How To Turn Your Digital Menu Into A Marketing Tool
Today, you can find most people on their phones. We use Uber on our phones, buy groceries on our phones, text and use social media, pay our bills, reply to emails, take photos, everything is on our phone. This is why the mobile experience is so important for your business. Your menu is a great way to build brand awareness and promote your business. Now with the rise of digital menus, business owners and managers have a chance to use menus as a way to connect with returning and potential customers.
https://vimeo.com/745410334
Having a digital menu for your restaurant can have several benefits:
- Increase in revenue
- Decrease in perceived wait time
- The ability to show allergy and nutritional information
- Entice customers with visuals
- The ability to update content with just a few clicks.
Here are some important steps to make your menu the strongest marketing tool it can be:
Use Your Menu As A Creative Canvas To Build Brand Awareness
Your menu is one of the first impressions a customer has of your food, so make sure it’s a good one. If you have a logo or tagline, include them on your menu to increase recognition. Use colors, fonts, and descriptive menu names that align with your brand to reinforce it. Make sure your photos are high quality, look tasty and mouthwatering in order to entice customers.
Make Your Menu Searchable
2 out of 3 searches for a local business are for a restaurant, 89% of those local searches happen on mobile devices. Most customers don’t start their search for a place to eat with the name of a restaurant. Sometimes, guests will search for specific food items like “grilled chicken burger near me”. If you have a grilled chicken burger on the menu, you’ll want your restaurant and your menu to appear in the results. In order for your food items to be located on search engines, your menu needs to be able to be read by a crawler. What is a crawler? An automated script or program that scans the content on a webpage. Crawlers are unable to scan the content of PDF’s, so uploading your menu in that format is not beneficial. Instead, provide a digital, search engine-friendly version of your menu.
Publish Your Menu on Every Platform
Your menu should be available on all relevant websites so that you can reach the largest audience possible. Here are ways you can ensure your menu and restaurant show up in search results:
- Google Listings: A google listing is like an online directory that provides all the required information to your customers in an easy way. Having a google listing is one of the most basic things you can do to make your brand visible in the digital space. Make sure to include as much information as possible. The more content detail you add, the better Google can understand your business and pair it with relevant searches.
- Website: Having a website is much like having online real estate. Just like your menu in the offline world, the website ensures a place where customers can place online orders, make reservations, and know what your menu includes.
- Keep your profile updated on delivery partners’ websites: Your profile on your delivery partner site matters a lot since it contributes directly to your business. An updated menu that doesn’t shock customers with different prices and dishes goes a long way in reducing the order drop rate.
Having your menu be the same on every site is not only great for marketing, but builds customer trust and loyalty.
Keep Your Menu Current
As a restaurant owner, you want to provide your customers with accurate information. You don’t want someone showing up when you are closed, so the same goes for your menu. Having an outdated menu can frustrate your customers therefore hurting your restaurant’s reputation. Regularly clear out items that are not popular or pull their weight in profit. Whenever you make a change to your menu, make sure that change is reflected wherever your menu lives (Google listings, Yelp, social media platforms, etc.).
Highlight Menu Specials on Social Media
If you have limited-time special menus, post photos of items from your menu across all your channels. Make sure to tell your followers that this menu is available for a limited time to entice them to visit soon. If you notice that you attracted new customers through this, and a certain dish from the special menu was ordered by a large percentage of guests, consider adding it to your normal menu.
You can also include your weekly or even daily specials on Instagram stories, which expire after 24 hours unless saved to a highlight. Instagram highlights is a useful tool that should be utilized. While promoting your menu items on your story, instead of having them disappear, save them to a highlight and when customers visit your social page, they can reference the menu highlight to see what food items you offer.
GoTab Menus
Mobile menus are part of an ongoing global trend to increase efficiency and sustainability. Additionally, they provide operators with new ways to engage their guests with interactive branding, marketing, ordering, and tailored service while facilitating seamless payment processing.
With GoTab mobile menus, you don’t have to spend a lot of time creating special/private menus. Special menus support all the features available with a regular menu. So for example, those with specific dietary needs or preferences, can easily search, filter, or sort. Create one for the Holidays or a special event and notify guests by releasing a notice that will appear once guests scan a QR code to access your menu.
Your digital menu is a powerful tool when used the right way. With the proper menu set up you can:
- Make it easy for guests to browse and find what they want
- Make it easy for guests to order and reorder what they want, when they want it
- Give guests a simple way to get help and ask questions
- Give staff the time and tools they need to add more value to the guest experience
Sources
Tap Room Playbook Episode 2:
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Tap Room Playbook Episode 3:
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