In the food industry, effective restaurant branding is the difference between longevity and the collapse of an owner’s livelihood. To some extent, every restaurant owner wants to see their establishment become part of their local identity. They want to be that place in town that locals tell visitors they MUST try while they’re here. You can’t get there, though, without a good strategy.
The Missing Pieces of a Restaurant Branding Strategy
You’ll notice that the headline says “missing pieces” instead of “essential pieces”. Yes, there is a reason for it. You may have the best burgers in town or a happy hour menu that’s to die for, but if no one’s coming through the doors what good does it do? The online aspect to any branding strategy (and that certainly includes restaurant branding) is what I see most often missing in the foodservice industry.
Why is this? It’s hard to say, but a likely contributing factor is business size. National corporations and growing businesses have marketing teams behind them. They may even have a full time branding guru in house. I’d be willing to wager that most non-franchised restaurant owners don’t have those resources at their disposal. Instead they circulate coupons or expensive print ads and hope for the best. Meanwhile, they are invisible to their local target markets online.
Forbes published a great article about these points here, and I recommend you give it a glance for more information.
Make Sure Your Primary Markets Can Find You Online
2,400 people are searching for the keyword ‘restaurants salt lake city’, and there is not a huge issue with competition for the ranking. To make the most of your online restaurant branding strategy, these consumers must see you on page one of Google.
This kind of organic traffic is going to be one of your largest primary markets. It’s imperative to your long term success that you use every page of your site to target similar keywords. While sometimes you see results in days, top rankings can take many months of hard work. Patience is key; your ranking will be worth it when you’ve doubled your revenue in 5 years.
To learn more about what SEO is and if professional SEO services are right for you on this step, follow the link.
Restaurant Branding in New Niche Audiences
You now have a site that’s pulling its weight, and a decent amount of visibility. Here’s where your restaurant branding strategy actually begins. Restaurant branding, really any type of branding, is all about giving your establishment a voice and a face in your industry. By far the easiest and most cost effective approach to doing this is blogging.
Implementing this effectively can literally change the game for your brand, especially when it comes time to expand or add locations. Blogs, just like the one you’re on now, are collections of content that’s written and optimized with a certain audience in mind.
First and foremost, you are establishing your position of authority within your region or field of work by providing people with information they find entertaining or useful. This is called thought leadership. The result is almost always going to be a loyal customer base. It’s also incredibly easy to share blog content, which only enhances your reach. Once customers find your content, they can be directed through your site by hyperlinks until they land on your menu’s featured item or promotion. This is where your conversions are happening.
Another crucial aspect is targeting smaller, more specific markets. These markets will have a significantly lower amount of competition. This very piece is a great example of this technique. Part of what Premier SEO Services does is enhance the effectiveness of branding and strategic marketing. Because of this, I have to target phrases like “seo services” for example with my web pages.
With this blog post, however, I was able to target you: a random visitor looking for something very specific that I can provide. While Premier SEO Services does marketing and branding work for all types of businesses, I was able to reach a more specific market without competition from dozens of other blogs.
Do you do exclusive catering in your area? Target that market. Maybe you’ve got some incredible vegetarian or vegan options on your menu. You can target that market with your blog, too. ‘Long-tail’ keywords like “best vegan food (your city)” or “corporate catering (your city)” will be incredibly easy to get posts ranked for. Because of their specificity, they will typically have fewer bloggers competing for it. Your options are literally endless. Eventually, if you do it right, these posts can reach a much larger consumer base than a print ad can.
I Need Help With My Online Restaurant Branding Strategy
That’s fine, blogging is not for everyone. Additionally, most business owners do not have the time to put in to make it worthwhile. Luckily, as I mentioned before, outsourcing this work is very friendly to limited budgets. You can follow this link to learn about Premier SEO Services and what we can do to help your restaurant branding strategy.
Happy branding!
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