The hospitality industry is booming as it has never done before and the arrival of the internet and especially content marketing has only enhanced this growth in the market. Previously, the only real thing you could find online to do with hospitality was reviews and booking features, but now there are entire blogs and networks dedicated to this sector.
Surprisingly, there are a ton of people out there looking for information on restaurants in their local and nearby areas to make sure their next restaurant experience is unforgettable.
Whether you own a restaurant and handle the marketing, or whether you’re a freelance blogger with interest in the restaurant, here’s everything you need to know about creating valuable content that we’re confident potential customers will enjoy.
The first thing you’ll want to do is to create a list of all the topics that you’ll want to be covering on your blog. Of course, this can change depending on what type of restaurant you are and what services you offer, but some of the main topics that you’ll want to be covering will include;
Recipes
Local news
Staff
Food envy/love/inspiration
Sales and promotions
Education (How-to)
Some of these topics may seem a little ‘out there’, but these can all evolve around what your business currently offers, and what they’ll be offering in the future. Also, for more topics use Google Keyword Planner to search keywords which your potential customers are looking for. With a strong restaurant presence online, you’ll want to make your customers feel immediately at home as soon as they walk through the door.
Many restaurant owners simply rely on review sites, such as Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor, to advertise their reviews and the experience they offer. However, there’s no reason why you can’t start harvesting your own reviews from customers that can then be used in your website and blog content.
Whether you choose to collect these reviews in person, online or through your social media profiles, this can be valuable content that can hugely benefit the success rates of your business. When formatting your reviews, you can use sites like Academadvisor as a writing guide to make sure it’s perfect and readable. There are tons of ways to present content which will drive customers to your restaurant.
A blog is an extremely worthwhile marketing tool for a number of reasons, most commonly because it can become the hub of your restaurant’s online presence. On your pages and within the content you’re creating, you can link to your promotion page, your booking system, your contact page and your social media profiles.
This helps to create a fully immersive and integrated network for your restaurant that users can navigate with ease and find everything they could be possibly looking for. The better and more connected this experience is, the happier and more satisfied your customers will be.
According to study, grammar mistakes turn 59% customers away. Even those little errors can be very expensive. No matter what content you’re uploading, whether it’s blog posts or social media posts, be sure to check the grammar as this will stand out like a sore thumb. Use sites like Grammarly, Grammarix or Big Assignments to make sure it’s proofread and edited to perfection before publishing.
When it comes to writing content, there are a lot of variables that you’ll want to consider. For example, consider the type of language a restaurant that sells lobster and caviar uses on their website in comparison to McDonald’s.
Marta Belt, a blogger and content writer at Paper Fellows states, “When writing your content, you’ll have the unique opportunity to define the style and appearance of your business by focusing on the words and structure that you’re using in your content. For example, do you want to come across as a formal or informal business? Are you going to be a bit of both? Are you adults-only (bar) or family-friendly?”
In the blog content that you’re writing, pay attention to how you’re wording your sentences as it can have a dramatic impact on the way your business is perceived.
Also, such thing as plagiarism can harm your restaurant’s blog and it relates to your SEO and site’s promotion in Google. To detect if you accidentally plagiarised someone’s content, better use Copyscape or Academized plagiarism checkers before uploading it to your blog. Providing unique, engaging and valuable content will bring more visitors to your restaurant.
With everything else written above in mind, now you can start getting down to the nitty-gritty of actually writing blog posts for your website and blog. And the opportunities are endless. Let’s say that you’ll release a new fish menu, why not write a blog post on the menu, stating where the fish is from, a bit of history about the product and how your restaurant is going to use it.
This is a great way to engage your customers in your content and tempt them to come and try it out for themselves. Now apply this concept to every aspect of your menu over time. Where did your beers and alcohol come from? What’re your three favorite desserts? How do you properly eat a certain dish, like crab?
What events are you going to hosting throughout the year? What drink goes well with which dish? What updates will your menu have in the summer, and then the winter? As you can see the possibilities are endless and it’s all about how you want your customers to perceive your business and in what ways.
Before you upload your blogs, it’s essential that you check through them to make sure they are free from errors, typos and mistakes as Australian Help rightly put, this can push customers away by damaging your credibility.
Writing content for your restaurant blog and website doesn’t have to seem like just another job on your to-do list, but more of a worthwhile investment that continues to perform for your business. Once a blog is uploaded, it’s there until you take it down so it could even be an investment that lasts a lifetime.
Author: Brenda Berg
Brenda Berg is a professional with over 15 years of experience in business management, marketing and entrepreneurship. Consultant and tutor for college students and entrepreneurs at Oxessays. She is passionate about covering topics on business development, blogging, content marketing and others. You can visit her personal blog at Letsgoandlearn.com
