How To Get More Restaurant Bookings With Video Marketing

When it comes to making a profit and turning over covers, the restaurant business is notoriously tough – and it’s the same story for restaurant content marketing.

Think about it for a second. How many times have you put together a social media post only to get zero shares? How many social ads have you run that actually lose money?

That’s why it’s so important to get your restaurant video marketing bang on the money: it fills seats. In this article, we’re going to show you how to transform your marketing efforts with engaging video content.

Because that’s what we do here at Viddyoze. Using our extensive industry knowledge and easy-to-use software, we put the power of video in the hands of restaurants, cafes, and bars.

Keep reading and we’ll show you how to get more bookings with video marketing for restaurants.

Whether you’re running a high-end dining experience or a casual brunch spot, the key to successful marketing is speaking to the right people. Simply put, that means creating restaurant video content that will resonate with your audience.

Avoid a broad, scattergun approach to your restaurant video marketing, and ask yourself a few questions before you start creating restaurant videos.

For example:

• Are you a family restaurant?
• Catering for young professionals on their lunch break?
• Do you serve gourmet or rustic meals?
• Fine dining or fast food?

The reason this is important is because you need to create marketing videos which will appeal to your target audience, otherwise you won’t get them through the door.

For example, if you’re targeting young couples but your promotional videos don’t feature anybody under-40 in the content, then you have a messaging problem.

This might sound straightforward, but get it wrong and it will cost you. Every year, businesses waste $37 billion dollars in ad spending by targeting the wrong people, reports Marketing Evolution.

Restaurant owner with an eye for marketing? Here are 10 proven restaurant video marketing ideas to give your place a bookings boost.

1. Influencer Visits And Reviews

Is there a well-known influencer from your local neighborhood? Offer them a free dining experience and film the outcome that you can use it as a promo video.

Studies show that influencers with smaller followings (nano influencers) drive higher engagement, according to 69% of brands (RDB Agency).

We can’t stress enough the importance of “local” here. If your influencer lives miles out of town, it won’t work with your audience and your marketing efforts will flop.

Finally, remember to look for an influencer that matches your target market. The goal is to convert the influencer’s followers into your followers! That will only happen if your restaurant matches their taste and aesthetic.

2. Collaboration Announcements With Local Vendors

Local vendor collaborations are another great way to leverage another business’s audience and make your restaurant unique. Think McDonald’s and Coca-Cola but on a much smaller scale.

It can be a long-term partnership with a food or drinks provider, such as a butcher, a brewery, a bakery, or local farms, or a short-term deal with a non-competitor. For example, a one-night event with a top cocktail maker from a popular local bar.

To promote the collab, make a short marketing promo that both businesses can share online beforehand.

3. Chef Challenges From The Public

With the rise of TikTok and other mini-video platforms, challenge-style marketing video content has blown up in the last few years.

Jump on the trend and set some challenges for your head chef. Better yet, ask your followers for ideas through social. Think the blind taste test from Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen or the time Fred Sirieix asked two Michelin-starred chefs to recreate the Whopper.

This is a powerful way to forge a personal connection with your audience, get them to watch videos, and to raise the profile of your head chef at the same time.

Viddyoze Pro-tip: if one of your video challenges goes viral, make it a limited-time menu item.

4. Menu Explainers And Cooking Tutorials

Interest in cooking “skill” restaurant marketing videos is on the rise, according to Google. Why? Because people love to DIY, and cooking is no exception.

A simple way to turn this into a money-spinner is to create weekly restaurant videos where your head chef teaches the audience how to cook your seasonal specials or favorite dishes.

These can be serious, for example, Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver’s channels, or just plain fun, such as Epic Meal Time.

5. In The Kitchen On Game-Day Videos

Kitchens are high-pressure places. When dinner service is on, they’re fast-paced, relentless, and unforgiving – and that makes for incredible behind the scenes footage.

Think of the movie Boiling Point. When the action is on, you can’t take your eyes off it. Capture the energy and professionalism of your kitchen with the cameras rolling and then use the behind the scenes video to make a mini-documentary and other future content.

Of course, you’ll need to ensure your kitchen is immaculate and well run, with awesome food to boot, but hey, you know that anyway, right?

6. Ambiance And What To Expect Videos

Candles. Glasses clinking. Soft conversation… nothing gets the mouth-watering like a beautiful setting.

That’s why “what to expect” restaurant videos are so effective. They allow you to showcase the ambiance of your restaurant and actually show your ideal customer what they’re missing.

Kind of like a virtual tour, these videos reveal how your restaurant operates during your evening service, from reception and seating the guest, to coffee and dessert.

7. Chef Interviews

People love to put a face to the food they’re eating – that’s why celebrity chefs are never out of fashion.

Add some personality to your restaurant video marketing strategy with a candid interview with your head chef. Be sure to include emotive topics, such as your chef’s background, inspiration, passion for cooking, and signature dish or style.

For some inspo, Fine Dining TV does a great job of mixing up chef interviews with epic cinematography.

8. Specialty Dish Promos

Got a glorious gourmet burger? Maybe your rib-eye steak is to die for.

Set those tastebuds tingling with a promo video for your specialty dish. Simple and easy to make (especially with Viddyoze!), these restaurant video marketing videos let the food do the talking.

They can be short and sweet or slightly longer, with a little bit of context sprinkled in.

9. Live Clips From Events

Similar to “what to expect” videos, live restaurant videos are another simple way to get patrons excited about your brand.

Live streaming video adds another layer of authenticity and excitement to your restaurant video marketing. Bring your restaurant to life by posting on social platforms YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

In addition, live video tends to drive more engagement on social, so make sure you have your digital marketing manager on hand to respond to customers.

10. Restaurant Vlogs

Fast and easy to make, a vlog is a powerful tool for restaurant owners because it allows you to remind people about your establishment, with minimal creation time and effort.

Most vlogs are simple: a host talks into the camera for a few minutes, hitting a few key talking points or news items. Add in a few awesome animations from Viddyoze to jazz things up, and boom, you’re ready to go.

You can vlog about pretty much anything, but here are a few suggestions in relation to the restaurant industry:

• New menus or dishes
• New suppliers (For example, a new partnership with a local farm or national brand)
• New hires
• Theme nights or discounts

Restauranteurs are notoriously time-poor. Between ordering stock, running budgets, designing menus, and managing staff, there’s very little space in the day left for video marketing.

At the same time, restaurant social media statistics show that video is a must-have for restaurants:

• 78% of marketers say video has boosted sales (Wyzowl)
• 54% of consumers want more video from businesses (HubSpot)
• 36% of TikTok users have been to a restaurant after seeing an ad (TikTok)

Viddyoze is the solution to your time problem. With our state-of-the-art software, you can create a quick video in minutes.

Whether it’s a promo for your new menu items or, our platform allows you to get started started restaurant video marketing as soon as you’ve signed up to the app.

All you need to do is log in, select the video template that works best, create your text, download the video and post. It’s that simple: create videos people want to watch in just 3 clicks.

Transform your marketing today and drive more bookings than ever before. Find out more here or watch the video below for more info.

Now you know what kinds of restaurant videos you should be creating to get more bookings. Next, we’re going to show you where to share them so you can win loyal customers and repeat business.

Social Media Ads

Social media video ads are a proven restaurant marketing method to drive bookings, which is why 63% of restaurants use social to advertise (Lowell).

Organic posts work too, with almost 50% of US diners trying a new restaurant after seeing a social post (QSR Magazine), but should be used in partnership with ads.

The key to making ads work for restaurants in a cost effective way is targeting. You need to get your creative in front of the right people at the right time.

Bear in mind that different audiences prefer different social platforms. Here are the key age demographics (generally speaking) for each major platform:

Facebook

• Approximately 2.93 Billion monthly active users, as of 1st quarter of 2022 (Statista)
• The most popular social network among over 50s (Pew Research)
• 56% of Facebook’s audience identifies as male and 44% female (Statista)

Instagram

• Approximately 1 Billion monthly active users, as of 1st quarter of 2022 (Statista)
• 61.9% of their users are aged between 18-34, as of April 2022 (Statista)
• 50.7% of Instagram users identify as male and 49.3% identify as female (Statista)

TikTok

• Approximately 1.3 Billion users, as of July 2022 (ByteDance)
• 62% of Tiktok’s users are aged between 10-29, as of June 2020 (Wallaroo)
• 57% of users identify as female and 43% male (Statista)

YouTube

• Approximately 2.6 Billion monthly active users, as of 1st quarter of 2022 (GMI)
• 93% of 18-49 year-olds in the U.S. have used YouTube (Pew Research)
• 49% of U.S. over 65 year-olds have used YouTube (Pew Research)
• 53.9% of global YouTube users identify as male and 46.1% female (Statista)

To help get your target the right people with social ads, follow this simple checklist:

1. Create a video to showcase your food or the dining experience of your restaurant (see above)
2. Target customers in your local area – people aren’t likely to travel for miles and miles to eat out
3. Target the right age demographic for your market
4. Create a bookings page where your consumers can land (plus a strong CTA to get them there)
5. Create new ads regularly (different videos, images, etc) until you get the best ROI

Google Business Profile

“Restaurants near me” gets over 6 million organic hits a month, according to Modern Restaurant Management.

When that happens, Google automatically provides you with 3 restaurant recommendations, based on your location.

Increase your chances of appearing in the top 3 of results by completing a Google Business Profile. This free profile helps users with important information, such as opening times, addresses, and contact details.

By adding regular content, such as the videos we mentioned above, to your profile, you’ll stand an even better chance of climbing up the rankings and attracting more customers.

Your Website

A website that uses video converts better. It will also keep people on the page for longer. When you’ve got a hot lead, both are crucial factors in getting that reservation over the line.

Include restaurant video marketing on the key pages of your website, including the home page, contacts page, online ordering page, and bookings page, keep it to one video per page, and make sure your videos load on mobile devices.

For the best chances of success, make sure each video includes a strong call to action (For example, “Reserve your table now!”) at the end.

Viddyoze Pro-tip: ensure your website’s design and aesthetic reflect your target customers’ lifestyle.

YouTube

You don’t need to capture the attention of all 2 billion users to win big on this platform – you just need to dominate your local search terms.

So what do we mean by that? Well, the “Tube” is a search engine, just like Google. To get the most out of it, you need to speak to a local audience. Think search terms like “best restaurant in [insert your town’s name here]”.

Other keywords to target include:

• [restaurant name]
• [restaurant name] reviews
• [restaurant name] chefs
• [restaurant name] menus
• [restaruant name] [town name/city area]
• [town name/city area] [food type, eg “pizza”]

For more tips on how to make your channel work harder for your business, check out this post.

Your Email List

Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of restaurant marketing out there. Fact.

So if you’re not collecting emails for a newsletter, you really should be. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to collect email addresses with restaurant marketing.

For example:

• Create an online booking form that captures email addresses
• When taking a reservation over the phone, ask customers if they’d like to opt into your newsletter
• Encourage signs ups with discount offers (E.g. sign up for our newsletter for 10% off your next bill!).

Once you’ve set up your newsletter, you can use it to drive people to videos through announcements, such as collaborations, new menus, and price promotions.

Dining out is a special experience. It’s supposed to be delicious, positive, and, most of all, fun. If your video marketing reflects those things, bookings are sure to follow.

With Viddyoze, you can create high-quality video that will drive bookings to your restaurant. Our platform is packed with specialist food-themed templates that will work for any type of restaurant.

Sign up to Viddyoze and start filling seats today.