RELEVANT SOCIAL MEDIA HASHTAGS



How to grow your business post Covid-191. Over-Communicate and make your presence knownRamp up your social media ads. With everyone working/attending school from home, people have been spending more time online and scrolling through social media to find the information they need. Tell your customers that you’re open for takeout and delivery:On your business entrance, local paper ads, social media, email, and your website, anywhere customer might look.Share your hours, open locations, special offerings and deals, delivery platforms. Communicate Covid compliant safety measures, and how every order you are offering safe takeout and delivery service to ensure food safety to your customers.??Make sure your actively posting several times a day, using high-qualityphotos, and consider adding a promo codes.Feature customers on social media.?Customers love posting about their takeout and delivery orders from restaurants they visit. Encourage them to use your name and/or hashtag for incentives or a shout out. Build community and increase business by reposting some of what they share on your own channels. Ask your social media audience what they want to see via tweets and Instagram Story polls so that you can proactively create the recipes they’re hungry for.Search for food bloggers in your area who are willing to post about your business. For the cost of a free lunch, you can reach local foodies who are craving what’s on your menu.Consider Co-Branded Partnerships.?Are?there other local restaurants that you can partner up with to incentivize orders? Co-branded partnerships can help to extend reach by cross-pollinating?content on multiple channels simultaneously.?And they build a sense of community around local favorites.RELEVANT SOCIAL MEDIA HASHTAGS#SaveRestaurants:?Leverage this hashtag in Instagram Stories to appear in their highlight reel.#OpenforDelivery:?DoorDash’s campaign hashtag helps encourage local restaurant support by promoting delivery.#DoYourPartChallenge:?Celebrities are nominating others to participate in a #DoYourPartChallenge and donate meals.?#SupportSmallBusiness:?Unite with other small businesses, and help customers find you.2. Modify your menu and share your menuYou don’t have to offer your full menu. The dining experience has changed; don’t be scared to adjust accordingly.With labor being down, don’t only pick your most ordered items to provide, but your most cost effective ones. Things to think about:Foods that package well, travel and re-heat wellFoods that can be sharedFoods that you can cross utilize ingredients forYou can also research the most searched for dishes in your area to make sure you’re offering all the dishes that your customers are craving. Check out the?Grub Hub “Year in Food” Report?to see what’s popular in your area. applicable, add beer and wine to your.Offer some of your drink menu favorites for an even better to-go selection. Make sure you share your menu especially every time you update it. You’d be surprised how many restaurants have not done this. 3. Sell meal kits, family meals and pantry itemsConsumer benefit: offers an activity, as well as a restaurant quality meal, for a fun date-night idea, special occasion and/or family bonding session.Owner benefit: By handing off the labor to the consumer, restaurants can focus their limited workforce on sanitizing their locations and developing a plan for when they can reopen their doors for dine-in service. Also, lowering food cost by limiting ingredients bought and stored.Customers are looking for staple items to have and cook at home. Sell essentials like rice, bread, pasta, olive oil, spices, sauces, yeast, flour, sugar and any hard to find items that grocery stores aren’t stalked with. Organize a CSA “community supported agriculture.”?with your Suppliers.?Work with your suppliers to put together CSA boxes of produce and other essentials so that customers can sign up for weekly deliveries of perishable items. This can help reduce waste of your inventory and help out the community.4. Host online cooking classes (can be paired with #3)We are currently connecting in a virtual world. Virtual classes fill a need for connection as well as visual stimulus. Cooking can be intimidating, but with guidance, you can get people interacting with your brand. It also encourages customers to purchase your goods and can help protect your brand by continuing to offer that connection while people are home.Share your recipes. You likely have customers who are loyal to you and their favorite dishes, who would love to be in on the secret recipe. Meal kits are great if you are willing to open yourself up to the public this could be a great way to keep your customers engaged. Big brands/companies like Disney have done the same to keep their loyal customers engaged. Take your community behind the scenes by going live on Instagram, Tik-Tok and Facebook.? Connect with them by showing them what happens behind the scenes. For example, highlighting the employees that are working hard to facilitate takeout orders. 5. Philanthropy (donate meals)Even though restaurants have taken a huge hit in revenue due to COVID-19, many restaurant owners have chosen to give back to the community during these hectic times. Philanthropy has been known to encourage customers to buy products when proceeds and/or donations are being made to those in need. Consider donating meals, proceeds and/or organizing a pop-up to feed the homeless etc. Offer and encourage them to buy gift cards to use for themselves, or to donate to delivery workers and local hospitals.6. Well planned delivery options See if they are offering support and promos.?Some delivery platforms (DoorDash, for example) offer free delivery. You can opt in and promote this perk on your website and social media channels. Some also have a “first time free” program, which allows customers to try your restaurant with free delivery.Include in a Thank You car and/or coupon.?Show your customers how grateful you are for their support with a simple thank you card or coupon in their takeout or delivery bag.Include coloring book pages and crayon.?If you have any in stock that you typically use for dine-in customers, throw a few into delivery and takeout orders. A lot of kids are out of school, and their parents are eager to find new activities to fill the day. Promote and provide Covid safe delivery and take-out measures. Safety sealed to-go containers, contactless pick-up and delivery. Ensure the consumer that their health and safety is your #1 priority. Understanding the Restaurant Market1. Identify and understand your customersUnderstand who is most likely to dine at your restaurant. Identify existing customer pool, and work your restaurant’s concept accordingly; menu range, cuisine, atmosphere, and price structure.These should be selected to attract the particular type or types of customers who are most likely to patronize your restaurant (primary target customers).”If you want to save time and money on concepts that aren’t the right fit for the local crowd, you should identifying the following key demographics to zero in on your target customer:Average ageMarital statusAverage disposable incomeAverage household sizeHomeownershipEducation levelAverage rent and prices of houses, condominiums, and apartmentsPopulation trendsFood and beverage salesMajor employers and industriesAlso take note of any “neighborhood traffic generators,” such as other retailers, industrial or office parks, schools, colleges, and hospitals. Anything that attracts people to the surrounding area.2. Get to Know Your Target MarketHow do you know who’s out there and what they like to eat?Do some informal research. Pay attention to foot traffic: how many people live in a square mile; whether there are apartments, houses, or a mix or the two; the makes of cars parked on the streets–or coming in and out of garages; what other businesses are in the area and what other restaurants?Beyond personal observation, you can speak with nearby restaurateurs and real estate professionals for more insight about what kind of individuals work, live or dine in the area. Area demographics can also be found online, at local libraries, chambers of commerce, economic development and city planning offices, local business improvement districts and from the U.S. Census.Register with the National Restaurant Association, you’ll have access to their extensive library of consumer data. 3. Market SaturationYour pre-opening research should include not only finding out if your concept is a good fit for local customers, but how your concept fits into the existing pool of restaurants in your market.Your local market may just have too many restaurants for the area’s demographics. Be flexible and open minded to change.For example instead of “Mexican cuisine” look into “Southwest Cuisine” or “Fusion” cuisine to stay flexible.4. Know Your Customer?and?Competitor MixYou must ensure there is enough market demand to make your business successful. You can do that by getting to know your target customers and market, weighing market saturation, determining your serviceable market, and understanding your customer and competitor mix.Know that all customers are important. Even if you identify your target consumer, you still need to satisfy less frequent guests’ needs. For example, offering vegetarian/vegan friendly options to guests that may not be your regular customers.Know the two different kinds of competitors. Primary competitors: consist of nearby restaurants that offer similar cuisine, pricing, service levels or atmospheres. Secondary competitors: any nearby concept, particularly in they generate similar check sizes, regardless if they have anything else in common with what’s offered at your concept.5. Market Research ChecklistIdentify what makes them unique as well as how your concept can attract their customer will improving on their dining experience.Are your primary competitors formal or casual? Is this working for them?Does their location offer your competitors any advantages or disadvantages?Are competing restaurants easy to find and access?Are their waiting areas and parking lots full? If so, what are peak times?Do they offer takeout and/or delivery?Discretely speak with their customers to find out what they like about the food, menu and concept.Read social media and newspaper reviews of the restaurants to learn about their reputations.Launching your business1. Define your restaurant concept.?Your restaurant concept should be integrated into every aspect of your business. From the food, to your image, name, decor and style of customer service. Some common concepts:Fast food restaurants, also called quick service restaurants (QSR),specializing in quick preparation and casual service. Seating is limited since most customers order and take their food to go. (McDonald’s, Subway, Taco Bell)Fast-casual?establishments mirror fast food service since they do not often provide sit-down service, but they typically offer freshly prepared food with wholesome quality. Their food prices tend to be higher than QSRs. Another differentiator from QSRs is that fast-casual places often provide non-disposable utensils and plates. (Panera Bread, Wingstop, Baja Fresh)Casual dining?offers a full-service, sit-down experience for customers at an affordable price. With a relaxed ambiance, customers can come in, sit down, and enjoy a meal without breaking the bank. (Olive Garden, Applebee’s, Red Lobster)Family dining?follows a similar format to casual dining, but most establishments don’t serve alcohol. Family dining usually offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner options, making them open for more hours.Fine dining?restaurants provide customers with an elegant and upscale dining experience. While these restaurants have higher price points, customers are paying for top-quality food and the best service the industry can provide.2. Select the right location.?A restaurant’s location can make or break it. Visibility and foot traffic are two important factors to consider during the selection process. You also want to evaluate the size and interior shape to decide if it’s the best fit for your restaurant floor plan.3. Create a menu.?Your menu is the centerpiece of your restaurant and should reflect your concept and brand. Your descriptions should be concise but appeal to your audience.Your menu should also be cost effective 4. Create a business plan.?Your business plan?should lay out the foundation of your operations. Be sure to include an executive summary, company description, industry analysis, geographic analysis, target market analysis, food safety plan, sample menu, marketing strategy, management strategy, and financial plan.5. Research funding options.?Assess your restaurant startup costs, as well as operational costs, to determine how to fund your restaurant. There are a number of options to consider, from taking on an investor to applying for a small business loan. 6. Register your business and obtain licenses and permits needed. You need to register with the IRS to receive your Employer Identification Number, which you need to file taxes. You can also think about?trademarking your restaurant’s name, too (to stop people from copying you and capitalizing on your restaurant’s success).Aside from the standard business licenses and permits needed to open up shop, there are other licenses you need to get if you run a restaurant. To keep guests safe and prevent food-borne illnesses, the restaurant industry is heavily regulated at city, state, and federal levels. Several federal agencies play a crucial role in the industry, some of which include:The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS)City and state regulations vary depending on where you decide to open a restaurant. 7. Order restaurant equipment.?Restaurant equipment can get pricey so you want to be strategic when selecting what to buy or lease. List out everything that you absolutely need, which depends on your menu, versus what you want. Stay with in your budget and your financial analysis.Crucial piece of equipment is your POS “Point of Sale System”Point-of-sale system lets you get started taking payments quickly, as well as help you with:Inventory tracking to better forecast ingredients and suppliesBuilt-in tipping that substantially increases tip flowAutomatic tip reconciliationMenu adjustments to include modifiers and other requestsEmployee timecards that easily track hours workedData analytics that give you better insight to make decisionsImmediate customer insights and feedbackMultiple menu managementCustomizable floor plansCoursing and effective communication between servers and chefs.8. Hire the right staff.?Make a list of how much staff you need to run your front of house and back of house efficiently. Then get to hiring. Place ads or use staffing agencies (a fee can be added)Decide if you want to process payroll yourself or use payroll software or hire a third party HR specialist. ? Just keep in mind that payroll?can be complex, especially with varying state/federal/local laws and regulations around wages and tips.9. Create a marketing plan.?Before you open a restaurant, it’s important to develop a marketing plan that drives awareness, brings in new customers, and creates a loyal following. Marketing tactics you might use include everything from social media to hosting a soft and grand opening.Marketing your business1. Develop Your Restaurant’s Brand IdentityBuild you restaurant’s identity around your target customers.What patrons does your food/concept target? Build your brand around what they are interested in. Reflect these interests on your social media platforms and in your promotional material.2. Have a Sleek, Functional Online MenuPublish a high-quality, easy to read menu that is up to date and accurate. Make sure your menu has pictures and important information like, hours, location, and contact info.3. Foodie PhotosThe best way to promote your restaurant online is with high-quality, photos and video.Consider hiring a pro to take some top-notch photographs, or try it DIY style with your smartphone. 4. Loyalty ProgramsPartner up with online apps encourages visitors to check out your restaurant through gamification (online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service) and customer loyalty programs, which offer visitors a free purchase or discount for visiting a certain number of times.Popular foodie apps finder: An older version of this would be punch cards. 5. YelpYelp has great influence in the restaurant industry, especially with positive reviews.People can and?will?review you,?even if you don’t set up an account. For that reason, as a restaurant owner you should absolutely be proactive and dress up your Yelp account so it works?for?you, rather than against you.This means adding as many details as possible, such as:PhotosStore hoursLocationMenuPrice RangeWi-Fi/Outdoor Seating/Parking/etc.Do your best to add as many details as Yelp will allow, and always verify your online details are accurate.6. Set Up Your Google AccountsGoogle+ When you search a business within Google the search?provides the business’s details in the sidebar. Google’s Knowledge Graph gathers a large chunk of its info from Google+. Google alerts notify you when your business name (or other designated keyword term) appears in a new piece of content on the web. Google Ads display your?ads?when people search for products or services like yours. Your?ads?can appear on?Google?Search and Maps, and across our network of partner sites.7. Geo-targeted AdsGeo-targeted ads help you save money, ensuring that only users in certain cities or within a specific radius see your ads, (eliminating non-relevant clicks, which can cost you big ad bucks).8. Social media presence is a must Restaurants with a strong social media presence as part of their restaurant marketing plan are the ones that fare the best.Create a Facebook business page, Twitter account, Instagram and Tik Tok?to share special discounts, exclusive coupons, photos of your newest dishes, and promote your own news accoladesShow off your staff doing what they do best! Seeing happy, smiling employees does wonders for your reputation, as customers long to be served by joyful workers.Start your own blog or Vlog. It’s a great way to build community and engage with your customers. Share your successes and struggles, funny stories, recipes, and anything else you think might interest your customers.Host a photo contest by asking customers to share their favorite meal at your establishment, and share the entries on a dedicated content page (and/or share submissions across your various social networks). Consider awarding some random lucky contestants with a free appetizer or other prize!Invite food bloggers to your restaurant to give you a try, and consider offering a free meal or appetizer to get them in the door. Politely ask if they’d be willing to review your restaurant and share their experience online.9. Send Out an Email NewsletterUse your email newsletter as a chance to celebrate your success, discuss new menu items, or share special discounts. 10. Share Positive PressSeek out local news outlet or magazine, and show off your good works and publicity on your website and via social media. 11. Partner Up With Delivery ServicesMany online delivery services streamline the ordering process, and internet-savvy patrons often love taking advantage of such delivery services.Consider partnering with services like:GrubHubSeamlessPostmatesDoorDashUber EatsGrubHub12. Offer Coupons and DiscountsOffer a free dish to your new email newsletter subscribers.Try advertising a discount through Groupon or Living Social; which can lead to plenty of exposure. Keep in mind there is a fee. 13. Use Mobile AdsRestaurants are one the best candidates for mobile ads, as users are often looking for nearby dining options while on the move. 14. Provide offers, content, and events based on monthly observancesThere are dozens of awareness causes and observance days throughout each month of the year that are restaurant-friendly. Here are some, just to name a few:National Food Safety Month in SeptemberNational Pizza Day in FebruaryInternational Beer Day in AugustNational Baked Scallops Day in MarchNational Picnic Day in AprilCosting & Projection post COVID-19.Each restaurant’s performance during the crisis has depended largely on the following factors:1. Off-premise versus on-premise sales mix.? Restaurants with high off-premise sales prior to the crisis are doing better than those that relied more on dine-in sales.2. Reliance on daytime partaking.?With many people working from home, restaurants that generated much of their business from daytime eating occasions—such as people getting breakfast or coffee on the way to work—have been disproportionately affected.3. Digital maturity.?A strong online-ordering presence, digital loyalty programs, and robust customer-relationship-management (CRM) systems. Digital engagement among customers have soared. If trends?are any indication, customers could remain more digitally engaged even after the pandemic. 4. Role of perceived value.?Customers perception of value and the prevalence of deals have raised some restaurants’ sales during the crisis. Customers, who are suffering financial losses and fearing continuing financial insecurity, are increasingly looking for ways to save money.What to do next1. Update operating proceduresUpdate standard operating procedures.Provide a safe store environment as well to reassure potentially anxious customers. Adjust processes to improve labor efficiency and to align with shifts in customer behavior. 2. Reactivate customer engagementEntice customers back to on-premise dining, tailor your approach to each customer segment:Loyal guests.?Encourage loyal customers to return to on-premise dining by sending them personalized messages with critical information: when your restaurants will be open and why they can be confident that it’s safe to come in.Customers who spent their money elsewhere.?Some fraction of customers may have shifted their spending entirely to your competitors during the pandemic—or made all their meals at home. Effective marketing levers for this segment could include loyalty-driven price promotions and just in time offers featuring the most popular items and personalized favorites.People who became first-time customers during the crisis.?To retain these customers, look to initiate them into your loyalty program with a special offer. Also, make sure your digital presence is consistent across platforms: for example, the menu featured on your own app should match the menu on any food-delivery aggregators that these customers may have used during the shelter-in-place period, and should highlight the same family meals they ordered during that time.Potential customers.?In a new dining landscape, some customers who previously patronized other restaurants will be “up for grabs.” It’s an ideal time to reevaluate your spending mix with a marketing-return-on-investment (MROI) simulator, which helps determine how to invest marketing dollars across email, social media, search, apps, local mass media, and other channels.3. Align the menu to new consumer preferencesDuring the recovery, consumer preferences will have shifted toward value and off-premise dining—but customers will also be longing to return to some semblance of normalcy even as they remain concerned about health and safety. These new consumer behaviors and preferences will require restaurants to make menu and pricing adjustments. Start by reintroducing your full pre-pandemic menu items such as breakfast, alcohol, and fresh produce, and then emphasize core items and comfort foods. Re-price items to ensure they’re competitive under the new market conditions. Build traffic by focusing on value items first, then upselling.4. Optimize your delivery businessThough the percentage of off-premise sales post-COVID-19 won’t be as high as it was during the crisis, a portion of the shift to off-premise dining will probably endure indefinitely. Many brands that treated third-party delivery as a low-margin afterthought before the crisis found that it suddenly became a primary pillar over the past two months. Take the time to step back and develop a strategy for managing—and deepening your commitment to—third-party aggregator relationships: think through the specifics of markup rules, access to end-user data, cost-effective packaging, and streamlined processes to make pickup as efficient as possible.5. Rethink restaurant design/footprintTo achieve growth, most restaurants will need a redesign. Think about whether to change your restaurants’ physical layout to benefit from the shift to off-premise dining. Layout changes might include the addition of drive-through and pickup lanes traffic flow.Evaluate your store footprint and make tough decisions about entering or exiting certain geographies or shifting your strategies at a local level (for example, converting a restaurant to delivery/pickup only)6. Reinvent the menuAs consumer behavior and sentiment continue to evolve, adapt your menu accordingly. Closely monitor emerging food trends, such as “clean” food, paleo diets, plant-based protein, and others. Introduce menu items to capitalize on these trends, price those items competitively, and market them to customers.Sources: ................
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