Why Your Restaurant Must Go Mobile

If your restaurant wants to survive the next five years of business – much lest the next fifty – you’re going to have to take it mobile. Please understand I’m not advocating a “meals on wheels” approach. What I’m talking about is your customers’ increasing use of mobile devices.

 

Don’t for a second think that your customers only use their Androids and iPads to talk to each other on Facebook. Plenty of operators are marking their restaurants mobile-compatible; if you’re not, then you’re losing business.

 

Mobile Marketing Basics for Your Restaurant

 

At the basic level for your restaurant, you need a website that is mobile-compatible. You do have a website, don’t you? If you don’t – get one!

 

For a small price, you can hire a local Web design company or even a college student to create a mobile version of your website. A mobile version of your site will be stripped down to the basics, so that it loads into your customers’ mobile devices more quickly.

 

A mobile site will also make your site five to ten times easier to navigate on a mobile device! Regular websites are notoriously hard to view on smartphone screens. There are many reasons for this, but it all boils down to the fact that the Web was created for computer screens about fifteen years before the trend-setting iPhone came onto the scene.

 

How to Interact with Your Customers via Mobile Apps

 

Everybody’s got a mobile app these days. At least, they should.

 

Mobile apps make it convenient and fun for your customers to make to-go orders. Ordering via app can be a lot more convenient than ordering over the phone – especially when it comes to large group to-go orders. Raise your bottom line by giving your customers the power to order over app!

 

Get Good with Google

 

Have you claimed your business’s listing with Google Places yet? If you haven’t, then you should. A claimed Google Places page will help your business show up on Google Maps. So what, you ask?

 

Showing up on Google’s Maps or Places pages can help you get found by customers who just happen to be in the area, looking for your type of restaurant – or sometimes for ANY restaurant. Get with Google Places and you’ll bring in business you wouldn’t bring in otherwise.

Tags: google places, local search for restaurants, mobile apps for restaurants, mobile marketing for restaurants