How to Effectively Market Cafes and Restaurants
Running a Marketing campaign for a Café or a restaurant presents a number of unique opportunities and challenges. For one thing, this type of business is firmly rooted in the locality in which it operates. The people who are going to frequent your business are only going to do so from so many miles around you. Effective Marketing for Cafes calls for a paradigm shift in your mindset as a marketer.
- Target Local Clients
If, as an example, you are the owner of Caffé Tazza, a Coffee house that is located in Chula Vista, California, there would really be no point in targeting people outside your locality. Trying to optimize your Marketing effort to reach out to customers on the opposite side of the United States would clearly be a waste of time and resources.
Local Foot Traffic
Your best bet, unless you are a really iconic establishment, which people will come from all over the world to see, lies in optimizing your Marketing campaign for local foot traffic. Your clients are likely, in this regard, to be people who either live or work within a mile or so of your establishment.
- Have a Website
A large chunk of the small to medium sized businesses that are out there are guilty of overlooking the importance of having an online presence. There is, all things being considered, really no excuse for you to fall within this bracket in this day and age.
This tip, you will discover, applies to Marketing across the board. The world in which we live today can be defined by a wide range of things, the majority of which are centered around the Internet. If you wish to meet new customers and engage with old ones, you should really have your own website. That is the only way through which people can easily find you whenever they need your products and services.
- Add your business to Google Maps
This is perhaps, the most important thing that you should do as part of optimizing your business for local visibility. Whenever people Search for a Café, Restaurant or any other local business in Google, they are usually shown a map that shows all the relevant business that are in their area.
It is important, therefore, for you to make sure that your business appears on Google Maps, to give yourself as much visibility as is possible. Doing so is relatively easy, in spite of which a large chunk of the businesses that are out there do not seem to be bothered with using this amazing, yet free, Marketing tool. Adding a business to Google Maps is simple enough and can be done through Google My Business.
- Cafes Should Have a Social Media Presence
Another dimension to having an online presence involves having and maintaining a vibrant Social Media presence. Today, there can be no doubting the fact that Social Media has become a large part of the way through which human beings interact and do business around the world.
Word of Mouth
Where word of mouth used to be passed through people actually taking the time to carry out a verbal conversation, Social Media has now become the favorite arena on which people around the globe share information. That is why it is so important for Cafes and restaurants to have a presence on such platforms as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others.
Cafes Nearby
Just Search for the word “Cafes” in Facebook and you will get a sense of what we are talking about. You immediately get a list of all the registered Cafes that are near you, as you can see in the above picture. This is clearly word of mouth in the 21st Century.
Facebook Marketing
Just to further illustrate the point, your presence on Facebook does not have to be limited to having a page. The company, along with other Social Media platforms, allows you to Market your business in a wide range of ways.
You can either “boost,” a Facebook post or create a completely new advertisement. This allows you to reach out to as many relevant potential customers as is possible. Facebook Marketing clearly works well for localized businesses, such as restaurants and Cafes.
- Google and Facebook Reviews
What most people do not realize is that it is possible to leave a review or simply describe a location on Facebook and Google.
Write a Review in Google
In order to describe your Café on Google, all that you need to do is open Google Maps and look for your Café (If its not listed, we have already described how you can get it there.)
Next, you just have to click on “Write a Review,” and you can begin writing whatever it is that you want to say about your business. Of course, others will be able to come and do the same, so there is an incentive for you to make sure that your business really is up to scratch.
Write a Review in Facebook
In order to review a business in Facebook, all that you need to do is click on “Reviews,” while in your business’ Page’s Timeline. You can then choose a rating, write a review, select an audience and you should be done.
- Listing on Yelp and other Review Sites
Did you know that up to 75% of people who are looking for a local business use review sites to find information about the right candidates. These amazing statistics are some of the reasons why Marketing for Cafes should include listings on Yelp and other review websites.
We have just mentioned that Marketing in general relies heavily on word of mouth. We have also just mentioned that in today’s internet driven world, having an online presence is vital to the success of every business.
Local entities, in particular, should make sure that they have as much online visibility as possible, and what better way of doing so than by having glowing reviews on sites such as Yelp, and Yellow pages.
