Restaurant marketing: word of mouth, influencer marketing and restaurant ambassadors

Marketing includes all the activities that a business performs to boost sales of what the business offers. Restaurant marketing, then, involves selling more meals. A broad topic, but heartily important for delivery restaurants. There are still many opportunities for many delivery restaurants when it comes to restaurant marketing. In this blog, we will discuss the following ways you can employ restaurant marketing: through restaurant ambassadors, positive customer experiences and mystery guests, word of mouth and influencer marketing.

 

“Why are restaurant ambassadors important to my delivery restaurant?”

A customer representing a delivery restaurant sends a positive message to those around him/her about this restaurant. He/she can do this, for example, in the form of a review or word of mouth. Word of mouth is a form of restaurant marketing in which a customer promotes a particular brand, product or service through everyday conversations. When this customer’s positive opinion comes across sincerely to those around them, they will be more likely to order from this delivery restaurant as well because they trust restaurant ambassadors to some extent.

Through reviews, word of mouth or other positive statements, a restaurant ambassador attracts customers to your delivery restaurant which leads to more sales and, if all goes well, more profits. However, in order to get your customers to want to represent your delivery restaurant, as well as to come across as genuine, you must be able to offer them a pleasant experience.

 

Positive customer experiences as the basis for successful restaurant marketing

Everything in your restaurant marketing hinges on the experience that sticks with the customer after he eats his meal. Was it delivered on time, did he enjoy his meal and were lemon wedges included with his spare ribs? All things that affect the final customer experience. Is it positive? Chances are he/she will order from your delivery restaurant again in the near future. Before you know it you will have a loyal customer! Who knows, they might even post a positive review themselves or order with a large group of friends next time. With a negative customer experience, on the other hand, the customer might order from one of your competitors next time. So word-of-mouth advertising can also turn out badly in that case. After all, customers not only share positive experiences with those around them, but also negative ones.

So the customer experience that you manage to offer your customers during the customer journey is the basis of it all. This journey starts the moment a potential customer bumps into your delivery restaurant online, and only ends again once the ordered meal has been eaten and cleaned up. Read about it here more about it.

 

Improving the customer experience: mystery guests

It is not always easy to identify where there is room for improvement in the customer journey. A mystery guest can be of value here, especially for delivery restaurants. Using a prepared checklist, a mystery guest orders unannounced and anonymously. Based on his/her feedback, you as a delivery restaurant can properly assess the quality of your service and food. This gives you concrete points for improvement that you can start working on immediately. A few months ago we wrote a blog about this called “Mystery guests in the hospitality industry: also applicable for delivery restaurants?

 

From customer to restaurant ambassador via word of mouth

Are the majority of your customers satisfied? Then you can start thinking seriously about targeting your customers to become ambassadors. The easiest way is to encourage your own immediate environment (family, friends, etc.) to represent your restaurant. After all, this is where you have already established a personal connection. Try asking your friends, family and staff to post a review online, like and/or share your social media posts.

A logical next step is to entice your regular customers to become restaurant ambassadors. What loyal customers will do of their own accord is to use word of mouth to persuade people to order from your delivery restaurant, simply because it is genuinely their favorite restaurant. Make sure that they keep coming back and that they enjoy themselves. So it’s also okay to do a little extra for them. Offer a free drink, or give a loyal customer a discount when they order with a group of friends.

After having engaged your immediate own environment and loyal customers, you can get to work with the rest: a large group of customers with whom you have had little or no personal connection. However, you can easily reach this group of customers by email and social media. After an order, always send an e-mail to the customer asking (including a link) if they can post an online review. Through your social media channels, encourage your followers to send photos of their ordered meals for you to share. This will create an interaction and the rest of your followers will also see positive customer experiences from your customers. Want to take your restaurant marketing one step further? Then consider using influencer marketing.

 

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing involves partnering with an influencer – a person with great reach on social media – in which they, for a fee, promote your delivery restaurant. Followers see their favorite influencer recommend your delivery restaurant and are more likely to order from your restaurant as well. In the blog that we wrote about how Instagram can put your delivery restaurant on the map online, we also discussed the opportunities that influencer marketing offers. Two things to look out for when using influencer marketing:

1. Make clear agreements in advance about the number of posts, the type of posts and the remuneration in return. This will ensure that it is clear to both parties what the other’s expectations are.
2. Make sure you partner with an influencer who has a fan base that matches your target audience. This is many times more important than the total number of followers!

 

How do you approach these influencers? You can obviously try through his/her personal channels. However, influencers already receive countless messages daily that they often cannot read all of them with attention. A solution is offered by platforms that bring together the demand for influencer marketing and the supply of influencer marketing. However, they also receive a portion of the amount paid. An example of such a platform is Join, but if you do a quick search on “Influencer marketing platform” yourself, you will soon find all kinds of similar parties. We recommend that you compare and/or try out these options for yourself.

 

In short: this is how to optimize your restaurant marketing

We can’t stress it enough, but start with the basics! Make sure you can offer your customers a pleasant experience. Listen to their needs and, if necessary, use a mystery guest to find out what your areas for improvement are. From a good base, word-of-mouth advertising will naturally increase, probably without you even realizing it. Next, encourage your own network and returning customers to post a review or share a post from your social media channels. In return, feel free to pamper them by offering a discount or that bowl of fries just a little fuller.

A final step in addressing your restaurant marketing is to appeal to the masses by mail, social media and/or influencer marketing. Be creative in this. Try a partnership with an influencer. He who does not dare does not win ?!

 

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Thanks for reading,

CashDesk