How To Use Restaurant Video Marketing To Grow Your Business

What better way is there to promote your menu than through restaurant video marketing?

Sure, you can post photos and descriptions. But a photo will never be able to capture the ooey gooey-ness of cheese or the crunch of fresh vegetables the way that video does.

A large portion of social media and content marketing today revolves around impactful, attention grabbing videos. A quick 30 second video has the power to capture the attention of your audience, leave their mouth watering, and entice them to book a reservation at your restaurant.

In this blog, we’re going to cover some ideas for great video content, and a few tips to help you get started.

What Is Video Marketing?

Video marketing is a strategy that focuses on providing engaging video content to your audience. 

Video content can be posted on your website or YouTube channel as well as to social media profiles, where it is becoming increasingly popular. Video marketing can help promote a product or service, increase brand awareness, or build a community with your audience.

Benefits of Restaurant Video Marketing

Restaurant Video marketing has many benefits that are much more difficult to achieve with other strategies. 

Videos are known to generate more reach on social media than photos or text posts. This is because videos are shared more often by users.

You can effectively tell your story through video content. Taking your audience through your kitchen or restaurant, interviewing your staff, or telling the story of when your restaurant was founded are great ways to tell your story. 

Let your audience get to know you and your staff, and create a friendly atmosphere around your restaurant.

5 Restaurant Video Marketing Ideas

Now that we’ve covered what video marketing is and its benefits, we’re going to give you some inspiration to create your own.

There are many different ways to capture your audience’s attention with your video content. Here’s 5 ideas to get you started:

1. Introduce Your Staff

Specifically, it is a great idea to feature your chef. They are the one who is to thank for the delicious food that comes out of your kitchen.

If you make a video about your chef, try to hit on these three questions:

• What is their favourite dish on the menu? Why?
• How did they become passionate about cooking?
• What is the best part about being a chef?

By telling your chef’s story, you create a sense of familiarity with your audience. They get to see the passion and heart that goes into your food and feel good ordering it.

2. Share Cooking Tips and Recipes

By providing helpful cooking tips and easy recipes for your audience to try in their own kitchen, you can create engaging, interactive restaurant video marketing.

Some cooking tips you could share with your audience are how to make certain knife cuts or use different utensils. Learning from a chef is exciting for home cooks and makes for very sharable content.

These videos help you to target awareness level customers. These customers are people who may like your restaurant but don’t know about it. Providing videos on recipes and tips is a good way to target this audience because if they are interested in recreating your recipes, they will probably enjoy dining at your restaurant. 

Although sharing your restaurant’s recipes may not be a great idea, you can share some seasonal or simple recipes with your audience. Do a quick twist on an old classic, or teach them how to make a cocktail you serve. 

This adds interactivity to your video content and can even lead to user-generated content.

To encourage user-generated content, ask your audience to try the recipes at home and share some photos or videos on social media. When they tag you in their posts, share them on your story or feed. This will create a community between you and your audience.

3. Give Viewers a Behind the Scenes Look

Everyone loves the idea of seeing something exclusive or backstage. 

Give customers this unique experience by following the chef as he prepares dishes, or how your front of house staff prepare the tables before opening the restaurant for the day. Giving these behind the scenes looks will build more trust with your audience.

Behind the scenes videos are great for targeting consideration level customers. Different from awareness level customers, this is people who know about your restaurant, but need a push or information to make them actually visit. 

By giving them a virtual tour, you can entice them to give your restaurant a try if they haven’t yet.

4. Stay Local, and Be Proud of It

Your local customer base is important. So cater to them and show them why they should choose your restaurant. Typically, local customers are the most loyal, making them the best target audience for repeat business.

Make sure you geotag your videos on social media and cater to your local market.

Another great way to show pride for your city is to use local suppliers! Consumers value knowing that the food they’re served is locally grown and responsibly sourced.

Next time you visit your supplier, a farmers’ market, or a local farm, take your camera! Show your audience that you care about getting quality ingredients to make your dishes great.

By conducting interviews, hosting showcases, filming meet the maker videos, and many other content ideas, you can provide added value to your suppliers and build relationships with them. This is great for audience aggregation between you and your local connections.

5. Highlight Your Menu

Who doesn’t love food videos! Entice your audience with videos of new dishes, old classics, customer favourites, or seasonal specials.

Using video content to put the spotlight on your dishes will make your audience feel as if they’re at the table about to take a bite. These promo videos are sure to make viewers crave your food.

When you shoot video of your menu, make sure the dishes are fresh with steam still rising from the plate. Take some action shots doing a cheese pull with a pizza slice or sprinkling some herbs on top for a dramatic effect.

4 Tips on Creating Video Content

Now that we’ve gone over five great video content ideas for your restaurant, let’s break down some tips to help you create the perfect video.

1. Consider Using a Professional Videographer

Your video content has the job of capturing your audience with the mouthwatering dishes you offer, or enticing them with your restaurant’s friendly staff and atmosphere.

If you’re struggling to make your video content look professional and perfected, it may be worth it to hire a professional videographer. They will be able to help you capture the perfect shots, and edit your video.

2. Think About Orientation and Optimisation

The orientation of your video will depend on where you plan to be posting it.

If the video is going onto your social media channels, it is best to record your video in a portrait, or vertical, format. This is because most people scroll through social media on their mobile devices, and a portrait orientation will best fill their screens.

If your video is being posted onto your website or YouTube channel, however, it may be better to record in landscape, or horizontally. Landscape orientation is better suited for desktop viewing, so if users will see the video on a computer screen, this will work better.

When it comes to optimisation, every platform has their specific time limits and size requirements. Make sure you research the best format for the website or platform you are uploading to.

In order to get the best results from your restaurant video marketing, make sure to upload your videos directly to your social media channels. This keeps their algorithms happy, because they prefer to promote their own video platforms over other video platforms such as YouTube.

When uploading videos to your site, however, it is best to upload the video onto YouTube first and embed the link onto your website. Videos are large files that can slow down load times, so it is better to let YouTube’s hosting service take the hit instead of your own.

3. Have Fun With It!

The worst thing you could do with your video content is make it too commercial. If viewers think that your content is very corporate and boring, they’ll click off. 

To avoid this, have fun with your content! Don’t be afraid to add a bit of  personality into your content. At the end of the day, the best content is content that your audience finds enjoyable. 

If you enjoy the content you’re making, your viewers will see that and it will make them enjoy watching your content. Then, your audience will be naturally attracted and interested in who you are and be inclined to learn more about your brand.

4. Always Add a Call to Action

Even though not every video you post will be an advertisement outright, you still need to make sure to engage your audience with a call to action.

A call to action is the part of your content that prompts the audience to do something. These typically come towards the end of a video and will instruct the viewers to “Click Here” to go to your website or “Place a Reservation Now!”

Having a clear call to action is incredibly important for your marketing strategy. It is what helps your customers know what to do next, and makes it easier moving down the sales funnel.

Video Content Is a Great Promotional Tool

Video marketing has become increasingly popular with audiences and can improve your reach and relationship with your customers. Video content can be used for your website, YouTube, and other social channels to create engaging and interactive content.

There are many ways you can use video content to promote your restaurant. From interviews with staff to taking mouthwatering shots of your most popular dishes, the right video content is sure to bring loyal and new customers through your doors.

Overcoming Challenges in Restaurant Video Marketing

While the potential of video marketing for restaurants is undeniable, challenges can arise. Fear not, for these hurdles can be overcome! Here’s how to tackle common roadblocks:

Budget Constraints:

• Start small and strategic: Begin with simple yet impactful content like showcasing signature dishes or highlighting your ambiance. Utilize user-generated content (UGC) by encouraging customers to share their experiences.
• Get creative with resources: Utilize natural lighting, smartphone cameras, and free editing software. Collaborate with local videographers or students for affordable production.
• Focus on quality over quantity: Invest in a few high-quality videos tailored to specific goals rather than numerous low-effort ones.

Lack of Equipment:

• Smartphone power: Modern smartphones boast impressive camera capabilities. Utilize apps for stabilization and basic editing. Invest in affordable phone lenses or tripods for enhanced quality.
• Borrow or rent: Check local community centers, libraries, or film schools for equipment rentals at reasonable rates. Collaborate with other businesses for shared equipment use.
• Embrace authenticity: Imperfectly perfect videos can be charming and relatable. Focus on genuine content and storytelling rather than achieving cinematic perfection.

Content Creation Expertise:

• Learn and experiment: Numerous online resources offer free tutorials and guides on video marketing and storytelling. Attend workshops or webinars to hone your skills.
• Partner with influencers: Collaborate with food bloggers or local personalities for video creation, leveraging their expertise and audience reach.
• Outsource strategically: Consider outsourcing specific tasks like editing or animation to freelancers or agencies, focusing your efforts on content creation and strategy.

Restaurant-Ready Tools: Simplifying Video Marketing for Foodies

Creating mouthwatering video content doesn’t require a Hollywood budget or a film degree. Here are some restaurant-specific platforms and tools to streamline your video marketing journey:

Creation & Editing:

• InShot: User-friendly app for basic editing, adding text, music, and transitions. Perfect for quick social media clips.
• Canva: Offers pre-designed video templates, stock footage, and music specifically tailored for restaurants. Ideal for creating branded visuals and stories.
• Biteable: Create short, engaging explainer videos and social media ads with easy-to-use templates and animation tools. Great for showcasing your menu or highlighting promotions.
• Dacast: All-in-one platform for recording, editing, hosting, and analyzing restaurant videos. Offers live streaming capabilities and detailed analytics.
• Lumen5: Transform blog posts, articles, or even recipes into engaging video content with AI-powered tools and text-to-speech narration.

Management & Distribution:

• Later: Schedule and publish your restaurant videos across multiple social media platforms from one central hub. Track performance and engage with your audience.
• Sprout Social: Manage your social media presence, including video content, and analyze engagement metrics to understand what resonates with your audience.
• Loom: Record quick screencast videos to showcase your menu, offer cooking tutorials, or share behind-the-scenes glimpses. Easy to share and embed on your website or social media.
• YouTube Studio: Create, upload, and manage your YouTube channel, the go-to platform for longer-form restaurant video content. Track views, engagement, and demographics of your audience.
• Animoto: Create professional-looking video slideshows and social media ads with pre-designed templates and royalty-free music. Perfect for showcasing customer testimonials or event promotions.

Bonus Tools:

• Unsplash & Pexels: Download free, high-quality stock photos and videos to enhance your restaurant video content visually.
• Epidemic Sound & Bensound: Royalty-free music libraries to add soundtracks and background music to your videos without copyright concerns.
• Kapwing: Online tool for adding subtitles, captions, and watermarks to your videos, improving accessibility and branding.

Leveraging Social Media & Influencer Marketing for Restaurant Video Success

Video marketing reigns supreme in the social media landscape, and restaurants can leverage this dynamic duo to amplify their reach, engage audiences, and ultimately grow their business. Here’s how:

Integrating Video with Social Media Strategies:

• Tailor content to each platform: Utilize short, engaging clips for Instagram Stories and Reels, while longer, informative videos like recipe demonstrations work well on YouTube.
• Post consistently: Develop a content calendar and schedule regular video posts to stay top-of-mind with your audience.
• Leverage organic reach tools: Utilize platform features like Instagram Reels hashtags and Facebook Watch Parties to increase organic discovery.
• Run targeted video ads: Reach specific demographics and interests with strategically placed video ads on various platforms.
• Encourage social interaction: Ask questions, host polls, and respond to comments to spark conversations and boost engagement.

Partnering with Influencers:

• Identify the right fit: Collaborate with food bloggers, local personalities, or micro-influencers whose audience aligns with your restaurant’s target demographic and values.
• Craft compelling collaborations: Go beyond simple product placements. Create unique video challenges, recipe collaborations, or behind-the-scenes glimpses featuring the influencer.
• Leverage influencer expertise: Tap into their storytelling skills and audience engagement strategies to create authentic and effective video content.
• Offer mutually beneficial partnerships: Provide influencers with exclusive access, experiences, or products in exchange for video content creation and promotion.
• Track and measure results: Analyze engagement metrics, website traffic referrals, and reservation conversions to gauge the impact of influencer collaborations.

Bonus Tips:

• Run contests and giveaways: Encourage user-generated video content by hosting recipe challenges or dish reviews, leveraging the power of UGC.
• Go live!: Utilize live video features on platforms like Instagram and Facebook to connect with your audience in real-time, showcase events, or offer cooking demonstrations.
• Respond to comments and reviews: Actively engage with your audience in the comments section of your videos, building relationships and fostering community.

Remember, building authentic relationships with influencers and integrating video seamlessly into your social media strategy are key to unlocking success. By leveraging these strategies, you can amplify your restaurant’s voice, reach new audiences, and drive meaningful engagement through the power of video and social media.

FAQs:

1. How long should my restaurant video be?

The ideal length depends on the platform and purpose. Aim for short and engaging clips for social media (15-60 seconds), while longer, informative videos like recipe demonstrations can work well on YouTube (up to 5 minutes).

2. What equipment do I need to create restaurant videos?

Start with what you have! Modern smartphones boast impressive cameras. Utilize free editing software and consider affordable phone lenses or tripods for enhanced quality. Collaborate with local videographers or students for more advanced productions.

3. How much does restaurant video marketing cost?

Costs vary depending on your approach. Utilize free tools, leverage user-generated content, and start small. Budget strategically for high-quality videos targeting specific goals as you scale your strategy.

4. How can I measure the success of my restaurant video marketing?

Set clear KPIs aligned with your goals. Track views, engagement metrics, website traffic, reservations, and conversions to gauge the impact. Use data insights to refine your strategy for continuous improvement.

5. I don’t have time to create videos! What are my options?

Partner with influencers, food bloggers, or local videographers for content creation. Utilize stock footage and royalty-free music to enhance existing videos. Consider outsourcing specific tasks like editing or animation to free up your time.

Conclusion:

Restaurant video marketing isn’t just a trend; it’s a powerful tool to connect with your audience, showcase your offerings, and drive business growth. By following these strategies, overcoming challenges, and leveraging available resources, you can create compelling video content that captures hearts, minds, and appetites.

Remember, authenticity, quality, and strategic planning are key to unlocking the full potential of video marketing for your restaurant. Start small, experiment, and keep evolving your approach to stay ahead of the curve and attract customers eager to experience your unique story through the magic of video.

To learn more about boosting your digital presence through restaurant video marketing, contact ProfileTree today.