Online food ordering and delivery have become more popular in recent years. The current pandemic in the world has increased consumer demand to be able to order food from restaurants to enjoy at home. According to a study by the National Restaurant Association, 66% of Americans ordered takeout for dinner or had it delivered last week.
Nearly three-quarters of consumers say they prefer to order from a restaurant directly. The food service industry faces increasing pressure to offer more online channels for ordering food.
Some restaurants are facing a new challenge, while others must increase the number of orders placed online to sustain their business.
Check out how to increase online orders and attract more customers to your restaurant’s website.
Get listed in local directories
After you’ve set up your website, your next step should be to ensure that your restaurant is listed in online directories like Yelp. Check your current listings on Moz, and make any necessary updates. Claim your Google My Business profile and Bing profile if you haven’t already. This will help your store appear in local results.
Also read: Top 5 Marketing Channels for Small Business
Use local keywords on your website
Keywords are another way to improve the chance of being discovered. Keywords are terms or phrases that people type into the search box. They are used by search engines to rank and understand your website. Hyper-local keywords can be used in your blog, page titles, and captions as well as URLs to increase your visibility on local search engines. If you have the right keywords on your site, for example, customers searching “independent coffee shops in downtown Seattle” will find your business.
Use social media
Twitter and Facebook can be great platforms to engage people in conversation and learn more about your clients. Consider running contests and polls to better understand what your followers are interested in and the food and services that they would like. The results can be used to update your menu online and provide what your customers want. This will increase repeat business and keep their attention. Use social media to promote your restaurant’s website, and any new menu items or promotions.
Optimize your website for mobile
Around 79% of online orders are placed via mobile devices. It’s important that your restaurant website menu is as easy to use and quick on mobile devices as it is on desktops. You can make your website mobile-friendly by using an online ordering system that is mobile-friendly and making sure your menu structure and navigation are easy on smaller screens.
Explore targeted ads
You may find it difficult to increase your social media visibility organically.
Consider setting aside some money for paid marketing to help you launch your channel. Start by running and testing small campaigns targeting niche audiences and using the results to better understand how to adapt your restaurant and online store to what your clients are most interested in. Facebook allows you to target your audience based on specific demographics, such as income, locality, hobbies, and interests. This will ensure that you are reaching the right customers.
Create experiences
The experience is more important than the food when people dine out. They may want to spend time with their loved ones, in a warm and relaxed atmosphere. Or they might want someone to cook and clean up for them. Your customers will be delighted if you help them recreate the dining out experience at home. Try out some creative ideas, such as themed evenings featuring suggested music playlists or cooking live streams. You can offer a unique dining experience to customers who want to dine at home. Customers can appreciate your business in the comfort of their own homes with a website that is easy to navigate and seamless checkout.
Incentivize newsletter sign-ups
Email is a top-performing marketing channel. For example, for every dollar spent on email marketing, you can expect to receive an average return of 42 dollars. Sign up for your newsletter by offering an incentive to sign up, such as coupon codes or early access sales. Then, offer ongoing promotions and rewards that are exclusive to subscribers. Keep your customers interested to keep you in their minds and increase their loyalty.
Reward loyalty
Set up a program to show your loyal customers that you appreciate them. You could reward your customers with vouchers and points that can be redeemed against future purchases. You could also give them early access to special offers or limited-time promotions.
Also read: How to Get Good Customer Reviews: Top 10 Tips
Boost your reviews
You can make it easy for your customers to leave a review on your business, either on your social media pages, on your website, or in your local listing. Include a link to reviews in your post-order emails, and reply to as many as possible.
Share stunning visuals
Beautiful visual content, such as videos and images, never fails to make people’s mouths water. Share high-quality photos of your food and footage from behind the scenes of your chefs’ work on social media, especially Instagram.
Pay attention to how these strategies perform so that you can determine which ones yield the highest return. This will help you decide where to direct your resources and attention. Don’t be scared to try out new ideas!
