In our last blog, we revisited the importance of your restaurant’s online menu. To drive more traffic to it, we suggested that you define the experience of eating in your restaurant, cater your online menu to mobile devices and allow customers to leave feedback. In this blog, we will continue to discuss how to popularize your eatery’s online menu the easy way!
Highlight your best three dishes.
It’s vital to set your restaurant apart from others. Are there particular dishes that your customers keep coming back for? What menu options are you most known for? Do you offer special dishes that no other restaurant does? Highlight those on your homepage. Be sure to showcase them through mouth-water-inducing photos and vivid descriptions of their flavours. Making your menu stand out from all others is a great way to keep people coming back for more.
“The cornerstone of any restaurant’s brand is its food,” says FOODit.com, “Forcing yourself to select your most unique dishes helps you to figure out your best assets. Sure you can just be another shop that serves lambchops, but what if you could serve uniquely large lambchops? What if you could be one of the first search results whenever someone Googled ‘large lamb chops London’? That’s exactly what worked for Tayyabs.”
Avoid using stock photography.
Make your photos are YOUR photos. There’s no way to set your restaurant apart from others if its website showcases menu options that can be found elsewhere. It’s vital you set up your own professional photo shoot. As mentioned, capture your most sumptuous meals in shots that encourage mouths to start watering. As PizzaToday.com points out, people want to see your food and what your dining experience is like.
“Quick tip: a table near your front window may produce perfect light for food photography that can even be taken with your smartphone,” offers the website, “Just as your dining experience solidifies your brand, the same is true of a website’s visitor experience. If those do not match, you may be falling short of your brand online.”
Take notes from other restaurants’ online menus.
It’s always important to pay attention to your competitors. Knowing what they are doing is the most ideal way to ensure that you don’t just compete with them, but outdo them. Is their online menu easier to read? Do they offer more competitive prices? What steps can you take to make your online menu more desirable?
“Benchmarking against your competitors isn’t radically new, but it’s a vital piece of improving your business,” says FOODit.com, “If your competitor is offering vegetarian and gluten-free options, or if they’re branching out to food trucks and markets, you’ll want to know. Customers have an abundance of choice when it comes to food, so your restaurant can’t afford to fall behind your competitors.”
Do you allow your customers to order food directly from your restaurant’s website?
Unity Payments can quickly set you up with your own online ordering system for your restaurant. It includes the creation of a website (if you don’t already have one) and an app! To get started, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at info@unitypayments.ca.
