Influence marketing has recently been one of the more popular ways for brands to promote their business and get in front of new eyes. And many food-related and restaurant brands have also jumped on this trend, especially since social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat really leverage themselves to great food imagery.
Previously, we’ve looked at what the influencer marketing concept is and some basic steps for finding and working with social influencers and other content creators. Today, however, we’re going to dive a level deeper and look at how you can create content with your influencer that’ll resonate with their followers. Because, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how amazing the influencer and your restaurant is if the content you produce is subquality.
First, a Super Quick Refresher…
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that involves endorsements and product placement from social media personalities (called influencers), typically people who are considered experts in their field and/or have social clout.
And the goal is to work with an influencer that’s got clout in your industry. For example, if you created workout supplements, you’d want to work with fitness models and personal trainers as influencers. For the restaurant industry, you’d want to work with online foodies, food critics, and local lifestyle influencers.
Location of the influencer also matters to the restaurant industry. Working with an influencers from Chicago when you’re in Boston isn’t going to generate the same foot traffic as working with someone more local. Similarly, bigger isn’t always better when it comes to followers. Huge followers often mean huge price tag. Working with micro-influencers or nano-influencers can be more cost effective and generate a better ROI.
Quality should always outweigh quantity.
OK, now back to content…
Content Should Be Relatable
According to a Nielsen study, “just over half of those surveyed felt the content they were exposed to was relevant to them.”
Additionally, “65% of people remembered the content for the campaigns that drove high brand favorability, and almost 60% of people exposed to influencer marketing said they were likely to want to try or buy the product.”
To sum these figures up, half of brands aren’t working with the right influencers; however, when they do and they create great content, it helps drive interest.
So how do you make your content relatable? This comes down to down two key items:
Matching your demographics with the right influencer’s demographics
If you don’t know who your target guests are, you can’t market efficiently to them. And that makes aligning yourself with the right influencer almost impossible. To start, you’ll want to build a buyer persona. This is creating fictional profiles of your typical guests, their wants and needs, interests, and other useful demographic info.
Once you know who your guests are, you can start searching for a social media influencer who shares heavy overlap with your target audience.
Obviously, working with a dog training influencer when you run a bar & grille isn’t the ideal matchup; however, just because you find an influencer that’s into food and restaurants doesn’t automatically mean it’s a perfect match.
Do your due diligence on the influencers you’re interested in by analyzing their:
Posts
Follower comments
The typical products and services they enjoy
That’ll give you a pretty good idea of where they’re at. You can weed out a lot of names simply by looking at these three items. Don’t be afraid to also ask them questions about who their followers are, how they work as an influencer, and other pertinent info to your campaign. They’ll be your partner in this endeavor, so you want to make sure you can work with them.
This post is a nice primer on finding the right influencer. Once you’ve done that, it comes down to creating authentic content and messaging.
Content Should Be Authentic
This is the third key item to influencer marketing and it’s about crafting the right message and content that speaks to your target audience. And the goal here is to work with your influencer to create something that feels real and authentic.
“Consumers are more likely to align themselves with brands that share their beliefs and values,” according to the Nielsen report. “If followers trust an influencer and their recommendations, they’re more likely to follow the brand and stay loyal.”
This comes down to a collaborative effort with your hired influencer. You know what your restaurant is about – you know your restaurant’s personality, its vibe & atmosphere, the culture & branding, and your message. Meanwhile, your influencer knows how to speak to their followers in a way that resonates with them. You’ll need to work together to craft the campaign.
It starts off by communicating with the influencer your message and branding. Illustrate to your influencer who you are as a restaurant – both in terms of a business structure as well as a personality and culture. Paint them a picture as best you can or, if possible, invite them to visit your location(s), so they can see it play out for themselves.
You’ll also want to clearly communicate the campaign’s goal. Is it to drive foot traffic, food delivery orders, spread awareness of your business & values, increase your social followers, other, etc.?
Ask your influencer what types of content they produce performs the best – video, photo, etc. What platform(s), historically, work best for their campaign efforts? Ask them to pitch a few content and messaging ideas and provide feedback. Also find out what sort of info or deliverables they’ll need from you to create the campaign’s content (logo, links, branding guide, etc.), and then let them work their magic.
Of course, you’ll want to review the content they’ve produced before they hit publish. At this point, you’re primarily looking for any incorrect info (i.e., misspellings, incorrect coupon code, wrong address, etc.) that would hinder the overall success of the campaign.
However, you’ll want to trust that the overall aesthetic, style, and production to the influencer. They’ve been successful at creating content and connecting to their followers, so let them do what they do best and try not to micromanage.
After the first content drops, review how it performs, and make adjustments for the next one (assuming you do a multi-post campaign with the influencer).
Best of luck!
