With the entire world reeling under the scourge of COVID-19, business activities have come to a standstill. Almost every company or business engaged in the myriad sectors of trade and commerce is going through a crisis and losing revenues heavily. Overall, some specific commercial sectors are experiencing greater hardships compared to the rest, such as travel and tourism and hospitality owing to the global lockdown. In order for you to stay on top of things, we bring you some restaurant marketing ideas during coronavirus crisis.

So if you’re a hotelier or a restaurateur, you’ll need to adopt innovative marketing strategies, fine-tune your promotion techniques, and become more creative to stay in business. Of all the novel tactics you can implement for increasing traffic to your hotel or restaurant, the Skyscraper Technique is one strategy that can work wonders for your business.  

The Skyscraper Technique is an inventive online advertising policy that has been designed painstakingly to boost traffic by enabling you to generate constructive content. The next section throws light on how you can make the most of marketing tips (that exploit the ‘Skyscraper Technique’) for promoting your restaurant.

Promote your restaurant using the following marketing ideas based on Skyscraper Technique

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has resulted in several restaurateurs and hoteliers to suspend operations temporarily. The catastrophic pandemic, on the other hand, has compelled steadfast and loyal customers to stay put inside their homes. Nevertheless, you could use this time to your advantage by trying some innovative marketing ideas to engage with your guests.

These restaurant marketing strategies take advantage of the Skyscraper Technique to ensure that you stay connected with your dedicated clients while your eatery is closed. Use these promotional approaches and tactics to stay in touch with your guests during this crisis period:

Reorganize and update your website

The lockdown will be lifted in due course, and your customers and potential guests will again start surfing the net looking for your restaurant. To ensure that you stay on top of their mind and possibly Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), you should optimize your social media profiles, improve your website’s SEO and upgrade your online presence.

Create riveting content

Contrary to what you think, creating engaging content to keep your customers hooked can be remarkably simple. You can use these inputs for developing riveting content for your restaurant’s guests:

• Tell them what inspired you to become a restaurateur
• Let them know how you’re coping with the crisis: for instance, you can elucidate on how you’re supporting your employees
• Use your smartphone’s features to capture HD quality footages and images to emphasize your content

Make sure you update your customers regularly and stick to your brand. If you use Linkedin for promoting your business, check out our guide on how to use LinkedIn for promoting your business.

Connect with restaurant influencers and forge partnerships

As you cope with the catastrophe, you can partners with other restaurants in your area to conduct activities to support the industry. You can connect with restaurant influencers and forge partnerships with industry captains to donate inventory to food banks and distribute meals to healthcare professionals for reaching out to a wider audience.

Make sure to check our guide on how to use micro-influencers for Hotel online marketing.

Start making plans for picking up from where you left 

We’re all going through an unfortunate phase right now, but this crisis will blow over sooner or later. Until then, you can start preparing for a comeback by planning a re-launch meet. The event, which could include a food tasting competition, and awards ceremony for referrals, will pave the way for your return.

Points to keep in mind while promoting your restaurant

• Stay up-to-date
• Connect with the right audience
• Engage with your niche audience
• Create more engaging content
• List prospective distribution partners
• Look for popular content about your industry

Restaurant marketing ideas during coronavirus crisis: some tips and tricks

Donate surplus food to food banks

Do not discard your extra inventory. Rather donate the same to your neighborhood or local food bank. You can search for the database of local food banks in your area or region on the net.

Do your bit for healthcare professionals

Healthcare professionals across the world and the US are at the forefront trying their level best to provide the best possible care to everybody inconvenienced by COVID-19. You can do your bit by requesting contributions and offering meals to medics.  

Upgrade your menu

Your regular guests know what you normally offer. What about surprising them? This is perhaps a great and convenient time to change or upgrade your menu. Add new items and figure out what your customers would like to taste.

Ensure your messages and posts are optimistic

Your customers are waking up every day to depressing news surrounding the coronavirus, making them feel dejected. Give your clients enough reasons to cheer up and feel elated by posting humorous content and amusing videos.

Put forward items beside foods and beverages to support local businesses

You know your customers want you to stay in business and will do their best to support you. One good way in which they can support you is by buying gift cards for themselves as well as for healthcare workers and deliverymen.

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Hyper-customize your marketing strategy

Your regular customers have always been and always will be your best brand ambassadors. You can engage with your dedicated visitors via texts, calls, emails, and personal memos to notify them that you’re operating and safe. Your trusted clients can spread the word around within their communities, thereby helping your business to prosper or at least survive.

Encourage takeaways and deliveries

You may not be able to open your restaurant every day in the same way you did before the lockdown. Hence the best way to get around this problem is to encourage takeaways and home deliveries.

Conclusion

We are all going through a catastrophic phase as the whole world is in a lockdown mode due to the dreaded coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has compelled several restaurants, cafeterias, bistros, and fast-food joints to keep their shutters down till the nationwide lockdown is over. Just because you and your patrons are in self-isolation does not imply that you connect with the latter. 

You can use the following new-fangled restaurant promotion techniques drawing in new customers while staying connected to existing guests:

• Let your customers how you are faring
• Develop engaging content
• Connect with restaurant influencers
• Reconstruct and make the best use of your online presence

Also, make the most of the present time by honing your marketing strategy and optimize your social media profiles by checking out our resources, the blog, and our future membership.