Restaurant Website

Most restaurants discovered the value of an online presence years ago.  However, only recently have a number of smaller dining establishments learned that they, too, need to be online to thrive in a highly competitive market.

Whether you call your eating establishment a restaurant, a cafe, a bistro, a diner or something else, the opportunities for restaurants for online marketing are practically endless.  Here are just a few things you can do to build a continuing relationship with your regular diners and establish initial contact with new patrons.

• Include at least one page with menu items, whether you want to include all of the items or just representative selections.
• List hours of operation.
• Prominently display the phone number for reservations, questions or directions on every page of your site.
• Consider taking reservations by means of a web form on your website.
• Indicate appropriate dress.  A subtle and effective way to do so, is to have a photo with patrons enjoying their meals.
• Add regularly changing website features such as a recipe of the month or even a video of a cooking demonstration by your chef.
• Encourage people to sign up for your mailing list to receive recipes, reminders of special events and discount coupons for subscribers only.
• Highlight an employee of the month with photos, a professional biography and a bit about their personal lives.  This humanizes the restaurant for the diner and helps with employee morale.
• Intersperse lots of professional photographs throughout your site.  Concentrate upon the people and the experience as much as the food.  Make sure the diversity of the people in your pictures represent the diversity that exists among your patrons and within your community.

This may seem like a lot of work, and it is.  However, you can outsource much of the labor quite inexpensively.  I recommend posting a job notice at a nearby college or university.  Always have at least two people working part time on your site, so that you can have continuity without retraining if one leaves the community.

If you do choose to use students, I have found the best success with those from the creative fields rather than the technical.  For example, communication students tend to perform very well at these sorts of tasks.  Most of them are sufficiently technically versed to handle those necessary tasks.

Every element of the website should have a clear marketing purpose.  Never use technological glitz for its own sake.  Efficient simplicity is the standard to apply rather than startling beauty or "whiz-bang" impact.  The website should not draw attention to itself; it should direct attention to your business.

You may want to begin with a small website, as that will probably be an inexpensive way to begin while you measure the results of your efforts. We offer a special small website package that might be ideal for your needs in the beginning.

If you already have a small site, and you are looking to expand to a more efficient, larger website system, we also offer those sorts of design services.

In any case, feel free to contact us with any questions you have about Internet marketing by completing this simple question form.