Successful Restaurant Websites

Thousands of restaurants are using email newsletters to build and engage their customer base and promote their offerings. Service providers such as AWeber and Constant Contact enable restaurants to quickly and easily deliver email newsletters and manage subscribers. But while an email newsletter can be a highly successful marketing tool for a restaurant, creating interesting, valuable content is a time-consuming headache for busy restaurant owners. The good news is that much of the content for your email newsletter already exists within your restaurant and with your customers. In this article, I suggest ten ideas for newsletter content that are easy to create and quick to engage readers. Keep in mind that you can later repurpose much of this content on your restaurant’s website. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the biggest mistakes in website design is attempting to create a site without a strategic plan or goal in mind. A lack of planning results in misguided efforts and a less-than-ideal experience for your visitors. In this article, I list ten questions restaurant owners must ask themselves before designing (or redesigning) a website. Once you have defined your goals for the website, monitored your competitive landscape, and most importantly, understood the needs of your current and potential customers, you are ready to start designing your website. Keeping your customers top-of-mind in your development process will result in a site that successfully attracts and engages visitors. Read the rest of this entry »

How’s this for a successful restaurant website:  Robin Goldstein, author and wine critic, developed a website, bogus menu and wine list for a fictitious Milan restaurant called Osteria L’Intrepido.  He then submitted the restaurant with its accompanying information and $250 entry fee to Wine Spectator’s excellence awards.    Goldstein’s “restaurant”, it turns out, was awarded a Wine Spectator excellence award, which when bestowed upon an actual restaurant, gives it great publicity and a nice bump in revenue.  In this case, the incident has left Wine Spectator scrambling to defend the standards of their awards.   Was Goldstein’s gesture a publicity-seeking hoax or brilliant statement attempting to undermine the credibility of food and wine awards?  

Wine Spectator Drinks a Hearty Glass of Blush (LATimes)

Dessert Truck

DessertTruck serves high-quality, low-pretense desserts from its mobile New York City headquarters.  Their website, as straightforward as they come, provides all key information in one click or less.   Still, they manage to integrate with Facebook, offer online ordering, keep the site regularly updated and are building an email list.  We find DessertTruck’s website almost as fabulous as their chocolate mousse!

DessertTruck

Schmap screen

If you’ve noticed a growing number of your customers with iPhones, Here’s an interesting iPhone compatible map guide that enables trip planners to find your restaurant and view your website in a snappy little mobile application.  Schmap currently has guides for 100 cities worldwide that include information on sights, attractions, hotels, restaurants, bars and other entertainment.  Users can search or browse for information on restaurants in a particular area and have them display in a Google Maps interface.  When you provide Schmap with your restaurant’s contact details and paste a small amount of code into your website, Schmap users will be able to quickly pinpoint your restaurant details and mobile-friendly display of your website.

Schmap for the iPhone