The Complete Guide to Content Marketing Strategy for Restaurants

What is Content Marketing?

The purpose of content marketing is to attract, acquire, and engage new customers excitingly and effectively. It consists of creating and sharing material through text, images, video, and more. In 2014, more than 93% of marketers used content marketing as part of their marketing strategy. Typically, content marketing is non-promotional and relies on the value of your content to entice the viewers. 

Content marketing is different from overly promoting advertisements to your customers. It’s about establishing a brand voice and creating unique material that will offer information and entertaining content just enough for them to be naturally drawn to your company. Pestering them with promotions too much might provide the opposite effect. 

Traditional Marketing vs. Content Marketing

Recent studies have proven more and more that people are straying away from traditional marketing methods. Traditional marketing methods are any type of marketing that isn’t online. While these techniques have worked in the past, digital marketing is becoming more prominent. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about three times as many leads. The content must serve as valuable to all your customers. Balance with promotions is important when trying to keep your audience's attention.

Many people search online when looking for a new restaurant to dine in. Establishing a strong presence online with positive feedback can be the difference between gaining a new guest or not. Aligning your content marketing strategy with your brand will help build trust within your audience and motivate potential guests to choose your restaurant over other options. 

6 Key Steps to Include in your Content Marketing Strategy

1. Define your goals

Before diving deeper into the creation of content and other ways of marketing your brand, you must first define what goals your restaurant are aiming for. In other words, you must figure out what you would like to achieve from content marketing. If you’re looking for higher social media engagement, then your main focus should be on visual content. Or, if your goal is to establish a higher presence on Google, you should focus on SEO-optimized quality content. Deciding on which direction you’d like your strategy to go will help you cater more to a specific audience. 

2. Build a content calendar

The idea of building an entire content calendar may sound daunting at first, but it will prove to be very beneficial. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the push for new content. Your calendar can be created one month at a time to help relieve any stress that comes with it. Staying organized is key when it comes to creating and releasing unique content to your audience regularly. Delivering new and useful ideas to guests regularly is important in keeping viewers engaged. Only posting on social media and other platforms whenever you remember won’t return the same results as a content calendar

Create your content calendar based on the goals you previously established. You can set up your calendar to schedule information across your social media and a blog, website, emails, and any other platforms you may use. 

Here’s a list of what most content calendars will contain:

• When and how often to post
• Where the content will be posted
• What type of content
• A list of content ideas (Including seasonal and holiday ideas)
• What tools are needed for editing, publishing, and promoting 

3. Create original content

With the growing number of restaurants beginning to implement content marketing into their strategy, it’s important to stay authentic and stand out. Establishing your brand's voice and sticking with it is essential on all media platforms. You want your material to be easily recognizable and unique to your company. Use your content to help your guests better differentiate you from your competition. 

Creating fresh and exciting content will require more than just text. Implementing images and videos will further enhance the experience your customers receive. This can be done on more than just social media. Using visuals on blogs, websites, and emails can catch the eyes of your audience.

4. Optimize your content 

Don’t underestimate the use of keywords. To improve the effectiveness of your content marketing plan, you’ll need to optimize it. Especially for restaurant blog posts! You’ll want to use SEO to rank higher on search engines. One way to do this is by using a free keyword research tool to help figure out the most beneficial keywords to use in the industry. This can also be done to images by including alt tags. These are alternative texts for search engines that can positively impact the rankings for your content. 

5. Track and measure the results

Measuring the progress and results of your content marketing plan is a great way to determine how well it’s working. This will allow you to decide on any necessary changes to make moving forward. The feedback received from your guests will show you what's working the best and what may not be working as well. Releasing new content regularly is only beneficial to your restaurant if it’s helping you reach your goals. Adjust your tactics and give your strategy some time to work. This step is crucial for successful content marketing. 

6. Revise and improve

Based on the measurement of your results you can now determine how to change and improve your campaign. Look back on the goals you set for your company and compare them to the results you’ve seen. If they don’t align then it may be time to think about what your audience is enjoying and not enjoying as much. Using the analytics and insights given on your social media posts and other content, you can determine what improvements need to be made. Pay close attention to the wants and needs of your customers and work with that. It’s okay to make changes!

7 Restaurant Content Ideas to Get You Started

1. Start a restaurant blog

Whether you’ve been thinking about starting a blog or have already started one without much progress, now's the time to work it into your content marketing strategy. Blogging is prioritized as a content marketing strategy by 53% of marketers. Incorporating a blog on your website will help you reach a larger audience than you did before. Focus on topics related to your specific industry, but don’t be afraid to get creative with it and write about something you may not have known about previously. Do your research and get writing! 

2. Try out video content

Years ago producing video content meant hiring a professional to film it for you. Today it’s as simple as filming on a smartphone or tablet and then editing within social media or other apps. Videos can be posted on your social media accounts and website. Food-related videos are no stranger to the internet. Just look at how popular the Tasty channel's Facebook is! 

Video content can be much more than posting recipes. You can get creative with the content you make. Try including staff in your videos to create a more personal feel. Some other ideas to try would be behind-the-scenes videos as well as sneak peeks of future menu items. 

3. Pick a day to post specific content

This can be determined during the process of building your content calendar. Using your choice of media you can put your spin on a classic trend. Similar to the viral “TBT” posts or otherwise known as “Throwback Thursday”. Create a day where you post something unique to your restaurant and catchy for your audience. Repeat this each week. This may seem difficult to start but once you create your first post all you have to do is follow the same format each week. The key is being creative with it! Your viewers will start to recognize the recurring post and get excited to see it each week. 

4. Organize and attend events 

Community events are a great way to get your name out to the public! They’ll also serve as an outlet for creating content! Whether it’s an event hosted by you to draw in foot traffic or a local event hosted by someone else in your industry, you can use it to give your content marketing a boost. This could be as simple as sharing a vlog from your experience, a glimpse into the restaurant community, or writing about the event on your blog. 

5. Embrace the power of social media

With the growing amount of social media platforms available for use, it may be difficult at first to figure out which ones work best for your restaurant. It’s important to note that you don’t need to have a presence on every social media platform. Depending on the size of your company and its needs, choose as many as you can comfortably handle. Also, take into account which platforms best suit the style that you’re going for. If you’d like to focus mainly on visual content then Instagram could be the best choice for you. Whereas if you’re focusing on other needs you can pick a different platform instead! 

6. Communicate with your audience

When using social media it’s important to initiate a form of communication with your audience. This could look like replying to comments, reposting viewers, and much more. The line of communication will boost engagement with your audience and make them interested in seeing more. Having positive engagement can provide good reviews and satisfied customers. 

For platforms with story features, it could be beneficial to post interactive daily stories. Posting polls and questionnaires for your viewers to fill out is also an easy way to gain insight into their opinions of your content. Listen and learn from them. 

7. Host contests and giveaways 

Another way to engage and excite your audience is by giving back to them! Giveaways are fun and engaging and an excellent way to give back to the community. If you can financially support hosting a contest or giveaway it may be a good idea! Often companies will run giveaways to promote their products and better market their brand. They allow you to engage your customers and increase your audience reach, all at the same time!  In 2021, a study showed that 78.4% of contest shares were done on Facebook. Be strategic with which platforms you decide to host your giveaways and contests on.

Start Content Marketing Today!

Now that you have the 101 on content marketing and the benefits it can bring to your business, it’s time to give it a try on your own. Content marketing is a unique way to enhance your overall marketing strategy. If you have fun with it and listen to your audience you’ll see results in no time!