In recent years marketing experts have long pushed digital as an ever important marketing tool. Whilst not essential for all businesses it has proven a valuable tool especially when targeting the younger generation.
The pandemic however has accelerated both user adoption and the need for businesses to adapt to a “non-touch” strategy.
In this article we are going to learn how to create a digital marketing plan for chefs.
Step 1: Create a website
The website is your master landing page used to help SEO and feed from your social channels.
Your website should feature some key information:
- About the restaurant (show personality, tell your story)
- Location (ensure this is linked with google maps)
- Daily Menu (get straight to the point)
Focus on what your customer will need to know, after all people spend an average of less than 15 seconds on a web page. It’s now time to think about the “behind the scenes” of your website.
Below are some important aspects that you would need to consider before creating your website:
- Get a domain name. Nowadays there are several domain providers available in the market. Make sure you choose a provider who can give you 24/7 support. Reputation is also key. Price whilst important should not be the driving factor. We recommend Wix / Squarespace / GoDaddy
- Create a professional email account. Google Workspace offers the possibility to personalize your email account connecting your domain with its servers to use Google services like G-mail, Drive and etc.
- Select a Content Management System. Here again there are many options available in the market. Excellent free services include WordPress and Joomla.
- Choose your web hosting. If you are a starter, familiarize yourself with the shared hosting. Then once you receive more visits, you could opt for exclusive hosting or VPS hosting.
- Create your logo. You can work with a professional designer or start with a basic and simple logo. You can create your own logo using a Content Management System like Squarespace or Shopify.
- High quality pictures. If in your team you don’t have a professional photographer, you can always find high quality pictures online. Have a look at Unsplash.com and Shutterstock.
- Videos are more impacting than images. Make sure you create a video showing how you prepare your meals or any other idea you might have.
After creating your website, we would recommend you to have your personal account on Google Analytics so you can track the presence of your online business. You should consider creating a blog on your website to share recipes or other kinds of activities. Create a forum where your clients can leave comments and feedback on the meals they had.
One more important element is to have a Google My Business profile with the opening hours of the restaurants, the reviews and directions to get there. All these factors would optimize your SEO and improve your ranking in the SERP (first Google search page). If you are asking yourself what SEO is, please check out our article about this powerful marketing strategy.
We only mentioned some of the most important aspects to consider for your SEO strategy, see below more key factors:
- Sitemap
- Robots.txt file
- Meta tags
- Mobil app
Imagine wanting to interact with your customers by posting a small quiz to see which dish is their favourite? Or what they would like for dinner? Then imagine posting this on your website, it would be very unlikely you would get many replies as this is a social question.
People enjoy seeing what other people enjoy, and social media is all about engaging with different subjects and posts, whereas a website is your master brand identity.
Step 2: Create Social Media accounts
If you are thinking which social media platforms are best for your business, the best answer would be to try them all and see which ones give you the best results. Facebook and Instagram are two of the most well known and popular (you probably already have personal accounts). The accounts you would create need to be professional. Your presence in Social Media is to interact with your customers digitally; listen to what the clients say about your restaurants and respond to any feedback that comes your way.
Use Instagram and Facebook to promote live videos giving your guests a view into what makes your dishes memorable. I would recommend looking at the Instagram profile of famous chef Burak Özdemir to understand more the power of taking guests “behind the scenes” of your restaurant and making good content for customers.
Step 3: Collaborate with delivery platforms
Some chefs are skeptical about the idea of delivering food that was designed to be consumed on premise and their reasoning is understandable. The quality of the food might change during the delivery. Food can become cold, and the flavours could also change, and delivery services take up to 25% from each order.
Unfortunately due to the pandemic many restaurants are left unable to operate at full capacity and have no choice but to adapt themselves to the delivery model.
Don’t see these delivery platforms as a threat, see them as a valuable tool to expand your business through promoting your business through their platform to reach many more consumers.
Glovo is one of the main players in this sector, if you are based in Spain or Italy. If you want to fill out the registration form and start collaborating with them, click here: https://cloud.partner.glovoapp.com/Partners
Other delivery platforms are Just Eat, Deliveroo, etc.
If you are still wary about this option you can always set up your own in-house delivery service, though it will require a lot of extra effort and is usually recommended only to restaurants who already have an established presence.