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Today’s customers have opinions about your business, and lots of them! It’s never been easier to learn what your customers think. If you’re not getting the message, you’re not listening.\nCustomer feedback is essential to improving your product and keeping your customers happy. And though most companies know that customer feedback is essential to business success, many don’t know where to start. Fortunately, there are many customer feedback tools that you can use to start receiving customer feedback today.\nCreate a survey\nAsking your customers to complete a survey can be one of the most effective ways to find out exactly what they’re thinking, but where do you begin? To make sure your survey is successful, start by clearly defining your goal. What is it you want to know? When developing the customer feedback questions, keep them short and easy. If there are too many questions, or if the questions are complicated, customers will quit.\nIf you’re wondering what to ask, there are several free customer feedback \ntemplates\n and online tools (like SurveyMonkey) to help build your survey. If you use a template, make sure to add your company’s personality and let your brand shine through.\nFinally, make sure the survey ends up in your customer’s hands. Either email it to them, display a clear link on your website or on a receipt, or create an in-app prompt. Always close the feedback loop by thanking them for their time and input, analyzing their thoughts, and taking action on their suggestions.\nPut a feedback box on your website\nAdding a feedback box directly to your website or app is a great way to quickly survey your customers. A feedback box is similar to a customer feedback survey, but is much smaller and should be even easier for your customers to complete. You can create a page on your website with a form, or use a pop-up/\nYour feedback form should ask very direct questions — no more than five closed-ended questions and three open-ended questions. Keep it simple! Always thank the customer for their opinion with an automated email response or webpage redirect. Just like in a traditional survey, the most important step is to analyze the results and use the customer’s input to improve your company.\nAsk customers to text you\nIf you really want to make the customer feedback process easy for your customers, consider accepting feedback by text message. That’s right — there are customer feedback tools that allow your customers to send you their thoughts directly via text.\nIt’s an easy, convenient, and effective way to receive their feedback and open a one-on-one dialogue with customers. Another benefit to text message feedback is it allows your customers to send you a complaint directly instead of airing their grievances online. If you respond quickly and correctly, they’re less likely to post a negative online review.\nRead online reviews\nOnline reviews have become the dominant venue for customer feedback. Customers love shouting the good, bad and ugly from the hilltops of the online world. And, would-be customers go straight to online reviews to research brands and products before ever making a purchase. Make sure you read all of your reviews and take them seriously.\nTake action\nYour customers have opinions about your company — find out what they are! Whether you receive customer feedback through surveys, text messages or online reviews, the key to customer retention is truly listening to your customers’ positive and negative opinions about your business, and then using their feedback to make it even better. 

4 ways to get customer feedback

In this article:\nWhy use OpenTable\nHow to add your restaurant to OpenTable\nAbout optional OpenTable services\nOpenTable leads the industry in online restaurant reservations. On average, this trusted platform seats 128 million people per month in restaurants worldwide. \nTo take advantage of the opportunities OpenTable can provide your restaurant, you need to add your listing to their website. \nWhy use OpenTable for your restaurant\nOpenTable helps local consumers find top-rated restaurants near them. When someone is looking for a new place to dine, this is a common place they will go to look. \nHere are some of the cool benefits that OpenTable can provide to your restaurant:\nReserve more seats and increase revenue with their marketing platform\nImprove customer relationships and gather online ratings\nFull-service solution helps you market, manage, and operate your restaurant\nFree online training for OpenTable services with professionals in the restaurant industry\nOpenTable partners with Yelp, Google, and other directories to allow customers to book reservations from these sites\nRestaurants pay OpenTable a monthly subscription fee for their full-service plan, which includes electronic reservation software, customer support, and unlimited upgrades, along with a one-time installation fee that covers on-site installation of the software and training for employees. \nAnother option (which is also included with their full-service plan) is to only use the reservation capabilities. For this, they charge a $1.00-$2.50 fee per seat booked on OpenTable (and other online directories) or $0.25 per seat booked through your website (via OpenTable’s software). But for most restaurants, it only takes three reservations to break even on the monthly costs of this plan. (Please confirm current pricing.)\nYou don’t have to take advantage of all of OpenTable’s products and services to create your listing, but it’s nice to know that these capabilities are available to you—and if you need a little extra help with marketing, they have some great tools!\nHow to create or claim your restaurant’s OpenTable profile\nIn this section, we’ll take you through each step of adding your restaurant to OpenTable. There are two options for doing this: suggest your restaurant to OpenTable or submit your restaurant’s information to OpenTable through their form. \nOption 1 – Suggest your restaurant to OpenTable\nWith this option, you can suggest your restaurant to be added to OpenTable’s directory. \nThis form\n is intended for customers to add their favorite restaurants to OpenTable, and your restaurant can be your favorite!\nJust add the following information and hit submit:\nRestaurant name\nRestaurant city and state\nRestaurant zip (optional)\nWhy this restaurant should be on OpenTable (optional)\nAt the end of the form it asks, “May we share this info with the restaurant?” If you check yes, OpenTable will try to pass this form onto you to show that customers are interested in your restaurant. Feel free to check “no” on this to keep them from sending you your own information. \nOption 2 – Submit your restaurant to OpenTable through their website\nGo to OpenTable’s \nsite for restaurateurs\n and click “Get Started” to fill out their \nform\n, or call their customer support line at (866) 951-7154.\nYou’ll need to provide the following information:\nFirst and last name\nRestaurant name\nEmail address\nPhone number\nRestaurant city, state, zip, and country\nAfter you’ve completed the form and submitted it, OpenTable will contact you via email or phone to provide more information about their services. You don’t need to opt-in to their services in order to get listed in their directory. \nOpenTable will list any restaurant in their directory for free, but if you want to have full access to make changes to your restaurant’s profile and use OpenTable’s online reservation tools, you’ll have to subscribe to their services. \nIn order to update your listing information without paying for OpenTable’s services, you can email \nsupport@opentable.com\n.\nOptional OpenTable features\nOpenTable has three main products they offer to restaurants that join their network. Here’s a little more information about them so you can decide if you’d like to try them out. \n1. Electronic Reservation Book\nThe most common product on OpenTable is its Electronic Reservation Book (ERB). This tool handles all reservations online and in-store, allowing you to see your floor plan to better manage seating arrangements for customers. \n2. Connect Service\nThis solution allows you to connect your online booking capabilities to different platforms, like Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more. You can accept and track reservations across these different websites through a mobile app or on your desktop computer. \n3. GuestCenter Plan\nThis is OpenTable’s full-service package. They provide reservation management along with shift summaries for employees, multiple table management, and the ability to create guest profiles. You can also integrate it with your POS system and get real-time analytics and reporting. \nGet set up on OpenTable and see how it can benefit your restaurant!

How to add your restaurant to OpenTable

In this 8-minute read:\n24 free listing sites to add your restaurant to\nHow to manage your listings\nThe great thing about owning a restaurant is that everyone loves food, and there’s never going to be a decrease in demand for top-quality places to eat. But how do you make sure that your restaurant is showing up above the tons of other restaurants in your area? \nShowing up in the local search results on Google—and Google Maps results—is crucial to getting your restaurant in front of new customers. One way to help \nimprove your local search engine rankings\n is to add your business information to online directories. This helps Google and other search engines to verify your information and gives your restaurant more credibility. It also puts your restaurant on other websites where customers are searching for new places to eat. Win, win!\nBe sure to add your restaurant to these 24 free listing websites and watch as the calls and reviews start coming in. \n1. Google My Business\nGoogle My Business is how you get your restaurant to show up on Google Maps in the first place. Without this, the other online listings still help you, but they don’t provide as much value for you on Google. \nAlso, research shows that in terms of its correlation to increased sales, Google is the most important of any of the single review sites. Businesses who claim their Google listing average 10% more in annual revenue than the average business, but those who don’t claim theirs average \n24% less\n in annual revenue, so you want to make sure you are showing up here. \nFollow our simple steps and learn \nhow claim your Google Business listing\n. \nGo deeper: read about \nGoogle Maps Advertising\n2. Yelp is essential for restaurants\nYelp is a crucial \nonline review\n platform for restaurants to add their information to. As the third most popular online review site, Yelp provides you great opportunities to grow the reach for your restaurant. You need to have a Yelp listing to get reviews on Yelp, and so many people check these reviews when trying to decide what new restaurant they want to try out on date night. \nGuide: \nHow to claim your business listing on Yelp\n3. GrubHub: the new hotness\nGrubHub is free to list your restaurant, however, if you are capturing orders on their site, that’s when they’ll charge a small fee for their service. A great benefit of GrubHub, besides appealing to the introvert in all of us, is that when you create your GrubHub listing it will feed over to other sites like MenuPages and Seamless (also popular restaurant listing sites). \n4. Zagat: the premier restaurant listing\nZagat is a little more exclusive and won’t just list any restaurant, but they are free and if you can get on their radar, it’s a great opportunity for you. The nice thing too is that they pull directly from Google My Business. \n5. Allmenus is great for restaurants\nAllmenus lists more than 345,000 across the United States, and it is their goal to help restaurant owners like you get more customers. You can join AllMenus by using their \nform here\n. \n6. OpenTable: more than reservations\nOpenTable is the restaurant listing website for tens of thousands of restaurants worldwide. With reviews and online booking capabilities, they can help you get noticed by even more customers. Suggest your restaurant to be on their site for free with \nthis form\n.\n7. 8coupons\nEveryone loves a deal! And 8coupons provides the perfect platform for your restaurant to offer sweet deals and entice more customers to knock on your doors. \n8. TripAdvisor? Yes please!\nWith TripAdvisor’s 390 million unique visitors each month, this is a listing that your restaurant has to have, especially if you live in a tourist town. When friends and family are visiting loved ones in your town or others are on vacation looking for a good place to eat, TripAdvisor is a popular site that people go to. \nGuide: \nHow to claim your business listing on TripAdvisor\n9. Set up your restaurant’s Facebook page\nYour restaurant should absolutely be on Facebook too! Not only is this a great way to promote brand awareness and get involved in local online communities, but Facebook is another platform that people love to leave reviews and recommendations on. \nFacebook has a great tutorial to help you set up your \nbusiness page\n. \n10. Instagram is great with younger diners\nInstagram is highly popular among, well everyone, but especially the younger demographic. If you’re trying to reach a younger target customer, you definitely want your restaurant to be here. Not only can your Instagram account show up in the search results and direct people to your website, but if you have highly photogenic food (and let’s be real, people love to ‘gram their food) you can gain a huge following that drives even more customers to your restaurant. \n11. Twitter? Use it for announcing deals\nOkay, so Twitter is a little different from the rest of these and may not compel customers into your restaurant, but it does have its benefits. Along with showing up in the search results, it is a super easy way for customers to reach out to you with questions and suggestions for your business. Twitter is also awesome for spreading the news on sweet deals that you’re offering. \nWendy’s\n is an awesome example of a restaurant that excels on Twitter. \n12. Apple Maps\nWhile Android dominates the market with an 87% market share, iOS holds around 13% of that market share which is still over a billion users. The primary map app on iOS devices is Apple Maps, another free directory in which you can and should make sure your restaurant is listed. You will need an Apple ID to create or edit your Apple Maps listing, but that’s free to create too if you don’t already have one. Get started at \nmapsconnect.apple.com\n. \n13. MapQuest: Yes, it’s still a thing\nAnother site that travelers tend to use a lot, you’ll want to make sure you’re included in their searches. MapQuest support is awesome and can get your restaurant added to its platform within days. Here’s their guide to \nadd a listing on MapQuest\n. \n14. YouTube? “FoodTube”\nYes, even restaurants can win at YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, so if you can produce some awesome videos that people fall in love with, that’s a great way to promote your restaurant! \n15. Don’t forget Bing\nPeople do use Bing as a search engine, so it’s important to make sure that you have a Bing Places listing too. You can get started \nhere\n, or sign in with your Google account and import your Google My Business listing. \n16. \nSolo profile\nWith a free Solo profile, even the smallest local restaurant, pop-up, food cart, or hole-in-the-wall can have a helpful, functional SEO-friendly online presence for free. Building and maintaining a traditional website is simply too much for many restaurant owners to deal with. This is one reason a Solo profile can be such an amazing benefit. \nYour customizable Solo profile can list your business’s location, relevant contact information, links to your social pages, and any business details you want included. Sign up at \nSolo.co\n.\n17. MerchantCircle\nWith more than 2 million merchants and over 100 million visits each month, this is a good one to end our list. MerchantCircle sorts its businesses by category, and restaurants is a big one. Go \nhere\n to claim your listing on MerchantCircle. \n18. YP.com\nYP.com, or YellowPages, is a large directory listing site that 60 million people still use. You can set up and claim your free YellowPages listing \nhere\n. \n19. Old school listing: Better Business Bureau (BBB)\nThe Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a trusted resource for reporting scams. With your restaurant rated by the BBB, your customers or potential employees will feel a lot more confident in placing their trust in you. Follow \nthese steps\n to get your restaurant added. \n20. Manta helps consistency across listings\nManta is, you guessed it, another online directory listing. But they have some cool features to take advantage of. Once you put your business information into Manta’s platform, they will scan their database and check if your restaurant’s information matches up with other listing sites across the web. This helps you to make sure your information is consistent across multiple listing sites, which is an important ranking factor on Google. \n21. CitySearch: locally focused\nCitySearch is your friendly neighborhood listing site. They help consumers find businesses near them. With fun features like voting, award badges, and special deals, CitySearch has your best interest in mind as it drives customers toward you. Add your restaurant to CitySearch through the \nCityGrid database\n. \n22. Local.com\nLocal.com is all about showing users the best places in their cities. Make sure your restaurant is one of those places! Sign your business up on local.com \nhere\n. \n23. Foursquare\nWith its 55 million monthly viewers, it’s safe to say Foursquare is a biggie. Customers can check into your restaurant and leave tips about it for others—like what they should order the next time they visit!\n24. Whitepages/Yext\nWith over \n5 billion records\n, Whitepages is an enormous database of global people and businesses. One unique feature of Whitepages is its \nAPIs\n, which allow businesses to buy and use the company’s extensive data to build their own software. This means a WP listing shows up not only on whitepages.com but also across all of their API customers’ sites as well. \nWhitepages uses Yext to create listings, meaning the two can go hand-in-hand. Yext is a pretty cool platform that allows you to see how you show up across a bunch of listing sites. While they do cost money to update all of your listings from one place (convenient, right?), they do let you check your restaurant listings for free on their site. \nYou’ve claimed your restaurant listings. What’s next?\nNow that you’ve claimed your restaurant’s listings across multiple websites, you’ll want to make sure you keep track of them and be in the loop when someone asks you a question or posts a review to that listing. Set up alerts via the platforms if available, or consider using reputation management software to help you stay on top of it all.\nAlso, when you get a review on any of these platforms, be sure to respond if the feature is available. Replying to reviews (both positive and negative) goes a long way to show your current and potential customers that you take their feedback seriously, and are committed to resolving any problems that may arise.

24 free listing sites every restaurant should be on

In this article:\nWhy you need to respond to Google reviews\nHow to respond to Google reviews\nStrategy for replying to negative online reviews\nWord of mouth has moved online.\nYou’ve probably heard that phrase (or something like it) countless times over the past several years. \nEspecially\n if you own or manage a local business. You know better than most how the rules of the game have changed. Where word of mouth used to be a vague sense of how the community felt about your business, it’s now boiled down to whether your customers give you 1-5 stars and how you respond to Google reviews, Yelp reviews, and more.\nAs a business owner, it’s understandable to feel powerless and frustrated by review sites and longing for the “good old days.”\nDon’t get trapped by that line of thinking.\nWhenever we talk to business owners about the new age of online review sites, we like to ask them all the same question: “How often do you respond to your reviews?” The typical response ranges from “We’re pretty good at responding, but only to complaints,” to “You can respond to reviews?” We almost never get the answer we’re hoping to hear: \n“Always.”\nResponding to Google Reviews\nPosting responses to your Google reviews, both positive and negative, can go a long way to build customer loyalty and boost your online reputation. We’ll get into exactly how and why this practice is so important later on in the article, but let’s start with a quick overview on how to respond to Google reviews.\nClaim your Google my Business listing (if you haven’t already)\nYou can’t respond to a Google review unless you’ve first claimed your business listing. At last count, only 44% of Google listings have been claimed, which leaves a lot of your competition already a step behind. Plus, research shows that businesses that claim their listings on multiple online business reviews sites make more money!\nIf you’ve already claimed your listing, feel free to jump to the next step. If you haven’t, don’t worry, it’s free and easy. Click here to learn \nhow to claim your Google my Business listing\n.\nOnce you’ve claimed your business, you have a few options available to respond to reviews. We’ll walk you through each of them. \nYou might also like: \nHow to set up Google customer reviews for your business\n.\nHow to Respond to Google reviews from Google’s Business Dashboard\n1) Log into your account at business.google.com\nIf you have more than one location, select the location you’d like to manage.\n(Image)\n\n2) Click on Reviews in the left-hand navigation\n(Image)\n\n3) Click the Reply button under the review you’re responding to\n(Image)\n\n4) Write your response and click Post Reply\nHow to respond to Google reviews from Google Search or Maps results\n1) Search for your business\nMake sure you’re logged into the Google account you use to manage your Google business listing\n(Image)\n\n2) Scroll to your reviews and click to view them all\n(Image)\n\n3) Click Reply under the review you’d like to respond to\n(Image)\n\n4) Write your response and click Submit\nShould I respond to Google reviews?\nYes. The game has changed. Your business’s online reputation matters now more than ever. 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. Most consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. But there’s a bright side to this new world of local business marketing that too few businesses take full advantage of. \nYou now have a voice in the conversation. In the past, business owners had little to no visibility into what people said about them, and they certainly didn’t have a seat at the table. These days, that’s all changed with review sites like Google My Business, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more. \nWin loyalty by showing customers you care\nWhereas before word of mouth was something vague and undefined, it’s now exists in an interactive online space. If a customer has a bad experience with your business and vents their frustration in a bad Google review, you now have the opportunity to engage that customer personally to mend the situation. \nThis not only gives you the chance to win back upset customers, but it also gives you a platform to show future customers that you care.\nMake a good first impression\nDon’t limit yourself to responding only to resolve issues and complaints. As mentioned earlier, you should respond to \nall \nyour Google reviews. Even the positive ones. Think of it like this: if a satisfied customer took a moment to share their positive experience with you in person, you wouldn’t respond with just a smile and a nod, right?\nTreat your Google reviews like you would any in-person review. A list of Google reviews complete with engaged responses from a business goes a \nlong \nway to set your business apart and make a curious searcher feel welcome and invited before they ever set foot in your place of business.\nIncrease revenue by boosting your online reputation\nBut you don’t just have to take us at our word on this. Studies have shown that when businesses start responding to online reviews, they receive an increase both in the total number of reviews received and their overall rating.\nWe’re not suggesting that responding to reviews will result in an immediate flood of hundreds of new 5-star reviews, of course. But according to research from Cornell, even incremental changes in your business’s online rating can affect your revenue by up to 39% for better or worse. \nIf you find yourself ready to respond to reviews but unsure what to say, read our helpful guide on \nhow to respond to negative reviews\n. The most important thing, though, is to stay consistent and be prompt. Don’t let your reviews sit for weeks or even days without responding.\nWord of mouth has moved online. Don’t leave yourself out of the conversation.

How to respond to Google reviews

In this article:\nWhy you need professional photos\nDefine your goals\nIdentify your audience\nDIY options\nStock photos\nProfessional photographers\nExpected costs\nGood photography is important in our increasingly digital, “connected” marketspace. With everything you do online for your business—website, social media, online review profiles, business listings, selling products—compelling visuals are a crucial part of the conversion process. \nYou can obtain high-quality, professional-looking photos a few different ways: learn how to take them yourself, exploit any of the various stock photography resources, or hire a professional photographer. We’ll walk you through each of these options and provide you with some tips and tricks along the way. \nWhy your business needs professional photos\nProfessional photos for your business’s online presence and in more traditional marketing methods (billboards, magazine ads, brochures, etc.) isn’t a unique selling point anymore. It’s something that consumers expect. And if your business doesn’t look like you have your stuff together, you could be losing out on some valuable opportunities. \nSome additional reasons you need professional-looking photos for your small business:\nPhotos help your customers get to know you better. With on-the-job candids, employee headshots, and photos of your building, your potential customers can learn more about your business and feel connected. \nYour media represents your brand, so high-quality photos will help potential customers view your brand how you want them to. \nImages (with proper tags and alt text—read our tutorial on \noptimizing local SEO\n for more details) can help improve your business’s online visibility through image search and improving user engagement on your website. \nGood photos are versatile assets that you can use across all of your marketing efforts. \nContinue on to learn what you need to know before you dive into getting your professional photos and discover a few different ways that you can get your photos. \nDefine your goals for business photography\nBefore investing in professional photography for your business, you need to nail down your purpose for the photos. \nWhy are you taking photos? What are you hoping to achieve with these professional photos?\nMaybe you’re looking to get professional product images to help increase sales or you want good images for your blog articles to increase online engagement with your website. Determine what your goals are for these photos so you can keep that in mind as you gather them. \nIdentify your audience\nLike all things in marketing, you must know your audience. You can’t take good photos for your business or website if you don’t know who will primarily be seeing them. Once you know your audience, you can take pictures that will attract them and better appeal to their interests. \nThe DIY photography option\nYou don’t have to spend a ton of money to get professional-looking photos for your business. If you have an eye for design and good aesthetics, then you may be able to take quality photos yourself. \nYou don’t even need to have a professional camera (although this can help if you know how to use it). Most of us have phones with cameras, and if you know how to use it right, you can get some great photos with just that.  \nCosts to expect when taking your own photos\nIt doesn’t matter which option you choose to get your professional photos, you’re going to be looking at some expense here. To take your own photos could range from just the cost of your time and a couple apps on your phone to the cost of a new camera and your time to learn how to use it. \nLet’s break this down. \nA new professional camera typically costs anywhere from $500 to tens of thousands of dollars. Unless your business is in photography or a closely related field, then you’ll probably be fine investing in one of the less expensive options here. From there, you’re just going to need to take the time to learn how to use your camera to take high-quality, well-composed photos. \nIf you choose to use your phone to take images, then you could be looking at just the cost of your time, depending on the capabilities of your phone’s camera. You may want to look into acquiring some lenses for your phone to enhance your photos. The cost of those can range from $10-$50. \nAnother feature you should look into for taking your own phone photos is professional photo editing applications, which can range from free to $20 (more on these shortly). \nBest practices for taking your own photos\nIf you are going to take your own photos, whether with your phone or a new camera, there are some things you should keep in mind to take the best professional-looking photos for your business. \nNatural light\nNatural light is the light that exists around us. When you’re outdoors enjoying the sun or open your windows up to let in some light, that’s natural light. And the same feeling that is associated with natural light when you walk outside or open your windows can be reflected in your images. \nUse natural light sources to keep your images feeling natural and pure. Take photos outside or create a little studio for products in a room with large windows. \nTest different lighting scenarios to find what works best for your images. \nCandid shots\nWhen taking photos of your staff or customers, you can’t beat the impact of candid shots. Take images of your employees on the job when they aren’t posing for a photo. This will help show your customers what your team is like and helps them get to know your company better. \nProfessional camera (or at least a good app)\nThe best way to get professional photos for your business is with a professional camera, lightbox, diffusers, etc. So if you can manage to get your hands on the gear and learn how to use it, that will take your photo game farthest. \nBut sometimes that doesn’t realistically fit into your budget, time constraints, or skillset, so you use the next best thing: your phone. There are some great photo editing apps out there that can help you organize and enhance images for your business. \nHere are a few that you should look at:\nAdobe Lightroom for mobile: free with in-app purchases\nAdobe Photoshop Express: free\nPixlr: free\nCamera+: $2.99 (iOS devices only)\nTouchRetouch: $1.99\nTons of photo editing apps exist, so play around with a couple and see what works best for you. You can read photography blogs or forums, and there are some great photography tutorials on YouTube.\nThe rule of thirds\nThe rule of thirds helps make your images more interesting from a composition standpoint. Basically, this rule tells you to break your image up into a grid of thirds and then focus your subject on one of the sides instead of in the center. \nThis rule is a general guideline but it helps enhance your images to make them more appealing to your customers. \nClear subject\nYour business photos should tell a story, which means they need to have a clear subject. It’s hard to follow a story that jumps all over the place and you aren’t quite sure who the story is about. \nFor each photo you take, make sure there is a clear focus on the subject so your customers and visitors aren’t confused by chaotic and hard-to-follow imagery. \nAvoid over-editing\nIt’s easy to get wrapped up in the photo editing process. Try not to overdo it. Some light editing can take you far—enhancing the brightness or contrast a little, cropping the photo for better composition, or bringing out your colors. \nWhen you are done editing, take a look at your original photo and the finished product. If it looks drastically different, you may have taken it a little too far. Most people can tell when an image has been heavily edited, so work to keep it “real” and natural-looking. \nBetter yet, try to capture your photos in a way that doesn’t require a lot of editing in the first place. \nUsing stock photos for your business\nIf you don’t have the means to take your own photos but can’t justify the expense of a professional photographer for your blog or website, then stock photography might be a great option for you. \nA warning about stock photography: Stock photos can make your site feel less personal and even tacky (depending on the types of photos you use). \nAnyone who works with stock photos will likely recognize many of the commonly used images you might use. Be sure to choose high-quality images with a unique look and feel that help enhance your online presence and build your brand.\nThere are several free and low-cost options out there that you can use to get copyright or royalty-free images.\nFree\nFree stock photo sites are a great option when you don’t have the budget for professional photography or don’t use photos very often. If you look around you can find some surprisingly good stock photos on free sites.\nA couple options that you can try:\nPixabay\nUnsplash\nPexels\nLow-cost\nIf you are going to be using stock photos on a regular basis (for blogs or regular ads and marketing campaigns) then it could be worth it to pick up a subscription to a stock photography site. \nHere are some low-cost options that you can look at:\nDeposit Photos: $29/month for 30 images each month and rollover downloads\nLifetime Stock: $9.99/month with an annual purchase and 33 images per day\nShutterstock: $29/month for 10 images per month\nHire a professional photographer\nSometimes what you really need is a professional. Whether you don’t have the time to learn to take your own photos or have some products that just need a professional eye for a good photo, a professional photographer is always a good option. \nEven if you do most of your photography yourself, consider hiring a pro for special projects, a new run of product photography for your online store or \nInstagram business account\n, etc.\nBenefits of using a professional photographer for your business photos:\nHigh-quality, beautiful, well-composed photos\nThe knowhow and experience to create or enhance your business vision through photos\nTheir creativity and suggestions for better photos and campaigns\nConfidence that you’ll get great photos\nStaff and customers may feel more comfortable working with a professional for staff and customer photos\nProfessional equipment\nMany photographers are also skilled photo editors\nCosts to expect with a professional photographer\nDepending on where you are and what the commercial photography market is like in your area, the cost of a professional photographer can vary a lot. Generally speaking, you’ll probably be looking anywhere between $100 and $400 per hour. Travel time and the number of photos you want edited can raise that cost. \nTo keep the costs down with your professional photographer, keep these things in mind:\nConsult beforehand and get a detailed price quote for all costs\nBe prepared by knowing the exact shots that you want taken ahead of time\nSchedule a time when all relevant staff will be in the store so you only need the photographer to come out once (for staff or product photos)\nFind a photographer who is in your area to keep travel costs down\nTest out a college student who is still building up their portfolio \nEnhance your small business marketing efforts\nQuality photography, no matter which option you go with, is going to enhance your business’s marketing efforts and give you more credibility and visibility with your customers. \nBuild on that momentum and continue to build customer trust by optimizing your online presence and online reviews. 

Top 3 ways to get (and use) professional photos for your small business

In this article:\nWhy every restaurant needs an online menu\nKey features of an effective online menu\nUsing your online menu as a marketing tool\nImproving local SEO with your online menu\nUpselling with your online menu\nIn today’s increasingly online world, even the diviest of dive restaurants needs a robust online presence. Even if you pretend not to care about online reviews, people \nare\n leaving them for you—whether you have \nclaimed your online business profiles\n or not.\nIn addition, the first contact a lot of your customers are going to have with your restaurant is online, because over 9 out of 10 people search local businesses online before they visit them.\nYou need to but your best food \n(sic)\n forward, and your menu is the embodiment of your philosophy and business model. But simply throwing up a .pdf (or—gasp—an image) of your menu isn’t going to cut it. \nLet’s go over the reasons why.\nPeople want to know what to expect from your restaurant before they visit\nSome people enjoy surprises, but the vast majority of people searching for local places to eat want to know what they’re in for before they’ll spend a dime.\nYour menu, when properly constructed, designed, and made searchable, is the easiest way for customers to get an idea of what type of food you serve, how innovative or traditional you are in your approach to cuisine, and what variety of items they might be able to find.\nPotential customers are searching for specific menu items online\nRestaurants and food searches are the epitome of instant gratification. Sure, when people search for local businesses online, a significant portion of those searches result in purchases within the next 24 hours.\nHowever, when someone is searching “Vietnamese food near me,” chances are they are ready to eat RIGHT NOW and if you don’t show up well in that specific search, you’ll be out of luck.\nBut that’s not all. While tons of people search using the “(type of cuisine)+near me” search string, a significant portion of those searches are much more specific, as in the actual dish. \nThis can be as general as something like “noodles near me” or it can be as specific as “Pork cao lầu near me.” \nIf your menu is “non-searchable,” or in other words, if Google’s (or whatever other search engine customers use to try to find you) “spiders” can’t read your online menu and find specific search term results, you won’t ever show up in the top results when people search for your type of cuisine or those specific menu items online.\nThis is why you shouldn’t use a .pdf or image to post your menu online. There are ways to make .pdfs searchable by search engines, but it’s fiddly to do and the results are still marginal even if you take the time to do it. It’s better to build a proper HTML version of your menu.\nEven a simple, plain webpage with a detailed menu included as plain test will be more valuable to your business than a flowery, but unreadable and unsearchable image or .pdf menu.\nYour menu is useful, relevant content for marketing and SEO\nAs noted above, a searchable .pdf version of your menu is better than nothing, but you will rank higher in search engines if you build your menu with easily searchable text.\nSEO stands for “search engine optimization” and getting your menu in the proper format to be searched and ranked by search engines is the first step in improving your local SEO.\nRead more: \nLocal SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings\nYour menu is part of “next level” info to complete Google and Yelp business profiles\nWhen people search local restaurants, the first thing they often look at are your Google and Yelp reviews, which often show up in the top search results.\nIf a search for local Mexican restaurants turns up your listing and your main competitor’s listing, the “next level” info and detail you include in your business profile on these review sites will be the determining factor.\nIf your competitor has a 4-star rating, lots of fresh reviews, complete info about the facilities and ambiance, \nhigh quality photography\n, \nand\n a full, search-engine-friendly menu—and you have a similar listing but \ndon’t\n include your menu—guess who is likely to get more customers’ business? \nThat’s correct… not you.\nGo deeper: \nThe top 5 things every small business should include in their Google Business listing\nIf you’re set up for online ordering, your menu is your primary sales and upsell tool\nWe’ve talked about how a search-engine-friendly menu can bring you more customers. Now let’s talk briefly about how a properly built menu can help you get more orders from those customers.\nIf you are set up for online ordering and/or delivery, you need to pay careful attention to how your online menu is constructed. Clear descriptions are a must, and professional photos of each item will take you to the next level. You can even add special offers or sale items depending on your online ordering platform.\nAbove all, double check at least weekly to ensure your online menu is 100% correct, or you’ll lose sales and repeat customers.\nEven if you have to build a specific menu for your online customers that is less complete but more reliable than your in-house menu, make sure people can actually purchase everything they find online.\nA good online menu can stand in for your in-house waitstaff and hint to your remote diners, “Are you ready for dessert?” or “I love our pear salad with that entree.”\nHere’s a good article on \noptimizing your online menu for online ordering\n.\nA great business profile on all the relevant review sites, including a robust and beautiful (and fully searchable) menu, will go a long way toward improving your online presence and attract more customers.\nSources:\n
\nhttps://blog.typsy.com/why-your-restaurant-menu-needs-to-be-onlineand-how-to-maximize-it\n

144 articles found in “Marketing”

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Top 3 ways to get (and use) professional photos for your small business

Why (and how) you need to put your restaurant’s menu online

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