3 Keys to Social Media Marketing Success

By: Jordan Steen

Founder at Rest&Bar Marketing



1. Tell your Brand Story

Let's first look at the basics. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. were all developed with the same basic goal in mind-- to provide a place where people and communities can come together and engage with each other. That being said, a business page should act accordingly. People don’t come to Facebook with the intention of being sold something; they use it to connect with friends and keep up with trends.  If they happen to come across something that interests them they MIGHT make a purchase.

So how does a brand story relate to individual social engagement and interaction and how in the WORLD is it going to help me increase sales? Your business does a lot of work assembling sales and marketing materials to disperse to other businesses. Yes, these are extremely important parts in the process of a sale, but today, there is one piece that tends to be forgotten-- connection. One thing we can learn from big business is that loyal customers tend to become consumed with a brand they love. A great example of this is Apple. Several times I’ve ridden down the road and seen a car in front of me with an Apple window decal on the back. When is the last time you saw a Microsoft logo on the back of a vehicle? This is a result of the brand Apple has built around its product.

A brand story is developed by getting into the roots of the company. Where and when did the company start? Why did the owners want to start the company? What struggles or successes did the company have in their journey? Today, you even need to consider strategies used by companies like Younique. Everyday moms are running their businesses from home with videos from their phones promoting Younique’s products while their kids are playing in the background. The best part is, their fans LOVE it. So remember a few things...make them like you, make your story relatable and don’t be afraid to be authentic. There are so many generic brands that exist already and people crave originality.


2. Constant Contact

The principle of constant contact is simple-- you want your business to be active on as many platforms as are relevant and beneficial to your business. Once you establish a presence on those platforms you want to consistently update, post, comment, etc. with useful information so that you are constantly in front of your potential customers. Some things to stay away from are irrelevant posting, bait-posting, political or religious conversation and spamming. All of these actions can result in a negative reputation online accompanied by severe long-term damage to your company’s online presence.

Though the principle of constant contact itself is rather easy, the execution can be extremely difficult. The most important thing you can do to ease the process is establishing a digital marketing plan. Figure out which platforms are going to be crucial for reaching your typical audience and create a brand story and content around that platform. At the very least, I recommend every company has a website, Facebook account, and an email distribution list. These three pieces of a digital marketing plan will instantly increase attention and engagement online whether your business markets B2B or B2C.  

So how do you marry these three products to stay in front of a potential customer? In a general sense, the website is your money page while email and Facebook push users to your website to engage and research more information. Your website should have CTAs (call to action) that push the user to call, contact you, sign up for an email list and ultimately, to make a purchase. It is important to have a well thought out email content/automation strategy as well as Facebook content that is going to entice users to comment or share. Lastly, you need to keep the theme, contact information and content relatively consistent throughout all platforms. Congruency in your advertising message is key.


3. Utilizing Analytics and Reporting

One of the best features of marketing online is the ability to track results more accurately. Your website, social accounts and email dissemination program will all have tracking capabilities that allow you to build profiles of your customers based on the backend data recorded from your marketing efforts.

With Facebook, you are able to target audiences based on interests, behaviors, demographics and location. Analyze your reports and use successful campaigns to build a more precisely targeted audience segment in your industry. Reporting tools for Facebook give information about your ads like age, gender, location, which device they used to view the ad and other specific information relating to the process. They also allow you to see engagement with your page (comments, likes, shares, etc.), buttons used (contact us, sign up, etc.) and how large an audience your page reaches each week. All of this information is key to revising your customer profile as your company grows.

Website and email management platforms also provide excellent reporting abilities. You can link any website to Google’s analytics tool which allows you to see time spent on specific pages, what actions were taken on your page, IP address and more. This is useful for determining if a page is actually causing more damage to your site than improvement or if your CTAs are effective. Your email management platform is able to track more specific things like did your viewers open the content you sent them, have they taken an action within the email or did they simply just ignore it all together. These insights allow you to adjust your strategy for dissemination and even your content if necessary.


It requires time and attention to effectively market through social media.  Conducting an effective online marketing presence is a full-time job. All of the different angles of online marketing that need to come together to make it successful require a full time professional. That doesn’t mean a small business owner can’t run an effective online marketing campaign-- it happens all the time, but new tools and updates in the industry change the landscape of marketing on almost a daily basis making it harder and harder to stay on top.

If you would like to talk about how Rest&Bar Marketing can help your business we would love to hear from you. As always I hope this has shed some new light on digital marketing for you.


7 Tips for Getting More Customers to Your Restaurant or Bar Using Digital Marketing

By: Jordan Steen

Founder at Rest&Bar Marketing



As a restaurant or bar owner, you already know the struggles of marketing and keeping a constant flow of customers coming through your doors. Lunch shifts, Monday-Thursday, and Sunday nights seem to be a pain, or you are crushing lunch shifts and weekends but crickets at night. These issues seem to be so common, yet, most businesses aren't utilizing the MOST effective internet marketing platforms available and many of them are FREE. It usually comes down to one of the following reasons...


- "Digital Marketing is too expensive." 

- "I've tried online advertising before and it didn't produce any results. 

- "I don't use technology much, so I'm not sure it's effective.


A restaurant or bar lacking excellent social media marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), an responsive and optimized website, and Pay-Per-Click (PPC), all with regards to marketing your business, is like trying to ring in orders without a computerized POS...these days you just CAN'T! 


Here are seven tips for getting more customers to your location.


1. Set your Google listing.

I can't tell you how many business owners I ask about their Google listing and their response is a blank stare. Your Google listing is what customers see when they do a search for a business or place on Google. Once they hit search, information loads with the business website, location, hours, pictures, phone number, etc. Do you see why this is SO important? Google also receives about 70% of ALL search queries online! A customer looking for information about your business expects a quick and easy search process with no struggle in finding the information they need. If it takes more than a minute to find, that customer is likely to choose another business that is at the top of search results instead.


Here is a link on how to set this up YOURSELF for FREE!



2. Claim all other listings.

Your Google listing isn't the only listing that matters. Along with Google there are hundreds of other review sites people are using-- Yelp.comconsumerreports.org, etc. All of these sites allow businesses to list location, hours, phone number, etc. so customers can find YOU. Simply go to these websites, create a profile and add your information. There are also websites that allow you to upload all your information to these sites at once for a fee. 

Yext.com is one I definitely recommended if you can fit it in the budget. 


3. Keep hours updated.

Have you ever gone out to get food only to find that the place you wanted to eat at SO badly was closed? It said online that it was open, but it clearly isn't. Truth be told, this happens regularly. 

Google receives about 78% of ALL web search traffic in the world and even more than that in the US alone. If your business isn't listed on Google with its phone number, web address, hours of operation, etc., you're missing out on a lot of business. 

This link will show you how to set regular hours and even special hours for holiday seasons that will change online to show when your business isn't open. No more frustrated customers!



4. Google Images/Maps

When you perform a search for a business on Google it will show images and a location on Google Maps. This is imperative for your business to have, especially if you rely heavily on foot traffic. It's important to make sure people can physically find your location and easily communicate with you!

Here is a quick article to help.



5. Run contests and promotional ads on Facebook.

Want fast results or a jump start to your marketing? Use this proven traffic boosting method to expand your social reach while also increasing foot traffic. Run a contest on your Facebook for something free for people who "like" and share the post! Use a catchy hashtag and maybe even make a whole event out of it. The trick is to give away something people will perceive as valuable. If you're promoting a bar, give away a patio party where the winner can bring 15 friends to hang out with them. Try this and see how many thousands of likes you can get for your business. Follow up with a discount offer for those who didn't win and watch how many coupons you can collect. Get creative with it and always strive to do something big.

Ads on Facebook are another great way to reach customers with offers and promotions. Never "Boost Post" from the front end of Facebook. Always use "Ads Manager" by Facebook to spend any money on their advertising platform. If you aren't comfortable with it yourself then definitely ask a professional. Facebook has one of the BEST marketing platforms out there if used correctly.


6. Look at what your competitors are doing.

If your competitors are seeing a lot of engagement on their posts it is probably content their customers want to read. Obviously you wouldn't want to take that exact post, but you can certainly do something original. All other factors aside, great content over an extended period of time is guaranteed to increase sales. If you are in an industry that has a lot of household names make sure to monitor their content and follow their example. You don't need to reinvent the wheel!


7. Email Marketing

Anyone who says email marketing is dead doesn't know digital marketing very well. If you dont have a way of collecting your customer's emails yet you need one pronto. Mailchimp.com is my favorite site to use to establish an email marketing program and develop a communication channel with your customers. You can build lists of different customers, templates for your regular emails and even automate a lot of your email dispersal so you don't have to spend a lot of time keeping up with it! Make sure to use this to give out coupons and promotions for your location...believe it or not, if the customer finds what you're offering to be valuable they WILL open your email.

I hope you find this information useful in your daily marketing efforts.

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks!