To create a marketing strategy for a vegan restaurant you must cater your promotional efforts to your target audience by displaying your delicious food, showcasing your values, creating a strong online presence, and taking advantage of useful technology.
In this article, you will find a step-by-step guide on how to create the most efficient marketing strategy for your vegan restaurant. Don’t miss out on the actionable tips that can take your business to the next level!
How to create a marketing strategy for a vegan restaurant
How do you promote vegan food? What is the market trend for veganism? Who is the target audience for veganism? Find the answer to these questions and many others below.
1.Define your brand
Before you start creating a marketing strategy for a vegan restaurant, you must define your business. What are your values? What is your goal when opening a vegan place? Why is your vegan restaurant special?
Check out these vegan restaurant mission statement examples:
- Exclusively plant-based cuisine and a vibrant vegan dining experience that welcomes everyone;
- We welcome you on a flavor journey that supports environmentally sustainability and conscious living;
- Discover the textures and flavors of nature at our exclusively vegan restaurant that respects the environment.
By answering these questions, you will be able to more accurately create the items that define your brand:
- Brand persona and voice: if your restaurant was a person, how would they act? You need to settle on a tone of voice because you will be using it on all communication channels;
- Logo: collaborate with an illustrator to create a logo that perfectly represents your business and is easy to remember;
- Colors: to convey you own a vegan illustrator, you should use green or brown in your promotional materials.
Read more: 12 Restaurant Branding Ideas to Build a Memorable Presence
2. Identify the target market for your vegan restaurant
The majority of vegans are younger, between 18 and 34 years old. But if you want to attract customers to your restaurant, you need to know more about your target audience than just age. You must find out:
- Demographics
- Relationship status
- Food preferences
- Food budget
You can identify your target market by doing market research and analyzing your direct competitors. People who already visit other vegan restaurants are the ones that are more likely to become your customers too.
Here is an example of a target market for a vegan restaurant:
- People between 18-34, middle class, like to eat out 3 times a week, are willing to spend $60 per meal, often go out to eat with friends.
Read more: Restaurant Target Market: How to Identify It and Why It Is Important for Your Business
3. Get a sales and SEO-optimized website
The most efficient marketing strategy should always start with an SEO-optimized website that will help you increase online visibility and attract new customers. The website will be your online location where people can find out more about your story and menu items.
If you want to get the most benefits with the least effort, use the restaurant website builder from GloriaFood to create your perfect vegan restaurant website. It will only take you 10 minutes to create:
You will receive an already sales and SEO-optimized website that will help you rank high in relevant searches where interested customers will find you. The design is also created to help you earn more with a sticky and visible order button placed above the fold that immediately draws attention.
4. Enable online ordering
What is the goal of a marketing strategy for a vegan restaurant? To bring in more customers and increase sales! To facilitate this, you also need to take advantage of all the technology at your disposal.
Pair your sales-optimized website with the best free online ordering system from GloriaFood! This way, people who find your website will be able to instantly place an order, no extra added steps.
You only need 10 free minutes to create a profile and publish the online ordering system. Start now and enjoy the extra revenue generator:
5. Mark your menu items as vegan
When you open a vegan restaurant, you must make it immediately visible to customers that your items are suitable for a vegan diet. While customers could look over the ingredients, it will be easier if you had a simple marker near each dish signaling that it is vegan.
The good news is that you can easily do that if you use the online menu builder from GloriaFood. In just a few clicks you can label your menu items as any of the following: “Hot, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free, Halal, Nut-free, Dairy-free or Raw.”
6. Build a strong social media presence
No marketing strategy for a vegan restaurant is complete without social media. Not only is it free to use but it allows you to build a strong relationship with your customers that encourages loyalty.
Focus on this when posting on social media:
- Storytelling: draw people in by telling the story of your restaurant and values. Why did you start the restaurant? What is different about your business? What benefits are you offering clients?
- Striking visuals: learn more about food photography or hire a photographer to showcase your delicious food, its colors and textures. Strive to make people’s mouth water;
- Provoke engagement: with questions in captions and stories. Reply to comments and messages and show people you care about their involvement;
- Link to your menu: GloriaFood provides a personalized link that you can copy and paste in your social media bios and captions. This will lead clients directly to your menu where they can place orders.
Read more: How to Attract More Customers to Your Restaurant Using Social Media
7. Try targeted advertising
Not every person in your location will become your client. To make the most out of your money, you need to cater the marketing strategy for your vegan restaurant only to potential customers.
This is especially true if you decide to invest in targeted advertising:
- Social media ads: you can select specific demographics, interests, and locations when you choose who to show your ads to;
- Google ads: target people who are looking for vegan restaurants in your area;
- Email marketing campaigns: to help you get more loyal customers. Use the Autopilot module from GloriaFood to create personalized emails according to purchasing history. You will be able to reengage clients, prevent cart abandonment, and get more return customers.
8. Encourage reviews
Most people search for online reviews before visiting or ordering from a new restaurant. The more positive reviews you have, the higher the chance people will give your business a try.
If you want to increase your reputation, you need to create an account on all review platforms in your area, such as Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor, or Yelp. When you are just starting out, you can also offer people freebies in exchange for a positive review.
Moreover, you can also add the GloriaFood ordering link in your profile’s description so clients can order immediately after they are convinced by the good reviews.
Read more: The Importance of Online Reviews for Restaurants & How to Get More
9. Contact influencers
At the start, you will not have access to a big audience that you can turn into customers. But you know who has a big audience? Food influencers! Contact vegan food influencers in your area and invite them for a collaboration.
The people that follow them trust their opinion, so if the influencers recommend your vegan restaurant, you are bound to have a lot of new customers!
Read more: Restaurant Influencer Marketing Guide: Tips for a Successful Collaboration
10. Collaborate with other local vegan businesses
Another important point of the marketing strategy for a vegan restaurant should be building relationships in your community. This will not only give you access to a new audience, but it will also help you become a known name in your location.
Seek out health food stores and vegan product brands to settle on a collaboration that will be beneficial for both businesses. For example, you can have an event at your restaurant where you create exclusive menu items incorporating local vegan products.
Final words
Now that you have the knowledge on how to create a marketing strategy for a vegan restaurant, it is time to apply the valuable tips provided here to your business. Take advantage of all the GloriaFood solutions to take your business to the next level.
