Top 10 Facebook Marketing Ideas For Restaurants

 Facebook ranks third in the world, according to Semrush. Though the app’s average engagement rate is very low, it has already reached over 3.05 billion monthly and 2.09 billion daily active users. 

Considering these statistics, this platform is supremely valuable for restaurateurs to communicate with their target customers. Still, most restaurant owners or managers feel nervous about using Facebook to promote their business. The reason could be that either they lack knowledge or marketing on Facebook seems a bit tricky to them. If you’re one of them, bank on this blog!

Table Of Content:
Top 10 Facebook Marketing Ideas for Restaurants

1. Complete Facebook profile
2. Exhibit your restaurant
3. Use popular hashtags 
4. Offer something for free
5. Try live streaming, post videos
6. Encourage customer reviews
7. Create engaging contests
8. Promote with Facebook Ads
9. Tag successful pages
10. Recycle previous content

Top 10 Facebook Marketing Ideas for Restaurants

Below, we’ve shared the top Facebook marketing ideas for restaurants that you can try to see what sticks to your audience. 

But before we begin, remember that you can’t market your restaurant correctly if it doesn’t have a gripping profile.

Complete Facebook profile

Your Facebook profile is the first thing that people will see when hunting for an eatery. So, use it to convey clearly and concisely who you are and what you offer. Firstly, make sure it is complete with restaurant hours, contact, address, and other key info. Keep your content original and compelling, include intriguing CTAs, and add high-quality menu images with catchy captions. 

Moreover, update the profile frequently. You can upload cover photos that display your recent, successful, or upcoming events, offers, or promotions. This is an easy way to get in front of more people.

Exhibit your restaurant

The social media page of a restaurant is its illustrated representation. It contributes to creating an inviting ambiance and an irresistible atmosphere. So, try featuring it on your Facebook page. 

Take spectacular pictures and make bewitching videos of your physical restaurant. Upload them on the page to show off your restaurant interiors, highlighting particular features. You can use the interior of your restaurant as a background for various posts, like staff spotlight posts. And if there’s fresh greenery, a beachfront patio, or any enthralling area in your restaurant, do share it with your followers.

Use popular hashtags

One of the famous restaurant promotion ideas is hashtags. They are a fun and easy way to make your posts searchable and connect with a larger audience on social media. You can use trending hashtags or those relevant to your current campaigns. But avoid using several hashtags; place the spotlight on just one trending tag.  

Additionally, create a branded hashtag for your restaurant. You can ask your followers to use it in their posts and share these posts with their friends and family. This will help you quickly identify and re-share your customer’s post while increasing the probability that someone will find your page.

Read: Social Media Marketing Ideas for Restaurants

Offer something for free

People on social media are always fascinated by valuable things that are free of cost. To grab their attention, you can offer them valuable cooking tips or a recipe for free. Providing them with recipes will make them feel that you care about them. You can show them how much you care by sending them a recipe.

Even if it isn’t one of your signature dishes, your followers will still appreciate you sharing it. Make it fun by naming it “Weekly Recipes from our Recipe Vault” and use videos to promote it since they get twice the views on Facebook than other content.

Try live streaming, post videos

Customers are highly attracted to restaurants that value openness, so show them behind-the-scenes shots and videos. 

Film your wait staff or kitchen staff in action and post the video on the page with a caption like, “A day in the life of …”. Another exciting idea would be to create and share cleaning and organizing videos. What’s more, try live streaming or staging a live AMA, “Ask me anything”, to connect with your audience and allow them to ask about your restaurant. You can also upload videos to promote events or offers.

Encourage customer reviews

Reviews play a vital role in the buying decision, no matter what you sell! They provide social proof of how much people love your food or service. By offering a reward, gift card, or discount, encourage customers to write reviews. You can even ask them to post a photo that shows how happy they are with your meal in return for a reward for future visits. 

As a review comes in, respond to it professionally (always). If it’s a great review, thank your customer. But if it’s not, avoid being defensive; instead, fix the problem. Also, ask customers who gave positive reviews to share them with your page tag. Then, share those reviews on your page.

Read: 15 Unthinkable Restaurant Gift Ideas For COVID-19 | Customers | Staff

Create engaging contests

One of the winning ways to market a restaurant is by holding contests and giveaways. This increases engagement with followers and customer loyalty. For instance, you could hold a photo contest where customers share photos taken at your restaurant to win a prize. Or, run a contest in which customers guess your signature dish’s secret ingredient. 

Moreover, you can use giveaways to advertise special deals or new menu items. For example, you might offer a free appetizer to the first 100 consumers who order a particular item. 

Read: 20 Restaurant Contest Ideas To Make Your Customers Happy

Promote with Facebook Ads

To promote your restaurant page, run Facebook ads via Facebook’s ads manager. They are a brilliant way to reach potential audiences effortlessly. You don’t need a huge budget to reach a decent local audience; $50 to a couple hundred would be enough. 

Audience targeting lets you build profiles of specific food lovers. For example, you can retarget visitors to your website and target people who already follow your page or local residents. First, decide what you feel is vital to your target audience, then make enticing offers, event announcements, or reservations customized to your desired customer group. 

Tag successful pages

When you are just beginning your restaurant journey on social media, it may seem difficult to get your posts seen by a broader audience, so you may need help. You can get this help from pages that are already successful. 

Tag other prominent pages in your posts on Facebook. Share their content, praise them (this will make them feel worthy), and let them know you support the industry. Whenever one of these tagged pages likes or shares your post, it will also be visible to the entire following of this larger page. This ultimately helps you increase the number of people who see your post! 

Recycle previous content 

To keep customers engaged, restaurants on social media have to post fresh and exciting content with consistency. Due to this, they may feel a lot of pressure. A frequently overlooked content strategy is to take your pre-existing content and then repost or recycle it to create something new. 

You can repost any post, image, or video that didn’t do well when you first posted it or that was highly successful. This restaurant marketing idea is fantastic for customers who aren’t always online or haven’t even seen the original post and also for visitors who are viewing your page for the first time. 

Further, there’s one very crucial point to note when thinking of marketing for restaurants via Facebook; it is the posting timing. You should post on Facebook between 8:00 am. and 12:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is considered as the best posting time. However, it may differ depending on the needs and social habits of your audiences. 

How Bookmyorder can help you

Our best restaurant online ordering system is designed for businesses of all sizes and painlessly connects your Facebook page or existing website. The platform allows you to receive illimitable orders from Facebook by linking the social media platform with the chatbot feature of your ordering system.

Conclusion

Using Facebook for restaurant marketing is a great way to earn more customers. With the mentioned tips, you can increase foot traffic and bring in more customers to your business. These tips not just help you promote your restaurant but also get organic results. A great benefit of Facebook is its affordability and that it is used by billions every day! The most important thing is that you will use grow your business over time if you use Facebook as a marketing tool.