SMM as the main element of the media mix for Panorama restaurants
+110%
increase in the number of "banquets"
+49%
increase in visitors to the "business lunch"
Project Timeline
1
December 2017
Conclusion of a contract and launch of marketing campaigns per brand traffic
2
February 2018
Start of campaigns per thematic requests
3
June 2018
Summary of results and connecting automation systems
4
Present
Analytical support, search promotion and support of advertising campaigns
About the Customer
Panorama is a restaurant complex. It includes two restaurants - Odessa and the Caucasian Courtyard (Kavkazskiy Dvorik). It dates back to the early 70s of the XX century. The restaurant is located in the industrial area of a large regional center. In the 90s and 2000s, it enjoyed stable business. However, the past few years were not as profitable.
Task
The client contacted R52.RU with the following objectives:
Increase customer flow
It was necessary to attract new customers to the restaurant complex through the website and with the help of other online marketing tools. Particular attention should have been paid to promoting services for organizing large-scale events (30 or more guests).
Expanding and rejuvenating the target audience
Engaging of 27-35 year olds.
Setting communication channels
We had to launch new online communication channels with potential and existing customers.
Predesign Analysis
Market situation
Stagnation, which began in 2014, directly affected the restaurant business. Due to the general decrease of personal income, eating out became too expensive for many customers, although some adaptation to new circumstances and prices has been noted since mid-2016.
There is a growing trend in the formats of "noble fast food", such as burger-serving places, monoproduct diners, etc.
At the same time, the "cult of healthy eating" trend has been developing: in recent years, the number of eating-houses offering vegetarian dishes has grown. Places with national cuisine remain in demand, and Pan-Asian dishes are becoming more popular.
Obviously, classic restaurants are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with trendy, modern, and inexpensive formats.
There is a growing trend in the formats of "noble fast food", such as burger-serving places, monoproduct diners, etc.
At the same time, the "cult of healthy eating" trend has been developing: in recent years, the number of eating-houses offering vegetarian dishes has grown. Places with national cuisine remain in demand, and Pan-Asian dishes are becoming more popular.
Obviously, classic restaurants are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with trendy, modern, and inexpensive formats.
Competitive advantages and weaknesses of Panorama Restaurant Complex
Odessa Restaurant
This is a classic restaurant, which has one of the largest banquet rooms in the city. Perfect for celebrations, corporate parties and organization of photo shoots.
Benefits:
- quality cuisine and service;
- 4 halls for 250, 70, 65 and 12 guests;
- affordable average check in comparison with places of a similar level (in the city);
- halls for events (weddings, anniversaries, etc.);
- classic interiors of halls;
- large parking space;
- buffet style business lunch;
- off premise catering.
Weaknesses:
- located far from the city center where the majority of cash people are.
- lack of a unique feature that could attract a new audience.
Caucasian Courtyard Restaurant (Kavkazskiy Dvorik)
Caucasian Courtyard is an ethnic restaurant, with the menu based on cuisine of Caucasus and meat dishes. On weekends, the guests can enjoy live music.
Benefits:
- ethnic cuisine;
- 3 halls for 70, 35 and 24 guests;
- an average check is lower than that of competitors;
- live music;
- large parking space.
Weaknesses:
- location away from the city center;
- no summer outdoor area.
This is a classic restaurant, which has one of the largest banquet rooms in the city. Perfect for celebrations, corporate parties and organization of photo shoots.
Benefits:
- quality cuisine and service;
- 4 halls for 250, 70, 65 and 12 guests;
- affordable average check in comparison with places of a similar level (in the city);
- halls for events (weddings, anniversaries, etc.);
- classic interiors of halls;
- large parking space;
- buffet style business lunch;
- off premise catering.
Weaknesses:
- located far from the city center where the majority of cash people are.
- lack of a unique feature that could attract a new audience.
Caucasian Courtyard Restaurant (Kavkazskiy Dvorik)
Caucasian Courtyard is an ethnic restaurant, with the menu based on cuisine of Caucasus and meat dishes. On weekends, the guests can enjoy live music.
Benefits:
- ethnic cuisine;
- 3 halls for 70, 35 and 24 guests;
- an average check is lower than that of competitors;
- live music;
- large parking space.
Weaknesses:
- location away from the city center;
- no summer outdoor area.
Representation on the Web and traffic sources at the start of the project
- The restaurant complex is represented by landing pages of a unified website. The website does not meet modern requirements to design and convenience. Landing pages are uninformative and do not focus on the available benefits. In addition, the website is not adaptive, which creates more difficulties in attracting audience that uses mobile devices. Conversions from organic search occur mainly on vital requests. Wordstat.yandex.ru reflects a slight decrease in demand over the past year.
- Social networks are not utilized at the fullest extent. VK and Facebook pages have been created but ''abandoned" (spam on the community wall, unwanted comments, etc.). Published guest reviews remain unanswered. The number of transfers to the website from social networks does not exceed 10 per month.
- Work with platforms where potential customers can find necessary reviews (forums, portals, etc.) is not carried out systematically; in fact, no qualified work with negative feedback has been performed. Many catalogs are not included, especially the thematic ones (for example, a wedding catalogue).
- Contextual advertising is used irregularly and inefficiently, incorrectly selected key phrases provoke many inappropriate visits and useless spending of advertising budgets.
- The analytics was configured incorrectly, so it was impossible to perform an objective assessment of the website efficiency.
- Social networks are not utilized at the fullest extent. VK and Facebook pages have been created but ''abandoned" (spam on the community wall, unwanted comments, etc.). Published guest reviews remain unanswered. The number of transfers to the website from social networks does not exceed 10 per month.
- Work with platforms where potential customers can find necessary reviews (forums, portals, etc.) is not carried out systematically; in fact, no qualified work with negative feedback has been performed. Many catalogs are not included, especially the thematic ones (for example, a wedding catalogue).
- Contextual advertising is used irregularly and inefficiently, incorrectly selected key phrases provoke many inappropriate visits and useless spending of advertising budgets.
- The analytics was configured incorrectly, so it was impossible to perform an objective assessment of the website efficiency.
Customer Portrait
To develop an Internet marketing strategy and select additional advertising channels, the current consumers of the restaurant were analyzed. Based on the results of several meetings with the customer and analysis of demand, the main groups with various characteristics (gender, age, geography, interests, etc.) were identified.
- Regular customers, who live in different parts of the city, have been loyal to the restaurant for a long time. The prevailing group of customers are people 40+ years old. These people prefer comfort, high-quality traditional cuisine, perfect service, and an audience of the same age group.
- Customers wishing to rent a hall for a wedding party (both the guests of honor and their parents who organize the wedding).
- PR-managers, event-managers and professional organizers of festive events (corporate parties, holidays, birthdays, etc.).
- Employees of nearby institutions and organizations usually come to a business lunch.
- Regular customers, who live in different parts of the city, have been loyal to the restaurant for a long time. The prevailing group of customers are people 40+ years old. These people prefer comfort, high-quality traditional cuisine, perfect service, and an audience of the same age group.
- Customers wishing to rent a hall for a wedding party (both the guests of honor and their parents who organize the wedding).
- PR-managers, event-managers and professional organizers of festive events (corporate parties, holidays, birthdays, etc.).
- Employees of nearby institutions and organizations usually come to a business lunch.
Conclusions
-1-
Traditional
benefits
benefits
In promotion, it was necessary to focus on the traditional advantages of restaurants - product quality, service, history and atmosphere.
-2-
Additional
services
services
It was necessary to boost up promotion of additional services that could be presented as icing on the cake
-3-
Work
with audiences
with audiences
For each category of audience, to implement their own promotion strategy, based on the key factors that influence decision making.
Preparatory
work
work
Definition of key services
Based on the analysis results and taking into account specifics and characteristics of the place, the main areas for work were identified:
- Wedding parties
- Corporate parties
- Anniversaries and birthdays
- Business lunches
- Funeral dinners
- Catering
- Wedding parties
- Corporate parties
- Anniversaries and birthdays
- Business lunches
- Funeral dinners
- Catering
Advertising channels
Promotion in social media (SMM) was in this very case one of the best promotion tools that would ensure necessary interaction with the target audience, bring new visitors, and maintain interest of regular guests (user content, promotions, giveaways, etc.).
- Unfortunately, search promotion (SEO) for this field would not give a quick result due to the large number of portals and aggregators in search results, where a single restaurant website could not compete, however, attracting customers from organic search was not to be completely discounted.
- Contextual advertising against the background of highly competitive organic search and the seasonality factor were, most probably, the main source of traffic to the website. The maximum coverage was to be obtained by using both the direct advertising and fine-tuned context ads.
- Content marketing - use of thematic portals, forums and aggregators as alternative advertising channels in order to operate on the principle of word of mouth and to generate additional traffic to the website.
- Unfortunately, search promotion (SEO) for this field would not give a quick result due to the large number of portals and aggregators in search results, where a single restaurant website could not compete, however, attracting customers from organic search was not to be completely discounted.
- Contextual advertising against the background of highly competitive organic search and the seasonality factor were, most probably, the main source of traffic to the website. The maximum coverage was to be obtained by using both the direct advertising and fine-tuned context ads.
- Content marketing - use of thematic portals, forums and aggregators as alternative advertising channels in order to operate on the principle of word of mouth and to generate additional traffic to the website.
Technical work and landing pages
At the first stage of our analysis, the customer was offered a new adaptive website, that we were willing to create, but the client was not ready for significant investments. Therefore, a one-time optimization of the structure and content of the website was carried out in order to attract targeted traffic from search engines per thematic queries. Textual and graphic information was added, and gross technical errors were corrected.
In order to increase the conversion capabilities of the website, thematic adaptive landing pages have been developed for the main areas (key services):
- restaurants and halls of Panorama restaurant complex became available for selection;
- wedding parties;
- banquets;
- funeral dinners;
- business lunches
- catering and off-premises service.
In order to increase the conversion capabilities of the website, thematic adaptive landing pages have been developed for the main areas (key services):
- restaurants and halls of Panorama restaurant complex became available for selection;
- wedding parties;
- banquets;
- funeral dinners;
- business lunches
- catering and off-premises service.
Analytics Setup
- Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics were installed and configured.
- Call-tracking and email-tracking were configured to get a clear understanding of advertising channels efficiency, as well as to check the quality of processing calls and applications.
- Callback service was connected.
-Facebook and VK pixels were added.
- Event goals were set up: sending a question, downloading a menu, calling from the website.
- Retargeting goals were set up: viewing more than 5 pages, time spent on the website (exceeding 1 minute), scrolling more than 70% of the page.
- Call-tracking and email-tracking were configured to get a clear understanding of advertising channels efficiency, as well as to check the quality of processing calls and applications.
- Callback service was connected.
-Facebook and VK pixels were added.
- Event goals were set up: sending a question, downloading a menu, calling from the website.
- Retargeting goals were set up: viewing more than 5 pages, time spent on the website (exceeding 1 minute), scrolling more than 70% of the page.
Brand promotion and advertising
Simultaneous work was carried out in several directions:
- social networks and contextual advertising,
- thematic platforms and analytics
- social networks and contextual advertising,
- thematic platforms and analytics
1
Promotion in social media
Preparation to incoming traffic
Updated information on the restaurant in social media included the following:
- redesign of existing VK and Facebook groups; representative offices were decorated in the uniform style;
- the basic information about the restaurant complex was re-written;
- spam and other people's ads from the news feeds were deleted.
- redesign of existing VK and Facebook groups; representative offices were decorated in the uniform style;
- the basic information about the restaurant complex was re-written;
- spam and other people's ads from the news feeds were deleted.
Audience segmentation by platforms
Given the identified major groups of existing and desired consumers, it was decided to focus VK and Facebook pages on different topics, depending on the primary audience.
- VK: more attention was paid to wedding topics and corporate events;
- Facebook: promotion of services related to organization and holding of banquets (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.), as well as business lunches.
- VK: more attention was paid to wedding topics and corporate events;
- Facebook: promotion of services related to organization and holding of banquets (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.), as well as business lunches.
Long-term content
plan
plan
A content plan for groups and pages of restaurants was compiled. In order to increase loyalty and trust, we started to post about employees of the place: interviews and stories about cooks, sommeliers, waiters/waitresses, as well as photos of events, unusual dishes, and original recipes.
In addition, user content was actively included: - photographs from the personal pages of guests with a nice description of services or events.
In addition, user content was actively included: - photographs from the personal pages of guests with a nice description of services or events.
Targeted ads and landing pages
Targeted advertising campaigns were configured and launched. Traffic was sent to landing pages, where information about the service was graphically presented. The key services advertised on social networks were business lunches, banquets and catering.
A support complex was launched in the comments
The work on timely response to user requests on social media has been established, and the client response procedure has been developed and implemented.
Social Media
Promotion Results
Promotion Results
The following advertising formats showed the greatest effect:
- news feed posts,
- advertising in popular regional communities,
- Facebook banner ads.
On average, starting in the second half of 2017, 450 interested users were redirected to social networks and landing pages each month, and in 2018 this number reached 515 people. The number of requests to the community administrator with the questions regarding cost of a banquet or booking a hall was constantly growing.
- news feed posts,
- advertising in popular regional communities,
- Facebook banner ads.
On average, starting in the second half of 2017, 450 interested users were redirected to social networks and landing pages each month, and in 2018 this number reached 515 people. The number of requests to the community administrator with the questions regarding cost of a banquet or booking a hall was constantly growing.
2
Contextual advertising
Errors of previous advertising campaigns were identified and corrected: the number of poor-quality clicks was minimized by adding negative keywords and excluding automatically added phrases.
We used both search advertising and advertising in Yandex Network and Google Display Network.
Configured Retargeting
Division of the target audience into segments made it possible to effectively track their behavior.
The contextual advertising strategy in Yandex.Direct and Google Adwords was built up taking into account seasonality and the needs of the target audience.
We used both search advertising and advertising in Yandex Network and Google Display Network.
Configured Retargeting
Division of the target audience into segments made it possible to effectively track their behavior.
The contextual advertising strategy in Yandex.Direct and Google Adwords was built up taking into account seasonality and the needs of the target audience.
December 2017
Advertising was carried out mainly for those users who were familiar with Panorama Restaurant Complex and would like to spend time in the New Year and January holidays at a comfortable restaurant. Corporate events were advertised taking into account data on vacancy of banquet rooms, which saved the budget significantly.
January 2018
As of January 10, 2018 a business lunch advertisement with geo-targeting was launched.
February 2018
In February, wedding and anniversary parties were actively promoted.
April 2018
In April, active advertising of catering, organization of picnics and outdoor banquets was added.
June 2018
By June, all possible channels for attracting traffic had been worked out and sufficient statistics had been accumulated. Therefore, it was decided to connect Marilyn contextual advertising automation system. The system allowed to accumulate statistics on macro- and micro-conversions and to automatically manage bids depending on a keyword effectiveness.
| The following events served as microconversions: - downloading price lists, - time spent on the site, - scrolling of the receiving page, - visiting the Contacts page The following events served as macroconversions: calls and requests from feedback forms on the website pages. |
Contextual
Advertising
Results
Advertising
Results
The number of conversions to themed landing pages from contextual advertising reached 650 per month. The conversion to calls and feedback from feedback forms was 8.92%.
There was a decrease in the average cost per click by 27.4% and a decrease in the cost of macro conversions by 23.8%
Due to the diversification of advertising campaigns, it became possible to avoid sharp seasonal fluctuations in demand (for example, in January and July).
There was a decrease in the average cost per click by 27.4% and a decrease in the cost of macro conversions by 23.8%
Due to the diversification of advertising campaigns, it became possible to avoid sharp seasonal fluctuations in demand (for example, in January and July).
3
Work with additional
sources
sources
Work with platforms
Restaurant pages were created in thematic catalogs. The main platforms were monitored monthly for references to the restaurants. Work has been launched to identify negative feedback, to clarify its causes and sources, and to promptly respond and neutralize it.
Work with the media
A series of publications has been organized regarding the restaurant complex in business and public press of the region.
4
Campaign Analytical Support
The analyst's task was to collect data on all channels for attracting customers, study interaction of these channels, interpret data, and develop recommendations on efficiency of
campaigns.
campaigns.
The following are examples of analysts' influence on decision making during the campaigns.
Implementation of call tracking and round-the-clock monitoring of requests from the website and social networks resulted in:
- changing business hours of restaurant administrators from noon to 10 a.m.
- development of procedure and scripts of conversations with potential customers for administrators;
As a result, the number of answered calls and the quality of processing of incoming applications by restaurant administrators have significantly increased.
During the period from January to May, the total number of requests from the website and social networks was not meeting expectations of the customer, which caused natural concern.
Below is the statistics of incoming calls from the host pages for the aforementioned period.
Implementation of call tracking and round-the-clock monitoring of requests from the website and social networks resulted in:
- changing business hours of restaurant administrators from noon to 10 a.m.
- development of procedure and scripts of conversations with potential customers for administrators;
As a result, the number of answered calls and the quality of processing of incoming applications by restaurant administrators have significantly increased.
During the period from January to May, the total number of requests from the website and social networks was not meeting expectations of the customer, which caused natural concern.
Below is the statistics of incoming calls from the host pages for the aforementioned period.
Number of hits from the website
Analysis of the situation showed that:
- following optimization of advertising campaigns, the number of inappropriate requests and calls has significantly decreased;
- upon introduction of standards for processing incoming applications, customers no longer needed to make repeated calls to clarify details.
Below is a graph showing the number of answered calls during the same period:
- following optimization of advertising campaigns, the number of inappropriate requests and calls has significantly decreased;
- upon introduction of standards for processing incoming applications, customers no longer needed to make repeated calls to clarify details.
Below is a graph showing the number of answered calls during the same period:
Number of Answered Calls
A criterion was developed that made it possible to track dynamics of changes in the number of applications cleared of seasonal factors. This criterion was the ratio of answered calls to the total number of thematic queries in search engines.
The acquired data convinced the customer on efficiency of the implemented strategy and the adequate work of our team.
The acquired data convinced the customer on efficiency of the implemented strategy and the adequate work of our team.
The ratio of the answered calls to the total number of thematic queries in search engines
Results of cooperation
Customers
The flow of new incoming applications has ensured a 50% occupancy rate of the restaurant complex, which is a good indicator for a food outlet.
Banquets
The number of banquets has increased significantly (an increase of 110% compared to 2017).
Business lunches
The number of consumers increased by 49% (the growth is limited by the lack of large business centers nearby).
Catering
The number of requests for off-premises services increased by 37%.
Young audience
The restaurants attracted new customers. Visitors at the age of 25+ are now not uncommon.
According to the owners of Panorama, the result achieved together with R52.RU team is pretty much close to the maximum.
Further business growth requires searching for new restaurant formats and modern concepts of catering.