Struggling with Restaurant Visibility? Here’s How Video Marketing Can Help

The restaurant industry is highly competitive. If you don’t stand out from the sea of options for diners, you may not bring enough guests through the door to stay afloat. Video marketing can be your secret weapon. Naturally engaging for the senses, videos attract attention in a sea of content, get diners interested in your menu, and encourage visitors.

Want to create a loyal fanbase of regulars and encourage word-of-mouth referrals? Here’s how video can get your restaurant seen and build recognizable brand identity.

Why Does Video Work?

There’s a visual nature to the food and beverage industry. While images can excite the senses, video takes it a step further with sensory appeal that words and photos can’t match. Just a clip of a sizzling, colorful dish moving through a beautiful and lively restaurant atmosphere can be enough to entice the senses in your audience before they even set foot inside. Then, when they want to dine out, your restaurant is at the top of their mind.

The rise of short-form video makes it even easier to share enticing, impactful clips of specials, cocktails, and ambiance. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are great options to showcase your seasonal menu highlights, behind-the-scenes kitchen prep, chef or staff interviews, guest testimonials, or a quick clip of what goes into a signature dish.

Showcasing New Menu Items and Specials

Several aspects of the restaurant experience affect the guest’s perception, but the menu is arguably the most important. In many ways, the cuisine influences the restaurant’s style, tone, and aesthetic, which you can highlight in videos. Showing off a signature dish, juxtaposing fresh ingredients with their farm-to-table source, the mixing of an upscale cocktail, or slow-motion shots of decadent desserts can stimulate the appetite and compel guests to give it a try.

There are plenty of other opportunities with videos. For example, if you have a limited-time seasonal menu or new specials that guests just have to try, a video can create a sense of urgency that drives reservations. Get creative with subtle details like a slow-motion pour of a signature sauce or a bartender putting the finishing touches on an artsy cocktail.

Stimulating Local Appeal

Local interest is a driving force behind restaurant marketing. That’s how you attract members of the community and earn “regulars.” Video marketing can do more than highlight your menu – it shows how you’re involved in the community and giving back.

For example, you can show highlights of a local event you’ve hosted, bring attention to a charity you support, or highlight a collaboration with another local institution. Building awareness for your activity in the community improves your reputation and shifts your image from a profit-minded business to one that cares about its impact.

Video ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram have options for geo-targeting, which helps you reach local diners. You can tailor your content to local events and interests, ensuring that your messaging is reaching the right people.

Leveraging User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) can be a huge benefit for restaurants. When diners share their experience at your restaurant with video testimonials, you can enhance your reach and credibility.

There are many ways you can encourage UGC from your diners, such as posing a challenge on social media to prompt guests to post reviews. Branded hashtags can also motivate your diners to get involved and share their experience. Peer recommendations have inherent trust for your audience, so the more UGC you can encourage, the better.

Behind-the-Scenes Content and Storytelling

Modern consumers are looking for authenticity and transparency from the brands they support – and that includes restaurants. The more you allow them to “peek behind the curtain,” the more confident they’ll feel about giving you their business.

For example, the open kitchen design can be modified in video with behind-the-scenes clips of kitchen operations. You could also share staff highlights or tours of where you source your ingredients. Another great way to humanize your restaurant and connect with audiences is sharing the story of how your restaurant was founded, your mission, and what inspires your signature dishes.

Don’t forget about events, either. If you host special events like cooking classes, chef collaborations, or limited menu tastings, create a highlight reel that communicates your brand personality and culture. All of these examples use storytelling to make the experience memorable and impactful for your audience.

Optimizing Videos for Search Engines

SEO isn’t limited to written content. The same SEO rules can help your videos get visibility on crowded feeds. Make sure you optimize your video titles, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords to help their discoverability on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Location-specific keywords also put your videos on the radar of local diners as they search for restaurant options.

Leveraging Influencer Collaborations

Food bloggers and foodie influencers are incredibly popular – and you should be leveraging their reach. These influencers have dedicated audiences that trust their recommendations and reviews, which can drive business for you.

It’s important to research potential influencers to determine who’s the best option for your audience. Micro-influencers tend to be cost-effective and speak to niche audiences with impactful endorsements. Once you have some potential influencers in mind, invite them to sample your menu in exchange for honest video reviews for their followers.

Promoting Events and Special Occasions

Restaurants often have holiday specials, menu samplings, live music nights, and other special events. If you host special events, video marketing is a great way to share the experience and generate buzz for an upcoming event. For example, you can share teaser videos or event recaps that not only bring attention to your current event but build anticipation for future events.

Another option is sharing live streams of your events on social media to allow the guests who couldn’t make it to experience it virtually. Even if they don’t attend this time, they may plan to visit for future events to experience them in person.

Measuring and Refining Strategies

Video campaigns are still marketing, so you have to track performance and keep tweaking to improve your efforts. The metrics you use should be tailored to your goals for each campaign, but click-through rates (CTR), views, engagement rate, and conversion rate are common metrics to see what’s working and what could use improvement.

A/B testing, or split testing, is a good method to evaluate different formats, lengths, and post times to see what engages your audience the most. Depending on your restaurant, it may be best to segment the audience to get better results. For example, your audience for the workday lunch crowd may be different from evening diners or the guests who attend happy hour or live music events – and they all need targeted messaging.

Serve Up Success with Video Marketing

Sensory appeal is a driving force behind the restaurant industry. While it’s difficult to highlight a sensory experience in a virtual space, video can be the next best thing to entice the senses and turn prospective guests into your restaurant regulars.