5 Marketing Strategies for Your San Diego Restaurant Website

In the digital age, restaurant marketing has never been so easy yet so complex at the same time. Traditionally you would have to create paper coupons, send them out through the mail, and wait for people to come in.

Now you’re able to leverage the internet and give people instant access to your menus, coupons, and restaurant-style through your website alone. There are so many restaurants we visit that don’t do any of these marketing strategies, and if they did, they’d be filling up their seating every night of the week. 

Let’s hop into the 5 most effective marketing strategies for your San Diego restaurant straight from the leading San Diego fractional CMO agency.

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 1. Email Marketing 

Is email marketing dead? That’s the question you may see when you’re searching the internet. 

The truth is email marketing is far from dead, considering there are 4 billion email accounts out there. People check their email constantly—when they wake up, at dinner, and before they go to bed. That means your restaurant can be in their inbox, offering promotions, and providing them with value.

We’ll describe a brief email marketing strategy that any business can replicate. 

First, you’ll want to start collecting email addresses (you can’t build a list if you don’t have a way to collect them) through your website or in-person purchases. Pop-ups are one of the best ways to do this, after 4-6 seconds of surfing your site. 

You want to send at least 1 email a week. Provide a mix of value (recipes, customer experiences, and general fun content) with discount codes. The point of email marketing is to get your customers back in your restaurant. Think of emailing them as receiving a text from a friend. You’re happy to receive check-ins (and, of course, discounted food).

Your FCMO (a fractional chief marketing officer) can guide email marketing campaigns and integrate them with the rest of your strategy. And — just like email marketing has an amazing ROI — so do our FCMOs. Unlike a full-time CMO, a fractional one steps in on an hourly (also typically short-term) basis to give you the advice you need without the price tag you don't. 

 2. Social Proof, Not Social Media 

You definitely should be using social media to promote your restaurant, and we’re betting you already are. But something missing in a lot of restaurants’ marketing strategies is social proof. 

Social proof is your best friend when it comes to marketing. You can stick some on your website, put it in your emails or use it on social media. 

Influencers are one of the best forms of social proof. Someone who most people look up to, who has an opinion others appreciate and is someone who can drive tons of new customers to want to try your restaurant. If you’re going top-tier, you may have to pay a hefty fee. But there are other forms of social proof. 

In fact, social media is one of the best ways to collect social proof. If your posts ask questions that engage users and allow them to write feedback, you can screenshot those comments and use them as social proof. We see this all the time for digital products but rarely is it done for restaurants. 

 3. Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of those marketing strategies that take time. You need to be committed, but the returns on expenditure are exponential.

To boil it down to the simplest form, you need to write articles and content that’s useful for the people you’re trying to target in the San Diego area. An example that your restaurant could write about is 5 of the Best Sunny Day Activities to Try. If that article is on your restaurant blog, can you guess where they might want to go for dinner? 

If you’d like to ramp up your digital presence and want it done by the best, check out our San Diego Digital Agency.

 4. Create a More Compelling Offer

Promotions are tried and true. Adding a more compelling offer to your marketing campaigns allows your customers to feel like they’re getting a better deal. The best way to build compelling offers typically follows this formula: If you buy X, then you will get Y for free. Words like complimentary and free work well in the advertisements as they display a high-value offer. 

You can even offer similar offers that are branded in completely different ways. It’s similar to discount codes. If you want to give someone 10% off, you could also give them a $10 off coupon if they spend X amount. It’s essentially the same offer, but can be branded in completely different ways. 

• Pro Tip: Try to always add urgency to the offer (your call to action — CTA). Add expiration dates, say the offer will end this weekend, etc. As humans, we love to procrastinate. If we can put an activity off, we will. Adding that urgency or scarcity factor can work wonders for your restaurant. 

 5. Refurbish Your Images and Website

Presentation is everything in the food industry. When you see that McDonald’s commercial, the pancakes look a lot different than when you order them locally. You want the photos on your website to be of the highest quality, the food to look aesthetically pleasing, and the overall design of the site to fit your brand. Make sure to include a variety of photos that cycle on a slider on your homepage. 

Marketing Strategies San Diego Restaurant Website: Talk to an FCMO Today

If you’re not using email marketing to drive more customers back to your restaurant, that’s where you could start. Email marketing even helps with word-of-mouth marketing. If you have a mobile app, the two can complement each other extremely well. If you don’t have a mobile app but think you should, a San Diego FCMO may be the answer you’re looking for. Let's set up a time to talk and see what could be in store for your San Diego business.