Nowadays, influencer marketing has become everyone’s go-to digital marketing tactic, and there are plenty of reasons behind it. With the help of influencer marketing, restaurants can not just reach but also influence a large section of their target audience.
You need to understand that getting the same level of reach and influence will be quite difficult through other digital marketing approaches, such as PPC or SEO. As a matter of fact, the majority of a restaurant’s customers trust recommendations from an influencer they follow instead of the restaurant’s brand itself.
But getting a great amount of success with influencer marketing for restaurants can be very difficult if you don’t know the ins and outs.
In this in-depth guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about restaurant influencer marketing. So, let’s begin!
What is Influencer Marketing for Restaurants?
Influencer marketing uses the potential of social media food influencers to attract a lot more potential customers. You must know that these food influencers can be dedicated food bloggers, local reviewers, or even people with a robust online following.
These influencers leverage their audience’s trust and follow different approaches to promote your restaurant by focusing on different aspects. Some of those things can be your restaurant’s delicacies, vibe, and USP as well.
The creatives posted by influencers can greatly contribute to your restaurant marketing. One of the best weapons of influencers is word-of-mouth marketing, which boosts the reliability and even attracts many new customers.
When you have the right social media influencer by your side, you will be able to showcase your restaurant’s signature dishes in the most positive light. The best thing about it is that you can connect with a wider audience.
When you’ll be having a paid collaboration contract with an influencer, they’ll be obliged to create high-quality content to recommend your restaurant to their audience. Through this marketing technique, you can leverage the trust of influencers to attract a significant amount of foot traffic to your restaurant and also generate online orders.
How Can You Choose Influencers For Your Restaurant?
You should consider these factors when you want to find the right influencers for your restaurant’s marketing campaign.
1. Target Audience
In an ideal world, most of your probable influencers’ followers must represent your target customers’ niche. You can look out for influencers who have your target customer demographic so that the influencer marketing campaigns are impactful.
2. Focus on Engagement Rate
Engagement rates carry a lot more weight than the follower count. Influencers who have more likes, shares, and comments on their posts in comparison with their audience size should be opted for. They will not just make their audience intrigued about your restaurant, but will also attract plenty of new customers.
3. Double Down on Quality Content
You should check whether the style of content, along with its quality, is as per your restaurant’s brand image. In case they can’t recreate the vibe that you provide in your restaurants, it’ll be like sending the wrong signals. However, if you want to market your vegan delicacies but the influencer you’ve opted for is into BBQs, it will be an inappropriate choice, for sure.
4. Determine if it’s Genuine
Let’s say your influencer is a bit too promotional! In that case, your target audience will definitely find it fake and detached from reality. Alongside this, it can have several negative repercussions for your restaurant. Rather than following this approach, you can approach those influencers who are willing to explain why they like the food that you serve at your restaurant. The more authentic the influence is in their social media posts regarding your restaurant, the more likely their audience will visit your restaurant.
Where To Find the Right Influencers to Improve Your Social Media Presence?
Some of the ways in which you can find the right type of influencers for your restaurant marketing are as follows:-
1. Search on Different Social Media Platforms
There are so many influencers in the US alone. So, you’ll be able to find the right type of influencer by using hashtags that are related to your city and cuisine. For example, you can search for the relevant hashtags on Instagram and TikTok search boxes to get posts about influencers you’re searching for. This approach will also help you find out the influencers who have a robust local following.
2. Know About Your Followers
In case you have several official social media pages, that can be a game-changer, especially when you want to find the right influencer. You can look to see if any loyal customers are regularly engaging with your social media content and may even be interested in having a collaboration.
3. Utilize Influencer Marketing Platforms
There are numerous influencer marketing platforms that can help you find the right influencers. The best part about these platforms is that you will be able to find influencers as per your niche on the biggest social media platforms. These platforms will allow you to execute influencer marketing campaigns for a minimal monthly or yearly subscription fee.
How To Run a Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign for Restaurants?
Here’s a step-by-step approach to run an influencer campaign:-
Step 1: Set Achievable Goals for your Restaurant’s Influencer Marketing Campaign.
By setting specific goals, you’ll be able to begin your campaign without any confusion or doubts, and you’ll have unmatched clarity. Whether you want a lot more brand awareness, plenty of sales, or have any other goal, you should list them down to achieve them in time. With a specific goal, it’ll be quite detailed and with a proper timeline as well.
Step 2: Strategize an Influencer Campaign as per your Target Audience.
You should create a campaign theme that aligns with your target audience. The other thing that you need to focus on is the type of content your influencers need to work on for your restaurant brand. According to the deliverables, you should decide upon the number of influencers and even the social media platforms you should begin your restaurant marketing with. However, you shouldn’t forget to convert engagements into conversions with the help of actionable CTAs that link to reservations or even lead them to online order pages.
Step 3: Zero in on the Budget as per your Requirements.
You should set a budget according to your restaurant marketing needs. However, choosing the right influencer is crucial for most restaurants new to influencer marketing. According to the industry research, restaurant brands must allocate at least 1/4th of their marketing budget towards influencer marketing. But it’s entirely okay in case you want to begin with a low-key approach and increase or decrease your budget with time and experience. The budget must consider the campaign goals and influencer costs as well, according to your target audience. Along with all of these costs, you should keep some of the extra budget for the complementary meals for influencers and even paid advertising to give a boost to the influencer’s posts.
Step 4: Find the Right Type of Influencers and Reach out to Them.
When you’ve analyzed your budget, the next step is to reach out to influencers. You can even search for them with the help of hashtags on Instagram, TikTok, or even X, and reach out to them by utilizing direct messages. You can also use paid influencer marketing platforms to find the right type of micro and macro influencer for different restaurant niches. On the other hand, you can even add a link to a properly crafted influencer landing page on your social media handles and website. It will ensure that the interested influencers can contact you without facing any hassles.
Step 5: Shortlist the Suitable Influencer and Negotiate the Terms.
When you’ve shortlisted the influencers, you must ensure that the followers are part of your target audience. Alongside this, you can ask for their engagement rate to understand the audience’s engagement with their content. You should assess the quality of the content and even check whether they are right for the brand or not. You must share your expectations that you have with this collaboration when you’ve shortlisted the influencers based on different KPIs. As per the goals, influencers can give suggestions related to the post types, the number of posts to target, along with their budget to carry out the entire campaign. The best part is that you can negotiate the terms through this process.
Step 6: Carry out the Influencer Marketing Campaign.
So, it’s time to get influencers to deliver what they promised. You can help the influencers with the essential resources that will help in showcasing the best that you have. Other than the signature dishes, you can encourage influencers to capture the overall vibe of the dining place. Moreover, you should highlight the USPs like locally sourced ingredients, out-of-the-box dining experiences, and even special offerings.
Step 7: Review the Results and Improvise Accordingly.
By getting an early glimpse of how your content is performing, you’ll get a lot of clarity around many things. For this purpose, you can ask for the influencer’s platform analytics. With the help of this analytics, you can check the reach, impressions, and audience demographics to understand where you should focus your campaign for unparalleled impact.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing has become one of the most impactful approaches for restaurants. It not only improves the visibility of the restaurant but also attracts several new customers. Alongside this, it boosts the credibility and even generates helpful user-generated content.
Looking to get the best influencer marketing for restaurants? If yes, SrveUP should be your only choice. We’ve crafted and executed several influencer marketing campaigns for the leading restaurants in North America. We’ll do so for you so that you achieve similar or even better results. Get in touch with us now, and let’s discuss your restaurant’s influencer marketing requirements today.
