A restaurant website can really help your business!

Unless you’re a large group of restaurants or a national chain, chances are you don’t have a big budget for marketing. You have to watch your expenses closely. You need to stand out from other restaurants competing for the same customers.

You also have a lot of businesses offering you ways to reach more customers – with coupon books, discount clubs, and local newspapers. For most of these, you have to pay out money for each marketing campaign. You might pay a price based on a limited number of houses or prospective customers. If the customer simply overlooks your coupons that month you’re out of luck.

Your restaurant should be online!

If you don’t see a positive return after you’ve spent those marketing dollars, you can’t go back and recoup your money. You can try another campaign, maybe with a modified strategy – but it’s still going to cost you for each effort. You might pay to reach 25,000 homes for one month. The time is limited and the number of potential customers is finite.

With a website, your message goes out to an infinite number of people for as long as you want to put it out there. It costs nothing extra to reach more people or to have your message out there for a longer time. Furthermore, if you are looking reach a certain demographic, you can do it better on the web. For example, if your restaurant appeals to the health-conscious, you can have a page that shows the nutrition breakdown. You can have a link to it from the menu page and vice versa. You can also dedicate some blog topics related to how your foods are prepared or write a short feature on the items that are gluten-free. You can have links to external websites that are related to nutrition. Add a testimonial from a fitness coach who frequents your restaurant.

You need a wide variety of content that’s carefully focused. This improves your search engine ranking when someone searches for your restaurant or a similar type. But also, with the right content, your business could be displayed in searches for health club, recipes, your locality, or entertainment. In other words, your website content matches the interest profiles of the customers you seek.

How else can a restaurant website help you?

• Build your “brand” and image
• Put your menu online – easily updated, change prices, include photos, feature certain items, identify health-minded items, nutrition information, printable version
• Take reservations online
• Promote availability for private parties – booking, policies, pricing
• Display an attractive photo gallery to show ambiance, staff, familiar customers, food items, special events
• Include testimonials and links to reviews
• Give business hours – including changes
• Give directions and an interactive Google Map
• Use social media to encourage customers to spread the word and create a buzz, “Like” us on Facebook, Tweet, Pinterest, more
• Extend holiday wishes and thank yous
• An email subscription form lets interested patrons request to stay in touch. Use it for newsletter and notifications of special promotions.
• Create a loyalty, rewards programs and encourage repeat business
• Responsive formatting rearranges web page layouts for more optimal viewing on various devices (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablets, smartphones)
• Share recipes
• Support vendors, suppliers

Your website can also be updated by a non-technical person without any special software. It’s fast and easy so you can make last minute changes at the drop of a hat.

The list of uses and benefits goes on. The return on your investment can give you a better payback than any other form of marketing. Contact us today for a discussion of your needs and a price quote.