In the competitive world of hospitality, having the right tools can make all the difference in bringing in customers and keeping them loyal. The digital landscape offers a wide range of marketing solutions, and choosing the right one can significantly impact your restaurant's success.
This guide will explore top restaurant marketing software designed specifically to boost online visibility, attract new diners, enhance customer engagement, and increase revenue for venues in Australia and New Zealand.
Restaurant marketing software is designed to increase a restaurant's visibility, engage customers, and streamline marketing tasks. These tools support goals like:
Investing in the right marketing software is crucial to business growth for any venue. Here’s why:
When selecting restaurant marketing software, prioritise features that will maximise your exposure, while also driving efficiency and enhance customer experience - essentially creating a seamless booking experience for your customers and your staff, from discovery to dining!
Consider the following:
Booking platforms are essential for gaining visibility with diners looking for new places to eat. However, some platforms charge commission fees that can soon count heavily towards your variable costs. So it is important to bear this in mind when choosing where to showcase your business online. ResDiary, for example, integrates with Dish Cult and Quandoo.
When you sign up for ResDiary's reservation management software, you will also get a free listing on Dish Cult. Dish Cult is also different from other booking platforms, as when a user makes a booking with your restaurant, there's no commission paid by you.
Quandoo, which is used by diners in eleven countries (including Australia and New Zealand), drove over 400 million diner reservations worldwide last year. ResDiary’s integration with Quandoo makes it even easier to get discovered online and attract table bookings from new customers. Speak to our team about pairing Quandoo with ResDiary today!
Booking widgets streamline the booking process by allowing direct reservations from your website, Google, or social media. ResDiary empowers you to create attractive booking widgets that can integrate seamlessly with your brand’s style, keeping the user experience cohesive while increasing conversions.
ResDiary also offers a similar integration with Google, with the placement of widgets in Google Search and Maps results. Did you know that "Restaurants near me" is Googled almost 250,000 times a month in Australia, and that’s just one example of many relevant keywords you could be showing for in organic search results or paid search ads - we've got a great guide on restaurant advertising here.
Showcasing your venue and attracting diners across a wide range of places is a great strategy, but it's so often the case that this in turn creates headaches an hours of manual administration for restaurant staff. Not only do those multiple channels need to be managed, but also the bookings on each of them need to be processed.
This is where an advanced booking system like ResDiary enhances the workflow and the experiences, for your customers and your staff alike, by unifying various booking channels (website, Google, social media). This means that you can bring all your bookings together into one place without requiring the manual effort that would occur otherwise. This minimises time away from more important tasks, like serving your customers, and helps to reduce errors in your booking diary.
ResDiary also offers a range of built-in marketing features that are designed to be totally intuitive and easy-to-use for any restaurant manager. These include fully customised booking widgets for your website, email direct marketing functionality, tools to build promotions, and the ability to create and sell vouchers.
Your restaurant booking system can capture vital data, while the right CRM software can help you to optimise that valuable data to help you tailor marketing and improve customer experiences. That's why ResDiary integrates with the MrYums and Impact Data CRM systems. These systems can work in similar ways, by pulling together a wide range of customer data points into a single platform.
You can then use this information to tailor your marketing campaigns for maximum effectiveness. Stop relying on guesswork and use real data to develop your campaigns, and do more with your booking data.
In Australia, approximately 88% of the population owns a smartphone, so SMS communications can be a highly valuable way to market your restaurant and stay connected with diners.
ResDiary makes it easy to collect your customer's phone numbers, so why not put them to use? Using ResDiary’s Silverstreet integration, you can utlilise SMS notifications and promotions, keeping customers informed and engaged, not just about their upcoming bookings but events and special promotions too. It’s a great way to maintain visibility with diners on the go!
Email marketing can nurture relationships with new and existing diners, and reduce no-shows - making it a triple threat in boosting your business revenue! ResDiary’s email functionality makes it easy to send confirmations, reminders, and importantly for restaurant marketing, promotional offers.
You can use your booking data to create lists and segments, ensuring your email marketing efforts are highly targets. While ResDiary’s system safely stores your data, it is important to remember that it remains yours to control. Customers also don’t need to expressly opt in or out to receive marketing communications when they book, making list management more simple for everyone.
Strengthen Your Brand: Consistent branding enhances recognition and customer loyalty. Custom booking widgets let you control the brand experience. This isn't always the case with third-party platforms, where their brand tends to take centre stage.
Leverage Data: Using ResDiary’s booking data, you can build targeted campaigns and gain insights into customer preferences, enhancing your ability to deliver a personalised experience.
Integrate Systems: Integrating marketing tools with your booking system provides a 360-degree view of customer engagement, enabling smarter marketing decisions.
Automate Strategically: Take advantage of automation to streamline processes. ResDiary’s platform allows for automated booking confirmations, follow-ups, and marketing outreach.
Track and Refine: Analyse performance to understand which campaigns yield the best results. Use ResDiary’s analytics tools to refine your strategy based on what works best for your audience.
ResDiary is built to streamline restaurant marketing with powerful features and integrations. From custom booking widgets to email marketing and SMS communications, ResDiary supports your restaurant’s goals with a comprehensive, data-driven approach to marketing. Book a ResDiary demo today and start maximising your restaurant’s potential.