Chain Restaurant Marketing Case Study
CATEGORY: Restaurant Marketing
SOFTWARE: Figma, WordPress,
SERVICES: Digital Marketing
WEBSITE: samstavernseattle.com
01. The Challenge
The personality of each of the brand’s locations differs slightly, but together the brand is known for a kitschy blend of Seattle grunge inspired Americana and high quality burgers and other local bar fare (including one of the highest rated Bloody Mary’s on the West coast) alongside a variety of “things to do” from onsite bar games and live music to one of the busiest happy hours in the region.
02. The Solution
Together, the restaurant’s unique blend of food and drink, social scene, and sardonic take on a “the customer is always right” mentality are core parts of its identity and vital to its success. Its website – initially built at the company’s inception – hadn’t kept up however.
Not only didn’t it mirror the restaurant’s theme, it didn’t represent the diversity of its offering, convey things to do, its menu, or perform technically against other similar concepts in the area – from mobile usability to search engine optimization.
The restaurant’s owners wanted a more interactive property that could showcase all of its unique features in a visual voice that matched the components that made its brand successful with in-person audiences.
Front of House did an incredible job encapsulating our brand and giving us the ability to take control of our website design. We were incredibly thankful for their work.– BILLI REUSS
Our goal during this project was to design and build a “from-scratch” twenty-five page website that showcased the brand’s overarching history and theme as well as each of its location unique ‘s events, weekend activities, and menu.
Our process started with a creative brief and information architecture describing the website’s creative style and how visitors would experience and navigate it. First, we conducted an on-premise photo shoot to capture the brand’s most unique on-premise elements from over-the-top menu items to off-center decor – including bad taxidermy, old school signage, and beer can art.
We wireframed, mocked, and prototyped a mobile-optimized site that brought these elements to life through interactive elements and “easter eggs” that conveyed the brand’s unique personality.
Once approved, we developed the site in the WordPress CMS using Foundation’s mobile framework. Our technical process included integrating the site with several other local search, loyalty, mobile ordering/pickup and analytics plugins.
03. The Result
The chain restaurant launched its new website with a dramatic and immediate upswing in traffic that included new discovery from generic search terms like “burger restaurant” and “best happy hour”.
As a result, online mentions and earned media increased dramatically netting “Best of” awards in dozens of regional publications. New visitors were also staying up to 200% longer indicating a site with dramatically improved user experience.
The company is now able to add various events, update menu items, and communicate important business offerings like corporate catering in a way that’s helped it grow its overall footprint and prepare for the next stage of growth.
Since launching, Front of House has continued to handle technical aspects of the site’s functionality and worked closely with its onsite managers to make changes on an as-needed basis.
If you’re an independent chain restaurant looking for a more functional website experience, we’d love to talk. Let us know how we can help.
