Restaurants’ Elusive Quest for True Customer Acquisition (and its Cost)
Papaya provides restaurants a platform to precisely track conversions from online marketing to offline sales, determine accurate customer acquisition costs, and identify who is a new or existing customer. learn more
In the ever changing world of digital marketing, restaurants are faced with an array of tools and tactics promising to drive foot traffic, boost brand visibility, and ultimately, increase revenue. However, amid the allure of social media campaigns, SEO strategies, and influencer/blogger partnerships lies the challenge: understanding true new customer acquisition and its cost (CAC).
1. Bridging the Gap Between Online to Offline Purchase
The overarching problem plaguing the restaurant industry is that it is impossible to fully understand what traffic online converts to sales offline (restaurant visits/orders). Marketing bucks spent on reach, impressions, and likes may be good from a brand visibility perspective, but it’s inconsequential in determining if the individuals you are targeting may become your customers, already are your customers, or will never be your customers. Papaya is the first platform that can precisely connect your online marketing to your offline traffic, so you can fully understand the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, your true customer acquisition cost, and know exactly who your customers are.
2. Social Media Metrics vs. Meaningful Insights
Social media platforms offer restaurants a platform to showcase their culinary creations, engage with customers, and attract new customers. However, the metrics provided—such as reach, impressions, likes, shares, and comments—often paint an incomplete picture. While high engagement rates may suggest success, they do not necessarily translate into tangible results in terms of new customer acquisition. Without the ability to track conversions accurately, restaurants struggle to discern the true impact of their social media marketing efforts for customer acquisition.
3. Identifying New vs. Existing Customers
Amid the plethora of online and offline marketing/engagement strategies, none (can) precisely identify which customers are new or existing, and as such restaurants will continue struggle to effectively spend their marketing bucks just to acquire new customers. First, most restaurants do not have a comprehensive system in place to know who has visited their restaurant (which ties to their customer’s online/digital profiles); Second, there is no way to make the connection between any offline purchases to online engagement; Third, and a likely a point most restaurants miss, is that they cannot understand who has visited their restaurant and may never visit again. This ambiguity makes it difficult to run effective marketing campaigns, efficiently spend your marketing bucks, and to truly understand your (new) customer acquisition cost.
4. Ranking vs. Revenue
Search engine optimization (SEO), another digital marketing strategy for restaurants, although arguably a fading one. With the goal of improving visibility and driving organic traffic to their websites, it seems kind of pointless - unless driving traffic to a booking system, where true conversion can be measured. Achieving high rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) or ratings platforms, such as Google Maps, does not guarantee new customer acquisition. Many SEO strategies focus on increasing website traffic rather than targeting individuals who are genuinely interested in dining at the restaurant. As a result, restaurants may invest significant resources in SEO efforts without a clear understanding of who their customers are, and therefore the impact on CAC.
5. Influencers vs. Authenticity
Influencer/blogger partnerships have become commonplace in restaurant marketing, with the promise of exposure to a wider audience. However, the authenticity of these partnerships is often called into question, as influencers may prioritize paid content over genuine recommendations, overtime tarnishing their own reputation and potentially leaving a negative impact on the restaurant’s brand image. Moreover, the proliferation of influencers with inflated, disingenuous, follower counts makes it challenging for restaurants to identify those who can have a genuine positive impact on their business to drive new (appropriate) traffic. As a result, restaurants may find themselves allocating budget to influencer marketing without a clear understanding of its impact on new customer acquisition and even their brand image.
Conclusion: Charting a Course Amidst Uncertainty
Restaurants must navigate a complex web of tactics and strategies, each promising to drive growth and success. However, the current pitfalls—ranging from the superficial metrics of social media to the authenticity of influencer partnerships—make it challenging to determine true (new) customer acquisition and its cost. To overcome these challenges Papaya has developed a platform that is helping restaurants achieve transparency within their marketing ecosystem. Whether you choose to continue with social media marketing or influencer partnerships, Papaya is here to help you track real conversion from online to offline. Papaya also has a built in recommendation platform, where you can incentivize and reward your existing customers for recommending new customers.
