The team at Marketing4Restaurants recently saw an ad for a Sensis Website and it was trumpeting the fact that they get 28,000,000 visits per year to their 10,000+ customers.

We thought that we would dig into the numbers, because online marketing is all about the data!  We can’t be sure of the number of websites, it just lists 10,000+, but a search of the internet archive showed that Sensis was claiming 10,000+ websites 18 months ago, on the 27th of February, 2015.  The number would probably be a lot higher, but lets run with what we know, so there are at least 10,000 Sensis websites now.  28 million visits a year goes to 2,333,333 every month.  Not too shabby until you divide that number by 10,000 to get the number of visits per websites per month.  This gives us 233 visits per month to the average Sensis website.  That isn’t too bad, or is it?  One of the struggles many Restaurant owners have is not knowing what is a good or bad metric for their restaurant marketing.  The sad reality is that the average Restaurant website gets 1,050 visits per month, more than 4 times the Sensis websites.

Sensis websites on average are generating less than 250 visitors per month – a quarter of the visitors for the average Restaurant website.

 

 

How can a Sensis website cost my restaurant $70,000 a year?

A restaurant website does a number of things.

• It attracts new customers
• It provides information for existing customers
• It converts prospects into sales
• It builds multiple databases for you to market to

If your Restaurant website gets 250 visits per month, you are missing out on 750 visits per month.

On statistic we have found from our Restaurant Big Data solution is that the average website books a seat every 5.5 visits.

750 missed visits / 5.5 visits per seat booked * 12 months in the year * $50 average seat value = $81,770 in missed revenue.

Could it really be that high???  Or is it higher?  Lets not forget we aren’t calculating phone calls generated from the website, nor are we calculating Online orders, nor are we calculating the effect of turning a customer into a repeat customer.  One person doing one search for a high value term like corporate dinner events, could equal 4 corporate bookings a year for 30 seats at $75 per person.  That one customer is worth $9,000 in the first year, and could be a regular customer for many years.

Is Wix or Squarespace any better?

Other types of websites could be the same or even worse.  At least with Sensis there is someone trying to make an effort at Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). With platforms like Wix and Squarespace, it is up to the Chef or Restaurant Owner to come up with the Search Engine Optimisation for their website.  This creates all sorts of issues, because most Chefs don’t know what people are searching for, can’t use Google Adwords keyword tools, aren’t familiar with website SEO.

What should I do if I have a Sensis, Wix or Squarespace website?

The first thing to do is to understand how well it is working as a part of your integrated Restaurant Marketing plan.  You need to understand the numbers.

• Is the website getting more than 1,000 visits per month?
• Is the website building an email marketing database for you?
• Are you taking bookings and orders online?  Do you get those contact details?
• Are you getting the metrics you need to be able to properly manage your marketing?
• Are you linking your Facebook and Website?
• Is your website attracting new customers on a daily basis for your Restaurant?

Restaurant Marketing Metrics

The problem with a company like Sensis is that they don’t really understand the Restaurant Industry.  The team at Marketing4Restaurants does.   Restaurants are the only customers that we talk to so we know what works and what doesn’t on a restaurant website.  We get to see data across a range of metrics and provide aggregated data to our customers to help them understand how they compare with others Restaurants.

Below is a pre release version of our new Restaurant Marketing Metrics dashboard, provided to all our website, FROLO and FORBS customers to help them use the restaurant marketing KPIs better.

If you are looking for help with your Restaurant Marketing, talk to the team at Marketing4Restaurants.  It is all we do, day in day out and we have helped Restaurant owners in over 100 countries with our range of Restaurant Marketing tools, many of them free and with website packages ranging from just $995, we are sure to be able to create a website for your Restaurant that helps you find more customers and turns them into repeat customers.

 

 

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