When it comes to social media, your restaurant probably has one or all three of the following: a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a presence on Instagram.

What should you talk about?

A recent survey of more than 1,200 restaurant consumers asked what guides their choices when they decide where to dine or order takeout/delivery.

• 83% said that treating employees well is important. Highlight your employee-of-the-month on social media. Did someone get a promotion, graduate from college, or do something great for a customer? That’s more social media material. 
• 73% indicated that support of their local community influences their restaurant choice.  When you support a local community event, take some photos and post them online.  It makes a difference. 
• When you promote menu items, keywords such as “fresh”, “locally-sourced”, “whole grain”, and anything “all-natural” are great to mention.

And to no one’s surprise …

• The survey revealed that the convenience of an online ordering system shares the top spot with taste and quality, which is why you should always make your online ordering easily available to all customers.

In a sit-down restaurant, new menu items are sold through menu inserts, easels, and as part of the introduction given by the wait staff.  In an online environment such as NetWaiter there are also a number of ways you can promote new menu items and changes.  Here are a few tips:

Maintain an Interactive Online Menu.  Nothing makes a customer twitch more than outdated information on a website.  With an easy-to-use interactive web-based menu, you can also update your menu without calling a website designer.  It’s also easy to highlight changes or new additions.

High Quality Images.  We’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth repeating.  A quality photo of a new menu item says more than any description.  Post it on your interactive menu, but also get it on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.  You want those images shared.

Include Social Media Buttons.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram - all of them.  Make it easy for people to spread the word about your new menu items.  Remember that certain social media sites are favored by different age groups.  Facebook is now considered an “old folks” platform.  Younger people tend to use Instagram and Twitter.  You may want to alter your message based on the platform.

Create Buzz with “Partnerships”.  Try naming a new item after someone popular in the community.  At the very least, they will promote the item and your restaurant for you.  You’ll make this person and all their family and friends advocates for your restaurant. Imagine the buzz.

In sales and marketing, the tipping point is the moment when all the market factors merge, tipping in favor of a specific product service. Sales skyrocket and no one looks back. 

Online ordering may quickly be approaching its tipping point. For restaurants that do not yet have online ordering, now is the time to get a NetWaiter site. For those restaurants who already offer NetWaiter, you’re already on the right path and riding the next big wave of change for restaurants.

Consider the market factors that have led to this tipping point…

The Consumer. Each year the percentage of consumers, aged 18 to 34, who indicate that they would order takeout or delivery on a mobile device goes up. The latest figure is 74%. Just a few years ago that number was below 50%.

The Technology. More than half of the mobile devices in use are smartphones, capable of accessing the internet and placing online orders. Public Wi-Fi is commonplace, and 3G and 4G runs things at breakneck speed. Placing orders online, not just by mobile, but tablet, laptop or desktop, is virtually flawless, and will only get better.

The Marketplace. It is estimated that the totality of mobile payments will top $720 billion/year by 2017, most of that being driven by the largest generation and demographic – the Millennials - which, not by surprise, is also the largest demographic who use online ordering.

The Capabilities. NetWaiter does much more than process online orders. The NetWaiter Management Console allows you to collect and analyze data, target customers, and send them special offers.

Remember the 2013 Super Bowl and the 34-minute power failure? It has a special place in football history. 

It was also a legendary moment in marketing. Somewhere in those thirty-four minutes, the marketing guru’s for Oreo tweeted a simple graphic—a photo of an Oreo cookie on a semi-darkened screen and the words “You can still dunk in the dark.”

It’s called moment marketing – marketing that takes advantage of unique circumstances. What if your restaurant, during that power failure, had tweeted, “You can still order online in the dark, and we deliver in case the lights come back on.” It would likely bring your NetWaiter online ordering site some action. 

But how can you prepare for moment marketing?  Here are some tips:

Have a plan. We just concluded the Olympics, a true global event. Imagine sending your customers a message in Facebook or Twitter—“Need a pizza to get you through the lady’s figure skating finals?” or, “How about celebrating the U.S. sinking the Russian hockey team with one of our submarine sandwiches?” If you prepare for an event, when the unexpected happens, you’re that much closer to being ready to pounce. 

Choose the best channel. Email might not be the best vehicle to reach folks during a weekend event. It is primarily a business tool, and after hours and outside of work, people are not as tuned into it. Facebook or Twitter are more appropriate. In the middle of a weekday, though, email might well be the best way to reach someone. 

Be authentic. Be part of what’s happening. If you can make people laugh with the cleverness of your promotion, you are apt to be more successful. Oreo didn’t send out an ad for their cookies. They suggested that their cookies would be appropriate for the moment, and they did it in a humorous way.

A recent study shows the branding advantage of a mobile site, especially for a restaurant. 

Consider these facts:

• Consumers attach to a brand faster using mobile devices than anything else, because they hold the device in their hands, as opposed looking at a computer screen or television.  They make it a part of their identity, and therefore, trust it more (the study calls it psycho-haptic — “what I touch is real”). Amazing factoid: Studies report that 65% of mobile owners admit to sleeping with their device next to their bed.

• Choices to messages on a mobile device tend to be Yes or No, and responses come fast.  This is because mobile devices are designed, in part, to make things convenient and quick.  Amazing factoid: According to a Litmus study, entitled Email Analytics, as of December 2013, 51% of emails were opened by a mobile device.

• Branded content on a mobile device is more likely to get a positive response.  This goes back to how people take personal ownership of their mobile device, which is much more than a desktop or laptop computer. 

• Want to counter a couple of bad reviews on Yelp?  Spend a little money for a great mobile site.  Consumers are more likely to change their perception of a brand if the message or experience comes via a mobile device.  Remember, their device is their personal property.  They are emotionally attached to it.  It wouldn’t lie to them.

Customers resort to online searches, especially through their smartphones, to find restaurant information more and more these days.  Bad online information, however, can hurt you.  A recent industry study revealed that 68% of people are not likely to visit a restaurant, café, or bar after encountering incorrect online information about the business.

Here are a few tips about managing your restaurant’s online presence:

Know Where You Are Listed - The numerous online outlets—Yelp, Foursquare and others—enable customers to identify, rate, and comment on the restaurants they patronize.  Be sure to regularly search for your restaurant online.  If you find a place where you are not listed, check into what it takes to get listed.  More importantly, if you see incorrect information, have it fixed ASAP.

Know What Counts - The aforementioned study also said that 60% of consumers say the menu is the most important factor in selecting a restaurant online.  For all of your online listings, you can link customers to your custom NetWaiter menu.  It will be available to consumers online and via mobile.  Photos are good, too – a few pictures of your restaurant (inside and out) are helpful selling tools.

Keep Online Information Updated - Remember, nobody likes a restaurant with bad or outdated online information.  Check and update your information regularly.  And most importantly:

Make sure your restaurant’s online ordering capabilities via NetWaiter are prominent - The quicker you can get customers to your online ordering site and placing their order, the better your bottom line will be. 

Where are you?  It’s the underlying question when asking customers for their delivery address.  The problem is - people aren’t always at an exact address.

A recent article in the New York Times chronicles the growing trend of restaurants delivering not only to homes and offices, but often to places with no address.  This included someone waiting in his car in the Upper West Side of Manhattan (he ordered breakfast delivered to his car), a public beach, and even a local neighborhood playground.

These unique delivery locations are a natural progression to an industry that is making it increasingly easier to order takeout and have it delivered.  These are also the types of takeout dining experiences that customers will talk about through social media and word-of-mouth: “Just had Chinese food ordered to a park bench #awesome #nolongerhungry” (with a picture of their orange chicken included) 

With NetWaiter’s online ordering system, customers ordering delivery can enter special instructions regarding their delivery order.  When an interesting delivery request is made, embrace the challenge, make the delivery, and tout your capabilities on your own Facebook and Twitter steams (protecting your customer’s identity, of course).  Word will get around.

Some interesting and funny requests just from this week:

• “Grove Arcade but outside on O'Henry Ave between Barber and Printville - directly in front of the loading zone and covered in roof construction scaffolding. Have a midget dog who will bark at you when you come inside office.”
• “I'm on the roof. Please ask doorman to call my cell (xxx-xxx-xxxx) when you arrive. Thanks!”

Does your restaurant have any funny or interesting delivery requests/stories?  We’d love to hear them.

One of the things we like to do at NetWaiter is provide restaurants as much information as possible about the benefits of adding online ordering to your business plan.  A version of the following article recently appeared in Restaurant Hospitality Magazine.

A 30% boost in your takeout business within a matter of weeks.  What restaurant owner would not want that?

Those are the kinds of success stories we hear over and over from restaurateurs who have made online ordering part of their marketing plan.

Every day, restaurant owners are confronted with the costs of doing business.  The fixed expenses and staples are no brainers – rent, utilities, payroll for a great staff, the cost of quality food, etc.  The more difficult expenditures are discretionary ones like marketing. Where can a restaurant spend to get the best ROI?  Owners are bombarded with choices daily.

When asked, many successful restaurant owners have a similar response: “Online ordering has been one of our most profitable investments.  NetWaiter should be at the top of every restaurant’s to-do list if they don’t already have it.”

Companies such as NetWaiter offer a fully branded online ordering service through a restaurant’s website (a NetWaiter site can be customized with the look and brand the restaurant).  Customers order in seconds from an online menu.  They can make special requests, indicate future delivery or pickup times, and even make payments (NetWaiter electronically deposits the money to the restaurant immediately).  Custom delivery zones can be set by the restaurant (if they offer delivery), or customers can come in and pick up their order.  

The benefit to customers is convenience. They can order from anywhere (desktop, iPad, Smartphone, etc.). Imagine a mother getting off work. While still in the parking lot, she can order dinner from a restaurant and pick it up on her way home.  There is also the control given to the customer. Since they placed the order, there is less chance of error.  Customers who use online ordering typically use it again and again, quickly becoming regular customers.

Customized online ordering is a game changer for restaurants.  Using a restaurant portal that promotes online ordering for a variety of restaurants is very expensive (10-20%+).  Online ordering via a custom ordering site, such as NetWaiter, creates more business and is significantly more cost effective.  In addition, restaurants get a great tool that builds loyalty and extends and strengthens their brand.  Some NetWaiter clients even have ROIs in excess of 7,800% (the average is closer to 2,000%).

Where can a restaurant get a better ROI with their marketing dollar than online ordering?  There are many marketing options available, but none can come close to the ROI of a custom online ordering site.

When they first came out, daily deals like Groupon swept across the industry.  Smart restaurateurs, however, realized them for what they were—a trap.  An article in The New York Times more than two years ago addressed the pitfalls of these services:  "The consumers were being told: You will never pay full price again.  The merchants were hearing: You are going to get new customers who will stick around and pay full price.  Disappointment was inevitable."

Years ago, a newspaper advertisement might have been a restaurant’s ‘go-to’ way to bring in business.  Readership has dropped significantly, though, and even when newspapers were widely read, buying an ad didn’t provide a very good ROI.  It’s very hard to measure the success of such an advertisement unless you offer a redeemable discount.  Those discounts, however, significantly impact the ROI of the advertisement. 

Even more modern and effective marketing and advertising opportunities, such as email, loyalty programs, text marketing, social media marketing, etc. (which are all certainly worthwhile to deploy) would have a hard time beating the ROI of online ordering.

According to a study and paper done by The School for Hospitality Leadership at Cornell University, one of the things that draws customers to online ordering is convenience.  Once they experience it, they use it again and again.  Plus, because NetWaiter is integrated with Facebook, it allows people to share their ordering experience with their friends.  The more people ordering online, the more people learn about the restaurant’s online ordering site.

The Bottom Line – Why would you not offer online ordering?  There is no replacement for a well-run online ordering system such as NetWaiter, which gives customers the control and convenience of ordering takeout and delivery online.  Other marketing opportunities can’t come close to the ROI an online ordering site can produce.  Just as our clients say – online ordering should be at the top of the list for every restaurant.