Is your restaurant seeing the benefit of multi-channel campaigns? Or is your marketing strategy still focused on just one channel like Facebook or Instagram?
If single channels are still your bread and butter, you’re not alone. Most restaurant owners fail to harness the power of a multi-channel strategy. But as more and more sites and platforms fight for your customers’ attention, just posting to Facebook isn’t going to cut it.
Here’s why your restaurant needs to take a multi-channel approach and a step-by-step guide on how to do it.
Why use multi-channel marketing campaigns?
Think about all of the different ways you use the Internet. You access your emails every day, you log into various social media profiles, you check Yelp for restaurant reviews, you use Waze and Google Maps to get around, you search Google when you need answers.
Now imagine if you only promoted your restaurant on one of those platforms. Think how many touchpoints you are missing with customers if you only reach out to them in one space. Then think about how many customers you are missing because they don’t use Facebook or Instagram.
The increased impact of multi-channel campaigns has been quantified by Optimove. Their research found that single-channel campaigns received a 10.2% response rate, whereas multi-channel campaigns received a 14% response rate. That equates to a massive 37% increase in response when using multi-channel marketing.
Multi-channel marketing is 37% more effective compared to single-channel marketing
It’s clear: if you want to increase your chances of getting customers to respond to your marketing efforts, multi-channel campaigns are key.
How to create multi-channel campaigns for your restaurant
Now that you know why you should be using multi-channel campaigns for your restaurant let’s look at how you can execute them.
Identify every channel available to your marketing efforts
The first step in creating a multi-channel campaign for your restaurant is to identify every single channel you have available to you. These can include, but will not be limited to:
- Yelp
- Tripadvisor
- Restaurant website
- Mobile app
- SMS
- Google My Business
- Online ordering portals
- Direct mail
- Billboard
- Newspaper & Magazine
- Radio
- TV
By knowing which channels you have and how you can use them, you can start to create a detailed promotion strategy.
Create a unified customer experience
Your customers should be getting the same brand experience whether they visit your restaurant’s Facebook page or search for you on Google Maps. That starts by properly branding all of your profiles and keeping it consistent where possible. But the content you post should always be consistent. If you are running a special menu, make sure that you promote across all channels—not just Facebook. Remember, not everyone is going to see your social profiles, so you need to make your offering clear everywhere. If that means posting the same message on Twitter and Facebook and running a Google PPC ad with the same copy then so be it.
But don’t forget to tailor content to platforms
While you want to be promoting the same things across all channels, you’ll want to tailor the way in which you promote them. For instance, Instagram is made for images. If you have a new menu item, you’re obviously going to want to have a picture to promote it. But creating a video of how it is made may work better on Facebook where video is becoming increasingly popular. At the same time, neither strategy is going to work with SMS promotions. Clearly, that is going to be text-based, possible with a link to your website. Your website is another separate case which could combine all of the elements discussed.
Our 52-week marketing playbook supports multi-channel campaigns
At The Digital Restaurant, we like doing the hard work for you. So rather than creating your multi-channel campaigns manually, why not use our 52-week marketing playbook instead. Our NGAZE multi-channel marketing platform helps busy restaurateurs run social, mobile and email campaigns that boost brand awareness and drive conversions. For more information on how NGAZE can gain more online orders and more bookings for your restaurant, speak to one of our consultants today.
