As you may already know, content marketing is a modern approach to advertising and marketing for many types of businesses to bring in their ideal customer. Content marketing is affordable, effective, and most importantly unique. It also does something that traditional marketing and advertising do not – it actually provides value to the audience that it is targeting. Yet many restaurant owners and managers haven’t leveraged the power of content marketing for their businesses. Maybe they aren’t sure how to create content that will work for them or how to create valuable content in a consistent way. You need a guide that will make content marketing simple, easy, and effective. We’ve got you covered. 🙂
The Basics of Content Marketing for Your Restaurant
Goals for Your Content Marketing
First things first: Think about the central goal or mission of your restaurant.
To provide food first and foremost, right? But that’s not all you strive for. How do you provide that food? What kind of atmosphere or experience do you want guests to have? Should couples experience a romantic mood with candlelight and quiet service? Or is your place higher energy and fast-paced? Maybe it is a family-oriented restaurant where everyone can gather together and reconnect?
Goals like these instantly allow you to imagine the restaurant, and in the same way, you can probably see that certain types of content marketing would be best for highlighting your unique and specific goals.
Cadence of Your Content Marketing
Now, ask yourself how often you’ll create the content. Will you do monthly blog posts? Weekly social posts? How often? Have no clue when or how often to begin creating content? Here’s a sample plan to get you started.
Long-Form
Start with 1 blog per month sharing the origin of the dishes you’re planning to serve over the next few weeks, maybe introduce a guest chef that you have coming or educate the audience on the process of creating some of your most popular dishes. The sky is the limit. Use blog posts like these to entertain and educate your patrons.
Short-Form
Begin with 4 main social media pieces of content a week. We’re talking about in-feed posts, carousels, reels, and more. Introduce staff members, describe new and popular dishes, jump on new video trends and involve your staff, post mouth-watering photos, ask your patrons questions and get them engaged in your content.
Micro-Form
These are your daily stories on Instagram and Facebook and can possibly include quick Tweets if you’re active on Twitter. These are quick bite-sized moments that can include behind-the-scenes footage, quick photos of what is happening, news you have to share like daily specials, linking to info on your website like reservations, and more!
10 Restaurant Content Marketing Ideas
With those issues in mind, consider these 12 content marketing ideas for your restaurant.
- Blog Posts – Use blog posts to educate, entertain, and draw your patrons in an authentic way. Include things like your founder or head chef’s story, the culture and philosophy you cook under, best practices for re-heating take out or even date night ideas, and include eating at your establishment as one of them. This is also a great place to answer FAQs! Do your customers ever ask you questions that you could answer for them in a blog? With a weekly content schedule, they’ll keep coming back for more and form a stronger connection with your brand.
- Decorating Video – Remodeling or changing up the decor of your restaurant? Have you updated the lighting or changed the signage? What about the holidays – have you begun to decorate? These are all perfect things to capture through video and turn into short-form content for social media like Instagram reels! That also includes your planning sessions, brainstorming, shopping, partners or places you used to get materials (great tagging opportunity), and of course the day you actually stage everything. Show people another side of your business and see how your engagement grows!
- Hire Influencers – Leverage influencer marketing to create interest in your restaurant. Food influencers continue to grow in popularity across social media and can be an excellent way to reach more people and let them know about your offerings. Try out collaborative posts on Instagram or have them create content at your restaurant that you can then re-purpose and use for your own accounts.
- Inside Access – You know what running a business is like, but do your customers? They might be curious about your daily work, so tell them what that looks and feels like. Better yet, show them in a series of videos or stories. Let customers witness your next planning session for changes to the menu. Show them what receiving materials look like, or even how you close up. Leverage trends like “clean with me” videos here.
- Instagram Reels – There is no better way to grow the impressions of your Instagram account than Reels. They are easily the most watched medium on the platform. You can do anything here from a walk-through of your restaurant to beautiful photos and videos of your food, to interviewing your staff on their favorite items on the menu. There are so many ways to leverage this type of content.
- Instructional Video – Do your patrons ever ask for help ordering at your restaurant? Create a fun how-to video to help them enjoy their meal even more. Does your restaurant have a bar? Show off your bartender making your most popular or seasonal drinks to get them excited about coming in for one.
- Share Recipes – While you don’t want to overshare here, there are many ways to share how you prepare certain appetizers, entrees, or desserts to give an inside peek and get their mouths watering. Consider mimicking a Tasty or Delish-style video.
- Brand Face – Who represents your restaurant? Whether that’s the founder, the head chef, or someone else, they should be front and center on social media so that guests feel connected to real human beings at your estblishment. Of course, they don’t need to actually run the page. A social media content team can help create everything needed.
- Story Time – Has anything really amazing or strange happened to you while operating the restaurant? These make for great stories to share, and only require a little editing to keep people’s identities private. You can do this through Reels, longer videos, or stories.
- Webinar Sessions – Your cooks might be the best at preparing a certain type of food, so the best way to reach customers is to share their methods. By creating something like a cooking show, you can help people learn tips and tricks for their own kitchens, though naturally they’ll still come to you for the expertly made product. Let them eat better at home and they’ll learn to trust you, encouraging them to think of you when they feel like eating in town.
We Know Content Marketing For Businesses
For all of your content marketing needs, we’re here for you. Breezy Content combines creativity, organization, and administration so you can rest at ease rather than worrying about your content marketing. Great content will bring customers to your restaurant because they know you better and think about you often. Contact us today to learn more!
