Facebook, the best ally for online restaurant marketing

Facebook can also be a very good ally for restaurants, as it can establish a direct relationship with current and potential customers. It is very important that any restaurant that wants to have a page (not a profile or a group, remember) on Facebook, carry out the following preliminary actions:

We must know that there are about 16 million Facebook users, 49.6% are men and 50.4% are women. The most popular age is 25-34 years with 31.7%, then 34-44 years with almost 23%, 18-24 years with 21%, from 45-54 with almost 11%, between 55-64 years old 3.8% and over 65 years old only 2.1%. It is obvious that if your customer profile is over 55 years old, you should keep in mind that you will reach a very low percentage of your customers.

Regarding the possible number of potential customers in your area, Facebook offers the possibility of knowing the number of users of a particular territory. To do this you must enter a page and, on the right side, ads usually appear. Facebook usually offers the possibility that you put an ad “See your ad here”, well, enter and pretend to want to put an ad, doing so will allow you to select a population and the profile of users, automatically Facebook will tell you how many potential users Exist with your Facebook profile. As an example: in the municipality of Castelldefels (Province of Barcelona) there are 9,720 users of Facebook, between 24 and 60 years.

Also keep in mind that being in a social network like Facebook requires a certain perseverance and patience. Set yourself a clear goal for which you want your restaurant to be on Facebook. You can start by making a calendar of activities that you want to communicate throughout the year, here are some ideas.

What can we do on Facebook?

• Promote your daily menus: if you have a daily changing menu, I recommend you “hang” every day, do not expect to hang at 13h, it is too late, put that first hour. You can upload a pdf document or link it directly from your website or where you have it. If you have good photos of your daily menu, it may be a good option to put them together with the menu to make it more appealing. Many customers decide where to go to eat when they know the menu, if you do not remember it you may go to the competition.
• Report your new dishes, your new creations: one of the most successful things on Facebook are the images. Take advantage of it to make your new dishes known. All it takes is a camera or mobile phone with camera and little else.
• Reports what you love: tell stories related to your restaurant as you breathe with your new creations, explains events or special moments, comments and photography customer visits / special friends (with their permission) …
• Special events or holidays: communicates any event or special party, as well as specific menus. For example: company meals at Christmas, Special New Year’s Eve, Gastronomic menu of the local festival, etc.
• Promotions, offers or discounts: you can make your own promotions (eg today we invite you to XXXX with your menu) or use promotions made with Easypromos for Facebook.
• Early booking: encourages early booking. Ask to reserve a table, inform of the last available tables (especially on indicated dates), if your web allows you the reservation of tables links the page with your web. Encourage reservations online with some extra detail.
• Opinions and suggestions: be on Facebook lets you know opinions and suggestions. Do not forget that in this social network, the most important in the communication with your current and potential customers, therefore, encourages maximum participation.
• Study your competition: analyze your competition will also let you find out they do, how they do it and that may be of interest to your establishment. Watch, learn and improve what other restaurants do.
• Upgrade your letter and present: facebook can “hang” document type or Issuu Slideshare presentation, which see a presentation, catalog or full letter from the same wall of the page. Update your documents and show them on Facebook.

How to promote the restaurant page?

Facebook ad campaign

This social network, as I mentioned before, allows you to put ads so that only Facebook users who meet the geographical requirements (for example your city) and the age bands that you decide. This is a very interesting advertising very interesting, in which you will only pay for each click received.

Make your Facebook page visible

It is necessary to make known that your restaurant is on Facebook, therefore all corporate material (business cards, letter, website, brochures, advertisements, posters, etc) must include the Facebook address of the restaurant. I also recommend making a vinyl – discreet but visible – with the Facebook symbol to place on the door, with the restaurant address.

Frequently update your cover image: recommend to frequently change the cover image, about once a week. It is convenient to have folders of images of different typology, for example: group of images of the room / s, group of images of the exterior / es, group of images with different types of tables set, group of images of prepared dishes, group of images With restaurants logo. It is about putting a different image every week in order to increase the visibility of the restaurant.

Application ContactMe: is a Facebook application that allows you to insert a contact form. Especially interesting as a system of contact with your customers or for the reservation of table.

Promote your restaurant by videos: for some advanced users, the use of videos can be very interesting. The videos can be promotional (explain your local, your rooms and equipment, the way you work) or didactic (cooking tips, health, etc). Videos can easily be placed on the wall of your page and you can send a link to your customers by email, but you must previously create a free videos account (I recommend YouTube).