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Zomato’s Unique Digital Marketing Strategy

Zomato Digital Marketing Strategy

Zomato is a restaurant review site founded in 2010. In 2013, they launched their mobile application allowing customers to order food from local restaurants. Since then, they’ve also expanded into other categories. The company has over 35 million registered users in India alone. They are currently present in 13 countries globally.

How do Zomato create a unique digital marketing strategy?

Zomato is constantly innovating and developing new features in their apps. Their goal is to become the leading global online destination to eat great food at home or dine out. To achieve this, their core team focuses on four major areas: Mobile App Optimization, User Acquisition, Customer Retention, and Growth Hacking. Find out how they are successful in these sectors below.

Today you will know how this leading Indian food-tech platform Zomato is popular not only for its food delivery service but even for their great organic marketing strategy.  For many people, Zomato is the first choice for food ordering.

Zomato is popular as a restaurant discovery, online food delivery and dine-out platform. Along with India, it is available in over 24 nations including Sri Lanka, Australia, parts of the Middle East and many more. 

Zomato launched in 2010. Earlier, it was a Delhi-based startup – FoodieBay that was founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in the year 2008. These IIT alumni observed the long queues in offices to see the menu card. That’s how FoodieBay became the biggest online directory of restaurants in the city.  

"Zomato’s first quarterly revenue in 2022 is ₹ 11.6 billion. As of December 2021, the total visits to its desktop site and Zomato app on mobile were 22.83 million. Today, there are 12000 restaurant partners and 1.4 million restaurant listings."

Source: https://www.feedough.com/zomato-statistics-facts-user-counts

So, let's see Zomato’s digital marketing strategy. With this, you may get your own ideas for your digital marketing business. 

Target Audience

The main target customer of Zomato is the youth between the age group 18-35 and people who often want to eat out with their family, friends and colleagues. It targets those customers who often refer to ratings, and reviews and want to make a decision if the place is good for hangout & dine.

It is those customers who are seeking to have a good time with their friends and want to be assured that the place is going to be worth their penny. It also targets the foodie who wants to experience food and share it with others about it.

These people also want to know where they get the best foods in town and visit those restaurants. The audience is all the online opinion seekers of restaurants. 

Sustainability 

Zomato's target audience is the modern-day people. Such a demographic prefer brands that reduce the carbon footprint. 

According to the Nielsen study, “Unpacking the Sustainability Landscape,” 73% of consumers are willing to change their ways to reduce the impact on the environment. There is a perception that e-commerce is a sustainable practice and the information below is meant to provide insight into the impacts of e-commerce on the environment."

Source: https://theconversation.com  

Zomato is very well aware. When you open the Zomato app, you will see the option – Climate Conscious Delivery popping up. Here you get an option to choose from – ‘Don’t send cutlery, tissues and straws’. By opting for that, restaurants save 0.5 to 1% of the order value (Zomato website). 

Today, Zomato is taking another small step towards making a more sustainable enterprise. Fund local environmental projects to offset the carbon footprint of all our deliveries and packaging in India.

Zomato also started delivering 20% of orders on bicycles, and 35% in crowded cities like Delhi. These deliveries have no carbon footprint and are pollution free as well.

Distribution in the Marketing strategy

Zomato revealed that about 40% of the total sales were referral driven. According to Zomato, almost 30% of the subscribers are coming through referrals and more than $2 Million orders have been made using Z coins. Zomato cross-sells its several offerings to a customer which has brought huge success as Zomato is able to capture customers across the world. 

Zomato uses several channels to distribute, which are as follows:

- Its own website and blog

- Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms

- Search ads and display ads

- Third-party advertising

- Billboards

- TV ads

According to Zomato, the customer acquisition cost is very low. Zomato claims that of the 1.4 million listings it gets, 150,000 are from India and sees 22 million users come on board every month. Zomato Gold is another program that is referral driven, where on sharing their referral code, a customer gets a month of the Zomato Gold services extended. 

Marketing strategy of Zomato:

Zomato creates innovative offers & ads that keep the customers engaged towards them. Zomato Gold is an exclusive membership loyalty program that gives customers an exclusive dine-out and drinking membership with BOGO( Buy One, Get One) and 2+2 complimentary drinks and many more.

Zomato Gold now has around 600,000 customers. This has helped customers to dine out more frequently, which according to Zomato has helped drive customer traffic at a higher rate. Gold member has made dining out more affordable than it ever used to be.

"Zomato derives major chunks of traffic from its searches and directly, being 66.41% and 31.36% respectively when compared to referrals, social media or other paid marketing campaigns and other sources."

Source: https://iide.co

Technology:

The biggest advantage of Zomato is its designed User interface. It is attractive and very easy & simple to browse and this has helped create a point of differentiation from its competitors in the market.

The speed with which the website opens and the mobile application is also extremely fast, and easy to use. Zomato gives a lot of focus and effort into creating a convincing UI. 

Zomato aims to implement the concept of a cloud kitchen, which will help a restaurant to expand its presence without incurring any fixed cost. The focus on Zomato on technology will help it stay ahead of the competition.

Advertising that when viral: 

We are all connected via social media platforms and social media marketing strategy is an important part of the marketing of a company. Zomato knows how to utilize this effectively for advertisement. 

Zomato trusts its memes so much that even the brand's bio states that the Meme page occasionally posts brand posts & reels. It posts funny content that amuses the audience and drives them to order food at the same time.

Here are some super hit examples of Zomato advertisements which went viral in 2022

1) Taking to Twitter, Zomato asked people “If the first half of 2022 was a dish, what would it be?  

2) A  tweet that was made in reaction and reference to a viral tweet by Elon Musk, has also gained a lot of attention owing to how well-timed it was. And of course, it was from Zomato. Here's what they tweeted regarding YouTube advertisements that they sponsor: 

Things to Learn From Zomato's Marketing Strategy

1. Relevance and Customer Centric in Content

The idea behind customer-centricity is simple: customers want value when they use a product or service. For example, if someone has a problem with a hotel room, they want to know what others think about it as well as why there wasn't a review posted sooner. If you don't provide this information, the customer might not continue using your product or service.

Relevance plays into customer-centricity because if you're providing real value to customers, it makes sense that they'll return again and recommend your product or service to family members and friends.

2. Mood Notifications for Every Mood

Zomato notifies everyone about special offers, events and deals around them so they have no excuse to miss out on something great. It's an emotional trigger for many people.

3. Emails that Catch People's Eyes

Zomato's email campaigns are super fast and eye catchy. They sent a promotional offer for free food to those who got the emails and were also tagged in their Facebook photos. The first thing you notice when you open the emails is the photo and text “We want to know where you eat? This made customers click the link. Even if customers are not willing to dine out still their personalisation pursues the customer to buy.

FAQ's on Zomato's Marketing strategy:

Who is Zomato's marketing agency?

Lodestar UM, the media agency owned by IPG Mediabrands, won the media mandate of online restaurant reviews and food delivery platform Zomato following a multi-agency pitch.

Is Zomato a B2B or B2C?

Zomato is B2C. 

How does Zomato make a profit?

Zomato first charges a commission to restaurants based on orders through its food supply company. While users pay a delivery fee, Zomato earns a commission for every delivery from restaurants which is subsequently divided between the supplier and the business.

Does Zomato charge for listing?

There is no fee or charge for getting your listing up and running in Zomato.

Summary

Today you will know how this leading Indian food-tech platform Zomato is popular not only for its food delivery service but even for their great marketing strategy.  For many people, Zomato is the first choice for food ordering.

Today, Zomato is taking another small step towards making a more sustainable enterprise. Fund local environmental projects to offset the carbon footprint of all our deliveries and packaging in India. Zomato also started delivering ~20% of orders on bicycles, and ~35% in crowded cities like Delhi. These deliveries have no carbon footprint and are pollution free as well.

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July 30

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