Schools are ready to welcome students back - are you? College town restaurants are gearing up to compete for attention, and knowing how to attract your Gen Z/Millennial demographic is vital for bringing them into your store-front.
But with so much digital static, how can you get the visibility your restaurant needs? Here are the top ways to boost your online and offline presence to increase revenue!
1. Optimize Your SEO
Increasing revenue starts with helping your guests find you. Knowing what the buying demographic is searching for online is key for driving orders, such as location and types of food. For Millenials and Gen Z, you can bet that they’ll be looking for a “restaurant near [college],” so it’s a smart move to include that phrasing in your copy and metadata.
Recommended SEO Examples: restaurant near Duke, best Greenbelt bagels, deli near Carnegie
2. Be Part of the Community
As a neighborhood standard, if you’re not involved in the day-to-day of college life, then you’re missing out on critical opportunities for marketing. Partnering with college life, such as offering discounts to fraternities and sororities holding events, is a great way to introduce yourself to incoming students and remind the upperclassmen you’re there to support.
Another great way to be part of the local university community is to reach out to athletes or those with a large social following, partnering with them for social attention in exchange for food or money. Influencers are a crucial marketing tool for Gen Z and Millennial diners, so making it as local and personal to the university as possible helps localize your push.
3. Activate FOMO
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is one of the best ways to attract college students to your restaurant. 60% of millennial consumers said they make a reactive purchase after experiencing FOMO, most often within 24 hours. But what exactly is this powerful selling force?
FOMO is, to put it simply, envy. Millennials and Gen Z have a favorable view of envy as a demographic, seeing it as a motivator rather than a feeling to be avoided. They want to prevent exclusion, so hosting events or snapping photos of groups having fun in the restaurant for social media triggers that effect.
4. Focus on the Right Platforms
University students use specific social media platforms, so knowing which to target is important. Facebook, for example, is being used less and less by younger generations in favor of more visual apps like TikTok and Instagram.
This is excellent news for you since those two platforms are the best for displaying food and drinks! Although you can still post on all media, if you’re looking to spend a marketing budget, honing in on those two platforms will be more effective than spreading it across all platforms evenly.
