7 Easy Tips to Increase Your Restaurant Brand Awareness You Must Try

Are there many other food businesses in your area? Do you often feel they get more recognition than you and potential clients choose your competitors? Then you need to increase your restaurant’s brand awareness to outshine your competition!

In this article, we'll give you a clear definition of branding, entice you with its benefits, and help you out with easy-to-implement tips to increase brand awareness.

What is brand awareness for restaurants?

To understand what brand awareness is, we must first define branding for restaurants. To brand a restaurant is to create a unitary image for your business that, in time, will make your place easily recognizable.

You start by identifying your target audience, your selling points, and your competition. Afterward, you attribute a persona to your restaurant, complete with a tone of voice, logo, slogan, unique selling proposition, and more.

If you want to read a more in-depth guide with detailed steps to branding your restaurant, check out this article:

Branding for restaurants: what is it, how to do it, and tips for success

Restaurant brand awareness is practically getting the word out about your business. You can use a series of channels and strategies to convince people to become your clients and win them over to get more loyal customers.

Why is branding important for restaurants?

When clients have a variety of places to choose for food, branding can be the reason they choose your restaurant. Here are the benefits you will enjoy if you start increasing your restaurant brand awareness:

• Attract more new clients: by increasing recognition for your restaurant, you reach new audiences. With a combination of mouth-watering images of food, irresistible promotions, and other brand awareness tactics you convince potential customers to take the final step and visit you;
• Increase client loyalty: branding will help you create a connection with your clients. Top it up with amazing food and an unforgettable customer experience, and you get regular customers;
• Build more credibility: when you are just launching your restaurant, you can only leverage your image to attract new clients. A unitary image across all channels, be it website, app, or social media will convince people you are a trustworthy business, and they will be tempted to try out your food.

7 tips to increase your restaurant brand awareness

The first step is to obviously brand your restaurant. Refer to the guide linked above and come back to try out these easy tips that will deliver immediate results:

1. Get a sales and SEO-optimized restaurant website

Let's do a test together. Think about a type of food you would like to have right now and go search for it on Google. The first results you will see surely have an SEO-optimized website that helps them rank on the first page of Google.

Would you like to be the first thing potential clients see when they search for your type of cuisine? No need to contact developers or check your bank account, we can help you get a sales and SEO-optimized restaurant website for less than the price of a pizza.

Here is how a great website can help your restaurant's brand awareness:

• It makes your restaurant easy to find: because the website is delivered to you already SEO-optimized, you have a higher chance of ranking on the first page of Google, where more clients will find out about your business;
• It offers a space for your important information: if clients want to find your working hours, contact information, food photography, and more, all they have to do is access your website. It is the convenience all clients crave;
• It creates a great online experience: because the website is intuitive, clients can easily browse it, look at the menu, and even order. The smooth experience will convince them to place the order button.

2. Use enticing promotions

People may have stumbled upon your website or social media and found the food quite tempting. But sometimes, they need a small push to try out your food. Adding promotions to your menu can be very persuasive.

Increase your restaurant brand awareness by always having a small deal available. It can help you:

• Attract more clients: 10% off the first online order is an offer too good to refuse for most;
• Get more loyal customers: you can customize promotions to become a loyalty system. For example, clients who already ordered three times, get a discount for their next order;
• Increase order value: if you add a minimum order value to your promotion, it will tempt people to order more. After all, it is better to just add a dessert to the cart and get free delivery than to have to pay the delivery fee.

Check out this video to learn how you can add restaurant promotions to your online menu in seconds and for free:

3. Celebrate food-themed holidays

Restaurants all over the world rejoice during the traditional holidays because they know the number of clients will increase. But why limit yourself to the standard when you can find even more occasions to celebrate?

There are countless food-themed holidays that are just a Google search away such as Chocolate Day, Hamburger Day, International Chef’s Day, Spaghetti Day and so many more.

Choose some that fit your branding and type of cuisine and have fun. You can increase your restaurant brand awareness by inviting people to celebrate the special day with you and maybe create a new dish or add a promotion.

Read more:10 Tips and Tricks for Restaurant Holiday Menus to Make Clients Happy Every Day of the Year

4. Curate your social media presence

Most of your clients already spend a lot of time on social media. Therefore, to get the word out about your restaurant, so should you.

We recommend you create a social media content plan for about two weeks to make it easier for you. You just take a few hours of your time to gather content and schedule the posts. Here are a few social media post ideas to increase brand awareness:

• Mouth-watering pictures of your food: always add a link to your menu so hungry clients who are enticed by your food can order in just a few clicks;
• Client testimonials: ask for permission first and share the positive reviews you’ve received. When potential clients see that other people had a positive experience, they will trust your business more;
• Staff recommendations: make a video of your chef and employees recommending a dish and explaining why it is special.

Read more: 25 social media post ideas for restaurants to attract attention

5. Organize a social media contest

If you’ve just opened your restaurant, you will find it harder to do restaurant brand awareness on social media because you don’t have followers yet. To build a following fast, you can do one of these or both:

• Invest in paid ads that will propel your content to your target audience and entice them to interact with your page;
• Organize a contest where people have to like, follow, and comment (maybe even share your post) so they can win an all-expenses paid meal for two.

For the best results, you can promote your contest in the paid ads. This way, you give people an incentive to find out more about your business.

Read more: 21 Restaurant Competition Ideas to Gain Visibility and Attract Customers

6. Participate in trends that fit your branding

I am sure you have noticed similar posts and videos while scrolling. People tend to hop on trends because it ensures their posts will gain more visibility. If you haven't noticed, you should make it a goal to spend more time on social media and find more food-related trends.

For example, at the moment, the crookie is trending. It is a croissant and cookie mash-up that every bakery is replicating and posting about it.

Only hop on trends that fit your type of cuisine and branding, otherwise, you may lose trust with your followers.

Read more: 10 Restaurant trends for 2024 you must take advantage of

7. Organize events at your restaurant

Most of your clients live around your area. If you organize events at your restaurant, you attract local customers and build a community of loyal clients.

Here are some event ideas to increase restaurant brand awareness:

• Wine tasting and pairing: collaborate with local wineries so you can teach customers how to pair drinks with food;
• Beer tasting: if there are artisanal beer makers in your community, invite them to display their products at your restaurant. They will in turn invite their followers and you will grow your client base;
• Live music: choose your least popular evenings to host local singers who need a space to show their talent. You not only provide entertainment for your clients, but you also gain more customers who are fans of the chosen singers;
• Showcase your local produce suppliers: invite the people you purchase locally from to come present their ingredients and story. This way, you show clients that you care about the local community.

Final Words

Make increasing your restaurant’s brand awareness one of your marketing goals because it will reflect positively on your revenue. Start by getting the must-have sales-optimized website and then focus on social media and building your local community.