Instagram Marketing Tricks To Boost Your Restaurant Business

Gone are those days when you can just open a restaurant. Make awesome food, give out pamphlets, and boom, your restaurant gets flooded with customers. Nowadays, there is so much competition even in the restaurant business. You need something more than just good food. And that is marketing. Marketing for your restaurant and your food. And what’s a better place for marketing than social media? Those days are history when people used to use Instagram for personal purposes. With the onset of Digital India. Now, this revolutionary app is being used by several restaurants for restaurant Instagram marketing. And why should you lag behind? 

So we bring before you the top 10 tips for restaurant Instagram marketing. That every restaurant needs and that is guaranteed to make your restaurant flooded with customers.

Why is Instagram Good for Restaurant Marketing?

Nowadays, it is very important to have an Instagram account for your restaurant. It is highly beneficial in restaurant Instagram marketing.

These are the reasons to have Instagram for your restaurant:

• Instagram is the 2nd most popular social network after YouTube, with more than 700 million users.
• Brand engagement is 10 times higher on Instagram than on Facebook or Twitter. Discover the undeniable advantages of Facebook marketing and unlock your business's true potential.
• It is best for USG or user-generated content.
• You can invite food bloggers and social media influencers to give reviews about your restaurant.
• It is a very easy platform to promote your restaurant with Instagram ads.

Do you need any more reasons why it is important to have an Instagram account for your restaurant?

How To Create a Marketing Strategy for a Restaurant?

Below are the tips that need to be followed for a restaurant's Instagram marketing:

Create a hashtag for your restaurant

Create a hashtag. Make sure it’s short and catchy. So your followers, customers, and food bloggers can tag you in posts and pictures. It is very useful in restaurant Instagram marketing. It helps in generating USG or user-generated content, which is a hit with most restaurant Instagram marketing accounts.

Take part in social media food holidays

It is one of the greatest restaurant Instagram marketing strategies of all time. To plan campaigns and promotional offers on these social media food holidays. For example, you can give a discount on fries or give free fries with every meal on #worldfrenchfryday. Can introduce a vegan dish on your menu on #worldveganday. But just don’t forget to use the hashtags to gain more followers. It is one of the great restaurant Instagram marketing tips. To improve Instagram reach, consider implementing these effective strategies.

Select a color palette for your feed and stick to it

Instagram is all about visuals. The more visually pleasing your feed is, the more followers you will gain. It is one of the best restaurant Instagram marketing tips for restaurant Instagram marketing accounts.

Try to match the color of your walls, your draperies, tables, or crockery with the colors of the food. So it all looks cohesive. No matter what you choose try to be in the same color palette. So choose a color palette that best suits your restaurant and stick to it. Don't change it, for it might look disorganized.

Use Instagram story highlights

This is a great restaurant Instagram marketing tool for all the restaurant's Instagram marketing accounts. Having story highlights is a must. When a new follower comes to your account. You have to give them a lot of information about your restaurant. So the follower gets hooked.

You can add customer reviews, food bloggers’ reviews, your menu card, or new additions to your menu in the highlights. Remember, not to put anything bad, because this is the first thing a follower views on your account.

Have a unique brand logo

This is a great tip for restaurant Instagram marketing accounts. Create a unique logo for your restaurant. Make sure the name of your restaurant is clearly mentioned in the logo. The color of your logo can be the same as your restaurant walls or tables. You can also add pictures of your famous dishes to the logo. Make sure it’s not very long. It should be very catchy and don’t forget to have a tagline. Don’t forget to use cool colors and fonts to make them more attention-worthy and more gram-worthy.

Invite Instagram influencers and food bloggers

Invite Instagram influencers and food bloggers to review your food or to collaborate with your restaurant. To try your food, click pictures of your food, and click pictures with you and your staff. And tag your restaurant on those posts. There are thousands of food bloggers with millions of followers. Try to collaborate with them, because they are definitely to bring in more customers to your restaurant. It might also change your restaurant’s life forever, just like what happened to Baba ka Dhaba.

Have competitions and giveaways

It is a no-brainer that we all love free food. So why not use this as a marketing strategy? Organize competitions and giveaways to increase your audience reach. For example, upload a picture on your restaurant's Instagram marketing account. Tell people to like, share, and comment on the post. Tag 5 friends on the post for a free dinner for 2 people. Or ask 3 of their friends to start following your account. Like the past three posts, they can win a free brunch for 3 people.

Connect with followers and reward them

This is one of the great restaurant Instagram marketing tips and is also common in many restaurant Instagram marketing success stories. Connect with your followers as much as possible. Reply to their comments, find solutions to their problems, thank them for their reviews and etc. Reward your followers. That you have known for quite some time or who are frequent to your restaurant. Or like and comment on all your post. By sending them goodies or hampers to their house or giving them discounts or giving them a meal for free.

Make your restaurant and dishes aesthetically pleasing

We have said it before and we are saying it again, Instagram is all about visuals. Try to make your restaurant and dishes very aesthetically pleasing. So it becomes very easy to click pictures. Make sure that your restaurant has very good lighting. Post aesthetically pleasing or visually appealing pictures of food and your restaurants.

Use good captions and tags

Use a short and funny caption. Nobody has the time or patience to read a long caption, but don't just make it too short. It should be funny. Everybody loves a good laugh. Use your tags nicely. So small tags have the ability to promote your post. So use them plenty and wisely.

Mistakes to Avoid While Marketing on Instagram

Here are the mistakes that need to be avoided for restaurant Instagram marketing:

Handling your restaurant Instagram marketing accounts unprofessionally

There is nothing worse than an unresponsive account when it comes to restaurant Instagram marketing. It should be your topmost priority that your restaurant's Instagram marketing account is handled with utmost professionalism. Hire a team of digital marketers, who will reply to all the customers within minutes. Otherwise, your followers might get irritated.

Sharing only promotional content

If you use your Instagram account to just post about promotional stuff. Then you might want to reconsider. You should also post generic content or jokes related to food or entertaining memes. Otherwise, your followers will get bored and that’s the last thing you want. Avoid these common social media marketing mistakes to maximize your online presence

It’s fine if you post about happy customers, news items on menus, or discounts. But you should also post about current topics or COVID-19 protocols. Basically, anything that is not related to promotions.

Ignoring insights and analytics

If you don't pay attention to Instagram insights and analytics, then you are in for some bad news. These insights and analytics are the most crucial parts of restaurant Instagram marketing tools. As they tell you who your target audience is. What kind of posts do they like or dislike, and at what time your followers are most active? It is one of the most important features of restaurant Instagram marketing accounts.

Not catering to a targeted audience

There is absolutely no point if you don't cater to your targeted audience, especially when it comes to digital marketing for catering. If your restaurant is in Delhi and you are catering to people of Mumbai and Kolkata. Your restaurant will face huge losses in ROI (Return on Investment). If your restaurant is for couples and you advertise it as a family restaurant, it might backfire. So always cater to the audience according to your restaurant’s demographics, location, and interest.

Posting too much or too little

Now, this is a very tricky aspect of restaurant Instagram marketing tools. If you post too frequently or several times a day, your followers will get annoyed and unfollow you. If you post too little your followers might forget about your restaurant. So a balance is very important for your restaurant to be the next in restaurant Instagram marketing success stories. Use a social media calendar to schedule your feed.

Not responding to negative reviews

This is a huge mistake and a very bad restaurant Instagram marketing tips. Not responding to negative reviews or deleting negative comments from unhappy customers. It seems very unprofessional and seems as if you don't care about your customers. So always reply to negative comments and try to solve their problems. Apologize to customers who give negative reviews and ask them for suggestions for improvement.

Conclusion

So these tips are definitely going to help you with restaurant Instagram marketing. Restaurant Instagram marketing is not rocket science and not a piece of cake as well. But with these marketing tips, we just want to make it a bit easier for you.

As we all know, running a restaurant is a very difficult task in itself. So we have these tips for restaurant Instagram marketing for you so that you can just focus on your restaurant. And now the only thing left is to create an Instagram account for your restaurant if you haven’t already. Hire a good team of digital marketers or start yourself with these tips.

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