Are you considering SEO--search engine optimization--for your restaurant? Read this.

According to OpenForum.com, Adobe recently put out a study of the importance of website optimization activities. The survey covered 1,800 digital marketers, asking them about their activities in this area.

Eighty-six percent of the companies spent less than 15% of their marketing budget on website optimization activities--search engine optimization and other web-based campaigns. Slightly more than a third of those reported website conversion rates below 1%.

Those companies who  upped that investment to 25% of their marketing budget were twice as likely to enjoy website conversion rates of at least 9%. That means increasing your SEO budget by two-thirds can net an increase in results of as much as nine fold.  

This survey was across all business types, so it is not specific to just restaurants, but the general results are probably close.  According to a 2013 survey released by IAB and Viggle, 69% of those polled have ordered food via the mobile internet at least once, and use mobile devices for information/research even more frequently.

Investing in SEO will bring customers to your website and subsequently through your front door or to your NetWaiter online ordering website. 

It's a question restaurant owners often encounter from employees.  Here is what we have found at NetWaiter:

1.    Activate the tip field on your restaurant’s online ordering site so customers can leave tips when they enter their payment information.  This makes it simple for customers to leave a tip, and simultaneously benefits your employees.

2.    For online ordering, tipping is done in advance, so it’s important employees live up to (and exceed) the customer’s expectations after they tip.  Since one of the principal benefits of ordering online is customer convenience, it’s important to follow through with that expectation.  The extra TLC is remembered when the customer receives their order and it can impact tips on future orders.

3.    By and large, takeout customers make their decision for takeout/delivery BEFORE they choose the restaurant.  Using NetWaiter, your restaurant is better positioned to win the next question: What restaurant should we choose?  So, not only is online ordering good for business, it’s good for employee relations because it provides them an opportunity to earn tips from orders that might have been placed at a different restaurant.

This threat to restaurants keeps coming back.

A new study by the NPD Group, as reported in FastCasual.com and Supermarket News, predicts that within the next decade the market for prepared food and ready-to eat meals will increase more than 10 percent, compared to a 4% increase for commercial foodservice.

Supermarkets, convenience stories and even drug stores will be taking a bigger chuck of the traditional restaurant business.

Clearly these are restaurant customers who are interested in convenience. The key to not losing business share is to be more convenient. Online ordering can be a valuable ingredient in your marketing toolbox to reach these customers.

Some of the benefits of online ordering over ready-to-eat meals at retail outlets:

Selection--Ready-to-eat meals rely on a limited selection to appeal to all customers. Online ordering allows your customers to tailor their meal  from your menu.

Freshness--Ready to eat meals are typically prepared days in advance. Even hot food in the supermarket deli has been on display for hours, and picked over. Restaurant meals are fresh and cooked to order.

Time--A meal that has been ordered online is ready to go. Customers only need to park, walk into the restaurant and walk out of with their purchase. A ready-to-eat meal means negotiating a crowded supermarket parking lot, finding out what selection is and is not available, standing in the check-out line and then getting out of the parking lot.

Online ordering is the boost you need in the ever-competitive food service industry. 

Online ordering is the best weapon for addressing change in the restaurant industry…

The Orlando Sentinel, citing several respected industry sources, reports that restaurants that have not spent a huge amount of energy trying to capture the lunch crowd are now refocusing their efforts.

Mid-day meals typically mean lower profit margins and diners that are in a hurry.  Competition for the business, however, has forced restaurants to refocus their efforts.  Some restaurants are at a disadvantage here, reports the article, “… when diners eat out at lunch, they often want something quick — a problem for some sit-down chains.”

A weakness for restaurants in the lunch business is the lack of a good online ordering system.  Ordering online is ideal for the mid-day customer who wants to spend a limited time away from their desk or, better yet, get it delivered.

To compete, it’s important to emphasize the convenience of online ordering to customers, either for pickup or delivery.  You can do this through conversations with customers, in-store signage, messages on receipts, and email campaigns through your NetWaiter Management Console.

“A recent industry survey revealed that the lunch crowd accounts for 34% of restaurant traffic,” said Jared Shimoff, Sr. Director at NetWaiter.  “If that’s part of your business, you certainly want to keep it and expand it.  Online ordering is a key tool for that opportunity.”

Social media offers an excellent opportunity to reach customers on an emotional level using photos.  Here are three suggestions of photos you can post to Twitter and Facebook:

Photos of Dishes - Presentation is everything.  Post a photo of your popular entrées and desserts to Twitter and Facebook.  You can even add an offer:  ‘Surprise your sweetheart with pie tonight – order an entrée online and get 50% off one of our delicious pies.’

Photos of Employees – Highlight your employees and how well they do their job.  Post photos of employees so customers feel like they know them the next time they come in to eat.

Photos of Customers - Patrons are also part of your restaurant family.  When a customer comes in with a new baby, capture it on your camera phone.  How about the folks who order online at your restaurant three times a week for lunch?  Snap a picture (with their permission) the next time they pickup an order and use the photo for promoting ordering online at your restaurant by posting it to Facebook and Twitter.

Everyone likes to feel as if they are an insider, that they know things other folks don't know.  This includes secret menu items at restaurants.

What's better than a secret menu?  A ‘secret’ menu only available to online customers.

"Online ordering is a natural for ‘secret’ menu items," says Jared Shimoff, Sr. Director at NetWaiter.  "Obviously, it’s impossible to keep things a secret when you post information online, but keeping certain menu items exclusive to your online menu will encourage people to gravitate to your online site and help set your online menu apart from menus at other restaurants."

Often times, secret items are similar to regular items, but in different presentations.  For instance, McDonald's purported Monster Mac - a Big Mac with eight patties (can you say heart attack?).  The ingredients are already on hand.  Alternatively, secret menu items can also allow you to experiment with new offerings before rolling them out to the mainstream.

"If you have a secret menu or customers know the secret menu, they feel like they're insiders," Bret Thorn, senior food editor of Nation's Restaurant News, told NPR News.  "They feel a kind of personal connection to the restaurant; they feel they know something that maybe not everybody else does.  And everyone loves that."

Takeout continues to grow as a percentage of takeout business for restaurants. No wonder when many popular meals are more expensive to make at home (according to this Yahoo article) than ordering at a restaurant. And that says nothing about your time involved in putting the meal together. 

Take full advantage of that takeout market with online ordering from NetWaiter. 

Jose Davila, manager of The Sub and Pizza of Amherst, located not far from the University of Massachusetts, setup a new marketing tool in 2012 - NetWaiter.

"I looked at online ordering systems for a year," said Jose. "I have a big file of all the companies I reviewed.  NetWaiter made me feel very comfortable.  Their system is very easy to use, very easy to make changes, and they walked me through all the steps.”

Jose reports that his average takeout ticket size prior to NetWaiter was about $11.  Now his average takeout ticket ranges between $17 and $19.  "The cashier, who takes orders over the phone, does two or three jobs at once," says Jose. "They don't always think to suggest an appetizer, another dish, or another topping. But NetWaiter allows me to do this."

NetWaiter has also opened up an entirely new client base for The Sub and Pizza of Amherst.  Whereas they rarely received orders from delivery services catering to the college crowd, NetWaiter allowed them to expand access to that customer base.  “NetWaiter has opened that market for us,” he said.  “Younger people really like online ordering."

This may be a big shock, but studies reveal that only 4% of Facebook fans return to your page after visiting and liking it.

This means if your messages don’t end up in a user’s newsfeed, they probably won’t be seen.  So, how do you get your Facebook posts to as many followers as possible?

Posts on a newsfeed are based on an algorithm called EdgeRank.  If you do things the algorithm likes, then your posts will get in front of more people.  Here's what the algorithm looks for:

Affinity:  The more posts a fan likes, comments on, and shares, the more likely they will see your future updates.

Weight:  Closely linked to affinity, this measures the action of each individual update.  The more action an update gets, the more likely it will be shown on more newsfeeds.

Decay:  If you are posting the same thing all the time, or you wait too long between posts, the algorithm starts to forget about you.

TIPS:  Try to post at least once a day, and pay attention to when you post and what kind of responses you receive.  Your followers may be more prone to responding at specific times.  Look for patterns of high response, make posts or ask questions that elicit answers, and try to be interactive.