This article will guide you through various strategies to help improve digital marketing if you own a restaurant anywhere in the UAE
The internet has completely transformed the way people do business around the world. Gone are the days when opening a fancy restaurant at a decent location and serving delicious dishes with quality customer services was enough to attract customers and expand your business. Now, you have to make a strong presence online to help promote your business and it becomes even more important if you own a restaurant in Dubai. Being one of the most digital-friendly country, almost 100% of UAE population use the internet actively. So, digital marketing becomes a MUST if you want to thrive in the ever-competitive food market in the UAE.
This article will guide you through various strategies to help improve digital marketing if you own a restaurant anywhere in the UAE. You just need to understand and bone up on the below tips: • Build and Improvise Your Website• Run a Local SEO Campaign for your Restaurant • Making the Most of Online Reviews• Capitalizing on Social Media• Hire Services of a Digital Marketing Agency • Build Long-term Relation with your Customers Online
Dive in deeper in the sections below to learn how you can implement these strategies.
- Build and Improvise Your Website
Firstly, build an official website for your restaurant if you don’t have one already. It must be intuitive and provide all the information about your menu, prices, special dishes, and discounts. If you don’t have a website, your business is anything but digital as almost 90% of consumers visit a business’s website to gauge their credibility.
Your website should engage the visitors and turn them into potential customers. It should look professional and should not bombard them with unnecessary information. Anyone should be able to access information like menu details, working hours, address, etc. easily. Also, make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices and compatible with both Android and iOS devices. Finally add professional pictures of your restaurant space, interior décor, menu dishes, and staff to make it look more authentic and professional.
- Run a Local SEO Campaign for your Restaurant
Perfecting your search engine optimization determines how much customers will open your website. A search engine optimized website ranks higher on the Google search engine and attracts more organic traffic. Make sure your website’s SEO makes you a local hotspot. You can optimize your website by:
• Writing a few blogs on related content, containing high search volume keywords. Any freelancer can help you write these if you do not have time to do this on your own.• All pages of the website should contain SEO coding such as local keywords, photos, headings, videos, etc.• Your contact and address info should be easy to find and listed multiple times • Use both internal and external links on your website pages.
- Making the Most of Online Reviews
The internet has enabled consumers to evaluate the credibility of a restaurant by sitting at home using online reviews and feedbacks. Now, a significant majority of consumers evaluate what other customers have to say about the restaurant and how they rate the food, quality of service, and prices, etc. So, you have to make the most of this trend and achieve the confidence of consumers.
Ask your customers, but not force them, to leave a review on your website, social media platform, and Google. You may incentivize some people by offering them discounts on next visits for posting honest reviews. But remember, don’t try to achieve fake reviews or ratings as Google has a strict policy and may penalize your website if found guilty of violating their T&C’s.
- Capitalizing on Social Media
Social media has become the biggest platform for digital marketing for restaurants. If you want to grab maximum eyeballs with minimum efforts, create and promote your social media profile. In a country like UAE, where over 80% of the local population actively uses social media platforms, coupled with a huge chunk of foreign visitors and tourists, engaging posts on Facebook or Instagram can go a long way in attracting more customers.
Many popular restaurants post images and short videos of their hot-selling dishes, short interviews of satisfied customers, and upcoming discounts, etc. You must dedicate due resources on social media marketing to introduce your restaurant to a greater audience.
Video content proves to be King when it comes to social media marketing. We all get fascinated by 10-60 seconds of video clips about a product or service description. Come up with more than one way to reach consumers. Make video clips of varying lengths for various digital media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. You can get creative and unique to captivate your audience by blending short videos and pictures of your chefs making delicious dishes during bright mornings, dinner rush, and show everything about best-selling dishes from start to beautifully plated masterpiece.
- Hire Services of a Digital Marketing Agency
It’s recommended to get the services of a professional digital marketing agency in Dubai. You can easily find top-ranked professional digital marketing companies in the UAE. They know the ins and outs of the local markets and have dedicated teams to promote your business in a relatively short time. Contact Digital Marketing Agencies that offers services within your budgetary allocations and meets your requirements.
- Build Long-term Relation with your Customers Online
You can build a brand for your restaurant only by earning the trust and loyalty of customers. Remember, repeat customers ensures your revenue never runs dry. Get follow-ups from your first-time customers on social media about their experience and ask them for suggestions on how you can improve your service. Also, engage them quickly on social media if they have any queries pertaining to your services.
To sum up, digital marketing is a must if you want to survive, let alone thrive, in the ever-competitive food market in the UAE. Starting or expanding a restaurant business is folly without a sound and well-thought-out digital marketing strategy.
The good news is, digital marketing is not as difficult as it may sound to many people and you can have countless opportunities, both free and paid, to promote your business. You can ensure a strong profile online and earn rewarding benefits by implementing some of the guidelines we shared in this article. Hope this article will help you promote your restaurant.
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