Have you recently launched a digital food ordering system for your restaurant? You have made an excellent decision that can help you grow your business, provide you a competitive gain, and the promise of increased restaurant sales.
There is a misconception among some restaurant brands who believe that by simply setting up a digital ordering system, this would yield overnight success. This is certainly far from the truth. Having a digital ordering technology platform alone is never enough and often requires months and even years of designing, building, nurturing, maintaining, marketing, branding, awareness boosting, incubating, etc.
Below are some strategic thinking points you can consider adopting in efforts to increase customer engagement with your digital ordering system.
Why Restaurants Need To Boost Online Ordering Engagement
The competition out there is fierce. A quick search online will reveal many other restaurants that are offering the same service or something similar. Boosting engagement is just one of the many ways to ensure that your online ordering system pays the return on investment you expect and deserve.
As a byproduct of your efforts to increase restaurant-to-customer engagement with your digital ordering platform, this will help inform and educate existing, as well as potential new customers with respect to how your online ordering program works. In turn, this will improve consumer confidence in your food establishment’s ability to deliver digital convenience and enrich guest experiences. In doing so, the likelihood of consumers using your digital ordering system is much higher.
Without an engagement strategy, many restaurants forfeit revenue-generating opportunities, resulting from prospective customers who are unaware that their favorite food establishment offers an online ordering channel.
Please find ways to apply the following additional tips below to get the word out and encourage more people to order their favorite meals from your restaurant online:
Ask For Referrals
Do not hesitate to ask your loyal customers for referrals. You should also consider enlisting the help of your family members, friends, and neighbors to spread the good word about your digital ordering service to everyone around them.
Referrals are an excellent way to increase engagement. More often, people feel encouraged to try something different, or new since it is coming from a reliable and trusted personal contact, or source.
Spread The Word On Social Media
Almost everyone has a social media account nowadays. You can use hashtags to spread the word about your restaurant’s online ordering system to drive more engagement. Consider adding linkable textual content, or imagery-driven messaging that directs users who see your post to your ordering page.
Additionally, to inspire additional views and conversions right from your social media profile page, consider adding an order now button that links directly to your online ordering site.
Further, feel free to start conversations about food, online menus, and restaurants on social media. People who enjoy interacting with you will check your social media profile, read your posts, and visit your restaurant’s website to experience online ordering for themselves.
Content Marketing
If you are a good writer, consider creating useful articles about restaurants, menus, recipes, and the convenience of using a digital food ordering system. Optimize your articles or blog posts for SEO to make it more visible online.
Content marketing is another great way to capture the attention of your audience and drive traffic to your restaurant’s online ordering site.
Direct Email Marketing
If your restaurant currently has an existing customer opt-in subscription database, you can immediately boost engagement about your online ordering program by directly sending an email to your customers.
Rewards Program
Surprise and delight customers with a rewards-based program that ties into your restaurant’s digital ordering system. This is another great way to boost engagement and adoption, in addition to increasing your restaurant’s business, improving sales, strengthening the relationship between your brand and customers, not to mention keeping your customer’s coming back on a regular basis.
Hire Social Media Influencers
Social media influencers can reach thousands of people with a single post. For a fee, social media influencers can post content about your restaurant’s digital ordering services. People in your city and others, who follow the social media influencer online, will see the post and possibly lead to adoption and conversion.
Local Area Marketing
Another engagement strategy to consider is employing something called Local Area Marketing. This strategy helps restaurants identify and implement marketing opportunities in local communities by engaging positively with individuals, groups, organizations, businesses, and other local media outlets.
Final Thoughts
The tips and strategies mentioned above are just some of the many ways restaurants can boost digital ordering engagement with customers. As a final thought, always be sure to monitor the effectiveness of all the strategies you use to increase engagement related to your digital ordering program. If you notice that one approach generates higher engagement than others, pivot and focus more of your resources on that particular strategy.
