF Your digital presence all starts with your website.
It’s all well and good to invest in SEO, AdWords and other tactics for attracting new business, but if prospects land on a poorly designed website then your money is wasted.
In reality, the Australian restaurant game is an extremely competitive one.
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OPTIMISE YOUR
RESTAURANT WEBSITE
According to Statista, the revenue of Australian cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services, is expected to reach
Australian dollars by 2021 34.8 billion
If you want your fair slice of that pie, you need to be able to stand out from your competitors, and your website is a great opportunity to do so.
Your website needs to not only look nice. It needs to give visitors the information they need as quickly as possible, as well as naturally guiding them on the next step in the journey towards visiting your restaurant.
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1. Keep your copy crisp, concise and compelling
Your homepage should clearly articulate the name of the restaurant and what you are about. Don’t drown visitors with reams of dense, unnecessary copy – keep it crisp, concise and compelling.
Use punchy, direct and persuasive language that fits the character of your brand. When a visitor arrives on your homepage, the copy should compel them to stay.
50%BURGER ONLINE
OFF
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text book.
RESTAURANTNAME
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Because if it doesn’t, your potential customers will happily jump ship to the next burger restaurant around the corner, or the Japanese takeaway place in the next suburb.
Imagine your website as a digital outpost of your physical business – in this instance your homepage is the first digital handshake you extend to new customers. It should be firm and friendly – first impressions are lasting.
Given the importance of the homepage when it comes to restaurant websites, let’s take a closer look at some tips for designing one that will entice your prospective customers into taking the next step.
A tagline or positioning statement
A compelling call to action
A main headline
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This is where you should state your strongest value proposition, to keep potential customers from navigating to your competitors. Consider breaking down your unique selling proposition into three categories:
2. Make a clear and explicit call-to-action
When an Internet user reaches your homepage, you want them to do two things; recognise your brand, and give you their business. To facilitate this second feat, your homepage should feature a prominent call to action.
CALLTO
ACTION
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SEE THE MENU ORDER HOME DELIVERY
MAKE A RESERVATION
BOOK A TABLE JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
SIGN UP FOR VIP OFFERS
Any action that might help to convert a potential customer into a customer should be prominently displayed on your homepage – not buried in a random sub-menu.
The best call to action for your homepage will depend on the type of restaurant you run and your unique marketing priorities, but some popular calls-to-action include:
3. Make it easy for the visitor to take the desired action
Highlight the call-to-action on your homepage with an obvious clickable button or icon, to simplify the action. You can test different calls-to-action by analysing click-throughs and conversions to see which one works best for your business.
And while you should generally keep the copy on your homepage crisp and uncluttered, you may like to experiment with multiple calls-to-action, like the Supernormal example below.
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Internet users can land on your homepage for various reasons. They might already know your brand and wish to make a booking, or maybe they found you randomly when searching for something in the area. By featuring multiple calls-to-action on your homepage, you can cater more broadly to the different people who visit your site.
4. Understand that less is more
When designing your homepage, think quality before quantity. The design should be clean, balanced and beautiful, like an artfully arranged plate in a fine dining restaurant – not an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of information and imagery. Blank space is critical, to allow the eye to travel from each piece of content to the next.
Can’t play
According to a study by Microsoft, the average human’s attention span has shrunk to just 8 seconds – that’s less than a goldfish. So, pare down your messaging so that only the most important and compelling details are featured on the page. Don’t expect visitors to sift through layers of content to find what they need.
Don’t fill your homepage with unnecessary images, information, buttons or testimonials. If your homepage is overloaded with too much visual noise, it drowns out your branding and call to action. And a homepage laden with too much content can cause sluggish load times - which is guaranteed to deter visitors.
5. Make guests feel at home with logical navigation
6. Extend a friendly invitation to connect
Hard-to-navigate websites are disastrous for business. If the functionality of your website isn’t blatantly obvious, few will take the time to figure it out.
If people have to wait or they don’t get the attention they expect on your site, they will take their business elsewhere – just like in the real world.
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7 out of 10 users visited restaurant websites to ascertain business location
A Nielsen study into mobile search showed:
With the rise of mobile search, many foodies are using their smart-phones, on the go, to find their next dining experience. In many cases, people only visit restaurant websites to obtain basic contact information, such as a phone number or address.
7. Create a timely experience
Foodies are an insatiable lot – when they do mobile restaurant searches they usually want instant gratification. The mobile path to purchase for restaurants is one of the shortest timelines in the mobile space for any sector.
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2 in 3 were seeking directions
Pub & Resto
Pub & RestoPub & Resto
Pub & Resto
Every second visitor came for the phone number
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With that in mind, your restaurant homepage should make it easy for potential patrons to find your contact details.
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Research shows that nearly of both smartphone and tablet users are looking to make a restaurant spend within the next day after they search for a related term in a Google search. 90%
They want immediate satisfaction. 30% of smartphone users convert into a customer with a restaurant immediately, and more than twice as many are buying within an hour.
Immediately
Within hour
Within day
Within month
Not ready to buy
Purchase intention of smartphone users on mobile restaurant search
30%
3%7%
25%
30%
Immediately
Within hourWithin day
Within month
Not ready to buy
Purchase intention of tablet users on mobile restaurant search
15%1%
15%
40%29%
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Restaurant mobile search activity is very locally driven and far more urgent than other categories, such as travel. The study revealed:
More than half of this activity happens while the user is in a car
More than 8 in 10 mobile restaurant users ultimately go on to make a purchase
BAKERY SHOP
3 in 4 smartphone users access restaurant information on the go
For restaurateurs, this presents a huge opportunity and a unique challenge to wow foodies within this tight window with a knockout homepage, and guide them to purchase.
9. Use ‘social proof’ to build trust
105To convert strangers into customers, build up your restaurant’s ‘social proof’. In the digital world, social proof is evidence – in the form of online reviews or social media engagement – that your business is credible and authentic. Your homepage is a good place to flaunt your social proof and boost conversions.
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10. Indulge those #FoodPorn fantasies with video
Food appeals to some senses more than others. Taste and smell are obvious frontrunners, but sight is integral to the foodie experience too.
Restaurants live and die by the visual presentation of their food. Sharing Instagram photos of the food we eat has become as important as eating the actual meal.
A recent survey found that
92%say they are more likely to trust a business with positive reviews.
of consumers now read online reviews, and
68%In the restaurant game, reviews can make or break your business.
Until recently, the go-to visual content for restaurant home pages has been striking hero images of food or decor. That still works a treat. But the rise of video is opening up new online possibilities for restaurants.
The fact that YouTube is second only to Google in its use as a search engine tells us that video is the medium of choice at the moment. Video can captivate and influence even the most impatient website visitors.
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Home(page). It’s where the heart is.
They say that home is where the heart is. Likewise, your homepage is the heartland of your website. It should encapsulate the essence of your brand – the soul of your restaurant in a nutshell.
A happy homepage is a familiar place that makes visitors feel like they belong. These homepage tips will make visitors feel at home on your website, and convert casual Internet browsers into loyal restaurant patrons.
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ATTRACT WEBSITE TRAFFIC
WITH SEO
Now that your homepage and website are designed to convert, you need to actually attract prospective customers to your site. The most consistent and sustainable way to do so is by turning up in a Google search for search terms related to your value proposition.
The art (and science) of turning up in these searches is known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Why is this so important to your restaurant? Well as we mentioned previously, 90% of smartphone uses are looking to make a purchase within a day of searching for restaurant-related terms in Google, and a majority of these searches are made on-the-run in the vicinity of your restaurant.
That’s why Local SEO is critical for the growth of brick-and-mortar businesses. Local SEO helps restaurant owners attract more customers from their own area. If you get Local SEO right, you will capture prospective customers at the very moment they are actively looking to make a purchase.
Here are four smart tactics which you should consider when developing your local search strategy:
1. Create a local listing and keep it consistent
To find business information online customers will often Google it, or search Facebook, Yelp or other social platforms and local directories. If you aren’t visible on these platforms, people are less likely to have confidence in your credibility.
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Optimising your local listings is a mandatory step to raise visibility on all the major social media platforms, online review sites, and search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. But be warned, this can be a time-consuming process and requires a certain level of expertise. You may need help from an SEO consultant.
Here are some things to incorporate into your listings:
Your NAP (Business Name, Address, Phone Number)
Opening hours
Website link
Pictures of your business/office/people2
Customer reviews
Open
2. Use location-based landing pages
A landing page is the first page someone sees on your website after they click on a search result or listing. Consider designing separate landing pages for each service or location you have on offer, to make your way to the top of search results in local organic traffic.
zeusstreetgreek.com.au/store-locations/surry-hills/
zeusstreetgreek.com.au/store-locations/south-bank/
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Don’t copy the same content on each page
Don’t use the same title name and meta description on all pages by just altering the city or names
Things not to include:
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Consider including the following critical details on your landing page
Business name, address and phone number (NAP)
Services details
A unique URL, page title, meta description (location based)
Keywords which help in search engine ranking
A map which directs the user to your store
Business hours
Links to your social media profiles
Responsive design, especially on mobile
Compelling content (images, video and text)
3. Localise your content strategy
Your content strategy is not just about creating content for blogs, social media and website pages – it’s much deeper than that. For an effective local content strategy, you need to create consistent content across all of your online platforms, promote it effectively, and make continuous alterations based on the feedback and results you see.
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An overwhelming majority of consumers (92%) judge a business based on their online reviews. So getting positive reviews on a regular basis is important for your online credibility, and for your search engine rankings.
Step1
Get to know your ideal customers based on their challenges, objectives, goals, and socio-cultural backgrounds.
Target a specific geographically-based niche and eliminate the competition.
Analyse where your audience lives online and which social media platforms they use. Then set your content strategy accordingly.
Make sure that you have the same messaging and details on all of your listings, social media profiles, website and offline marketing collateral.
Be present on multiple platforms, by creating blogs, infographics, personalised images and more.
Step2
Step3
Step4
Step5
Here are some tips for localising your content strategy:
92%
4. Utilise customer reviews strategically
Consider the following points while developing your review strategy:
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Set a goalYou should have a clear goal of how many reviews you need – per week, per month and per year.
Make it easyKeep your review process easy with fewer actions. Customers will hesitate to give a review if they find the process hard and time-consuming.
Ask immediatelyThe right time to grab the review is right after the service has been delivered. As it is the time when a customer has the highest level of satisfaction.
Optimise with Trial and ErrorDid you meet the goals you outlined? If not, figure out what went wrong and tweak your review strategy until you have a successful outcome.
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If you have your website, listings, and social media presence optimised, you can then consider scaling things up with some advertising.
Your advertising options are quite diverse, but the main options to consider for local restaurants are social media advertising (Facebook) and Google AdWords.
What is Retargeting?
Retargeting helps you reconnect (via ads) with people who have visited your website, keeping your brand top-of-mind long after that first contact.
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USE SMART ADVERTISING TO GET MORE
OF THE RIGHT CUSTOMERS
The problem with both of these platforms is that they are very competitive, and can cost a lot of money if you’re not well informed.
One of the most cost effective advertising tactics in the toolbox of the modern restaurant marketer is known as retargeting. (Also known as remarketing)
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The most popular retargeting tactics include:
Website Retargeting
SearchRetargeting
MobileRetargeting
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Recent reports show that 3 in 4 online shoppers – across all sectors – abandon their orders in the process of buying. These customers may never come back to your business again unless you have a way to communicate with them. That’s the power of retargeting.
In the past, restaurant marketers struggled to reach the right audience with scattergun marketing methods, such as letterbox drops, email blasts and pop-ups. But retargeting is the real meal deal. It sends your ads only to online users who have expressed an interest in the cuisine and services you offer. Bull’s-eye!
You can target people who have already expressed an interest in your restaurant, or other restaurants like yours – and get ahead of the pack. Just as your signature dish needs the right mix of special ingredients, your marketing mix needs a balanced recipe of digital tactics. When combined with a cleverly crafted SEO regimen, retargeting delivers mouthwatering results.
EmailRetargeting
Social MediaRetargeting
1. Website Retargeting
Website retargeting places your ads in front of people based on their website browsing activity. You can capture their information as they visit your website, and deliver ads to them in the form of banners on other websites using Google AdWords.
Your advertising budget should never be spent on ads on websites that are not visited by potential customers. Don’t waste money marketing steak to vegans.
BUY
Who are your customers?
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Let’s take a closer look at each of them:
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Use your advertising budget to provide steak lovers with valued information about your steak dishes. Or let remarketing tell vegan-curious Internet users all about your chef’s special marinated tofu and greens. You can do this by specifically targeting websites with your ads that are closely aligned to the interests of certain customer types.
Remember that quality of reach is more important than quantity. There’s no point broadcasting your ads to a massive audience of people who have no interest in your product or service.
With retargeting, your ads appear on highly visible, premium websites at affordable rates.
2. Mobile Retargeting
Mobile retargeting works much the same as website retargeting by showing ads to people on their phone or in apps. And seeing restaurant searches are a popular category in both local and mobile searches, mobile retargeting is another great way to boost conversions on your website.
Where mobile retargeting becomes especially interesting is if you have an app of your own. Once users leave the app, and browse other apps, you can send them reminders to revisit your app.
LOGO
Pizzaburger
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If the visitor shows special interest in a particular item or feature in your app – such as placing an online delivery order – they can be sent targeted reminders, prompting them to revisit that specific item or app feature.
3. Social Media Retargeting
Social media retargeting enables you to run ads to certain target groups while they are scrolling through their social media feeds - such as Facebook and Instagram.
You can create these target groups based on the activity of visitors to your website, engagement within certain smartphone apps, or actions they have taken on social media itself.
In the restaurant industry, where consumers eat with their eyes first, visual platforms like Instagram are a great opportunity to display your mouthwatering dishes to already interested parties.
Email retargeting takes two forms; you either send an email to a user after they have visited your website, or send targeted ads to online users after they’ve read an email from you.
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4. Email Retargeting
Both require you to capture email addresses from your prospects. You can do this on your website, in your restaurant, or on social media, by giving away deals and offers to repeat customers. Once you have their email address, you can then send them time bound deals whenever you want. You can also upload your list of email subscribers to Facebook and deliver ads directly to them!
5. Search Retargeting
Search retargeting identifies potential diners based on their previous web searches. With this tactic, you put your brand in front of anyone who searches for restaurants of your kind online.
Try to pay close attention to popular search words. Does your target group prefer to dine in or take away? If people search at lunchtime, show them ads for your lunch menu, promotions, and specials. Your ad messaging should be as tailored and targeted as possible.
SEO and search retargeting work hand in hand to keep your restaurant on people’s minds. The SEO boosts your website’s visibility in the first place, and the retargeting brings your website back onto customers’ radars like a boomerang.
Why is retargeting so important for restaurants?
First time visitors to a website usually spend less than a minute on that site. They also typically view less than five pages. By driving visitors back to your website, time and time again, the various forms of retargeting give you more opportunity to engage and resonate with people.
Retargeting also helps make your brand recognisable and memorable. This tactic reinforces your branding efforts by repeatedly displaying your restaurant logo, images and slogan to interested customers on a number of different platforms.
If you keep turning up in the right places, people will start to search for your restaurant by brand, because they know it. Brand recognition is a powerful tool. If web users know your brand, they are more likely to come directly to your website and, more importantly, dine at your restaurant.
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CONCLUSION
Running a restaurant is hard work… but growing a successful one is even harder.
To be successful in today’s cut throat online world, you need to be consistently optimising your listings, encouraging positive reviews, staying on top of new search trends, and investing in retargeting.
But you don’t have to be an expert at everything - so why not outsource this to a team that have proven results for restaurants in Australia just like yours?
According to Google, Octos is one of the top 16 search marketing agencies in Australia and New Zealand, and we specialize in search engine marketing for restaurants. Not to mention our prices are extremely competitive and affordable, based on the results you can expect to see.
If you’re ready to grow your restaurant with digital marketing, and you need some help to make it happen, get in touch today!
Bruno NudelmanClient Service Manager
1300 880 [email protected]
