11 ways to promote your restaurant mobile app for free

So you’ve got your own app finally being released on Google Play / Apple App Store. Congratulations! Now you need to promote your restaurant mobile app. This a great marketing technique that will help you increase your customer acquisition rate & your revenue in the near future.

How so? Well, according to a paper published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing – The Effects of Adopting and Using a Brand’s Mobile Application on Customers’ Subsequent Purchase Behavior – the customer’s spending levels increase over the course of 6 months, from the moment they first download the app (scientists call this “app adoption”).

In fact, researchers reveal that app adoption and the continued use of the branded app lead to an increase of the customers’ future spending. But this also works the other way around: “when customers discontinue using the app, their spending levels decrease” – this is known as “the recency effect”.

So in order to avoid dealing with the recency effect, and gain more and more loyal customers, who will likely spend more money over time, you will need to promote your great app on two fronts:

• Customer Acquisition: Getting downloads
• & Customer Retention: Preventing customers from uninstalling the app

As you have already figured it out, there is no point in constantly bringing in new customers, only to have them uninstalling the app later on and losing them altogether. The only way you can do that is by making it worthwhile to them to keep using your app. I’ll tell you all about it in a little while.

Ultimately, doing both these things will enable you to increase your customers’ app adoption rate & make them stick with it. Because the more people use your app, the more will soon follow. So let’s see what you should be focusing on in order to achieve your goals.

You might also like: Restaurant App Statistics Infographic

Part 1: How to get new downloads

#1. Promote your restaurant mobile app on your website

It’s the simplest way of promoting your restaurant app. You just need to make sure that the food customers visiting your website will instantly spot the featured information about your restaurant app.

In case you already bought the sales optimized website from us and decide to also get the branded restaurant mobile app, then you’ll be happy to know that we’ll automatically add a section to the website in order to promote your brand new app AFTER the app is available on Google Play and iTunes. Neat, isn’t it?

This is how it’ll look:

#2. Add a flyer promoting your mobile app in every takeaway bag & place it on tables

The faster you promote your restaurant mobile app, the faster you’ll let your most loyal customers know about it. And the faster they will adopt it & use it on a regular basis.

So make sure you also let everyone in your neighborhood know about your mobile app by creating a nice flyer. If you don’t have one, then you can download our flyer template.

If you also want to add 2 QR codes to your flyer, like in the image above, then there are plenty of QR code generators that can help you do that.

Simply insert the link of your Google Play / App Store app location and the program will automatically transform it into a QR code.

#3. Use Social Media to spread the word about your restaurant app

Ideally, a Facebook post should be engaging and it should also contain the Google Store / App Store link from which customers can download your app.

If you have no idea what to post, you can simply repurpose the above flyer and pin it to your Facebook posts – so new customers could always spot it at a glance.

#4. Advertise it on your food packaging

The food boxes that you use represent valuable advertising real estate. So why not use them to your advantage? Go ahead and use the same flyers promoting your custom mobile app. Simply use a bit of tape to stick the flyers onto the boxes. It’s way cheaper than to purchase custom designed boxes.

#5. Ask your staff to mention the app to your customers

Think of your employees as your brand ambassadors. So ask them to tell customers about your restaurant app, whilst mentioning a few important benefits, like:

• Ordering on the go
• Simple checkout
• Easy re-ordering

It doesn’t get easier than this.

#6. Offer rewards for downloading the app

Encourage your clients to download your restaurant mobile app after they’re done with their meal & by offering them a free dessert / free drink / free main course on their next visit.

You could also go ahead and offer a two-way reward, and enable your customers to enjoy their free meal or dessert with a friend.

#7. Recommend customers who ordered from their phone to use your branded app for an enhanced ordering experience

If you have a GloriaFood branded mobile app, then this will be an easy one. Once your app is published, we recommend your customers – who have ordered at least once from their mobile phone – to download your app & enjoy an enhanced experience.

This is the message they will see on their phone:

The reason why you should do so is because mobile apps are a great way to boost your brand awareness. Once they download your app, they will always see it on their phone screen. And they will always be reminded that they can use it to order food from you. Make sure it has an eye-catching and easy-to-stand out icon logo.

#8. How to increase app downloads with App Store Optimization (ASO)

App store optimization helps you get higher rankings in app stores. This helps you a lot, because when customers land on the page of your restaurant mobile app and see a low score, it discourages them to get the app.

What you need to take into account when doing the app store optimization: keyword, title & description optimization, as well as taking some crisp app screenshots.

But why do you need to find a relevant app name and use keywords? Well, let’s say you want to get a restaurant pizza app that does delivery in New York, in Brooklyn.

You would probably use the following search terms (keywords) like pizza delivery in Brooklyn.

Then Google will show you a relevant list of restaurant apps that contain these keywords in their title, and description. Read on to find out more.

How to get app downloads: the step-by-step guide

To make sure that your restaurant app can be easily found by your targeted customers, you would need to use the following combinations of keywords:

• Restaurant name + city – i.e., Pronto New York
• Restaurant name + “type of cuisine” [burgers, pizza, American, Caribbean, Peruvian, Thai, etc.] – i.e., Pronto Pizza
• Your restaurant’s cuisine + city (or neighbourhood) – i.e., Pizza New York or Pizza Brooklyn
• Your restaurant’s cuisine + “takeaway” – i.e., Pizza Takeaway
• Your restaurant’s cuisine + “delivery”– i.e., Pizza Delivery

So now let’s see how you should write your…

App Title: Ideally it should contain your restaurant name + city or cuisine type

App Slogan: Ideally, it should contain the word “best” + 1 keyword related to your cuisine + your location: Best Thai food in Brooklyn

Short App Description: Make sure you include at least 1 of the aforementioned keywords in your description

Long App Description: Include your restaurant name + city + cuisine + ordering method (“delivery / takeaway / takeout / pickup”)

Notes: It’s important to mention that If you have a Google Store App – then you need to pay close attention to the keywords you add in your short description – which matter more than the ones in your long description.

If you have an app in App Store, beware that the first 2-3 sentences above the fold are the most important part of your app description. It’s what your customers will see without having to click on the “…more” bit. You need to make it engaging, make it stick – since only 2% of users will actually click on “…more” to read the expanded version of your description.

Part 2: Preventing customers from uninstalling the app & increasing customer retention

Here’s a piece of info that proves just how much your loyal customers can bring to the table: According to Food Service Warehouse, repeat customers account for as much as 15% of your total client base. However, that 15% provides about 1/3 of your entire revenue. So what can you do to stop them from leaving you behind?

#9. Make sure your restaurant app runs smoothly

Using the app to place an order, only to see it crashing and destroying your customers’ user experience when they are very hungry cannot possibly be good for your brand.

Most customers will likely get annoyed by it, go ahead with uninstalling your app from their phone & choose to order from another restaurant. So off they go.

However, you can tremendously reduce the risk of losing your customers, by constantly improving your app. If you don’t want to spend too much of your time doing so, then you can always choose to get your branded mobile app from GloriaFood.

#10. Make sure your clients are able to reorder easily

With our branded native app, the checkout form is already prefilled based on your customers’ previous orders. Plus, they can also select their delivery address from a list of previously saved addresses.

In terms of updates to the app, you’re in full control. Any change that you make in the admin panel (menu items, prices, delivery area, etc.) gets immediately reflected in the app.

#11. Ask your happy customers for app reviews & ratings in exchange of promos

Since your customers are choosing to use your app, then you could also reward them by providing them with discounts or promos.

The reason why promos work is because they appeal to your clients’ sense of bargaining. They feel like they’re getting a better value for what they’re getting. In fact, almost 46% of all food service delivery orders are on a deal because of the easy access to coupons and other discounts. That accounts for almost half of the delivery orders out there.

But there’s more: 59% of customers choose a restaurant because of a competitive price/promotion. The numbers don’t lie.

If you’d like to find out more about the psychology behind how and why this works, as well as reading statistics or getting new promo ideas, please check out our article on 15 Unique Restaurant Promotion Ideas that Will Increase Loyalty in 2020.

If you’d like to use a branded restaurant app that enables you to easily add plenty of promotions, then you use the one provided by us.

It’s the best way for you to get more customers, without worrying about maintaining the app, or hiring costly developers. Give it a chance to see how well it will turn out.

Check out our Android demo for a single location restaurant

Check out our demo app for multiple-location restaurants

Note**: For iOS, the branded app looks and behaves the same as the Android version.

So go ahead and promote your restaurant mobile app to take your customer acquisition & customer retention strategy to the next level.

You might also like: How Mobile Marketing for Restaurants Will Help You Gain More Food Clients