With new restaurants popping up in almost every street, the hospitality industry is becoming increasingly competitive. To stand out, restaurateurs need one thing to take their business to the next level- personalized, targeted marketing.
Personalized, targeted messaging is very important in helping your restaurant stay ahead of the competition. By sharing personalized, relevant content with your target audience, you’ll constantly have customers, both new and regulars, walking through your doors.
However, due to the effort and time involved, many restaurateurs stick to generic, impersonal content and messaging. This approach is rarely effective in grabbing the attention of clients and making them regular visitors. Click here to learn what restaurant marketing is and how to create demand for your restaurant with it.
That’s where restaurant marketing automation comes in.
What Is Restaurant Marketing Automation
Restaurant marketing automation involves combining a comprehensive marketing strategy with software and tools that will allow you to send the right message to the right audience, at the right time. For instance, restaurateurs can create and send targeted email newsletters to specific customers such as their regulars or big spenders.
Here are other great ways you can use marketing automation to transform one-time visitors into loyal, returning, regulars.
1. Personalize Your Communication
Restaurant marketing automation will allow you to provide a unique and personalized customer experience by leveraging previously recorded customer data such as meal preferences and budget.
For example, you can send a happy birthday message to a guest and give them a discount. This personal touch will help them feel like they are part of the brand, resulting in a loyal, satisfied customer who won’t hesitate to spread the good word around about your business.
2. Identify Your High-Value Customers
An automated tagging system can help you understand your customers better and identify those who provide the most value to your restaurants such as loyal customers and big spenders.
By segmenting your customer base, you can target customers under each segment with personalized messaging and rewards to make them feel valued and appreciated, and they’ll keep coming back for more.
3. Increasing Brand Awareness and Engagement on Social Media
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you must be aware of how powerful social media is. But with so much going on in the social media space, it can be difficult and time-consuming to keep up with the trends and conversations people have online.
One way to save time is to automate your social media profiles. This includes automating replies, scheduling posts weeks or months in advance, and even using a bot to handle customer service queries or orders.
However, some aspects need to be handled manually such as responding to private messages or comments on your posts to increase customer engagement.
Winding It Up
Restaurant marketing automation is a quick and convenient method of boosting your marketing strategy. It will speed up your marketing efforts and streamline your marketing flow, making it a lot more efficient.
It will also help you provide a personalized customer experience at your restaurant which would otherwise not be possible manually, ultimately increasing your revenue and profit margins.
