You do not exist today if you cannot be found online but it is fine to keep it simple.  One-page website designs are popular now.  These websites consume very little space, bring in more traffic, and make it effortless for end-users to find the things without navigating to multiple pages. They are quick, inexpensive and targeted helping businesses focus on specific audiences with the exact content that is needed. WordPress is one of the most powerful platforms for single page websites.  2021 web development trends are more about making things easier, more convenient and hassle-free for the users.  Easy for them makes it better for you.  

The key is just to pick your platform,  it does not matter which ones you choose just pick one or 2 that are authentic to you.  It should look and sound like you and the brand you have built.  Whether yours is polished or more informal, chatty or academic, humorous or snarky, it is a way for your personality to come through. You do not need to blog or be on all social media platforms but make sure you are active on the ones where you are.  If your audience does not use Facebook, Twitter or  Instagram to find you then you do not need to make them a priority.  

The big downside of social media is that it is membership based - albeit free membeships based.

So, if you rely on Facebook, or Instagram or any one other social media channel, you are only really marketing to people on that channel.  As a conscientious objector to Facebook, I do not use it, and never explore pages on it.  So, I will never see marketing on Facebook.

You also run the risk or becoming beholden to that channel - for example, if you add a load of photos showing how good your restaurant is, these photos become the property of the platform where you have put them.  That may be problematic later on.

However, as with all marketing there is no one right answer.  Each restaurant and cafe needs to do what it takes to bring their prospects to them - online or offline.  That includes "fishing where the fish are" which in turn may mean social media, or it may mean a website with good SEO (search engine optimisation), or it may mean leaflet drops in local office blocks.

 

The point of a website is to get customers from those searching on Google.. I'm not in the local SEO space.. not sure how much having a website increases one's ranking on Google's local search results?  e.g. if I'm searching for "indian restaurants near me".. I'd say as a restaurant, that'd be the first question I'd want answered.. thoughts @Paige Arnof-Fenn ?

I think the most immediate goals if you're a restaurant, is to appear on Google's local search results, and on Instagram.. potentially on a review site and potentially on one of the local blogs like timeout.com. Just speaking from a consumer point of view and where I've discovered a lot of my local haunts.

If you're just starting out, you probably want a broad view to be everywhere you need to be for your target market.. and just prioritise from biggest bang for the buck to "nice to haves" depending on your capacity/budget. 

I LOVE this question! As someone who works with Instagram a lot, I've told many clients you can get business with a landing page and nothing more. Sure - it's great to have a website too, but if you're not gonna get additional return with it, why bother?

I'm no expert in the Hospitality / Food & Beverage industry, so I can't speak from that perspective. @Michael Bell and @Liz Edgecombe might be better suited to reply.

I'd definitely circle back to: What's the intention behind it? Is it to drive sales? Credibility? Visibility? Being clear on those would help answer what channel to get your message across AND online might not even be it!

Your comment about the Google local search's results is so well thought, @Yee Trinh ! This inevitably makes me think of influencer marketing, which is going extremely successful in the Food & Beverage industry! It's easy to understand why. Imagine you know the person you look up to is a regular at X restaurant? It's a sure way to pick someone's curiosity and motivate them to pay you a visit ;) @Trish Fehon and @Erik Bigalk , what do you think?