5 Free Tools to Boost Your Restaurant Online Marketing Plan

May 5, 2010

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, here are five easy, no-cost things you can do today to jump start your restaurant website marketing plan.  Follow these steps, and by Memorial Day you’ll be well on your way to improving your business’ online presence:

• Update or Claim Local Listings – Enter your business name and zip code here, to see if your business listings have been claimed and updated on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, and Business.com.  In less than 15 seconds, a report similar to the one below but specific to the business you have entered, will be available for you to view and act upon.

• Check for new marketing opportunities via keyword research – There are many good keyword research tools out there for professional marketers, but if you want a no-cost alternative it’s hard to beat Google’s own tool.  Simply enter your website address or a keyword phrase, such as “Denver restaurant” and Google will show a list of related search phrases.  Don’t rely heavily on the specific number of searches that are returned, instead use the results to rank relative demand for keyword phrases.  Are people looking for restaurants that offer gluten-free alternatives in your area?  Maybe a good place for Mother’s Day or Graduation celebration?  Keyword research is a great way to uncover emerging trends to be included in your restaurant marketing plan.  Make sure to include a new page on your website for any new markets you uncover!
• Do a bit of competitive research - How and what are your competitors doing online?  Check out Compete.com and enter in up to three website addresses to compare unique visitors, top search phrases and top referrers for each site entered.  This is a great way to discover new sites from which to get links to your own website and new search phrases to use in marketing your website.
• What’s being said about your restaurant online? – Here’s a two-for-one freebie!  Monitor what the search engines are finding about your brand by setting up Google alerts for your restaurant’s name and the name of your chef.  You’ll receive emails, for the time frame you select (immediately, daily or weekly), listing all mentions found on the web by Google.  Do the same with social media mentions at SocialMention.com, where you can enter your brand name and see, in real time, what is being said about your business on social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs.  You’ll not only see each mention listed, this site also calculates the strength of your brand, the ratio of positive to negative mentions and lots more.  Subscribe to the RSS feed for your brand search to remain updated on mentions across the social networking universe.
• Download TwoTables’ whitepaper, Big Picture Internet Marketing , where we detail how to formulate an all-encompassing internet marketing plan for restaurants.  Although compiled last year, the message, resources and tactics are still effective in 2010.  You can also keep up to date on all things internet and restaurant related by subscribing to the TwoTables blog, following TwoTables on Twitter and liking TwoTables on Facebook.

That’s it!  Enjoy your Cinco de Mayo celebrations, everyone.

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