Instagram is one of the most used Social Media applications to date. It reached 1 billion users and continues to connect to every demographic it can. That is why it is no surprise that 17% of marketers spend 50% of their budget over Influencer Marketing.
This photo sharing app started to integrate videos to their platform in order to adapt to the changing trend and they successfully captured a large market because of this. People tend to avoid restaurants or mobile takeaway app if it has a weak social media presence or mobile. And it is right to say that strengthening your Instagram game could lead your restaurants and online ordering system to get a taste of this large market.
Here are some tools that will definitely give your Instagram account a boost :
CANVA
This tool provides a platform where you can create different templates. You can add images from your restaurant, edit, and you can even add text and graphics into it. And even though you don’t have enough experience for templates and graphics, this tool could be your best friend as it also provides pre-set templates and has a user-friendly interface which could help a beginner like you to up your restaurant’s Instagram presence.
SNAPSEED
Being on Instagram means you have to share photos, and if you’re just starting and don’t have enough resources to hire professionals to take your photos, this tool will be a huge help for you. This is a photo editing app which could be downloaded to your phone and could give you a satisfying output.
With this tool you can adjust important elements of a good photo- lightning, contrast, shadow, and hue which can elevate the photo quality from your smartphone. Talk about convenience, right? And yes, filters are available in Instagram but you might want to tone it down as using filters suggests that there’s something lacking in your photo. Also you have to set a uniform setting with your photo to raise brand recognition.
LATER
Consistency is one key for Marketing, if you want to increase your presence to the market you have to be consistent on what you do. In this case, you have to be consistent with posting to cultivate more audience on your account.
There was a time where Instagram doesn’t allow any other 3rd party applications to interfere on their platform, but with the growing demand, they have come to allow other applications to help ease their workflow. One of these is a tool where you can schedule a post in advance. That’s where Later comes in.
Later is a web application that just doesn’t allow you to schedule posts, but you can also edit the order on how your posts will be posted to make it more aesthetically pleasing. It also has an advanced tool that allows you to repost a post about your restaurant, about your photo, and use your hashtag. This is a good tool that gives you the opportunity to increase your User Generated Content. With all these help, you can save your time from monitoring your Instagram account and updating it which leads to you becoming more efficient.
LINK TREE
Let’s say you’ve just been featured in an article for a Food Magazine and you like to share it with your following. Naturally you would place the link of the article in your Instagram bio, but Instagram only lets one link per bio which means you have to remove the link of your website to place the article’s link. Sounds like a lot of work but with this tool you can have multiple links within a single page.
Link Tree provides a page where you can link the information of what you want your followers to see. And the more they know about your restaurant, the higher the chance they would want to drive into it.
GLEAM & KINGSUMO
These tools allow you to run contests on your platform and having contests is one life hack for Instagram marketing. Contests allows you to cross-promote different channels of your restaurant. You can make your mechanics and require the participants to like, share, follow and even tag friends to your page. That’s how you grow multiple channels all at once.
Now running contests on different platforms is hard to monitor, and that’s where you’ll need these tools. These will help you to customize different rewards to different actions your participants take, they also guide you on checking the progress of the contest. Making use of these tools could bring your Instagram marketing ahead of the competition.
Tip : Make sure that your contests are engaging and done in a short period of time to keep your followers interested.
PRETTY CAPTIONS
Instagram is one way to humanize your restaurant. People seek for real connection and that’s how you must work on your captions. You can be fun, witty, and experimental but make sure your market connects with you. Captions are used to set the tone of your content. And there are times that you might go overboard and don’t have an idea on how to format your caption – Pretty Caption is the best option for you.
This tool allows you to format your captions in a way that’s easy to read and connect with. You can also add your personality or brand as you go along the way. It will increase the amount of your follower’s engagement as they can totally understand what you’re trying to say. Your goal will be for them to consume everything you push out. Keep your caption short and genuine.
INSTAGRAM ANALYTICS
It’s now time for you to observe the behind the scenes of your account. Checking into your account’s analytics makes you see what is working and what is not. It gives you the demographic of your followers from their age, location, and gender. You should be able to see what type of post is performing well and it will drive you to focus more with those types of posts. Include just the right amount of popular hashtags on your caption and place it on the 1st comment box for your post not to look like spam.
These tools are free to use in some manner, it’s up to you on how you’ll use it. There’s also one type of Instagram hack that should be able to help you grow your restaurant’s Instagram presence – Use of #Hashtag.
Hashtag can help you gain market outside your following if used properly. You have to research what’s the effective hashtag. For example #food and #foods have different numbers of followers, and you would want to use the one that captures a bigger market. Also if you create your own hashtag, you can monitor the progress of your own restaurant on Instagram.
Tip : Include just the right amount of hashtags on your caption and place it on the 1st comment box for your post not to look like spam.
Instagram also has the feature of GeoTag. You’ll be able to cultivate people to check out your restaurant if you constantly GeoTag your posts. Your restaurant will appear if people will search about that particular location (e.g. London). It just doesn’t make your restaurant brand easy to see, it also boosts the SEO of your restaurant on Instagram.
There are many different platforms to use in marketing your restaurant, some may require you to invest a little but it will surely help to your restaurant’s visibility and reputation. Just make sure to use it in its highest potential.
