Restaurant Marketing: Our 5 Ingredient Recipe for Success
By Julia Giordano, Marketing Coordinator, Content & Social Media
Featured Image 📸 By Julia Giordano, Harvest in Cambridge, MA.
You heard it here first… Hummingbird Marketing Services is in the Restaurant Business! Or should we say, we’ve added restaurant marketing to our menu?!
We’re excited about this for many reasons. A major one is that we’re a charm full of foodies who LOVE finding the best eats in our cities (Seattle, Boston, and Morgantown, WV).
Most importantly, this new chapter means honing our crafts (leaning on the practiced excellence of our taste buds) to help restaurant owners across the country soar to new heights.
Ready for Our Restaurant Marketing Recipe?
Our mission is to do what we do best to allow you to do what you do even better.
Our Charm’s Local Favorites
From left to right / 📸 By Andi Lucas, Off Main in Edmonds, Wash / 📸 By Julia Giordano, Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe in Boston / 📸 Elizabeth Phillips, The Cupcakerie Cafe & Frose in Morgantown, WV.
Before we begin, let’s set the scene…
Close your eyes and think about the last time you enjoyed a phenomenal meal out.
*Cue the critic’s flashback in Disney’s Ratatouille*
What hooked you? Was it the menu? The restaurant’s ambiance? Or how you were treated while dining? I’d guess it was a combination of all three.
The true restaurant experience trifecta is:
- Outstanding Food
- Amazing Vibes
- Remarkable Service
And when it’s mastered, we remember. More importantly, we return! With limitless choices, hooking your customer is an incredible accomplishment. One that creates word-of-mouth champions and social media stans.
There’s a reason we don’t rave to our friends about every restaurant we’ve tried. This praise is reserved for those who made us feel.
How does a restaurant make itself memorable?
In this blog, we’ll explore strategies for success and turning your guests into loyal regulars. We’re confident that our 5 Ingredient Recipe for Masterful Restaurant Marketing will wow every table. Compelling all guests to scream, “You HAVE to try *insert your amazing restaurant here*,” from the rooftops.
With just one magical bite, Anton Ego, the harshest of restaurant critics, was transfixed with childhood nostalgia and placed back in time, around the table of his family home.
Scene from Disney Pixar’s Ratatouille / 📸 Source: Know Your Meme
Suiting up for the Battle of the Search Engines
The power of a phenomenal meal is no stranger to phenomenal marketing.
In fact, one does not exist without the other. (Believe me, I’ve watched far too many episodes of Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay to know this to be true).
Our world is full of surplus and instant access. It takes a half-second to open the search engine’s floodgates. And just three words are enough to start a digital war.
*Searches on Google* ‘Restaurants Near Me’…
Open Table, Resy, Yelp, TripAdvisor, DoorDash, and UberEats all fight for their spot at the top of the page. Pleading their cases with sponsored ads as evidence they have the best selection. From there, it’s either far too easy to declare an immediate winner or scour for one endlessly.
You may be thinking “So what gives? There must be a way to beat the system.” And you’re right, there is. And even better, we’re here to share the recipe.
Yes, he’s known for his theatrics, but Gordon Ramsay’s mission is always to establish a consistent brand identity across all critical restaurant elements, using strategies to leverage the local community, marketing collateral, and opportunities to outshine competitors.
Scene from Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares / 📸 Source: FoxFlash
The Recipe for Masterful Marketing
Mastering this phenomenon is knowing your secret weapons to stand out from the crowd. The great news is there are countless ways to create your spin. Highlighting your brand works best when it’s authentic to you!
You already have an incredible advantage: you’re an expert at making arguably the BEST type of content … FOOD! Consider your culinary creativity as your North Star.
Your strongest asset is the inspiration that opened your restaurant’s doors! The key is transcending it to ALL components of dining and to wow your customers in every interaction with your brand.
Cooking and Marketing Should Speak the Same Language
Landing on your website and Social Media should be as enjoyable an experience as taking the magical first bite of your food — you’ve worked too hard for it not to!
Now, overwhelming you is not our intent! And we’re no strangers to this challenge or how many hats a business owner wears. (See our post on the topic).
Instead, we hope our 5 ingredients for masterful restaurant marketing enable you to pour more energy into the parts of your business you love most, whether it’s cheffing up delicious meals or connecting with your guests!
Our goal is to strengthen your strategy and maximize the success of your time and efforts.
Hummingbird Marketing’s 5 Ingredient Restaurant Recipe
1. Don’t Get Lost in The Sauce
Find your niche! Take in the options around you and the gaps you can fill to stand out. Create experiences that customers will return for. Establishing patterns or traditions builds brand recognition and loyalty. Customers can rely on the consistency of your trend and look forward to their next experience!
Chef Asia Mei, owner of Moonshine 152 in South Boston, adds a new burger special monthly, and I can personally attest to the excitement for each month’s drop. These additions are always fresh, fun, and gloriously different! (Not to mention DELICIOUS, like everything else on the menu.) Plus, the VIP Burger of the Month Wall attests to the reliability of this tradition. The photos highlight Chef Asia Mei’s creativity and the vibrant, soulful feel of dining at Moonshine 152.
Chef Asia Mei’s VIP Burger of The Month Wall at Moonshine 152 in South Boston, MA
📸 By Julia Giordano
2. Create a Social Stir
Social media is your partner in crime! Not only does it allow you to share your gorgeous meals but bridges you directly to your customers. This is a golden opportunity for engagement and welcoming feedback. The more you experiment with different posting types and frequencies, the more data you’ll collect to determine what your audience responds to best! Share new ideas and conversation starters to show your appreciation and commitment to providing an optimal customer experience.
Instagram is a great platform to leverage for this!
With its essential features — reels, carousels, stories, polls, questions, etc. — your options are endless.
Notice how Fat Baby Sushi & Cocktails in South Boston balances their use of these essentials. Pinning their most important information for instant access (via posts and highlights) and using a variety of engaging content. Their approach shows their viewers the patterns they can rely on while sharing their dining experience holistically — it’s not only about the food!
3. Add an Extra Dash of Sweetness
Reviews are SO important, and every interaction you have with a customer counts! The experience a guest has at your restaurant means everything. (Like we said, when a restaurant masters the trifecta, we remember and we pass it on)! We encourage you to operate with this in mind and add an extra dash of sweetness to all of your customer engagements. Each dash has the potential to turn into a glowing review!
When we determined our website design process for our client, Red Cork Bistro & Catering in Mukilteo, Wash., we knew that highlighting their stellar reputation was a major focus. As a scratch kitchen with a true passion for creative culinary masterpieces, RCB meets the restaurant trifecta. Their reviews prove this to be true! We made sure these praises were thoughtfully showcased on their site and that wowed guests had an easily accessible place to rave about their experiences.
We feature Red Cork Bistro’s rave reviews from Google, which update dynamically.
📸 Website Screenshot from Red Cork Bistro & Catering in Mukilteo, Wash. Complete Website Design by the Team at Hummingbird Marketing Services.
4. Cater to Your Community
Show your shared commitment with your fellow community members by getting involved! Your participation in local events and initiatives speaks to the values you share with your customers while multiplying your volume of new customers. Leverage your website, social media, and the restaurant itself with marketing collateral that advertises what, when, and where you’ll be so your audience knows how to join in on the fun!
Notice how Frenchie Wine Bistro in Boston used its Instagram account to promote a local celebration and its involvement. Not only is the business letting their following know what they’re up to, but they value their South End, Boston, community and supporting all the retail and restaurant businesses alongside them.
People love knowing that they’re in the loop! And who better to support than the brands we love?
Utilize every opportunity to engage with your local area and share, share, share those details with your audience!
5. Bring Guests to Your Table
Tell your guests your story! Just as our eyes influence what we eat, our emotions influence what we support. Putting these two together gives your customers a true connection to the heart of your restaurant, beyond its wonderful food. Use your website and social media for storytelling and treat your audience to a behind-the-scenes view. With limitless options to choose from, connecting with your story may just be what leads to choosing you over your competitors!
When designing the website for our client, Taqueria Puebla in Mukilteo, Wash, we knew without a doubt that their origin story needed to be front and center. Their story IS the business! We leaned into the passion that fires this family business and the generations of traditions in every plate of their authentic Mexican cuisine.
Narrating their story through words, family photos, and vibrant colors reflective of their family and restaurant’s Mexican roots, we emphasized far more than their delicious food.
📸 Website Screenshot from Taqueria Puebla in Mukilteo, Wash. Complete Website Design by the Team at Hummingbird Marketing Services.
Combine for Best Results
There you have it! We hope that this recipe has you feeling inspired to supercharge your marketing strategy. Using a healthy balance of these ingredients regularly is sure to drive improvements and measurable points of engagement.
Can I get in touch with the chef?
We understand that these strategies aren’t everyone’s favorite. Luckily, we happen to LOVE obsessing over trends, ideas, and plans for marketing magic. If your restaurant marketing could use some extra flavor, we are here for you!
Send us an email or schedule an initial consultation with our Founder & CEO, Andi Lucas, to get started. It could be the most impactful 30 minutes of your life!
A Taste of Our Restaurant Work
Visit www.redcorkbistro.com and www.taqueriapueblawa.com to view our complete website designs.
