The restaurant and hospitality sector was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic brought about by the government lockdowns resulting in layoffs and loss of income. Despite, the reopening and eased lockdowns, as of Mach 2022, there are more than 14,000 bars and diners that had closed permanently.
One of the pain points experienced by many small restaurant business owners is the difficulty in creating their online ordering, marketing, and delivery platform. Consequently, they do not have enough capabilities and resources to acquire and adopt the technologies used by large food chain chains. Also, having several technologies that are expensive, and hard to maintain and manage is another pain point identified by these owners.
With online food ordering revenue that is projected to have a market volume of US$466.20bn by 2027, many small business restaurant owners must adopt a system that will help them in improving their digital or online presence.
Custom Website Design
Restaurant websites act as your virtual business cards in this digital world. Because most customers take a look first at the website before going into the restaurant, the website design plays a significant role in making the first impression to capture customers.
Customized website design can help restaurant owners to make their narrative and keep its customer engaged. Restaurants can also take advantage of putting in call-to-action buttons and attractive promotions to increase conversion and make profits.
Custom Mobile App
Since many customers are browsing digitally using their mobile phones, restaurant owners should be able to have their mobile app to capture this target audience.
Using white-label apps, small business owners can expand their reach by cost-effectively targeting new customers. Unlike a third-party app like Chownow or Doordash, customers won’t be able to see other restaurants in the app which could draw customers away from, your business but could more attract to the competitor restaurants.
Analytics and Insights Reporting
While small business restaurant owners do need to get data such as orders, payments, check requests, tips, takeaway deliveries, wait times, and even online reviews, putting them into actionable insights will help grow sales and increase profits.
Using restaurant analytics, business owners will gain a better understanding of customer behavior and make better choices. They can tweak operations, adjust inventories, train employees, fine-tune restaurant menus, and rethink customer interactions to enjoy more success.
Social Media Marketing
With more than 371 million posts tagged #food and 41 million with #drinks on social media, part of the strategy that restaurants should focused on is social media marketing to reach new customers and become intentional on its digital presence.
Small restaurant owners can use social media to enhance customer experience and improve brand awareness. Guests and customers can share their positive dining experiences to their families and friends and promote the brand. Make sure to post a content that promote high quality photos and variety of things that are worth checking out. .
The correct use of hashtags can also help social media posts to get in front of the targeted audience and also a good way to converse to your customers. They can leave a positive reviews from the posts that can be attractive to new customers.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Improve customer relationship through email marketing campaigns. Leverage your customers email database to thank them for patronizing your business. Email marketing campaigns can also help you in communicating about the latest news about the business and promote activities such as online ordering through your customized website or app and provide explanation why it is best to order directly online than third party apps.
You can always use your email marketing campaigns to encourage customers to act upon call to action button where they can place their order online or share their special code to friends or families so they can use it to get discounts or loyalty points.
Loyalty Promotional Programs and Discount Codes
Having a strategic loyalty program set us a small businesses grow regular sales. Leverage for an automated email marketing services to new customers that they can get 10% off from purchase.
Mobile push notifications can inform customers about latest deals and discount codes that they can use before ordeering. Also, notify customers about expiring points that they can either use to redeem an item or buy another item from the menu so that they can retain the existing points collected.
Customer Feedback
Allow customers to leave feedback that can also help increase the website discover and traffic. Good reviews can increase retention and reduce churn and can also generate more leads. Getting customer feedback will also help small business owners to uncover additional pain pointsand address them.
Online Reputation Protection Tools
An automated online reputation management will help small restaurant businesses to take control of its digital presence and counteract any misleading information or trends that could harm the business reputation.
Final Thoughts
Small restaurant business owners can focus on its essential parts of the business while acquiring an all-in-one platform that takes care of all its marketing and e-commerce needs at lowest cost possible.
Devournow offers a $49 /month all inclusive license fee to help you increase your profits and address your needs.