After a hard day’s work, long commute and house chores, it is easy to understand why so many people are turning to the likes of Deliveroo, UberEats and JustEat to provide them with a delicious & varied meal. In such a busy world, convenience is key. Fast and easy food delivery platforms have claimed an essential role in modern society and their services are here to stay. It is no surprise to hear that there was a predicted spend of £656 million by UK customers on food delivery orders in 2019.
Consumer tastes have really changed over the last decade. Whilst more traditional takeaways remain popular, consumers also want the option to enjoy top restaurant food in the comfort of their own homes. Thanks to the rise in digital technology, consumers can now order from a variety of different restaurants with a few taps on their device. From phone to front door, delivery services have transformed lunch and dinner time. Once considered a night-out treat, tucking into your favourite restaurant’s food at home is now the norm.
For restaurants, the link between social media and food delivery is clear to see. Indeed, 73% of all Deliveroo users utilise mobile to make their orders. Tapping in this market presents a huge opportunity for any restaurant who operate a delivery service. Here, we explain in 4 easy steps, how to drive restaurant deliveries through your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts.
1. Target the right audience at the right time.
Posting to the right audience at the right time is key. Produced some amazing delivery posts? Great! You need to make sure that these posts are seen by your target audience, otherwise, they will not be successful. If you are focusing on lunchtime trade, post at lunchtime and if you are focusing on evening trade, post in the evening – simple enough! To narrow this down even more, you want to target at the times when your target audience are most likely to be scrolling on their phones and thinking about their lunch/dinner. Workers may plan their dinners when they are on their work break around 1pm. Even better, they will most likely be on social media and feeling hungry on their commute home around 5pm.
Similarly, running targeted ads will increase awareness and bring in new potential customers.
You can geotarget your ads to the relevant audience by targeting the postcodes that you deliver to. Additionally, you can also target interests – In this case, it would be food lovers. For example, if you are a Mexican restaurant, you can target Mexican loving foodies who live in the delivery catchment zone. These ads can pay off. Indeed, you can set up ads that direct people to the booking page of the delivery app and only pay when someone makes a click.
If you really want to benefit from running ads, you can go one step further and test which delivery platforms people react best with on social media. For our clients, its usually UberEats. Overall, UberEats operate a better interface than JustEat and are usually cheaper than Deliveroo – who charge the highest commission rates.
2. Make it super easy for your followers to place an order.
Posting about your delivery channels at the right time is a great start to driving delivery sales. Alongside this, be sure to make it easy for followers to place an order. You need to provide the means for interested users to order a delivery quickly and without leaving the app. The best way to do this is through a simple link to your delivery service. Before attempting to this, you need to ensure that your account is a business profile. (As only business profiles can direct people to an external website!) Considering that you cannot add links to Instagram captions, having the link in the bio is even more important.
Once you have set that up, go to edit profile, select business information > contact options, tap to add an action button, select the button you want to add to your business profile, submit! Hungry customers will then be able to click on the link to be taken straight to your delivery service platform and submit their order.
If your profile has more than 10k followers, you can add a swipe up link on your delivery-specific stories. So, viewers simply have to swipe up on your story to be directed to the right place to make an order.
3. Provide an incentive.
It’s always a good idea to provide your followers and target audience with an incentive to order a delivery from your restaurant. The incentive does not necessarily have to be big or expensive. Offering a social-only discount like free delivery or a free side/drink will give customers a good reason to order a delivery from you that night or week. The exclusivity of a social-only discount is a great way to drive deliveries. Freebies are often the needed encouragement for wavering consumers to commit to an order. With so much variety available, discounts and freebies offer customers a financial reason to choose your restaurant over others.
4. Share delivery-focused content.
This may sound simple, but so many restaurants do not spend enough time posting about their delivery services. If you are on one of the major delivery platforms (Deliveroo, JustEat or UberEats), be sure to post about it regularly on your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account.
Take the time to produce delivery specific posts and stories. Post pictures of your food in delivery boxes on a sofa, bed or table to emphasise the convenience of ordering a takeaway from your restaurant. Putting the delivery partners iconic logo on your post will visibly tell customers where they can place an order.
A great way to produce engaging delivery content is to play on consumer culture in your captions. Is there a big TV or Netflix show premiering tonight? Or is there an important sports game kicking off? Maybe a long-anticipated video game has just been released. Relate the convenience of ordering from your restaurant rather than cooking to your target audience. During these events, consumers are likely to be surrounded be friends, in a good mood and not wanting to cook.
Your restaurant could also consider teaming up with influencers to increase awareness about deliveries further. In return for some free food, influencers can post snaps of them tucking into a delicious delivery from your restaurant. The message of a tasty and convenient takeaway is then spread to a new audience. If you are a smaller local restaurant, consider approaching a micro-influencer who boasts a loyal community of followers from a certain area. This will guarantee that their posts about your restaurant’s delivery service are presented to the right audience.
Conclusion
If your restaurant is aiming to drive delivery sales, social media is a great place to start. Take the time to post about your delivery service at the right times, provide the means for people to order and consider offering a small incentive. Implementing these 4 simple steps will spread awareness about your delivery services and convert into orders. If you would like some help with this, shoot us an email at mark@doubleupsocial.com!
Commentaires