Digital strategy for restaurant | Case Study

François Soulignac - Digital strategy for restaurant (Case study)
Digital strategy for restaurant dedicated to Le Saint-Hubert, a French family business located in Briare-le-Canal, a major tourist attraction in the Loire Valley. It sells soft drinks, alcohol, local wines, snacks, cheeses, local food and dishes from the tradition of French bistros. The place is charming and singular: in a typical French village, in a district protected by the “Monuments historiques de France“, a state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, garden, bridge, or other structure, because of their importance to France’s architectural and historical cultural heritage. The best value of the place is the wide terrace, a 180 degree panoramic view on nature, boats and marina. A perfect place for families, senior, lovers and tourists.



Context | Facts & Figures

Partner : Restaurant Le Saint-Hubert (Loire Valley, France)
Project : Digital strategy for restaurant (F&B Industry)
Type of services : Solutions for local company (BtoC, BtoB & HR com)
Type of products : Showcase, Blog, Social content, Flow & Stock content, Native ads
Type of strategy : Non-price competition (Quality, Innovation & Design improvement)

> See the Achievements & Results
> See the Showcase report (Website)
> See the Social content report
> See the Brand content & Native Ads report (Blog)
> See the Brand content report (Food pictures)
> See the Brand identity report (Sound design)

Le Saint-Hubert : company description

Le Saint-Hubert is a local family business (SME) founded by my parents, integrating four partners in charge of Business Development, Administration and Accounting, General & Floor Management, Digital Strategy & Social Content. In response to the crisis and the decline in purchasing power in France and Europe in the early 2010’s, Le Saint-Hubert has implemented a more attractive pricing policy, focusing on simplicity, quality and French-style conviviality.

Partner’s needs

The company needed a comprehensive digital strategy to keep pace with new uses and attract new customers. Moreover, in 2012, a serious e-reputation crisis hit the brand. My main mission was therefore to clarify the hierarchy of the company’s products and services, increase the digital visibility of the brand, improve its e-reputation and put in place tools to stay in touch with its community. This is a work in progress, more information will be regularly updated on this page.

Digital strategy for restaurant : big picture

How to communicate on digital platform for a local company, with honesty, pedagogy and effectiveness ? How to seduce families, seniors, tourists and travel agencies in the same time ? How to improve a digital visibility without paid Ads ? How to face to the positioning of TripAdvisor SEO with a limited budget ?

Solutions

To achieve these objectives, we have chosen to implement a “Non-price competition strategy” (Quality, Innovation, Design improvements). Thanks to dedicated tools and tailor-made solutions, we have been able to build a solid organic Internet positioning (locally, nationalyl and internationally), communicating on three supports (online storefront, blog and social networks), then implementing three levels of communication essential for the good development of any company (BtoC, BtoB, HR com). At the end of the strategic plan, we incremented useful and ergonomic tools for clients and candidates in order to keep contact with our community and discover new talents (online bookings, surveys and recruitment).

Main challenges

The main challenge has been to build a strong coherence between our messages, our contents and the reality of the place. To highlight its advantages but also its “weak points” and “atypical” points, by presenting them in an honest, uncomplexed – and even funny, if the subject is suitable. The main objective is to avoid any sense of disappointment. As the partner in charge of digital content, my work has consisted of conducting communication campaigns that are impactful, positive, but always fair.

Provided services

Digital strategy for restaurant : Goals, Digital market positioning, Architecture Information, E-reputation management. Search Engine Marketing : Google solutions (Adsense, Analytics). Copy-writing (in French & English) : Brand Content, Values & Commitments (4095 words), Crisis report & Press release (6575 words). Creative : Brand identity definition, Graphic design, Sound design, Photography, User Interface designing. Development : Homemade HTML & CSS (Showcase). Adaptation of WordPress solutions, PHP, HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, jQuery (Blog). Social : Brand integration on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

My intervention | Skills developed

Digital Strategy for restaurant

Search Engine Optimization and Web positioning (SEO). E-reputation management. On-line tools development for booking, recruitment and surveys. Performance monitoring via Google Analytics. Brand integration on social platforms. Launch of new products (menus, special offers). Content monetization via Google AdSense. Reputation management & Crisis communication procedure. Research & Development related to Customer Services, Customer Reviews, Catering & Tourism industry.

Brand Content & Community Management

Writing content for all medium : Showcase (21 pages) including Products, Services & Thematic pages, Commitments & Values (4095 words), Crisis report & Press release (6575 words). Blog & Brand content, including 5 categories, 22 posts and 7 pages. All posts on social content.

Art direction, Webdesign & User Interface

All pages and visuals in showcase; all pages and visuals on the blog; all visuals dedicated to Food pictures and social Content (Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest). In addition, an original mixtape was produced to introduce the brand’s DNA in the restaurant.

Front-End Web Development

Homemade HTML & CSS with optimized pages for mobile devices for all pages on the showcase. Responsive webdesign (HTML5, PHP, Fluid Grids & CSS3 media queries) adapted from WordPress solutions for all pages on the blog.

Digital ecosystem

Francois Soulignac - Digital Strategy for Restaurant - Le Saint-Hubert (Digital Ecosystem - SEO Report)Francois Soulignac - Digital Strategy for Restaurant - Le Saint-Hubert (Location - Visits)Francois Soulignac - Digital Strategy for Restaurant (Audience Overview)

Greatest achievements & Results

  • August 2012 : Needs analysis
  • September 2012 : Strategic response (Non-price competition)
  • November 2012 : Organic SEO in French
  • January 2013 : New Chef & New homemade menu
  • February 2013 : Organic SEO in English
  • April 2013 : Brand content definition in French
  • June 2013 : Side by side with Tripadvisor
  • September 2013 : Optimization for mobile devices
  • October 2013 : Regional advertising for free
  • December 2013 : Results of online booking (+7,6% in 2013)
  • January 2014 : Results of sale revenues (+5% in 2013)
  • Achievements & Results in 2013 : A delicate balance to consolidate
  • February 2014 : Food photography on Pinterest
  • March & April 2014 : Human resources communication on Facebook
  • May & June 2014 : Offensive strategy for the “Lunch menu” & “Dish of day”
  • June 2014 : A massive digital visibility (local, regional and national dissemination)
  • July 2014 : Brand content for the new French label “Homemade”
  • January 2020 : Blog – Stock content creation to relaunch the organic SEO
  • January 2020 : Showcase – UI Design optimization to make the website more mobile friendly
  • January 2020 : Showcase – Updating allergens information to cope with French policies
  • April – May 2020 | COVID-19 crisis: Adaptation of the existing booking system for take away service
  • 2021 : SEO maintenance, security updates, UX optimization

> See all the Achievements & Results Timeline

All Work Reports

© 2012-2021 | François Soulignac – Le Saint-Hubert. Digital Strategy for Restaurant. Strategy, Art Direction, Graphic Design, UI Design, Social Content Creation, Front-End Web Development & Photography.



Back on top

Comments are closed.