3 Marketing Tactics Restaurants Should Never Pay For

As a restaurant or bar owner, you constantly strive for your restaurant to have an amazing presence and reputation. However it is important as a restaurant/bar owner that you create your business reputation with honesty, integrity, and most importantly authenticity. Below are 3 things you should not pay for to improve your restaurant’s reputation

1. Yelp Reviews: Never pay for a fake review. As tempting as it may be to have a group of convincing “customers” on your Yelp page. it can actually tarnish your restaurant’s brand. The customers that frequent Yelp and other similar websites do so in efforts to find an authentic response. These people are looking at reviews from like-minded people, which they feel are giving honest reviews. A review that’s all positive posted by a mysterious person can appear as fraud and customers will dismiss you all together. Also, stay away from aggressive sales people who promise they can get you great reviews, remove a negative review, or know many of the reviewers personally.

2. Social Media Likes/Follows: The purpose of social media fans and followers is not a numbers game until they step foot in your restaurant. What is the purpose of having hundreds of followers if only 3 ever regularly step foot in your business? The purpose of social media is to nurture existing relationships and have those nurtured customers be unpaid ambassadors of your business. Paying for fans/followers is purposeless and a waste of money.

3. Paid Search Engines: This one is tricky. Yes, it is acceptable to hire someone to maintain your SEO (search engine optimization). It is not all right to pay for search engines and here is the reason why. Paid searches only trigger people that are searching for key words, versus quality. If I want to make egg rolls at home and search egg rolls, your business popping up as the best egg roll spot in town doesn’t get me in your business. It in fact makes me skip and head to the next site that provides egg roll recipes. Why pay money to have your site simply skipped? The money that is spent for paid searches can be better spent with a search engine expert that can create quality content and drive in serious business. Unpaid search results however can take months to become effective.

Owning and operating a business is tough, so why waste money? Never pay for the above and stay steadfast to your current customers. For more ways to increase your customer loyalty, sign up for a free account at www.myeateria.com