POPMENU INDUSTRY REPORT
Growing your business without a big budget:
one restaurant's story.
Eye-catching headlines. Gorgeous images. Irresistible offers instantly served up to guests. You don't need a big advertising agency to achieve this. In fact, you don't even need an advertising budget. We'll show you how one restaurant managed to grow their business and continually outpace competitors through easy strategies and a healthy serving of automation.
Meet Winking Lizard Tavern, a multi-location restaurant in Ohio known for ridiculously good ribs and wings, a wide selection of craft beer and savvy marketing. We sat down with Tracy Bryan, Marketing Manager at Winking Lizard Tavern, to give you a sneak peek into how they attract guests and keep them coming back…
Website & SEO
A website that looks good and works hard.
16 Locations Serving Ohio
Eat · Relax · Enjoy
Become a VIPThree Floyds Mini Tour
Sept. 1 – Sept. 30
Fact: 90 percent of consumers research a restaurant online before dining.
When guest cravings start at the Google search bar, how do you make sure your restaurant website comes out on top? The answer: Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Put simply, SEO helps drive more organic (free) traffic to a website from search engines like Google. To be considered "search optimized," websites must:
- Be easy to navigate on mobile devices
- Highlight key information like hours and location
- Host different types of content (i.e., images, text, links)
- Stay up-to-date with fresh content (e.g., new reviews, menu updates, etc.)
Websites that check all these boxes usually get placed higher in search results and therefore attract more guests to the site — all without costing a dime.
Pop Tip:Want to learn more about how SEO works? Check out our guide: SEO for Restaurants.
The zero-cost nature of SEO is why it's a key part of Winking Lizard's overall growth strategy. With Popmenu, Winking Lizard's website is not only optimized to the factors above, but also through the menu.
With the dynamic menu each dish acts as its own web page connected to Winking Lizard (vs. an image or a PDF, which only counts as one page in the "eyes" of Google). So Google not only ranks the Winking Lizard Tavern homepage in results, but also specific menu items. Now, when guests search things like "wings near me," Winking Lizard pops up on the results page every time.
The website helps showcase the menu items we are most known for and we continually create new content on the site with the dynamic menu. We currently do not invest in any paid advertising, so the SEO driven website helps us to gain more visibility in our market.
Mesa Chop Chicken Salad
$12.50A Santa Fe seasoned chicken breast on a bed of mixed greens topped with black bean and fire roasted corn salsa, cheddar cheese, and crispy tortilla strips.
43 Reviews · ❤ 127SEO Results
SEO in action.
Google searches where Winking Lizard comes out on top:
- Monday wings
- Mesa chicken
- Pizza Monday
- Burger basket
- and 150+ more!
Monday & Tuesday – Boneless Wings
$0.65Mini Burger Basket
$12.50In just three months with Popmenu… Winking Lizard Tavern nearlydoubled the amount of organic traffic to the homepage of its website.
value of Winking Lizard's free organic traffic (Apr 2021–Sept 2022)*
*Data captured from April 2021 – Sept. 2022 using ahrefs — a third-party data site not affiliated with Popmenu.
Winking Lizard whiskey bar makes page one.
When searching for the "best whiskey bar in Ohio," Winking Lizard Tavern's beer store and whiskey bar, Lizardville, appears as one of the top 3 results.
SEO helps this community staple, which launched in 2011, stay top-of-mind.
GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Lizardville Beer Store and Whiskey Bar
Westerville, OH
The scotch and bourbon selection is top notch as well.
Dynamic Menu
Food that speaks for itself.
of diners order food on their mobile device
will move on to another restaurant over a PDF menu
An online menu should look as good as it tastes — why not make the menu irresistible?
Winking Lizard knows the guest experience begins at the online menu; with rich dish descriptions, delicious photos, and likes and reviews living under every dish, Winking Lizard creates cravings that bring guests through the front door.
With so many restaurant options to choose from, we need to maximize our chances of getting selected over another restaurant. Making our food and beverage offerings more appealing than our competitors is part of it.
LIZARDVILLE
Food
What's more? The menu is quick to update, so it's easy to highlight menu items, add and remove seasonal specials, and update pricing when necessary.
"Our online menus also allow for the most current information to be displayed…[and] we are able to remove items quickly without having to wait for menus to be reprinted."
Pop Tip:With Popmenu, a dynamic menu is part of your website — so you can finally 86 those PDF links on your website!
Making the menu a dynamic destination.
restaurant followers gained through Popmenu
menu interactions (loves, likes, and reminders to try!)
dish reviews across menus
Having a website that is visually appealing to the guests, allows comments to be submitted for their favorite menu items, and helps create searchable items...Our customers are wanting information about us and our menu fast — the dynamic menu gives them all that they're looking for — and with our Popmenu website, we can showcase the menu items we're most known for.
WINKING LIZARD TAVERN
The Menu
❤ 268★ 4.8Guest Reviews
Reviews that build reputation.
Reviews of a restaurant or its dishes are the No. 1 reason why diners choose one restaurant over another. Positive reviews can also contribute to how much customers spend at a restaurant, with 31% of diners saying they would pay more at an establishment with positive reviews. When reviews are that important to influencing guests to dine in, why let third-party sites like Yelp! control them?
With over 2,000 reviews across the menu, Winking Lizard knows the importance of guest feedback in bringing in new business. Through Popmenu, the restaurant hosts reviews within individual menu items and is able to manage reviews that come in — giving them the ability to approve the positives and respond to service missteps without making them public to potential diners.
With guest reviews living directly on the menu, we can oversee what is posted — as opposed to third-party sites like Yelp! where we have no control — and we have the ability to handle negative reviews in private and directly so we can ensure the guest comes back in the future.
- Blue Shroom Burger*Mayfield HeightsPending
- Caesar SaladIndependencePending
- BBQ Chicken ClubCantonPending
- Boneless WingsIndependenceApproved
"Fantastic as always! So much delicious food!" — Chris, about 1 hour ago at Avon
Pop Tip:In addition to the positive press reviews give the restaurant, each new review also serves as a fresh content update to the website, driving additional organic (free) traffic by improving SEO rankings!
Winking Lizard food fanatics.
GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Winking Lizard Tavern
These are no ordinary cheese sticks and are easily miles ahead of other places! I love the triangle shape... they always keep me coming back.
GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Winking Lizard Tavern
So I'm a new hot sauce connoisseur... Fire In the Hole does not disappoint and I don't think I'm at the tolerance level to enjoy how INTENSE this sauce is. Thank you Winking Lizard!
GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Winking Lizard Tavern
Food that excites. The Lizard Lips... when the first lizard lip hit my lip, I felt something I hadn't felt in years, joy. I have found a meal fit for a king.
Digital Waitlist
Waitlisting that brings more walk-ins.
Modern waitlist technology should do more than just help organize a list of names. Waitlisting has the potential to encourage guest engagement and upsells, increase table turnover, drive more reviews to the menu, and turn first-time guests into loyal followers.
Winking Lizard Tavern never misses an opportunity to connect with its guests. With digital waitlisting, guests receive wait updates to their phone along with a prompt (and link!) to browse the Winking Lizard food menu — driving more traffic to the website and keeping them entertained while waiting. What's more? After being seated, guests are prompted to leave reviews on dishes while the taste is top-of-mind — leading to an increased number of reviews across the menu.
Our guests really enjoy the digital waitlist — it definitely helps keep them engaged while they're waiting for a table. We had a digital waitlisting platform we were using previously, but what we like about waitlisting with Popmenu is that guests are texted a link to the menu while they wait so they can browse beforehand and then they're texted again after they're seated, encouraging them to leave a review.
Winking Lizard Tavern: As you're waiting, browse our menu and check out what we're cookin' — winkinglizard.com/menu
Thanks for dining with us! Once you've finished your meal, check out our site to like and review any dishes you have tried. winkinglizard.com/reviews
An added bonus? Because guests spend their wait time checking out the menu, they spend less time menu browsing at the table (helping Winking Lizard turn tables faster!).
Marketing & Retention
Marketing that keeps guests coming back.
of guests want to hear from their favorite restaurants at least once a week
diners want special promotions and other news every week
These expectations can feel like a lot to keep up with, but marketing your restaurant doesn't have to be costly, time consuming, or complicated. In fact, even a little bit of marketing can go a long way. Simple marketing tactics like email, text, loyalty programs, offers, and more can keep you connected with new and long-time guests, drive more revenue, and increase foot traffic on slower days. Oh, and the best part? With the right technology, many of these efforts can be automated!
Winking Lizard Tavern stays top-of-mind with its 30,000+ followers through custom emails, monthly email newsletters, regular text messages, and website announcements that call out upcoming events, new offers, new seasonal menu items, ordering events, and specials.
Pop Tip:With Popmenu, a dynamic menu is part of your website — so you can finally 86 those PDF links on your website!
New This Month at Winking Lizard
All locations closed Labor Day weekend, Sun. Sept. 4 & Mon. Sept. 5 (except Peninsula & Galleria).
See What's HappeningNew this month at all Winking Lizard locations: 3 Floyds Mini Tour. Drink 4 of the 3 Floyds beers this September to take home an exclusive T-shirt. winkinglizard.com/events
Clambake Available This Weekend!
Lobster tails, steaks, ribs & half chickens
Ordering event shows restaurant marketing at work.
in additional sales from one Thanksgiving ordering event
Last Thanksgiving, Winking Lizard Tavern advertised the event using website announcements, emails, and social posts.
The online ordering events have been an easy way for us to offer special holiday meal packages that are normally not available on our regular menu…Last Thanksgiving we were able to reach a broader range of guests to market the event with the email marketing, online announcements, and social media integration to help generate over $20,000 in sales for one event.
WINKING LIZARD TAVERN
Thanksgiving Day Feast
Pickup Thu, Nov. 25 · 10am–1pm at Bedford Hts.
Full Feast — $110 serves 6–8
- Mashed Potatoes
- Roasted Corn
- Herb Stuffing
Now Taking Orders for Thanksgiving Feasts!
Choose a Whole Roasted Turkey or Boneless Turkey Breast — curbside pickup at Bedford Hts.
Place Your OrderWatch this video below to catch up with Tracy Bryan,Marketing Manager at Winking Lizard Tavern!
The Recap
Winking Lizard Tavern does it all (for less!) with Popmenu.
Fact: 90 percent of consumers research a restaurant online before dining. When guest cravings start at the Google search bar, how do you make sure your restaurant website comes out on top? The answer: Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- With SEO, guests find Winking Lizard through organic channels.
- Guests add themselves to the waitlist in advance and receive a text to the dynamic menu.
- The dynamic menu, with likes and reviews, entices guests before they even arrive.
- Guests leave reviews and the restaurant captures guest information.
- The restaurant keeps guests engaged and stays top of mind with marketing — inviting them back to the restaurant again and again.
About Popmenu
As a leader in restaurant technology, Popmenu is on a mission to make profitable growth easy for all restaurants. Digital marketing, online ordering, and on-premise technologies headline a powerful product suite infused with artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and deep data on guest preferences. The company consolidates tools needed to engage guests, serving as a digital control center for more than 10,000 independent restaurants and hospitality groups in the US, UK, and Canada. For more information about Popmenu, visit popmenu.com.
Win bigger with Popmenu.
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