Your prospective customers spend a lot of time on social media, if you haven’t already integrated social media marketing into your restaurant’s digital marketing strategy, start now!
There are different types of hungry people, some pull out their smartphones and search the internet for restaurants by simply typing ‘restaurants near me’ into Google, where do they check after this? The restaurant’s Facebook page. Others look for quirky restaurants and gatherings with friends on Instagram, at the end, they all check social media.
Here are some things you can do to stand out:
Always Use High Quality Photos
People don’t just care about the quality of food, they are drawn to what they see. Make your audience want to visit your restaurant as soon as they find your page through appealing high quality images. Show off your ambiance and let them know your location is aesthetically photo-friendly.
The appearance of your food can influence the purchasing decisions of social media users, especially on visual platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
Advertise your business with Facebook ads
Facebook ads are the most popular form of advertising on social media, the reason restaurants benefit a lot from Facebook advertising is because of the wide range of targeting options. Facebook Ads allow geo-targeting, this is very important as many restaurants waste marketing budgets on a consumer base outside their area using various promotional media such as television commercials.
Encourage Customers To Take Photos And Share
What better social proof for your restaurant than your own customers posting about your restaurant on their social media? Posting customer content about your restaurant can be used to increase social proof and brand awareness as more people engage with your restaurant.This will also allow you to share content that you didn’t have to create, making it easy to create a pile of content to share on your social media profiles for later use.
Influencer Marketing
Similar to user generated content, influencer marketing means marketing through individuals with great reach, audience and authority on social media. Using influencer marketing increases engagement as influencers tend to spark conversations with your content, it also gains more reach based on the influencer audience while increasing brand awareness and conversion and leveraging social proof for conversions.
Build A Mailing List Using Social Media
If you have a newsletter or mailing list, you can use social media to encourage email signups. Consider offering something unique to encourage people to leave their email addresses.
Use email marketing to reach customers and bring them back to your restaurant, offer special discounts and coupons.
Diversify Your Content
Social media marketing for food brands requires a slightly different marketing approach, some users may find it boring if you post food all the time. Try to create a variety of content and run A/B tests to understand which one works better.
Involve Your Team
People make brands, show your customers your daily work. It would be nice to know who makes your favourite pasta or which barista makes your favourite coffee.
What’s behind your restaurant’s closed kitchen door? Tell your audience a few secrets. Show how the food is prepared or what the restaurant looks like after business hours. Anything not available to the customer on a daily basis becomes interesting.
In 2022, people check food reviews, menus and photos before deciding where to go. It’s an opportunity you can’t miss and all you have to do is make your profile shine.
Your restaurant can explore social media in many other ways, be creative, and think outside the box. Social media allows restaurants to connect with customers, be found online, share recipes and dishes, and add faces to their business.