They say we eat with our eyes first, and when it comes to visually engaging and sharing content with restaurant customers, 3D virtual tours speak louder than words.
One of the pandemic’s most highly impacted industries, Covid altered the restaurant industry forever. Pivoting from in-person dining to off-premise operations in what seemed like a blink of an eye, what was once a novel exception, delivery began ruling the food game.
Restaurants that once competed for in-person clientele, today’s kitchens serve delivery, take-out, dining room, and virtual guests all at once. And with ghost kitchens beginning to flood the market, competition among restaurateurs is fiercer than ever.
Whether you own a trendy street fooderie or an established upscale establishment, to meet the demands of today’s food consumer, restaurants today require innovative, intelligent, and strategic marketing to whet their customer’s appetites.
No longer tempted only by directly mailed menus or old-fashioned newspaper ads, today’s food fans expect more information, insight, and transparency before opening their wallets.
Changing the way customers see restaurants
Virtual tours for restaurants are the answer to the foodservice industry’s call for something more. 3D virtual tour technology is helping meet the ever-evolving needs of restaurants, ghost kitchens, and food retail establishments with onboarding and marketing virtual tours.
With tours that can be embedded directly onto restaurant websites and social media channels, and recorded to create video content, virtual tours offer a wide range of marketing applications. And with the ability to be embedded with multi-media tags filled with videos, photos, and links, the uses can be further expanded for onboarding, training, and other operational purposes.
An essential tool used to illustrate menu items, introduce cooking techniques, explain inventory and inspection procedures, aid in customer service training, and assist with upselling techniques, virtual tours offer limitless opportunities to run an efficient business and boost a restaurant’s bottom line.
As more restaurants begin to use traditional video in their marketing efforts, it’s important for businesses to stand out for customers to take notice.
To rise above the internet noise, restaurants must find creative ways to engage with their customer base and attract new business. The next wave in the food service marketing game, virtual tours are the secret ingredient in a successful restaurant’s recipe box.
From quaint coffee shops upping their online ante to large dining spaces hosting corporate functions or private events, 3D Virtual Tours can be an effective tool to connect with customers, drive website traffic, enhance social media posts, and entice guests to visit physical locations.
Whether you plan on creating consistent content for social media, want to make a great impression on your website, or you’re looking to take your operation to the next level, virtual tours are the next frontier.
Like wine and cheese, video marketing and the foodservice industry are a perfect pair. And while there are plenty of angles you can take when creating a marketing strategy for your restaurant, first and foremost, it's essential to produce content that is engaging and relevant to your customer's needs.
With sustainability, safety, and health being key decision factors at the top of consumers’ minds these days, folks want to know more about the brands they choose to patronize. To that end, studies show that the public wants to see more visual content from local businesses because it gives them a behind-the-scenes view and makes the establishments seem more trustworthy and transparent.
This holds especially true for restaurants, especially for delivery, when customers want to get an upfront and personal view of the food they’ll be receiving before it arrives at their front door.
Leveraging the power of 3D virtual tour marketing for your restaurant will give you a better shot at attracting hungry diners by enticing customers with realistic mouth-watering images that can’t be captured with traditional video or still photography. It also gives customers a sneak peek into the workings behind the scenes.
Benefits of Virtual Tours for Restaurants
Spices up your social presence
Foodies today love to share every aspect of their palate-pleasing experiences. Whether it’s a perfect finger-licking chicken wing added to an Instagram story or a flaky croissant and steamy latte uploaded to their Twitter feed to ensure your restaurant stands out, you need to rise above the loud social media noise.
Just about anyone with a smartphone can create videos and post them on social media. To increase engagement, breed brand loyalty, and gain followers, virtual tours will capture the attention of your prospective customers and excite your base.
Use Virtual Tours to showcase your culinary creations, tell your backstory, highlight your chef’s personal style, broadcast live customer reviews, announce new menu offerings, and promote upcoming events.
Paints a vibrant picture
There are few businesses that rely more on physical ambiance and environment than restaurants. It can be a painstaking task to get the look and feel of your restaurant’s interior and exterior with basic images or even traditional video.
Virtual tours allow customers to get a more realistic feel of your restaurant. The ability to add music, adjust the mood with lighting, and set a virtual table helps to entice customers more vividly than any other medium.
If your rooftop restaurant has a breathtaking view, for example, virtual tours have the ability to draw the viewer in, enticing guests to make reservations.
Faster employee training
As the labor shortage continues to loom large, restaurants are having a difficult time hiring and retaining qualified staff. Using virtual tours in hiring sites, businesses can effectively market themselves to the most qualified candidates.
New or visiting employees can gain access to your store from their own computer to quickly understand the flow of the space and overall atmosphere without the hassle of an onsite visit.
Helping new employees learn their way around means they can hit the ground running on their first day, speeding up the onboarding process tremendously.
Higher Google ranking
Professional virtual tours can be paired with your restaurant’s Google maps and street view, which helps with SEO. If a prospective customer is conducting a “near-me” query on Google, for example, multiple results will be displayed. Not only will restaurants with virtual tours in place stand out, but the increased engagement and uptick in clicks will boost your SEO, moving your restaurant’s website up in the ranks.
Highly cost-effective
Not only are virtual tours more interactive than traditional video production, giving restaurants an edge over the competition, but they are also surprisingly affordable. And because 41% of virtual restaurant tours result in an on-site visit, they are a highly cost-effective marketing tool.
Creates an immersive experience
With more and more restaurants adding video to their marketing strategy, virtual tours give you a leg up on today’s crowded online marketplace.
An immersive experience that lets customers “walk-in” to your restaurant with their phone long before they ever actually walk through your front door, prospective guests can wander through your restaurant virtually, scroll through your online menu, and gain deeper insight into your business’s unique universe.
Promotes Corporate Events and Private Party Hosting
Virtual 3D has the ability to allow planners to view your space without having to take time from their busy to for a live visit. When customers search for catering venues, restaurants with virtual tours will attract more visitors and draw more business.
A secret ingredient in a restaurant’s recipe for success,
Virtual tours can bring life into your restaurant by bringing your restaurant to life.
What virtual tour applications could you envision incorporating into your restaurant’s marketing strategy?
By Eileen Strauss
