Zomato Case Study: Digital Marketing Strategy, SEO, Social Media & Ads Campaigns

Several brands have extended exponentially after their launch. One of them is Zomato.  

How did they manage to accomplish their success? What was the marketing strategy owned by Zomato to attract customers?

Zomato is a restaurant search and discovery service founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. 

This zomato case study analyzes a few of the digital marketing strategies used by the company to give you an insight into what they have been doing. Before going into the depth of marketing strategies, let’s first know about the company.

About Zomato:

Zomato is an Indian brand established by Two IIT graduates, Deepinder Goyal, and Pankaj Chaddah, in Delhi NCR, India in 2008.   When Zomato Launched, it geared toward being the best restaurant search and discovery platform. It had the names of different restaurants, their menu, prices, reviews, and other details. It provided in-depth knowledge of over 14 million restaurants across 23 countries. As per statistics, Zomato’s market cap as of October 2023, is $11.07 Billion. This makes Zomato the world’s 1316th most valuable company. Zomato raised $210 million from Alibaba Group’s Ant Financial. The investment valued Zomato at $1 billion. Zomato has raised $2.5 billion in financing over 22 rounds since its inception.

Their most recent funding was raised on August 3, 2022, from a post-IPO secondary round and backed by 28 investors. Zomato has made 14 investments, with their most recent being on April 17th, 2022 when UrbanPiper raised $24 million. Zomato has acquired 15 businesses.

Over time, it has converted itself into an online food delivery platform. People can order now from nearby restaurants from the website or app. 

The company has many delivery executives who will pick up the order and deliver it to the customer’s address. 

Let’s dive into the buzzing environment,  marketing strategy, and many more which are followed by Zomato. Let’s talk about these points one by one.

How is Zomato creating a buzz scene in the market?

Here are some points that help to breakdown the question and help to understand the market scenario of Zomato:

• Zomato Gold, a premium service that provides consumers with such attractive discounts, discounts in exchange for a monthly subscription fee, was introduced in November 2017.
• Zomato has commenced testing an additional Platform Fee of INR 2 on Zomato Gold members. 
• Zomato acquired Blinkit in 2022 with a vision to penetrate the quick commerce space dominated by Swiggy Mart and Zepto.

Let’s now understand Zomato’s target audience, marketing strategies, business model, and many more. 

Target Audience of Zomato:

Zomato’s business is based on providing a platform for restaurants to advertise to sell their food online. Zomato’s target audience or target market is people who are looking for a convenient way to order food from their favorite restaurants. Zomato is also aimed at businesses, such as restaurants, that want to reach Zomato’s large user base. Zomato’s target market is aged between 18 to 35 people who have smartphones and will prefer to dine out or order at their place.

Some of the most common audiences are:

• Too busy to cook food 
• Want to eat out but don’t know where to go
• Looking for a specific type of cuisine
• New to town and want to explore restaurant options
• Working Professional.

Let’s move into Zomato’s marketing strategy which includes digital marketing, social media marketing, ad campaigns, meme marketing, business model, challenges faced by Zomato, and so on. 

Zomato marketing strategy:

Zomato uses Google AdWords for its search ad campaigns. Words like “food,” “online ordering,” “restaurant names,” and several others are among its targets. Its goal is to draw in customers who want food delivery. Moreover, it targets users of third-party apps and websites with Google Display ads.

Social Media Marketing: Zomato

Zomato has a good grip on its social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Here is the gist of RedBus social media’s handle:

Social Media Handle	Followers/Subscribers
Instagram	878k followers
Youtube	494k Subscribers
LinkedIn	1,384,754 followers
Twitter	1.5 million Followers
Facebook	1.9 Million

Let’s take some strategies and analyze those strategies one by one:

• Posting on new and trendy topics: Zomato posts trendy topics on their social media. This will help to draw the attention of existing followers or subscribers and new users. For example: #INDv/sNVZ cricket match, Zomato posted this post on Instagram:

• Using Influencers:  Zomato is using celebrities’ faces to do promotion. Zomato uses its YouTube channel in a wise manner where they make videos and play quiz games. Celebrities like Ranveer Singh, Chris Gayle, and many more with the tagline “Match ho to Zomato”. Using the local language creates a connection between the company and the user. On YouTube, Zomato also creates short, snappy, and unskippable video commercials with a subdued “call-to-action”. It plays a significant role in Zomato’s digital marketing strategy.

• Collaboration Strategy: Zomato and Blinkit collaborated on an advertising campaign featuring slogans on the billboards.

• Meme marketing: We all know that Zomato creates fun, sarcastic, meme-type content on the internet. Let’s take an example of a recent post posted by  Zomato.

Zomato knows how to play with buyers’ psychology sarcastically. Another meme with the collaboration with Amazon Prime Video.

This post shows a friendly convo between Zomato and Amazon Prime Video.

3. Paid Ads: Zomato focuses on promoting its brand on Google and Facebook. Google Ads strategy concentrates on keywords related to restaurants and food delivery. Zomato also utilizes Google Display Network to reach new users. Facebook Ads strategy concentrates on promoting ZomatoGold, Zomato’s premium subscription service. It also uses Facebook to retarget users who have visited their website but did not make a purchase.

4. Email Marketing Strategy: Personalized emails are the mainstay of Zomato’s email marketing strategies. Zomato advertises new products and services via email as well.

Zomato provides weekly mailings to its users, informing them about new eateries and promotions. It also sends birthday vouchers and other exclusive offers via email.

5. Push Notifications:

This mastermind strategy promotes Zomato’s app notification. The company keeps nudging them via quirky push notifications to order something. Here they created their notification in Genz terms and slags. 

-5. Display Ads:

These ads look like banners. It shows in the form of images, videos, and gifs on different websites and apps.

7. Traditional Marketing:

This type of marketing strategy helps to create an impact on that audience who are not so tech-savvy. For example: ads on television, billboards, newspapers, magazines, etc. Zomato’s graphic advertising is engaging.

Essential Takeaways From Zomato’s Marketing Strategy

• Zomato produces content that is humorous, sarcastic, clear, and concise. They are aware of the target market and their audience.
• It is important to create brand consistency. They are consistent on their social media handles and develop distinct identity 
• Zomato creates the mood. They are familiar with the trends and their target audience.

Zomato Business Model:

Initial days, Zomato used to scan the menus of the restaurants and keep them on their websites. Still, it follows in same formula but also adds other services to the operations. The business model of Zomato is quite distinct from others. The main channel for Zomato are the mobile application and its online websites. Zomato also provides home delivery services that help to get the database and market research companies. The business model of Zomato has revolutionized the food business industries by incorporating different restaurants and making it easiest for people to find restaurants, provide feedback, and check listings, and availability according to their choice of cuisine.

Conclusion:

We hope this case study helped you understand their digital marketing strategies. This company not only preaches to be different, but they have also proved it with their work. Zomato’s social media posts are always simple, clear, concise, and sarcastic. That’s the reason people engage with their social media content. This strategy gives sky-high to the company that helps to grow in the market as well as on social media.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• What is the marketing strategy of Zomato?

A: Zomato utilizes Search Engine Optimization, Banner, TV ads, Video ads, Google Ads, Paid Ads, and online marketing these all are part of the marketing strategy of Zomato.

• How does Zomato make money?

A: The company’s major source of income comes from restaurants, Zomato Gold, and Premium subscriptions. Zomato also makes money through advertising and partnerships with restaurants.

• Why is Zomato so successful?

A: There are numerous reasons for the success. Zomato has a big image on social media and it utilize to draw her users attention. It also has a great product and offers features that are not available on other food delivery platforms.