Ten Basic Rules to Have An Effective Restaurant Website
Having a professional restaurant website is a great way to advertise and promote your business online if you follow these 10 rules:
Have a clean and easy to navigate Web site. Hire a web designer if you need to, but make sure that you know and are able to update your site. Some restaurant owners outsource all their web services, including the update and maintenance of the site. This is a big mistake since you should be posting information often and relying on an external partner means delays, inaccuracies, etc.
Don't promote the form versus the substance. This is a fault that many web masters/designers make. Just because they can use fancy flash intros, with music and sophisticated graphics, this doesn't mean that they should. There is nothing more annoying than going to a web site looking for information just to have to suffer the greatest and newest totally useless Flash movie. Remember, your web site is there to provide your clients with valuable information and to capture their information so that you can have them in your database. Anything else is redundant.
Post meaningful information often in your site so that people keep on going to check it out. For example, you can announce special events that you are hosting such as charity dinners, wine dinners, new menu items, etc.
Give something away for free as means to capture your prospects information and create a database. This is very important since the more names and emails that you have from your clients, the more you can use this information to send emails with promotions, gift certificates, discount coupons, etc.
For example, you could use an opt-in form that says something like:
"Please enter your Name and email in the form below to receive a coupon for a free entrée (or a 15% discount, $20 gift certificate, etc.) so you can try our wonderful restaurant"
Not only this is a great way to capture new clients, but the marketing cost for you is Zero. If they don't go, you don't have any expenses. If they go, you have a potential client for life. There is no downside here.
You can add an additional optional field for Birthday, where you capture ONLY the month and day (so people won't be afraid that you know how old they are).
This will be really useful for you to send gift certificates or discount coupons whenever a birthday is coming soon. Not only you'll attract the birthday person, but they will bring along friends and/or family as well since birthdays are usually social events.
By the way, please don't give coupons away if people don't register. You want to capture as many names and emails as possible.
For example, you could use an opt-in form that says something like:
"Please enter your Name and email in the form below to receive a coupon for a free entrée (or a 15% discount, $20 gift certificate, etc.) so you can try our wonderful restaurant"
Not only this is a great way to capture new clients, but the marketing cost for you is Zero. If they don't go, you don't have any expenses. If they go, you have a potential client for life. There is no downside here.
You can add an additional optional field for Birthday, where you capture ONLY the month and day (so people won't be afraid that you know how old they are).
This will be really useful for you to send gift certificates or discount coupons whenever a birthday is coming soon. Not only you'll attract the birthday person, but they will bring along friends and/or family as well since birthdays are usually social events.
By the way, please don't give coupons away if people don't register. You want to capture as many names and emails as possible.
Post some videos and photos of your place, but don't post them in the main page. Some people like to know what to expect before they go to your restaurant but they don't want to get annoyed if they have already been in your restaurant and are looking only for some information.
Offer a map and directions to your restaurant. This is very easy by integrating modules from Google or Microsoft Maps, Mapquest, etc. Your webmaster will know how to do this if you don't know it yourself.
Add an online booking module so that people can make reservations directly in your web site. You can contact OpenTable (if you have this service) or BookingAngel or ResOs (if you don't).
This adds convenience for your clients since they can book right there and right now plus it is also convenient for you since you know how is coming ahead of time and can make arrangements to have the appropriate number of staff, etc.
This adds convenience for your clients since they can book right there and right now plus it is also convenient for you since you know how is coming ahead of time and can make arrangements to have the appropriate number of staff, etc.
Create a monthly or quarterly newsletter and post it in your site. You can write about your staff, your dishes, if you have an ethnic restaurant, you can write about the country or the region where the food comes from, some fun information, etc. The point is to keep your place fresh in the eyes and minds of your clients.
Post a recipe (or even better, a short video with your chef cooking some signature dish). This will make your place unique and special. You can post this video also in YouTube with a link to your site increasing even more your exposure.
Add Online ordering. If people can order online, they will do it. Not only they won't use space at your restaurant, but you can move your food very fast and make the same profit that you do for people sitting and having dinner at your place. For more information Check my free article: Adding Online Ordering to Your Restaurant.
Remember, you need to give your existing clients some incentive for them to give you their names and emails so that you can add them to your database. Email marketing is a vehicle in its own. If you want to learn more abour restaurant email marketing, you can check this section here: Restaurant Email Marketing