Marketing Ideas to help your restaurant in Dallas make it during/after COVID

If you are operating your restaurant during Covid, I wanted to pass along a few marketing tactics that might help you during the tough times.  Nothing here is going to have a line out your door, but these ideas should help you during these tough times to keep the lights on. 

First off, let me state I am not a “restaurant marketing pro”, I haven’t worked for the big chains like Chili’s or McDonald’s, but I am a marketer.  I have been working in marketing for a long time...and a couple of years ago started helping my dad with his restaurant marketing.  It’s been a way to keep us better connected and really get my hands “dirty” in the world of local/digital marketing and content creation.....anyway, my dad owns three restaurants in the Dallas area called Taco Ocho.  He has locations in Frisco, Flower Mound and Richardson. 

So, as I said here are a few tactics to try if you haven’t already.  Things are getting back to normal slowly(in Texas the governor recommended that businesses open up on May 1st)...but there might be a couple of nuggets that you can use…before things get back to normal. 

Create a Family Meal Deal 

Super simple to do and several restaurants, especially in the suburbs, have seen pretty good success. Create a deal that can feed four people and price accordingly. Obviously, everyone right now is a little budget conscious but families are totally tired of eating at home and really want a meal cooked from somewhere else at least one night a week.  If you are having trouble making the numbers work for delivery, offer the Family Deal as a To-Go Deal only to avoid the delivery fees from Uber Eats, DoorDash, etc. 

Get Added to As Many Credible Websites As You Can 

There are lots of local online sites that are offering free local listings right now to mention that you are Open and do take out/delivery.  Take advantage of the credible ones...They may not bring in a ton of business...but they sure do help with SEO link building.  Here are a few in the Dallas area to consider.  These are all great and credible sites that should help your website organic visibility..and who knows you might get a customer.  Just reach out to the writer and give it a shot.  Click on links below for the exact pages to check out: 

Go Old School and Create a Few Signs 

People are obviously distracted right now, and might not notice that your “Open” sign is on since some restaurants have closed till this all blows over.  To get their attention you should totally invest in a couple of window signs with a very simple message like “We’re Open for Take Out, Delivery” - Give us a call or order online.” 

Add a Header/Announcement Bar to your Website (and update your store hours if they have changed)

If it’s easy to add a Header/Announcement Bar to your website, you should totally do it.  I use Squarespace for my dad’s website and adding a header is a breeze.  Just keep it short and sweet and let customers know you are “Still open, and can do delivery or take out”

Also if you have changed operating hours you should update those as well, as customers are totally hitting websites more than before 

If you haven’t added easy links for your DoorDash, Uber Eats, and other delivery services on the site, you totally should.  It makes it a bit easier for the customer to know where to order from. 

Post on your Organic Social Media Handles to Show you are alive!! 

You might not have a million followers on your social media handle, that's fine….but the goal with posting on your Facebook and Instagram right now is to show customers that you are open...and still working hard for business. You aren’t doing this for the “likes” you're doing it for awareness.  Also, it’s not a bad place to also pound some of the delivery partners you are working with.  I started adding small(ish) logos to the posts just to make sure it was clear to our customers what delivery partners we worked with.  Check it out on Taco Ocho instagram and give us a follow if you want. 

Consider adding Another Ordering service for Take Out

If you are doing takeout you are probably getting blown up with phone calls during certain times of day like dinner.  Consider an online ordering service for takeout like ChowNow(I think DoorDash does this too now as well).  It costs a little money but helps make it easy for customers to order online and makes it easy on your store team so they don’t have to be on the phone during peak hours.

Continue to do Paid Social Media Ads 

Continue to advertise on Facebook and Instagram...you need to keep your restaurant top of mind...even if you can only carve out a couple of dollars a day to do ads...you should totally do it still. 

I love pretty food shots and those can still totally work….but I started adding shots of the food in the packaging (i.e to-go containers) to give customers a better idea of what it would look like now.  It may be small, it might not have any impact but I think it frames the take out/delivery message better for right now. 

Update your Google My Business and if you use Waze, update that too. 

Customers are totally going to google you to see if you are still open and available for takeout/delivery.  You need to make sure your GMB profile is as up to date as it can be.  I know google is slow to make some of the updates, but keep trying.  Make sure you have updated that you do take out and delivery...and if your store hours have changed, make sure to include that too. 

Also, Waze just added a feature to include “Take Out” and “Delivery”.  Make sure to get added there too. I put about $2 a day on Waze.  It worked great prior to Covid….and I think still helps some.  

Try to get added to the Local Facebook Groups in the Neighborhood. 

Dude, those local neighborhood Facebook groups get a lot of traffic from neighbors.  There is one in Frisco called “Support Frisco Restaurants” that has over 9k members that are pretty engaged in that group.  They welcome restaurants to join or you can pipe in and make suggestions to people looking for a specific dish in the area.  Restaurants in the area like Howard Wangs and Gallo Nero have benefited really well from this group. 

Well, there you go, a few suggestions to keep the lights on during COVID if you are a restaurant.  If you have any more suggestions or tried any of these tactics with success, hit me up.  Also, don’t forget the basics.  Be nice to customers and make good food. That's better than any marketing...If you have any suggestions/ideas/etc. hit me up.

Hari BhushanSuper Digital Marketing