Online marketing is an important asset that many restaurant owners overlook. Having an online presence and an online fanbase can help bring more people into your restaurant and improve the profitability of your business. This week we are discussing how to put out content that will connect you with your customers with the help of Jacob Ruiz, a CRO and SEO expert for Action Ready Marketing.

Know your Brand

One of the most important parts of having a strong online presence is having a strong brand. You should know who you are as a company, what you are known for, what you do for people and create content centered around that. For example, if you are BJ’s and you are known for the Pizookie, you should be creating content that is highlighting that frequently, whether it is posting online deals or pictures of people enjoying them on Instagram, a behind the scenes video of how they are made, etc.  If you are a bar that caters largely to college students and there is a onesie bar crawl happening in the town you are in you should know that and participate in that and post about it on your social media. The more you write about who you are and what you are known for and participate in community activities that coincide with your brand the more google will notice that and bump you up to higher pages. This means that when someone is looking for something related to what you offer, you will come up before your competitor.

How can you create a digital fan base?

From knowing your brand, you can then answer the question of, how do you help? The most valuable content on the internet is that which helps the viewer in some way, either by answering a question or giving more information, or just providing something relevant to the consumer. You want your site or your article or whatever it is you are posting to answer that question and provide something relevant to your audience. When people can go to you to answer a question and click on your site, you can strategically place pop up ads that will draw them into your establishment. For example, you are a brewery and you put up a tutorial on how to make your own beer at home, when people click on your URL and it takes them to your site you could have a pop up ad about a beer making class, or a 10% off printable coupon to your bar. Now your audience sees value in you for answering their question they might share that with their friends which will get you more traffic to your site, and they have incentive to spend money at your brewery as well-it’s a win win.

Understand your audience

You may be asking yourself, what does good or relevant content even mean? How do I help answer a question? The answer is: get to know your clientele. This requires a lot of watching and a bit of research. Start by seeing what engages your customers more and what is more likely to bring them in, is it emails with deals attached? Is it Twitter? Instagram? Facebook? A blog on your website? Find out and start from there, and if you need help finding out what kind of content they want-ask. At the end of every podcast we ask our listeners to tweet us anything they want us to cover on our show, this is a sure-fire way to ensure that you are engaging with your audience and answering their questions. Consistently produce content of different varieties and evaluate what gets a lot of attention and what doesn’t. It takes time to build a following and consistently creating content just helps you grow.

Furthermore, look at the trends in your sales. If you are making a lot of sales at two in the morning, chances are you are dealing with a younger crowd. If your dinner rush is at 3:30 P.M. you may be dealing with an older crowd. This information can help you know what platforms to promote on and what kind of content you should be providing.

Building a strong online presence is essential to building a community that surrounds your business. Take some time to get to know your customers so you can form a strategy that will work best for you, there isn’t one right way to market to people, get creative and get out there! Your brand just might become the next pop culture phenomenon.

To listen to the full podcast click here.