How to Do Digital Marketing for Restaurants and Bars

With more than 200 million posts tagged #food and 23 million with #drinks, food and beverage photos are easily some of the most popular types of content on Instagram. Restaurants and bars can and should take advantage of social platforms by creating social media content.

Create Relevant Posts

Engagement vs. Promotional Posts

Most promotional posts always mention discounts or a specific product. After repeated posts, your audience will start to lose interest and stop engaging with your content.

Promotional posts don’t always need to be direct marketing. Find ways for product placement and use action shots that are visually attractive to viewers. A well shot video or great photos can quickly get your customer imagining themselves at your establishment.

Approach social media like you would a group of strangers at a party. You can mention some things about yourself while mostly engaging with other people. Engagement posts focus the attention on your customers.

Here are a few ideas to start a conversation and engagement:

• Ask for customer opinions on new products
• Ask a question
• Include user-generated content into your strategy

Post at Optimal Times for Your Restaurant

When you engage in social media marketing, it’s important to know the best time to post. Analyse the traffic your restaurant or bar is getting and identify the best times to reach potential customers.

If your bar doesn’t open until 6 p.m., then posting about mixed drinks at 11 a.m. won’t have any effect. This is why it’s important to work with time ranges and experiment instead of scheduling posts at a specific time.

Alternatively, you can post content throughout the day that’s easily digested. For example, use staff features, interior and exterior shots, general food and behind-the-scenes company updates.

Location-Based Advertising

Location-based advertising enables you to control when people see your ads, and can be geographically managed. Facebook, for example, allows you to target specific locations and when a customer walks by one of your location, they will be served your ad.

Analyse Your Strategy

All the time and effort you place into your content, engaging with your followers and responding to feedback and inquiries will go unnoticed if you don’t have data to back it up.

With social media tools you can connect Facebook Pages, Instagram profiles and Twitter accounts to give you a high-level report on the results of your company. The report can keep track of all of your locations separately without someone manually updating a spreadsheet.

Some of the statistics you can start tracking are:

• Branded hashtag use
• Facebook check-ins
• Geo-tagged photos or posts

The food and drink industry has a particular advantage on social media. A nice slice of pizza or a fresh cup of coffee can cause a powerful, mouth-watering reaction for the viewer. The content is already there in your restaurant.