Forget the secret sauce – the real magic in 2024 lies in harnessing the power of digital tools to understand the digital marketing landscape for restaurants. From sizzling social media to data-driven delights, these five digital marketing strategies below can help restaurants hum like a Parisian bistro at peak hour.

Learn more: Hospitality trends 2024: What’s next for restaurants and hotels

1. Social media marketing for restaurants: Bite-sized branding on a global plate

This year is about #culinaryexcellence so it's time to plate up a social media feast that wows guests before they even set foot in the restaurant. In 2024, social media isn't just about Instragrammable pics (though those still help!), it's about building a loyal community around the restaurant brand.

Instagram, the undisputed queen of food pics, serves as the restaurant's digital storefront. But instead of static displays, it showcases sizzling stories, behind-the-scenes action, and playful contests.

For example, KFC, which has ingrained itself in Japanese culture ever since the ”Kentucky for Christmas” campaign in 1974, has successfully positioned its chicken as the centerpiece of Christmas dinner for 50 years. Recently, KFC launched the Christmas Colonel's Cooking Show, a stream event featuring the Colonel preparing festive dishes, tapping into the Christmas tradition and engaging viewers in real-time.

Here are the most popular business tools that can add more dimension to a restaurant's social media marketing execution:

• Ocayo: Mastering the art of Instagram Stories involves learning about its intuitive scheduling and analytics tools. Marketers can plan the week's content, schedule eye-catching story takeovers, and track the target audience's preferences. Additionally, Ocayos has AI copywriting features that can help restaurants write better newsletters, blog posts, and adverts.

• Hootsuite: Juggling multiple platforms? Hootsuite is the social media maestro that enables users to manage all profiles in one place. It helps social media managers schedule posts, engage with comments, and keep the restaurant's online presence buzzing, all without breaking a sweat. Hootsuite also has monitoring and listening capabilities and provides an inbox for private and public messaging, and an auto-responder. It also has automated tagging and assignments, inbox analytics, and allows users to save replies.

• Later: Later lets users visually create and schedule stunning posts weeks in advance. Restaurants can now say goodbye to last-minute scrambles and hello to a picture-perfect social media presence.

• Meta Suite: Facebook and Instagram's BFF, Meta Suite gives users in-depth analytics on social media performance. It lets them see what posts resonate, track audience demographics, and fine-tune the strategy for maximum engagement and bookings.

Social media is not a one-way street — restaurant marketers need to engage with their followers by answering their questions and celebrating their love for food. Allowing them to be part of the story can encourage the restaurant’s online community (and reservations) to flourish.

Learn more: How to automate your social media: Everything you need to know

2. Data demystified: From soup to profits

Understanding data is vital to boosting the restaurant's bottom line with tools like Google Analytics, a free, invaluable tool for website traffic analysis. However, for restaurants that rely heavily on social media marketing, social media management tools like Social Sprout and Brandwatch are better options to analyze data.

Additionally, TableCheck Insight is a powerful data analytics platform that helps restaurants make better data-led decisions to improve their business. TableCheck Insight connects the restaurant's POS and reservation data to a dashboard highlighting revenue trends, popular meals, payment preferences, and more. Restaurant owners can use this data to understand patterns and trends in their industry, make better-informed business decisions, and optimize business strategy.

By leveraging the data-driven insights from these tools, marketers and restaurant owners can craft personalized marketing campaigns, optimize their websites and menus, and create a loyal customer base that keeps returning for more.

Learn more: No more empty tables in 2024: Proven strategies to minimize restaurant no-shows

3. Email marketing for restaurants: Turning recipes into reservations

Don't underestimate the power of a well-thought, well-crafted email. It's the direct line to hungry hearts, announcing new menu items, tempting them with exclusive deals, and keeping them returning for more. Email marketing can be a potent tool for restaurants, nurturing relationships, driving repeat business, and building loyal communities around chef culinary creations. To run an email marketing campaign, restaurants can use these CRM platforms: Brevo, Moosend, Mailer Lite. But rather than using these third-party applications, booking platforms like TableCheck have their built-in EDM (electronic direct mail) feature to empower restaurants to launch more effective email marketing campaigns.

TableCheck EDM is a marketing automation EDM platform to help restaurants promote their unique dining packages or other promos to generate more repeat business.

Learn more: How to run successful EDM marketing campaigns

Two powerful perks of email marketing for restaurants:

• Boost repeat business and loyalty: Email campaigns can nurture warm leads and turn one-time diners into regulars. Targeted emails like birthday specials, early access to new menus, or exclusive member events can help boost bookings.

• Personalize the experience and build community: Restaurants can go beyond generic promotions by weaving unique stories into their emails and EDM campaigns. An example would be to incorporate behind-the-scenes glimpses in the kitchen.

Email marketing can be a potent tool for restaurants, nurturing relationships, driving repeat business, and building loyal communities around culinary creations. Whatever the overall strategy is, restaurant proprietors need to consider these industry’s email marketing best practices:

• Personalize emails: Email campaigns should go beyond generic blasts and messages need to be tailored to different customer segments.

• Tell the restaurant's story: Highlighting the restaurant's unique personality and values through engaging narratives can make or break an email campaign.

• Offer exclusive content: It's not enough to just send email blasts. Giving recipients a reason to open emails, like special offers, insider tips, or curated experiences can encourage guests to open an email and book a dining experience.

• Focus on value, not just sales: Restaurants can build trust and loyalty by offering valuable content and information, not just pushing promotions.

4. Influencer marketing feast: The celebrity chef in your inbox

Partnering with local food bloggers or social media influencers can be a game-changer for restaurants. The authentic reviews and mouthwatering photos of these influences can reach a wider audience and build trust in a restaurant brand. When looking for influencers to partner with, it's not about finding the biggest name. Restaurants should work with influencers that align with the restaurant's vibe, and who'll spread the word about the restaurant's culinary magic to their network.

Finding the perfect influencers for a restaurant business requires a multi-pronged approach focusing on targeting, research, and engagement. Here are some key steps to follow:

• Define the target audience (age, location, interests, and dining habits). Understanding the audience helps restaurants find influencers who resonate with them and possess the potential to impact restaurant patrons' dining choices.

• Research relevant platforms and influencers: Restaurants need to research social media platforms that their target audience uses most, like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. This includes also searching for hashtags related to their cuisine, location, and dining experiences.

• Analyze engagement and audience fit: Restaurant marketers should not focus on follower count but find influencers with high engagement rates (likes, comments, shares) indicating a strong connection with their audience. They should analyze the influencer's past content to see if their style and interests align with the restaurant brand and target audience.

• Reach out and build relationships: Engaging with potential influencers on their platforms, commenting on their posts, and participating in discussions are best practices to build a long-term relationship with influencers. Mutually beneficial partnerships, like hosting sponsored meals or creating exclusive content can be enticing for these influencers to come on board and start promoting a restaurant.

Tools like Buzzsumo or Traackr can help restaurants discover relevant influencers based on their criteria. To start, restaurant marketers can set clear campaign goals and expectations with the influencers, determine target outcomes (brand awareness, increased reservations, etc.), and measure the results accurately.

Other tools of the trade are the following:

• Viralnation: A site to discover and manage influencer relationships efficiently

• Creator.co: A platform that matches brands with relevant creators

• Brandwatch: A channel to track brand mentions and analyze influencer performance accurately

Influencer fees can vary depending on factors like follower count, engagement rate, platform, content type, exclusivity, location, and niche, among many others.

Choosing the right influencer is more important than just finding the cheapest one. It's important to find someone who aligns with the brand, resonates with the brand and the target audience, and can create impactful content for the business.

5. Feast for the senses: Free design tools

Believe it or not, many free design tools can perform Adobe Creative Suite functions to create professional-looking graphic art, photos, videos, and many more. Most of these are free or just a fraction of Adobe's monthly subscription fee. Here are the top ones in the market today:

Canva: This drag-and-drop desktop and mobile app whips up Instagram-worthy menus, social media banners, and eye-catching flyers in minutes. Think vibrant templates, a library of free stock photos, and user-friendly editing tools – perfect for crafting stories for a restaurant's social media campaign. A paid subscription unlocks premium media elements and access to a Brand Kit that organizes assets and automates edits and posts. In 2023, it introduced a slew of AI-powered functions that made images, videos, and even documents in a snap.

CapCut: This app can magically transform shaky phone footage into professional-grade reels and TikTok shorts that sing. CapCut's intuitive interface boasts transitions, effects, and even music libraries to make your videos more engaging and dynamic.

Fotor: This online photo editor can polish culinary snaps with a user-friendly interface: remove unwanted objects, adjust lighting, and even add artistic filters to make your interior and food shots pop up.

Adobe Spark: From its previous incarnation as Adobe Express, Adobe Spark, design software giant Adobe's free design software, has evolved from a basic photo editing function to an all-in-one tool for marketers and small businesses. Its sleek interface and curated design elements let users build on-brand visuals, even if they don't have any previous design experience.

Veed: This is an online video editing software that allows users to easily edit, customize, and create videos directly in their web browser without needing to have specialized technical skills. With a free version and a premium paid version, Veed.io offers a range of features such as trimming, cropping, adding text, applying filters, and incorporating music or audio tracks.

The key is to experiment. Restaurant marketers need to find what works for the restaurant’s unique offering and audience and continue serving creativity and connection.

This article was first published in February 2024 and updated in July 2024.