As of early 2020, digital ordering was a mere novelty that some predicted would become ubiquitous in the future—and then, the pandemic vaulted it into the mainstream.
In fact, digital ordering has become so omnipresent that some sources predict that over 50 percent of restaurant orders by 2025 will be of the digital variety. Put another way, the future is here.
“There are so many competitors on these apps now, and that has made your brand’s ranking and visibility on them that much more important,” says Josh Maccabee, Director of Product at YipitData. “It’s become essential to build a strategy that will make your brand stand out.”
That’s where YipitData comes in: they provide brands with data comparing their third-party delivery performance to their competitors and help develop a game plan to grow their digital market share. Here are three important factors that help shape those plans, handpicked by Maccabee and Ally Flechsig, a Data Consultant with YipitData.
Understand the Market
In order to better digitally position a brand in a given market, it’s important to first develop an understanding of the digital market the brand inhabits and where opportunities exist. Understanding how your brand performs relative to competitors and to the market at large, where you can improve your platform presence, and which competitor initiatives are drawing consumers in and driving volume are important inputs to building a cohesive digital strategy.
“When we’re looking at a brand or market, we can get really targeted with our data,” Maccabee says. “We can help you pull back the curtain and understand what’s making other brands successful, which you can use to inform your own road to success.”
Optimize Platform Discoverability
If a brand does not have a strong platform presence or rank highly within a third-party delivery app, it makes it challenging to attract the attention of the large segment of users who might be casually scrolling through the app deciding what to order. YipitData has identified a flywheel effect, where being highly visible in an app helps to drive volume, elevated volume is rewarded with improved page rank, and improved page rank drives platform visibility, accelerating the cycle.
YipitData combines brand ranking data with other datasets to help brands climb the rankings and get more value out of the third party channel.
“We’re able to track a brand’s appearances on an app’s home feed down to the zip code level,” Flechsig says. “Brands are finding that success on third-party delivery apps is highly dependent on visibility. Knowing where you rank and what your overall presence is in your target markets, as well as where your competitors rank, is a key component to growing your market share.”
Experiment With Promotions, Product Launches, and LTOs
One case study developed by YipitData showed how Panera Bread’s order volume on delivery apps rose significantly when the brand increased their promotion and sponsored listing activity on platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats to coincide with the brand’s spring menu release.
This strategy highlights the power of proactively trying to increase platform visibility during critical windows, such as product launches or LTOs. Further, over this period, Panera saw improvements in its organic rank against a handful of terms on DoorDash, indicating that restaurants can see downstream positive impact from elevated performance.
Partner With the Experts to Develop Your Strategy
YipitData is providing restaurant brands with unique insights to help them be successful in the challenging and relatively new world of third-party delivery.
“We’ve heard from many different brands that now is the time to formulate a concrete strategy when it comes to third-party delivery, but they might not be sure where to start,” Maccabee says. “YipitData is excited to partner with forward-thinking brands developing an omnichannel digital marketing strategy, or doubling down on third-party delivery specifically. When it comes to providing actionable insights and helping brands leverage data to make informed decisions about growing their digital market share, we know we have a lot to offer.”
For more information on growing your digital market share, check out YipitData’s free report.