Atlanta Restaurant Marketing can be a tough nut to crack. There are many amazing restaurants trying to get their piece of the pie. When you want to serve up enticing marketing to get mouths in the door there is one element that is proven to be effective. Google is the answer and it’s not even close as they have more than 92% search engine share (Aug 2022).
The following 5 tips could easily be executed for other types of businesses but today I am focusing on restaurants. Restaurants in Atlanta and beyond have so much to gain by optimizing their Google business profiles. Today I have 5 very powerful tactics that I often see overlooked by our restaurant clients. Let’s break them down…
Atlanta Restaurant Marketing Pro Tips
#1 – The Biggest Restaurant Marketing Power Play: Add a Google Virtual Tour
The biggest tip for some serious search engine love is to add a virtual tour to your business listing. The only way you can do this is by using a Google Official Partner like Barnes Creative Studios. We come in and capture your space and then use special software to program the 360 images directly into Google Maps. Pardon the joke but this is like throwing hot grease on the fire. I will share some stats below from a local restaurant here in Atlanta called Haven below. Over 270,000 visits to the virtual tour we did for them, so far. The tour was created only 3 years ago.
This is not just their website or Google listing, these numbers are for the virtual tour alone. Having a virtual tour gives Google a serious context heads up that you are showing customers what you have to offer. Customers will sometimes solely use Google Maps to search an area for a restaurant. An independent study on Google virtual tours showed that listings with a virtual tour were twice as likely to inspire someone to book a reservation with that restaurant. You can add to that incredible number of visitors by visiting the live tour on Google below. Watch the video above for even more insane stats for another area restaurant.
#2 – Remove Unflattering Images
Take the junk off your Google listing. Did you know you could do that? Anyone can add images to your listing when they dine there but that isn’t always a great thing. I would suggest going through the images on your Google listing once a month if not more. You need to be logged into your Google business account as an admin to make the edits. Go to an image you dislike in the photos section and click the small white flag in the top left of the screen. If you don’t see a flag, look for three small dots to “report a problem”. You will then see options like “poor quality” to select. There is also “other” which you can select. We often use that and simply say “these photos do not represent our brand well and would like them removed”. While it takes time to process they will usually remove them.
#3- Generate a Google Post for Powerful Restaurant Promotion
So few use this amazing tool and it can help you rank locally. Google has a simple way to make a “post” within your Google profile. Think of it as a blog post in the most basic form. You are limited to what you can add. There is a title, an image or video and up to a set amount of words. Use this wisely by targeting keywords you want to rank for in your area. What does someone Google to find you? Use terms like that to generate content and you will quickly see the power of the post. You can also take those posts and feed them into social media for even more SEO value. Get into the routine of doing these posts and before you know it you will have massive content driving your search value while you sleep.
#4 – Respond to Your Google Reviews
Sometimes they are glowing and sometimes you might have had a bad night. Either way, don’t leave those reviews as a bash board. Get in there and respond with humility and gratitude. Responding to reviews, good and bad, can work out to be a successful part of your Atlanta restaurant marketing strategy
#5 – Claim Your Google Business Listing
You read that correctly. On more than one occasion I see restaurants unclaimed. This is crazy to me! Not only are you leaving that valuable marketing opportunity on the table but you are also putting your business in jeopardy. I have heard on numerous occasions that competitors have claimed a restaurant that was not theirs simply to block you from using it. It’s difficult to navigate getting it back so I highly suggest you take a look and see if you own your listing. If not, grab it and get to work.
Barnes Creative Studios can offer you assistance with any of the above and are available to discuss if you have an interest.
