Getting new customers to your restaurant is vital for growth. Let’s assume that you already market your restaurant locally and online; you have a profile on Instagram and other relevant social networks. What else can you do to get more customers?
You can keep people engaged and get them to crave your best delicacies by creating a blog related to your cuisine or another aspect of your restaurant that stands out.
Getting your potential customers to engage and showing them pictures of your food aren’t the blog’s main benefits. In this post, we will talk about several ways in which a blog can impact your business.
SEO
Search engines use algorithms based on many variables to decide which websites appear first in search results. If the search terms that your audience searches for appears multiple times on your site, these keywords will likely be ranked higher in the search results. Therefore, an easy way to improve your ranking is by having a blog on your restaurant’s website.
A blog is a powerful digital marketing strategy, but this doesn’t mean you can have a blog on your website with no content, and when you do write content, you shouldn’t just write about any old topic. Think about what your customers might be coming to your blog to read. What are visitors to your site likely going to enjoy reading? Ask yourself what the specific phrases are that you would type in Google that resonate with your restaurant.
For example, let’s say that you have a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant with a pirate-themed interior located in San Diego, California. You will want to create a blog that mentions “The Mediterranean,” “restaurant,” “food,” “San Diego,” and “pirate” in most of your posts. Whenever someone searches for “Mediterranean food in San Diego,” or “pirate-themed restaurant in San Diego,” or something similar, your website will rank higher than it would with just one or two mentions of those words on the whole site.
Don’t forget that your posts still have to be engaging. If you dump keywords in the post, it will have the opposite effect you want to achieve. On the other hand, you could write a creative post about what pirates of the Mediterranean ate and how your restaurant recreates that cuisine in a true pirate style. This way, you will both create an engaging article and increase your ranking in the search results.
Reviews
Reviews can have a significant impact on those considering visiting your restaurant for the first time. More good reviews mean more customers for you, and a blog is a great way to increase the number of people reviewing your restaurant.
Once customers leave your restaurant satisfied, most of them won’t bother going to your website and writing a review there—unless you give them an incentive to do so. Having a blog will increase the likeliness that customers will revisit your website. Now that a satisfied customer is already on your site, it isn’t as much of a hassle for them to write a review for you. Perhaps try to offer them a 10% discount off their next meal with you in exchange for a review?
An increase in your website’s traffic will most likely result in an increase in the traffic to your restaurant. Also, reviews mentioning your restaurant will increase your website’s ranking in search results.
Returning customers
A blog is not all about finding new customers. It can also help you in getting your regular customers to visit your restaurant more often. One way to achieve this is by writing about things that could entice them to come back to your restaurant.
There are various reasons why a satisfied customer might not be returning to your restaurant, and a blog can help you combat many of them. The most straightforward reason could be that they didn’t remember your restaurant when deciding where to go for dinner. Your blog is there to remind them that you exist. Online bookings are an excellent way to contact them via an email address, telling them about your blog updates and any special promotions you might be running.
Your customer may have already tried everything from your menu that they were interested in having. So, when you develop a new recipe, write about it! It isn’t likely that they will notice a new offer on the menu if you stick it on there—promote it! If you have a blog post about an original recipe with high-quality pictures of the meal, it would be much harder to miss.
Special offers, interior redesign, and a new wine menu are great topics to write about for your customers. There are many others, and they will depend on the type of restaurant you are running. Be creative, let people know what’s new, and they will reward you for your efforts.
Relationship with your customers
If you already own a restaurant, you should already know how important building a relationship with your customers is. A blog can help you build a relationship with them even when they are at home. Just reading your posts and commenting on them will make them feel more connected to your restaurant.
You can push this even further. You can ask your customers to get involved by giving them a discount if they share photos of their time in your restaurant on your blog or let them write guest posts on your blog (be sure to edit them if necessary for readability). This way, your customers will feel like they are part of your restaurant’s extended family.
Conclusion
A blog is an easy-to-create tool that can help your restaurant in many different ways—consider it a highly cost-effective investment. It enables you to obtain new customers and lets you build a better relationship with the old ones. It increases the reach your restaurant has and creates brand awareness. In the end, it can provide a very favorable return on investment.
Considering how easy it is to create a blog and with more positives than negatives, there is no reason not to give it a try. It certainly won’t do any harm to your business, and you might be surprised how your profitability may improve once you start blogging about your passion for your restaurant.
Learn More
With a blog, you can help attract more customers to your restaurant. However, you’re also going to need modern restaurant pos software to help you keep those customers coming back. To learn more, check out Harbortouch Bar and Restaurant.
