Tags
Marketing, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing, Restaurant, Restaurant Marketing, Social Media Strategy
In order for a business to have a successful social media strategy, it requires two things:
- Your offline customers need to join the conversation online.
- Your online fans need to make a purchase offline.
This is what I like to call the online/offline cycle of social media. It’s one thing to have hundreds or even thousands of fans on different social networks, but if they’re not coming into your store and spending money, you won’t ever see your ROI. And this goes the other way around too! How can you take your loyal customers, and bring them online to be an evangelist for your company? Without your current customers’ recommendation, how will you be able to grow your online presence?
How to use the Online/Offline Cycle of Social Media for your restaurant
*Disclaimer: These are just ideas that I have, I did not actually try this. That being said, they are still solid ideas, and have great potential to work! Enjoy :)*
Let’s say your restaurant is starting to get a few followers on Facebook, but you can’t seem to get these fans to try your food. An example of what you could do to get your fans into the restaurant is get one of the social media managers to send a ‘message’ to every new follower, thanking them and telling them that you would love for s/he to come try your food! You could also provide them with some sort of coupon like this:
Now this could be tricky, because if that social media manager is not friends with the person on Facebook, the message they send will end up in the ‘other’ folder in the Facebook inbox. You could post something like this on your wall once a week: “Hey everyone! We would like to thank all new followers for ‘Liking’ our page! Make sure to check out your ‘other’ message inbox, as one of our company representatives has sent you a gift! 🙂 Have a great day!” And then post a picture of where you want them to check for your message:
One of the great things about having a personalized coupon (which would only take a few minutes to create using a Photoshop template), is that you know exactly who ended up using their coupon once they present it to the waiter/waitress. You can then take that coupon, and send a personal thank you ‘message’ to the person – something like this: “We would like to take the time to thank you Daniel for coming to taste our food! We hope that you enjoyed your experience at Acme Restaurant, and would love to hear any comments or recommendations you may have! :)”
Now that you have your online fans coming into your restaurant, you need to get your offline fans to promote you online. Have your waiter/waitress ask the customers if they have smart phones on them. If the customer says yes, say that if they will publicly recommend you on Facebook and like your page, right there and then, that they can receive a free dessert (like apple pie). Most people won’t have a problem with this. And if they simply don’t want to, they just won’t receive free pie! If all of your employees know about your social media strategy, and they make an effort to push it, this type of strategy should work.
What kind of strategies have you used to bring your online fans offline? What type of strategies have you used to bring your offline customers online? Please leave your comments bellow! 🙂
danielghebert 
Interesting strategy Daniel!
Currently experiencing an example of opposite circle though. When a company tries to turn online (instead) customers into online fans but due to some wrong logistical decisions it screws both. It will be hard to have them both on board again.
Thanks for your comment Hilaris!
I’m sure you’ll figure it out! Everything is possible 🙂 Good luck!
This is exactly the type of “thinking outside the box” strategy that businesses need in today’s marketplace. With a little tweaking here and there to personalize the strategy I could almost guarantee you that this restaurant will definitely see a return on their social media investment. Nice job on this article.
Thanks for the comment DJ!
It probably needs a bit more than ‘a little tweaking’, haha. I was just thinking up of ideas on how to integrate online and offline marketing, and I thought a restaurant made a great example!
I could easily see it converted to a retail store as well. Instead of offering an appetizer, offer a %discount. And when the customer is about to pay, ask if they have a smart phone so they can like your page, then offer them a discount for doing so!
I appreciate your comment DJ 🙂
Exactly! It’s another great way for small businesses to reach out to their communities. Even using Yelp in some capacity, especially for restaurants, would be beneficial.
Also, I’d like to chat about something. Feel free to email me when you get a chance. dj@djthistle.com
I think this is really important, and a critical step to breaking down silos, at least the ones in our own mind about our customers and the way they approach and think about online marketing. Thank you for writing this.
Thanks for your comment Geoff!
The one thing you mentioned that most people miss is: just ask! It’s amazing how many people run around doing all sorts of gymnastics, taking out advertising, trying to get those likes/subscribes/whatever. And yet they overlook the simplest, easiest (cheapest) way to do it – and that’s simply to ask. I had a conversation with someone recently who was doing all sorts of free live seminars and I asked if she was building her email list and guess what? Never, not once, during any of those seminars did she ever ASK anyone for their email address! Ugh. Imagine if every waiter/waitress did what you suggest and offered a free dessert to customers for their “like” or even email address. What does that cost? Two seconds and a few bucks? Sounds a lot cheaper and more immediate than PPC. And do you know what you spend on people who don’t “convert”. Zero!
Anyway to your broader point, it is important to integrate online and offline marketing and that’s something people tend to miss. Keep throwing these ideas out there and you may start a whole new integration revolution :
Thanks for your comment Carol!
It would be a very cost effective way of getting your customers online! I could see it converted to retail as well, or even a Golf Club, or anything really. It would just need a few tweaks here and there, and this type of strategy could be applied to almost anything I think!
You would think that the online/offline cycle would be an obvious thing, but it isn’t. A lot of small businesses that are just getting started on social media do not necessarily know how to do this type of strategy.
Glad you enjoyed the post! 🙂
Great post Daniel! 🙂 I also recommend the use of video to my clients, especially for restaurants. A quick interview with the owner really goes a long way in establishing trust and open communication. It creates conversation and the feeling of knowing who the business owner is.
Thanks for the comment Kellie!
Great point! I’m a strong believer in adding a personal touch to a brand’s social media strategy. It creates a sense of trust between the customer and the brand. 🙂
If you can get 10-20% of your customers to participate on line you are rocking it. That is the holy grail. Most businesses will be lucky to get 2-5% of their customers to even Follow or Like them online. And really amazing businesses will get 1% to talk online. Right now amazing is 0.5% talking to you with the average on general is 0.05% to 0.1%.
So the goals you put here to me are in addition to your regular make a great product, provide a great service at the right price.