Difficulties Faced by Selected Small Restaurant Owners in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija in Using Digital Marketing

Abstract

Modernization introduces a ton of cost-effective strategies, especially in businesses. With the introduction of online platforms, digital marketing began with social media, and advertising became less hectic for different companies. Every success comes with challenges. As digital marketing provides undeniable benefits, it still comes with its difficulties and challenges. This study provides the common difficulties faced by selected small restaurants that use social media marketing, how they overcome such challenges, and what strategies they can recommend to others. This study used a phenomenological design that tends to discover the respondents' experiences. It was conducted at Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, with purposive sampling to determine the respondents. This study has eight small restaurant owners who were chosen and accepted the interview proposal. The respondents were asked an open-ended question, and their responses were recorded using a smartphone. This study founds that Facebook is the most used social media platform to advertise the respondents' restaurants. However, the most common difficulties small restaurant business owners encountered were negative customer feedback, large menu selection; and high product expectations. To overcome such challenges and difficulties, the respondents’ responses address them with kindness, providing realistic content and appealingly irresistible. The recommended strategies the respondents suggested to use Facebook in marketing effectively were minimal presentation and engaging content. To conclude, this study provides insights into the strategies used by small restaurant owners and the challenges they face while marketing on Facebook. This study's findings can be valuable for business owners and researchers interested in using social media as digital marketing and building practical marketing abilities.