Successful Restaurant Websites

Even if you don’t serve pizza, Pizza Marketplace has some useful tips that will get you thinking about your restaurant’s mobile website.

Make it simple

“Avoid inundating your mobile customers with text and slow-loading pictures. Mobile shoppers are looking for simple solutions that they can act on quickly, so keep your messages short. Even in these days of “all you can eat” data plans, many users are still paying for every byte they download…”

Market by text

“Your customers are your community. SMS marketing is designed to generate an immediate response from them. People carry their mobile phones all the time, so keep in touch with them by offering an opt-in text messaging system to let them know about special deals and menu items…”

Bringing it all together

“Mobile marketing is not an island; today it’s all about the multi-channel approach. To most effectively communicate with your current and prospective customer base, integrate your mobile marketing strategy with traditional printed posters, menus, ads and other aspects of online and email marketing…”

Selling Pizza by cell

The modern business must have a Web presence that communicates its brand and basic information to target audiences. Despite that 89% of Internet users research restaurants online, thousands of restaurants still have little or no online presence. It’s essential that restaurants develop and maintain a basic website. You may say that your business does not need a website, that it’s too expensive or you don’t have time to create or maintain it. But when the purpose of a website is to deliver value to your customers, who in turn generate business, a website is essential. In the same way you satisfy customers when they visit your restaurant, you should satisfy their informational needs online. For the restaurant owner or manager, there are many benefits of having a website. Here are a few:

1. To generate awareness, exposure and extend your brand.

Your website lets people know who you are and gives potential customers a feel for your restaurant, menu and atmosphere. You also have the opportunity to demonstrate to customers why your restaurant is the right choice for them. Remember, first impressions count. A smart, simple design will help you convey the professional-yet-appealing image you want.

You have options when it comes to creating a website. The least expensive method is to (of course) do it yourself. With some software, a reference guide or two, and your dedication, a person with basic computer skills can have a simple website up within a week or less. You may also decide to use a single provider who can handle everything from domain registration and renewal to hosting, site design, development and maintenance. Be sure to ask them if they use search Engine Optimization best practices when they build their sites and if they will help improve the search results placement of your site once it launches.

Read the rest of this entry »

You’re probably hearing from many sources (present company included) about how restaurants need to create an ongoing dialogue with customers using an email newsletter.  However, we often fail to point out how to get those customers to join your email list in the first place!  AWeber presents some simple, practical suggestions for building your email newsletter audience.

“ In previous articles on restaurant marketing, we’ve floated a number of content ideas for your emails, like sending birthday emails and giving a behind-the-scenes look at your chef and kitchen.

The thing is, these ideas (and others that we’ll continue to publish here) don’t do much good if you don’t have any potential diners to send to!

Just as with any other business, a restaurant’s email marketing campaign has to start by getting subscribers.”

So where/how can restaurant owners build their lists?

Restaurant Marketing: 5 List Building Ideas (AWeber)

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 »

This condition is sometimes known as information overload and it makes it nearly impossible to accomplish the simplest of tasks. With the abundance of distractions possible in a website visitor’s experience, how can your site differentiate itself and rise above the distractions?  It’s simple. Your site must providing a single, clear focus so that a visitor can quickly find what he needs without having to search for it.

There are many ways to address this aspect of your user’s website experience and here are a few: Read the rest of this entry »

Capturing Feedback

One of the best ways of determining what information to display on your website is to listen to what your customers are asking for, both online and off.  To do this, review any feedback cards, customer service calls, emails, surveys or other sources of customer insights you receive.  If you monitor your website traffic with an analytics program such as Google Analytics, keep track of the most-viewed pages.  These things reveal a lot about the types of information people are looking for. Finally, brainstorm with your staff for additional customer comments routinely heard in the front of the house. 

Next, identify the top five concerns you hear over and over again from guests.  For example, you may find that customers routinely encounter parking difficulties around your restaurant and often want to know if there is a nearby lot available.  Understanding this ongoing concern, you may decide to update the map page on your website to include information about parking.  In providing visitors with the information they need more quickly and easily, you have begun to adopt a customer-centric approach to website design.  And, you’ll be far ahead of most restaurants online today.

The Salty Truth of Googling Yourself

We recommend Googling (and Yahoo-ing!) your restaurant on a quarterly basis.  It will only take a few minutes and can provide you with incredibly useful information.

1. Discover where your website appears in search results based on a variety of query combinations.  (e.g. “oklahoma city bbq” or “[your restaurant] gaithersburg”) Is it time to optimize your website for searchability? 

2. Monitor your online reputation.  There’s no need to obsess over this.  But it’s good to have an idea about what your customers are saying about you. This could help you gain valuable insights or generate new ideas.

3. Identify any outdated pages or versions of your site that may not have been taken down.  It’s embarrassing when you’ve recently redesigned your site and a visitor somehow stumbles across your homepage from 1996.

4. Verify that wherever your business information appears online, it’s accurate.  If it’s not, provide site owners with correct or missing information about your restaurant.  For example, sometimes a directory listing may not list your website.  Make sure it appears wherever possible!

5. You may have received some great press you weren’t aware of.  Many restaurants have “News” or “Press” sections that aren’t updated nearly enough.  Add links to select online press to help give a more timely feel to your site.

Bonus Tip:  See who’s linking to you!   Enter your url into Yahoo Site Explorer to find out what websites are linking to yours.

Research shows that website visitors don’t read – they scan.   As a result, you should always make the layout of your email newsletter scannable.  This means enabling the eye to follow a simple, logical, uninterrupted path through the content.  A scannable and intutive layout is created with a columnar grid (usually two columns), a variety of content types (imagery, features, callouts, and links), consistent stylistic conventions (fonts, sizes and colors) and small, easily digestible blocks of content.  A large, misplaced advertising unit, a long block of text, or inappropriately sized imagery will interfere with the scanning process and disrupt the reader’s attention.   Following these guidelines will help to create visual balance, encouraging users to scroll down while easily viewing your newsletter in its entirety.  This increases the likelihood of something catching their eye and taking action.  In addition, keep your layout consistent from one edition to the next.  This saves you time in design and helps create brand familiarity for your readers.