We've seen a lot of restaurant tweets, some great and some…with a ways to improve. As we've seen in previous posts, restaurants that have successfully found their rhythm in tweeting have reaped the bounties. These restaurants get more followers; their messages get more retweets and when they’ve tracked their campaigns they’ve seen very substantial improvements in sales.
Though best practices in real-time marketing are still evolving, we’ve compiled this list of basics for restaurants to adhere to. Following these basics will not only help gain more users but when users see that you are tweeting great content, they’ll pay more attention to your tweets, which is just as important as a large follower base.
Here are 5 basic strategies to follow:
1. Tweet your Existing Promotions/Coupons
Tweet your coupons and promotions that you might have running in other places. If you have a Groupon or other offer running, then let your twitter base know! This not only helps expand the reach of your marketing efforts, it also lets the market know that you have great and engaging offers out there, which gives them incentive to continue to check-in to what you're up to.
2. Tweet your daily specials
You've likely got happy hours, lunch specials, etc. You should absolutely tell your followers about these. You never know when a user may see your tweet and decide to act up on it, so if you’re looking for good content, look no further than what’s going on at your business today.
3. Make your audience drool...in a good way-
You have a direct line to customers; these people are interested in what you have cooking, so give them what they want. Describe your food in the most tantalizing terms and especially call out when ingredients are top-notch or fresh. This is a great way to draw in customers without having to resort to discounting. Increasing business AND keeping your margin, now that's having your cake and eating it too! (yuk-yuk)
4. Be timely!
Try to think about when your users might be interested in some news from you. If you’re a pizza place, they might like to know what the lunch or dinner specials are before they brave the elements, so tweet to them around these meals. If you’re a high-end restaurant people might want to know if you have tables available. Or, if you have fresh food like bakeries or sushi restaurants, focus on the freshness. Let them know that the cupcakes are out of the oven, or what amazingly fresh fish you just scored from the market. You know how much better your dishes are fresh, so make sure your customers have the opportunity to get it fresh! The point is, tweet at opportune times.
5. Turnover Last-Minute Inventory
Real-time marketing is incredibly nimble and you can tailor your marketing messages at the last minute. If you're bordering on the end of the day and you've got some pizza leftovers, get rid of them by tweeting specials geared to getting them out the door, with a flash deal. Or, if you’re experiencing a slower day as a restaurant or bar, tweet out a last-minute special to fill up your empty seats.
Advanced Tip
6. Track your tweets
If you want a way to see if your tweets are really working, try asking for users to say a password in order to get the promotion. Not only does it make your customers feel more special and in the know, you get proof that the tweets are working. Some businesses have found that when they track these special tweets it increases their business by 15% or more in a day!
7. For FoodTrucks, Geo-Enable!
If you’re a foodtruck and you’re tweeting from your mobile phone, geo-enable your tweets! This is an obvious way to help people find out where you are, without you having to explicitly tell them. There are also guides, like ours that will take that location and put you on a map. This is a no-brainer and if you haven’t yet turned on geo-location, I would do it right after you finish reading this article.
And finally a plea…
Don't tweet personal messages from your business' account
You have a shot at getting someone to see your tweet and find it useful. The relevancy of the tweet affects whether or not your users will be willing pay attention to your next tweets. When you use your restaurant account to tweet personal messages, you're sending a push notification to your entire user base that's not very relevant to them. Would you send a text to all of your friends, that was meant for one person? Probably not. Save your personal tweets for your personal account or use Direct Messages. For more information, see the twitter help page.That should keep you going for a while. Until next time folks! As always, comment early and comment often.
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