Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's face it, we live in a digital world and I don't think that's changing anytime soon because of that. Your website must do very specific things. It is an extension of your restaurant. It is an extension of the hospitality you provide. And for many, many diners and potential diners, it is the way they discover you. So your website must do very specific things to capture all of that traffic. On today's episode, 8 Do's and Don'ts, 8 things you can do right away to upgrade your website. It will take you a half an hour to get of these things done. Curious what they are? Stick around. I'm going to tell you what each of them are and how to do it. On today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:00:39] There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:01:03] Foreign.
[00:01:11] Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. I am your host here of the Restaurant Strategy podcast. We put out two episodes every single week. Mondays focus on operations, Thursdays focus on marketing. Because there are two sides of any successful restaurant business. The operations are interested in managing the profitability. And I believe that marketing has to do with growth. How do we get more people in the front door? How do we increase the frequency of visits? In case you don't know me, I wrote a book. It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. I give talks all over the country. I'm the founder of the P3 mastermind. It's a group coaching program specifically geared towards independent restaurant owners to help them increase the profitability of their restaurants. I also have a membership site. This has been going on for about two and a half years. And I'm just talking about in a more deliberate way now because I know how. I know how productive and constructive it can be. It's $97 a month, but you guys can get access to it free for a month. Here's the deal. You go in there, there are dozens and dozens of online videos. There's a resource bundle with templates, spreadsheets, workbooks, ebooks, all of that. We put out these playbooks. So they're a bunch of like, mini courses, mini videos, literally meant to teach. One little idea, one snippet, one tactic, one script. You watch them, you teach them to your staff. I know this program, this site works. It's called Restaurant.
[00:02:29] You get it free for the first month and Then at the end you cancel. You cancel whenever you want. Obviously. I hope you stick around because we do ask me anything sessions every month where you get to log on to zoom and ask me whatever you want to ask me. We do masterclasses. There's a lot of great reasons to be a part of the community, but there's no other better reason than right now. Through the end of the year, we're offering a free month just for you to come in and check it out. You're going to find that link in the Show Notes.
[00:02:56] What's the food cost for your third best selling entree? You don't know? With Margin Edge you could know instantly. Margin Edge is a complete restaurant management software that I like to recommend to all of the P3 members, all the clients I work with. Why? Because it helps them improve profitability. With Margin Edge, you just get to snap pictures of your invoices as they come in and you get real time data in every area of your business.
[00:03:21] You can see plate costs in real time. You get daily PNLs. Your inventory count sheets are automatically updated. It saves you a ton of time and lets you make informed decisions. So I got a client P3 member, gather brewing down outside of San Antonio. They started using Margin Edge a month after they joined my program and within one month of them bringing on Margin Edge, their food costs went from 38% to 28%. It was incredible savings. That's 10 points that drop straight to the bottom line. There's a reason I recommend Margin Edge to so many of the P3 members. It's because I know it works. If you're interested in learning more or you want to see how Gather brewing went from 38% to 28% food costs, head over to Marginedge.com chip. There's an incredible video there that talks about their story, talks about their journey with the platform. Again, Marginedge.com chip, see a really great see a really great story about the folks at Gather Brewing. Go do that now. Of course, that link is in the show notes.
[00:04:22] Okay, so today we're talking about website do's and don'ts. Your website is an extension of your restaurant and for many, many of your diners, this is where they really come to learn about you, discover you to, to online, to order online, and to book reservations. I'm going to share with you eight simple things. Eight do's and don'ts. Things you should do, things you shouldn't be doing on your website, to upgrade your website. And by the way, this isn't just My opinion, you go look at some of the big companies out there. McDonald's, Wendy's, Chipotle. You go look at Boca Restaurant, Group, Mena Restaurants. You look at Union Square Hospitality. There are. There are things that work, and they all do those things. So all we got to do is open our eyes, look at companies that are much bigger than we are, that have much bigger budgets than we do, and simply learn from them. I have learned from them. I have helped my clients implement so many of these, so many of these upgrades, and I'm gonna share with you many of these upgrades on today's episode. Again, eight things you can do right away to upgrade your website make a huge impact on your top line and bottom line. Without any further ado, let's dive right in. Number one, you need to understand the following phrase. Who's coming to your website?
[00:05:36] Where did they come from?
[00:05:38] What do they already know about you? What do they still need to know about you in order to take the action you need them to take?
[00:05:46] I'm going to repeat that because this is the first thing that you need to do. When it comes to your website. You must understand the following phrase, this sentence, who's coming to your website? Where do they come from? What do they already know about you? What do they still need to know about you in order to take the action you want them to take? When you understand that phrase, you will become laser focused with what's on your website, and you're going to cut everything else from your website.
[00:06:16] That's the foundation for how we begin thinking about a restaurant website in the year 2024. That leads us right into the second thing. Number two, have a clear call to action, right? You have to understand, right? Remember that sentence. Who's coming to your website? Where did they come from? What do they know about you? What do they still need to know about you in order to take the action you want them to take? You must understand what action you want them to take. And guess what? With restaurants, it's typically either one or the other. It's one of two things. You want them to place an order online, right? Which is give you money now or make a reservation, which means make an appointment to give you money later.
[00:06:55] Most restaurants, 99.999% of all restaurants out there, your call to action is one or the other. Book a reservation or order online.
[00:07:05] You simply need to know which of those two you want people to do. N PS the way you figure that out, because maybe you take reservations and you also do online ordering. Whatever is Your biggest revenue stream, your biggest revenue driver. So if you make the majority of your revenue through online and delivery, then it's order online. If you make the majority of your revenue through dine in right or pickup right, it's make a reservation, right? That's how you figure it out. It's one or the other. On your homepage, your logo needs to be prominently featured either in the upper left corner or center, center at the top.
[00:07:41] And then your call to action, your most prominent thing, the thing you want people to do, needs to be in the upper right corner. Again, either order online or book a reservation.
[00:07:53] Now, number three, you need to have a clear call to action, also in the center, center of the homepage, as they say, above the fold. So if you go to Mighty Quinn's, Mighty Quinn's Barbecue, their website, I'm gonna include the link in the show notes. This is probably my favorite restaurant website of all time. They've got their logo prominently featured in the upper left corner. A clear call to action in the upper right corner, and then another call to action, right. Fortifying the main call to action center, center. It is very simple and streamlined. Right?
[00:08:24] So those are the top three, and they have a lot to do with the homepage. That's your first impression. For many diners, it's their first impression of your restaurant. What do you want me to do is what most diners think when they get to the website, Right. And yeah, they're going to explore, they're going to learn more, they're going to check out the menu, they're going to make sure they understand where you are. They're going to look at your address, your hours, all of that. But through it all, they need to really understand and you need to be really clear on what you want them to do. If they get all the information they need in order to make a decision, you need to be really clear with what decision you need them to make.
[00:09:00] Number four, the fourth thing you need to do when it comes to optimizing a restaurant's website is you can't have a million different pages. So I said, Mighty Quinn's Barbecue, they're a brand that started here in New York City and they've now grown outside of the city. But again, check out their website. Look at their main navigation bar across the top. It is, again, very, very focused. It's order online, it's find a location, it's catering, it's franchise, and then menu. That's it. Almost everything there generates revenue for them. If they have a franchisee who Buys in, that gives them revenue. Catering gives them revenue, Online orders gives them revenue. Finding a location near them, that's revenue. The only one that isn't revenue generating is the menu. And that goes back to the initial question, right? Who's coming to your website? Where did they come from? What do they know about you? What do they still need to know about you? They want to know what's on the menu. They still need to understand what's on the menu in order to take the action that Mighty Quinns wants us to take. So again, understanding just those first four is so, so crucial. Gone are the days where a million different pages, right? Your gallery page, your story page, your pressing accolades, you're on and on. Nobody cares. Weave all of that information in throughout the website, throughout your homepage, right throughout the hours and location, throughout, on and on, throughout the website. You don't need a page dedicated to a gallery. There should be photos and videos all over the website. The website itself should be a gallery of your food, of your space, of your people, of your beverages. You don't need a separate page to take them to where they're just looking at beautiful pictures. It's ridiculous. Instead, you only take them to places where they will take action. Again, we're talking about eight things you need to do. Simple things you can do to upgrade your website. Those are the first four. We're gonna get to the next four after a word from another one of our sponsors.
[00:10:57] Now this episode is brought to you by seven Shifts. Running a restaurant is hard work, but managing your team doesn't have to be. If you're spending hours on scheduling and chasing your team down through text chains and emails, you need to check out 7Shifts, a team management platform built specifically for restaurants. With 7Shifts, you can create and publish schedules in minutes, communicate with your team and pay your employees, all in a single tool. 7Shifts helps your team make more profitable decisions, improve operating efficiency, and most importantly, it gives you time back in your day and right now. Now restaurant strategy podcast listeners can get three months free. To get started, visit 7shifts.com RestaurantStrategy. That's the number 7s-I f t s.com RestaurantStrategy to get three months of industry leading team management software for free. As always, that link is in the show notes.
[00:11:50] Now. Again, today we're talking about how to upgrade your website. The things that I think every restaurant website needs to do. I've narrowed it down to the most important eight things. Are there more we can do? Absolutely. But even if you just upgraded These eight things your website will fly. Already talked about the first four, the next four, right? Number five here. Do not take people away from a page where they can take action. Right? Don't pull them all over the place. Make sure you're taking them where you want to take them. Perfect example is on your private dining page. It should be laser focused with what you want them to do. So if you show them packages and pictures of your rooms and all of that, great. But you should be driving towards filling out an inquiry form or sending an email to get in touch with the private dining manager, whatever it is you want them to do. Once they look at the pictures and review the packages and they say this looks really great, we should go here. What are they supposed to do? That's why I don't like gallery pages. They go, they look at really beautiful pictures on and on and on. And what are they supposed to do? Menu. It's the danger with a menu page. And I've talked now about the mighty Quinn's Barbecue website. It's one of my favorite, probably my favorite restaurant website of all time. And if there's only one issue I take with that page is that once you view the menu and their menu page is outstanding. Really clear titles, beautiful pictures. The menu presents itself beautifully. But when I look at the pictures and I get hungry and I love the descriptions and I want to take action, it isn't immediately clear for me to do. So make sure it's very easy. Great example of this is the Gramercy Tavern website, their private dining page. I'm going to include that link in the show notes as well. Their private dining page is dialed in. There are clear calls to action straight down the page. So if you say, yes, this is great, I want to do this, it's very clear. You click a button and you move forward.
[00:13:43] Do not take people away from what you want them to do. Take them closer to what you want them to do. That's the fifth thing.
[00:13:51] Number six, this cannot be overstated. Your website must exist. Part of what it must do is capture data, capture email addresses in particular. You should have a capture in the footer. You should have a capture probably on like the hours and location or the contact page, if you have a contact page. And please, please put a pop up on your website that maybe when you're promoting, let's say Mother's Day or Thanksgiving dinner or New Year's Eve, great, the pop up ch changes to promote those events every single time in between the times when you're promoting those Other events, it should be an email capture, right? Sign up to receive exclusive invites, access and discounts throughout the year. Whatever it is, whatever you do to try to convince people to sign up, you need to try to convince people to sign up. And that pop up will help you garner, I don't know, 5, 10, 20 email addresses every single week without you even having to do anything. It will be all automatic. So make sure your website exists to Capture email addresses. Number 7. This is a little thing, but it's so easy to do. Don't have home in the navigation bar, right? So the main navigation bar where it says menu and hours and location and catering and private dining where you take people to all the different pages on your website.
[00:15:10] Don't put home in that navigation. Everyone knows that now in the year 2024, if you click on the logo, that will pretty much always take you home. And if your logo isn't clickable, make it clickable so it takes you home. Most people know that it's intuitive, it's redundant to put home. It's just one more button for someone to press. It's one more thing for someone to read rather than some of the other stuff that you actually want them to read, the things that you want them to take action on. So it's a simple thing. It's so stupid. But take home out of the navigation bar finally. Then the eighth thing and again, we could go on and on and on and on. These are just your first eight things. Some of the most powerful things you can do literally right away.
[00:15:51] Don't ever, ever, ever promote the third party delivery sites on your own website. You should have online ordering. If you have pickup and delivery available, you should have online ordering available on your website. They got to your website somehow. Either they heard about you, they found you on social media, they googled you, they got to your website, they got where you want them to get. Do not send them away to a platform where you're going to pay a 30% commission. It's absolutely ridiculous. Don't do it. If that's on your website, scrub it right now and place an online ordering portal. Now most POS systems have an online ordering available and then there's all kinds of other, all kinds of other platforms, like a chowie, like a lunchbox, on and on and on, things that you can use. Do not ever promote your third party websites on your own website. Only promote your own online ordering. To that end, don't overly promote your social media pages on your website.
[00:16:51] Both the third party delivery sites and your Social media pages exist to try to bring traffic to the website. They have landed at the final destination, right? Think of it like aliens, the mothership. Your website is the mothership. And then you got a whole bunch of UFOs that you send out across the galaxy to bring people back. Your social media sites, your third party deliveries, your Google, your TripAdvisor, your Foursquare, all of that exists to drive traffic back to your website.
[00:17:19] Don't give it away. Of course you can have something maybe way down in the footer that promotes your social media pages. So if people want to go learn more, see more pictures, check out more about your restaurant, they can do that. But really, you don't want to drive traffic away from your website. You've worked so hard to drive traffic to your website and I know you want to say, oh, we're really proud of our Facebook, proud of our Instagram, all of that. It doesn't matter. You want to capture revenue, your website exists to either capture an online order or to capture a reservation, one or the other. And going to check out your Instagram page does not accomplish either of those things. So again, be really clear on the action you want people to take and make sure that everything else, everything else is scrubbed and taken down so that we can focus the user on taking the action you want them to take. Those are the eight things really quickly. Let's go through them again.
[00:18:09] Number one, you got to understand that phrase, that sentence. Where do people come from?
[00:18:14] What do they already know about you? What do they need to know about you in order to take the action you need them to take? Right?
[00:18:24] That's key. That drives right to the call to action. You need a clear call to action in the upper right corner, that's number two.
[00:18:31] Center. Center needs a clear call to action on the homepage. Number four, don't have a million different pages. Number five, make sure every page is a clear call to action so you're not taking people away to a gallery page, to a menu page, to a page where they can't take action if you take them to a menu page. Make sure throughout the page there are calls to action to book a reservation or to place an online order. If you like what you're seeing, then book now. If you like what you're seeing, order now.
[00:18:57] Number six, right, make sure you're capturing emails in the footer and in the pop up, maybe on a contact page or an hours in location page. Take the home out of your navigation bar. Everyone knows that the logo will take you back home. And finally, 8 don't promote. Don't promote third party websites on your website. Don't overly promote your social media pages. Those pages exist to drive traffic here rather than the other way around. This is a shorty episode. I want this to be power packed. I want it to be very actionable. Take action on those eight things. You will supercharge your website. That's what I wanted to talk about. One final reminder. I wrote a book. It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. If you didn't know, now you know. I'm incredibly proud of the book. It's mercifully short. It's a series of mindset shifts. It will change the way you think about how you approach your marketing. Again, it's very actionable. It takes a strategic approach to how you should think about your marketing. It's available on our website therestaurantmarketingmindset.com that link is in the Show Notes. You can can also get it on Amazon or just about anywhere you get your books online.
[00:19:59] I'm incredibly proud of the book. I would love your support. Go buy the book. All those links are in the Show Notes. I appreciate you guys. Thank you very much and I will see you next time.
[00:20:27] Sa.
[00:20:56] Sam.
