The restaurant industry is one of the most competitive industries. It is difficult to break into and thrive amidst all the competition and economic ups and downs that encompass its existence. Almost 50% of novice restaurateurs fail within the first five years in their uphill battle of helping their small business survive, let alone thrive. The biggest question every new restaurant owner asks themselves – How can I attract people to my restaurant? The answer to this question is “Restaurant USP”, which is though simple, has multiple aspects. But there are two primary factors whose execution can seem like a daunting task, but you can attract your desired target audience to the restaurant with the right strategy.
– Work on your Unique Selling Proposition
– Market your USP using the right digital platforms and channels
In this article, we’ll give a quick guide and how to market your restaurant USP in the digital world the right way.
What Is Your Restaurant Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
When you decided to start your restaurant business, what is that one thing you felt would make you stand apart from the rest?
Yes, you checked if you had similar competitors around or not, if the footfall of your target audience was as desired, you also decided where you want to source your raw material from, which POS software to go with, and have hired the best staff.
Your checklist is on-point. But have you figured that one thing on your menu that people will be eager to come back for? It could be the way you cook at a live station, the manner of serving, or that one high-demand item that people come to taste from miles away. Some restaurants take a bold approach and do something off track to keep their stream of first-time customers consistent.
Find out what your restaurant USP is that you know sets you apart from the rest of the competitors and keep getting new customers and work on it to perfect it. Getting many first-time customers is an outstanding achievement. But to ensure that your customers keep coming back, you need to market your restaurant USP.
How To Market Your Restaurant USP?
Many restaurants still rely on old-school marketing like flyers and pamphlets. Others never touched advertising or social media, and they have always been the locality’s hottest spot for decades. Their business marketing is through the power of word of mouth. To keep new people coming in along with your loyal customer base, you need to rely on more than just the possibility of your food being loved and your customer being your word-of-mouth marketer.
Without a concrete plan or strategy, you cannot simply start marketing your restaurant USP. Here are some steps that can help you get started.
1. Create A Brand Strategy
Is your menu, interior, food, ambience, and the complete customer experience in sync with a theme that you had in mind?
Work towards creating a holistic and complete customer experience. Ensure everything from your website to your in-person restaurant; every touchpoint should emanate a similar experience and work together to create a smooth customer journey. And to do this, you need to figure out your brand strategy, or to put it simply, the “why” of your restaurant. Keep it short and straightforward, directly explaining why you have opened this and what you expect your customers to experience in the establishment.
2. Use Your Initial Research
When you were planning to create this restaurant – you did your share of researching your audience and competitor analysis. It’s time to make use of that analysis now.
Identify your audience and try to find out your ideal customer. Through this process, you will also understand the proper channels to reach out to them, which could be via social media, SMS, or even an email newsletter. In your competitor analysis, you only looked at the immediate physical presence of similar restaurants in the proximity of your establishment.
Take it further and include the digital space into your competitor analysis. Check their branding online, across social media, the kind of loyalty programs and promotions that they run, the kinds of specials they offer during the week. This will heavily influence and help you sharpen your brand USP, understand what people are actually buying, and gain a competitive edge.
3. Setup Your Restaurant Space Online
Take your brand experience and put it up not just on the website but spread it across all social media channels.
To boost SEO searches on your website, including your full address to localize searches lets Google know where you’re based and gives customers the information they need to find your restaurant when they’re looking for what you’re offering – especially when it’s your restaurant’s USP.
Social media will allow you to expose your restaurant to a much wider audience. Now it is upon you to keep them engaged using the right content that will click with your target audience.
The world has largely gone digital. Everything you see and touch in the real world has an online presence. To outshine your competitors and flourish in the most challenging industries, you will need to have an online presence that does not merely exist but is also acknowledged.
