Marketing Your Restaurant Menu With Social Media

Let’s face it, Facebook is by far the largest social media network out there. Most of us have used it to keep up with friends and family or even community events. For restaurants, Facebook is an opportunity to build your own community of friends and followers. 

Last week I had the opportunity to visit with a restaurant where the owner admits he needs marketing help. All the tools I use to prepare for a meeting indicated that there were several opportunities for him to grow his business. Every single aspect showed room for improvement except one. The restaurants Facebook page had over 6,000 followers. That is a great number for a restaurant. Even better for a business that does not even work at building the social media following. Yes, he can grow that number higher, but it’s a great place to start from. 

How does social media relate to menu marketing? 

One of the things I reviewed first was the postings on his Facebook page. There were many postings of events at the restaurant and other community activities. I also saw that there were not many postings of food images on social media. I will also note that this restaurant did not even use Instagram for promoting food images. One thing we have learned over the years is that consumers do buy with their eyes and an image is worth a thousand words. Consumers do look at images when considering where and what to eat. A restaurant owner with a smartphone can produce to quality images to drive traffic and sales for his restaurant. Don’t miss out on this low hanging fruit opportunity. 

Many restaurants also take advantage of posting their menu on their social media pages or even a link to an online ordering site if you have one. Statistics indicate that the vast majority of consumers look at a restaurants social media site to see what is on the menu. This is again another opportunity to market your menu with social media. 

Social media and your restaurants website are two tools that need to work together well. On average a restaurant should do around 24 Facebook post per month. A portion of these post should drive consumers back to your website to drive sales. A link you a catering page or to your online ordering page are just two ways to drive sales and higher check averages. Driving consumers to your website is also an opportunity to have the enroll for a newsletter or special offers that will drive restaurant traffic. Each of these revenue tools are ways to promote menu marketing for your business.

This year is a great year for you to explore how technology is changing the role of menu marketing for your restaurant and what it can do for your restaurant. 

At CORE Restaurant Marketing, we have helped many restaurants design and execute a business strategy. Our mission is simple, how can we help restaurants succeed. Our services we offer touch and the experts we utilize have generated proven results for restaurants of all types. Contact us at info@corerestaurantmarketing.com for more information or schedule a time to speak with one of our restaurant marketing coaches.