How To Identify Your Restaurant’s Target Audience

Two women eating at a restaurant that uses ctv advertising

Great food and ambiance aren’t enough to succeed in today’s competitive restaurant market. Without effective advertising and marketing strategies, you could miss out on the foot traffic your restaurant deserves.

To stand out, clearly define your concept, target the right audience, and showcase why your restaurant is a must-visit. Let’s explore how to optimize your advertising efforts and use tools like CTV/OTT to grow your business.

Unlock Your Target Audience By Understanding Your Brand 

It’s a silly question to consider, but an important one: Do you have a restaurant brand, and what’s your overall concept? 

If you’re starting up a new business like a restaurant, you should have a concept of a brand in mind and a good understanding of your brand. If you don’t, your audiences won’t understand what makes your restaurant special or unique and will be less compelled to dine with you. 

Defining the brand or concept behind your restaurant doesn’t take a lot. However, it is an essential factor you should consider carefully and early on. Chances are, there’s a concept centered around your restaurant already. It’s a matter of whether or not you understand that concept well and whether you’re maximizing its potential. 

Some of the most common concepts you’ll find within the restaurant business include:

  • Family dining establishments: Family dining restaurants are family-friendly, welcoming spaces for children and families and are generally open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  
  • Adult-focused dining: These types of restaurants have a more mature concept. They might be open only on the weekends, in the afternoon and evening, and stay open long into the early morning. They also usually focus heavily on alcoholic beverages and cocktails and might feature amenities like a sports bar or private dining venues for intimate gatherings. 
  • Mom and pop shops: Many of what you might call “mom and pop” restaurants have a home-style feel. When you dine here, you have a strong sense of family, community, and unity.
  • Ethnic restaurants: These are establishments that generally have a culturally specific menu, such as Hispanic food, Asian American food, or Indian food. The concept of ethnic restaurants is a particular culture, encouraging audiences to try new flavors that they might not otherwise find in their daily life.

How To Determine the Target Market for Your Restaurant

There are different ways to determine the right target market for your business. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective marketing strategies you can apply to define and reach your target audience. 

Geofencing With CTV/OTT

CTV and OTT advertising is an effective way to get your video marketing to viewers in your community. When you utilize geofencing, you can get those video ads in the eyes of audiences in your local community. 

CTV/OTT refers to “Connected TV” and “Over the Top” advertising. Both are methods of streaming video over the internet. CTV streams your video ads on connected streaming devices like ROKU and gaming devices like Xbox that can stream on smart TVs. OTT refers to the direct delivery of digital marketing on a variety of devices, including smartphones and tablets. 

With “geofencing,” you are essentially defining a region in which your digital video marketing will reach. You can define your geofence to any region you want, down to individualized neighborhoods or broader, like an entire town or county. 

Social Media

Advertising on social media can help you get a clear sense of who is engaging with your marketing and what aspects of your restaurant, brand concept, or overall offerings they like. This also allows you to get insight into the type of services and products your audiences might want. In a recent study by Toast, over 59% of respondents say they use Facebook the most to discover new restaurants.

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are a good way to track regular customers, what they value about your restaurant, and what they would like to see implemented for a better experience. This is also a good way to build brand loyalty. 

From a marketing perspective, these programs are also a good way to collect user data so you can push out messaging like discounts and promotions, seasonal menu items, events that might be happening in your restaurant, and other important information.

What Is the Target Market for Restaurants?

The restaurant industry is unique because a restaurant’s target market is limited to people willing to get in their cars, drive out to your restaurant, and dine there. This limitation means you have to be effective in the first impressions you make through your marketing materials. Doing so correctly means you can create loyal customers for life. 

Target the Right Audience for Your Restaurant With Levy Online

Your messaging matters, and at Levy Online, our experts can help you get it right with the appropriate marketing strategies, including geofencing with CTV/OTT. Get in touch to discover how we can help you reach your restaurant’s target audience, reach potential customers, and help create loyal customers in the long run. 

Sources

Family Dining Report. (2024). 

U.S. Ethnic Food Market by Type. (2024). 

Zuluaga, T. (2024). How Are Diners Using Social Media? 59% Of Respondents Use Facebook the Most To Discover New Restaurants.

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