Expert Instagram Marketing Tips for Restaurants to Sustain & Thrive After COVID-19

During the coronavirus pandemic, the hospitality and culinary industry have been seeking novel ways of staying agile and at the same time, remaining true to their actual vision and mission. According to experienced restaurateurs, it is quite difficult to transform the very core of your business operations. This is the era of roadside pickup and third-party delivery services. With the COVID-19 there has been a sharp rise in the stay-at-home orders that have compelled the restaurant businesses to think about effective ways of modernizing the culinary world rapidly. Here are some expert suggestions or tips for restaurants seeking inspiration and innovative ideas to stay put despite the dire circumstances triggered by COVID-19 across the globe.

In this Monday, July 30, 2019 photo, the social media application, Instagram is displayed on Apple’s App Store. (AP Photo/Amr Alfiky)

As per https://edition.cnn.com, restaurants are helpful in establishing the unique character and personality of our communities. However, according to a renowned chef, four out of every five popular restaurants in the U.S.A. may be forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 lockdown and resulting economic meltdown. Most independent restaurant owners are encountering and trying to combat an economic apocalypse. The restaurant sector comprises half a million of the small businesses that operate across the United States having 11 million American people engaged in the restaurant business across the nation.

The current COVID-19 situation seems to be the ideal time to set up your Instagram for Business account for your restaurant. This would be allowing you to interact actively with your customers and potential customers and share mind-blowing and truly enticing pictures of scrumptious delights. Food aficionados would be truly tempted by seeing your Insta feed comprising stunning pictures of mouth-watering delicacies. Instagram could be used as a powerful and robust platform for free advertising for your culinary brand simply by showcasing your delectable dishes, the amazing menu, and the overall aesthetic ambiance of your restaurant. 

Share Recipes with the World

The days of keeping pride in the secrecy of your recipes might be on their way out. This may sound outrageous to anyone who has spent even a little time in the food industry, considering the fact that most restaurants pride themselves on their secret formulas that keep people coming back for more. Some establishments have had the same recipe for decades, while others innovate regularly. That said, the cult following is only good as long as you can get the food to the foodie. In the age of COVID-19, marketers for the biggest brands in the business are now pivoting to something new entirely- releasing these recipes to the public. 

The messaging is pretty ingenious really- they want to show their followers that they are there to stay, and that they care about them that much. If you are a restaurant that has a similar cult following among the locals, there are some ways you can get in on this action. If you are bold enough to release your secret sauce outright, they will not only be impressed but will come back if only to check how close they got to the authentic thing. Even if you don’t want to reveal it all, you could prepare meal kits and get them engaged on social media to see how they fare against your time-tested classics.

Shuffle up Your Social Messaging

More consumers are working remotely now than ever before, and the routine can really get to you after a while. With their surroundings staying the same for most of the day, people are flocking to social media and spending a lot of time there, engaging not only with each other but also with the widespread advertising on these platforms. The best thing you can do as a marketer now is to push ads that are clever, funny, engaging, and refreshing. Use high-quality media, and remind them of how much you mean to them and how much they miss you. They’ll thank you for it soon enough, with their money or their engagement.

You could consider using these ads for driving users to your own website dedicated to your restaurant instead of using third-party apps such as Grubhub or Uber Eats. This could go a long way in reducing the total amount of fees you are required to pay to all these third-party apps that could help in optimizing your revenue.

Start Interacting Actively with Followers & Even Reward Them

You may keep the followers active and engaged by generating fill-in-the-blank posts. Seek customer opinions. Offer a brand new flavor of ice cream to your customers and seek their assistance and support for naming that special flavor. Customers would love to enroll themselves in the process.

Organize Photo Challenges & Reward Winning Customers

Motivate your customers to start sharing pictures and incorporating your restaurant tag. You could request your loyal customers or dedicated followers to keep posting their pictures of great moments and mind-blowing meals at your own restaurant. You must necessarily offer reward in the form of a free meal, Motivate clients by rewarding them with gifts like a free meal offered at your restaurant. You could come up with free meals or gift cards as rewards to your dedicated customers and potential customers too for winning photo contests organized by you.

Put in Extra Efforts to Make Your Restaurant Interiors and Even Dishes Insta-Worthy

Your guests would be more tempted to click pictures at your venue and share them provided your restaurant offers interesting décor and attractive dishes that look delicious. Focus on improving your plate presentation and installing new décor elements such as attractive plant walls, beautiful blossoms or bouquets on the tables, or stimulating twinkle lights. The charming interior decor would help in creating the right vibes and a truly intriguing backdrop that your guests would love to capture. You could gain numerous free Instagram likes by sharing mind-blowing pictures of your splendid interior décor.

Hold Online Cooking Classes

Most people learn best when somebody is guiding them through the entire cooking process. However, during these difficult times and lockdowns, you cannot visit your close friends or family to learn new recipes. Most of you are compelled to work at home and most of you are cooking at home more than ever forced by circumstances. So it is best if restaurants share their recipes of hot favorite dishes that have won them acclaim and appreciation. You may consider hosting cooking classes or streaming live videos for teaching and sharing recipes and culinary secrets.

Conclusion

Renowned chefs worldwide are taking their customers into the privacy of their homes via Instagram Live and Facebook for teaching culinary secrets, procedures, and recipes. Follow the above-discussed Instagram tips to boost your restaurant business even during COVID-19. 

Author Bio –

Kristen Smith is a leading blog writer and content marketing professional with thousands of Like4Like for her postings.