Growing your takeaway sales

Be digitally close

With smart distancing and social distancing measures in place, how do you approach your customers in order to increase your takeaway sales? By being digitally close to them. We have put together a short overview of how you can do that and which tools may be useful without costing you a fortune.

Use Google My Business

Consumers looking for restaurants online often search for both the type and location of restaurant, e.g. Indian Hackney, bar Taksim or vegan Manhattan. Results with locations in Google Maps appear very high up. To get your café, restaurant, bistro or similar found in this way, you need a Google My Business page. The benefits:

The page is free
You do not need any specialist knowledge
You can always keep the opening hours up to date for your delivery and pick-up services
You can use good quality pictures to pique their appetites!

Create your Google My Business page here.

It is free and simple to create: here is the Google My Business entry for Food Tempel — Be easy to find from home or on the road: your café, restaurant, ice-cream parlour, bar or similar needs to be present online for potential customers – with a Google My Business page.

Your site needs to be well structured and easy to follow so that potential diners can quickly find what they are looking for. — Every food service business needs a website that looks good on the end device, i.e. it is responsive.

Create your own website

It is true that a professional website costs money. After all, a lot of expertise is required to build it. However, if you do not yet have one, you can build your own relatively quickly and cheaply, even with no background in IT. The key thing is that you are present online. You can build a website cheaply or even for free using with:

The former is intuitive to use and provides lots of scope for creativity, whereas the benefit of Jimdo is the handy modular system. Both provide the option to present both your products and your team, as well as to upload pictures and integrate a webshop where customers can order and pay for their food – so no contact is required. Keep to the important information and make sure your website does not sprawl. The Help section contains step-by-step guides and tips.

Set up a webshop

Online sales and marketing, all in one. Use Shopify for a one-stop service. This business provides an app which allows you to publish social media ads and send marketing e-mails directly from your shop. You can even connect it to other apps. If you would rather concentrate on the cooking then go for one of the options listed above – they are simpler to use. Here is a recap:

This is how it works:
1. Pick a cost structure
2. Select a shop template and adapt the design
3. Enter products (photos, descriptions, prices)
4. Set up payment options (bank transfer, invoice, PayPal, cash, etc.)
5. Advertise your shop (social media, Google Ads)

Process takeaway sales online using your very own webshop — Having an online shop as a sales channel is one way for restaurants to grow takeaway sales and it is an especially popular feature with younger customers.

Be there for your diners. Publish positive stories on your social media channels. — Social media allows you to be close to your diners in the era of social distancing, thus helping you to grow your takeaway sales.

Create social media accounts

If you do nothing, nothing happens. And what good is excellent food if nobody knows about it? Keep your customers up to date with stories from your restaurant, bar or café, stories about all of the good stuff you are getting up to. So cook it, pour it or bake it! Then share it. The following are particularly well suited:

Use this link to find out how to set up an account and what stories are best for maintaining contact with your customers on Facebook. Take a look at this article for tips on how to frame food for Instagram. Both platforms are fairly easy to set up. Keeping them well maintained will require time and effort, though. But remember: it is worth it.

Ideas for social media campaigns to attract attention

Publishing Facebook/Instagram Ads within your delivery radius
Targeted ways to involve fans/followers in curating your menu
Click through to your own website and menu
Run competitions with vouchers as prizes
Click through to an ordering platform

Create Facebook Ads in just four steps

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Creating FB Ads – firstly select your objective

Select either reach (the greatest possible number of people in the target audience will see your ad) or traffic (large numbers from your target audience clicking through your ad to your website)

Creating FB Ads – secondly set your daily or total budget for the ad

Here, select whether you wish to spend a certain amount per day or for a specified duration.

Creating FB Ads – thirdly define your target audience by location

Do you deliver within your town or city limits? Or beyond them? Define your geographical limits here.

Creating FB Ads – specify your target audience

Italian, vegan or hearty traditional restaurant? There is a way to reach just your audience. It really works. Use this final point: ‘detailed targeting.’ But remember, it makes a difference whether your restaurant is in a metropolis like Berlin or small city like Offenburg. The number of potential users will vary hugely in line with the size of your village, town or city.

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