By Adrian Johansen, Contributor
In this digital age, social media is one of the primary tools professionals use to market their business. As most consumers utilize social media, it’s a great way to target a specific audience, expand your reach to new customers, and build a loyal following. For restaurants, social media marketing is crucial, as most consumers use social media and the internet to discover new places to eat.
Social media influencers, in particular, can benefit restaurants by helping them build credibility and connect with a wide audience. Many people turn to influencers for information about brands, products, and services, considering them a valuable and trusted source. By teaming up with influencers, you can garner interest in your restaurant and boost engagement on a whole new level.
The Benefits of Influencer Marketing
There are many advantages of using influencers as a part of your larger marketing strategy. Smaller restaurants, especially those that might not have the budget to hire their own marketing manager or pay for expensive ads, can team up with influencers to handle the marketing for them and at a fraction of the cost.
Of course, your restaurant should still have its own online presence, with a website and social media accounts, but an influencer can do the work directing followers to your pages and your door, boosting your traffic, and increasing your sales.
Some of the benefits of working with social media influencers include:
Boosts your credibility: The more trustworthy a brand is, the more people will use its products or services. As most influencers are already credible sources, their followers will trust that if they are recommending your restaurant, you must be credible and trustworthy as well.
Saves you money: Paying influencers to create posts and stories about your restaurant is cheaper than other forms of online advertising. Of course, the more famous the influencer, the more expensive their services will be. But you don’t need the best of the best to garner attention.
Increases sales: Working with influencers will boost your overall exposure, and the more people that know about your restaurant, the more money you will make. While other forms of advertising can increase your brand’s awareness, influencers tend to have more sway than static ads because consumers feel they are more authentic and trustworthy.
Improves data: All businesses, even restaurants, can use data collection to enhance their performance. Data and business analytics allow you to gain more insight into your customers and how they are interacting with your marketing and your brand. This is necessary for brands that want to continually improve their strategies and grow their business. Influencer marketing is yet another way to collect data to optimize your business, such as the number of customers who used influencer promotion codes and how much click-through traffic came from their accounts.
Creative Ways to Partner with Influencers
When connecting with influencers, you want to make sure you aren’t reaching out to just anyone. They should have at least a couple thousand followers and be able to connect with your specific customers and target audience.
Smaller, local influencers are great as they will have knowledge about your area and can connect with your target audience the best. However, influencers with a more significant following can also be beneficial as they have more clout and sway and likely have followers in your area as well, even if they live in another city.
The following are some ideas you can use to connect with influencers and get them interested in working with you:
Invite them to dine at your restaurant—on the house. This is a great way to build a relationship with an influencer and garner their interest. However, do not ask for a forced positive review in return. The best influencers stand by a code of ethics, which is how they have built up their credibility and loyal followers.
Partner with them for a contest or giveaway. Social media users love a good giveaway, and it’s a great way to create hype around your restaurant. Influencers can do this by offering a chance to win a reward, such as a gift card or free dining experience, to anyone who likes their post and follows your account.
Throw a VIP event at your restaurant and invite influencers to attend in exchange for posts about your business. If you can afford it, close your restaurant down for one night and open it up only to special guests, including some influencers. Make sure to really pamper them and make them feel special. The more they enjoy themselves, the more posts they’ll share to promote your business.
Entice them with an ongoing partnership. Influencers love working with brands on an ongoing basis as it’s a more reliable source of income and helps them build relationships and connections. You will likely have to pay for them to create regular posts, stories, or blogs about your business, but it should also help you continually increase traffic and sales.
Precautions to Take When Marketing Your Restaurant
Anytime you are developing a marketing strategy for your business, you should do it with ethics and your guests’ best interest in mind. Of course, the point of marketing is to boost awareness and sales, but if you aren’t using ethical practices, it will ultimately harm your brand reputation and lose you money in the long run.
For example, asking influencers to lie about their experience at your restaurant or their opinion of your food will negatively impact your credibility. If word gets out that you are essentially paying for positive reviews, customers will quickly lose interest. Additionally, any data you collect from influencer marketing should be done so ethically. Customers are already wary of their information being stolen, so you should be mindful of how you use what information you do collect.
Furthermore, some influencers are fraudulent and unethical, and you should avoid those to maintain your brand’s reputation. Some influencers are only out there to make money and don’t care about what they do or say as long as they get paid. And some are not even people at all but are AI-powered programs run by unethical groups and organizations also looking to make easy money.
Summary
Social media marketing and influencers are among the best ways a restaurant can increase awareness and boost its traffic. Though some are hesitant to leap into influencer marketing, it is likely to become even more popular as newer generations turn more and more towards social media for information about brands. So, it’s best to start looking into it now if you want to maintain a successful online presence and gain an edge over your competition.
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