TikTok for Restaurants: How to Go Viral with Video

 

 

There are 4.62 billion people globally on social media and TikTok for restaurants should definitely have a place in your marketing plan.

In fact, if you are in the restaurant business, a huge chunk of your targeted demographic is on social media.

Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram are outstanding platforms for promoting a brand and cultivating customer relationships.

Now, TikTok has made it a lot easier to generate content through the ability to become viral.

Utilizing TikTok to expand your restaurant brand is a smart way to reach audiences and build brand awareness.

Consider TikTok if you really aim to take your eatery toward the next stage. It is among the globe’s fastest-growing media platforms as well as the most streamed app on the Apple store.

This renders it as an ideal promotional channel, particularly for savvy restaurants, bistros, and bars looking to attract Generation Z plus Millennial consumers.

 

 

If you embrace a creative approach, the options are nearly endless for using TikTok to market your restaurant business.

TikTok is constantly evolving, and great possibilities for enterprises to promote their products shall undoubtedly emerge.

For the time being, the following TikTok suggestions for restaurants are intended to help you increase engagement on this platform and direct several of such users to your webpage.

 

How can you use TikTok to market your restaurant business:

 

1. Jazz it up with videos and live streams
2. Showcase your menus and special offers
3. Organize live events
4. Partner with influencers
5. Use TikTok challenges
6. Communicate with other TikTok users
7. Give your TikTok users a behind-the-scenes visit
8. Test TikTok advertisements
9. Showcase your vendors
10. Boost influencer content with PPC ads

 

1. Jazz it up with videos and live streams

 

Tiktok allows you to upload videos of 15 seconds or less.

You can spice up your clips with filters plus special effects so as to catch the customer’s attention.

Keeping in mind the brief video length limit, your clips of the restaurant should convey the ambience and feel of your venue as succinctly as possible.

To attract customers, you could modify your videos to highlight the best bits of your eatery, your friendliest customers, and your jolliest staff members.

 

 

To remain relevant, add music in the background that is mainstream among your intended audience, or utilize one of TikTok’s most viral and current soundtracks.

Again, TikTok, since the lockdown, has witnessed a boost in live-streaming targeted specifically at buying experiences for products, including food items from restaurants.

You can also use online streams to communicate with your followers more deeply. Irrespective of the strategic plan you intend to employ, going live via TikTok provides a slew of previously unseen advantages.

However, there are some tried-and-tested tips on how to livestream on TikTok. With the inappropriate approach, you might end up losing followers rather than gaining new ones. Make sure to do your research first.

 

2. Showcase your menus and special offers

 

TikTok is indeed an excellent platform for eateries to highlight new dishes and specials, particularly if they are introduced in a graphically memorable manner.

You could, for example, illustrate your beautiful culinary setups and your staff’s warm personality.

You could also put your own twist on the menu and make special additions. Bonus marks if your clips are consistent with your company image.

 

 

Again, this latest social networking site is brimming with inventive recipe video content that employs jump cutbacks to keep stuff brief, sweet, and enticing.

Post videos of viewers learning how to create their favorite dishes.

To maintain the freshness of your content, share your finest food preparation mysteries and techniques.

Demonstrate to your customer base how you preserve your kitchen’s cleanliness or keep your bar operating smoothly, and also how you cook their favorite dishes.

In a span of a few days, you will witness a trail of eaget foodies entering your restaurant for brunch or dinner!

 

3. Organize live events

 

Once you’ve amassed over 1,000 TikTok followers, you can begin hosting thrilling live events via the platform.

Create a fascinating series of tutorial videos or classes with your most prevalent chef or bar manager to instruct your consumers how to begin preparing a few of your top sellers.

 

 

Alternatively, hold a contest to identify your latest dish, beverage, or topping combination.

TikTok’s quick speed and broad reach make it the perfect platform for experimenting with interactive live events as well as contests.

 

4. Partner with influencers

 

Any kind of social marketing strategy involves the usage of influencers.

And this is applicable for TikTok as well.

Influencer endorsement is one of the least expensive paid marketing techniques available.

Your company could collaborate with thought leaders to create short clips of them participating in a brand contest, choosing to eat one among your new recipes, making a margarita, or trying out your best-selling chocolate cake.

 

 

The followers of those influencers are inclined to share such content automatically, giving your eatery or restaurant beneficial brand visibility.

For example, Dunkin’ Donuts collaborated with D’Amelio, a dancer plus influencer from New England, to generate a TikTok of her signature beverage.

They saw a 20 percent increase in sales the first day after uploading the video, demonstrating the efficacy of influencer marketing.

 

5. Use TikTok challenges

 

Are you familiar with the notorious #IceBucketChallenge?

Creating a punchy and unforgettable hashtag challenge serves as the simplest and most efficient means to generate hype over a TikTok challenge.

Such posts inspire your subscribers to perform a piece of music, choreography, or trick before challenging someone else to do something identical by having shared the hashtag.

 

 

Encourage consumers to upload TikTok videos of themselves dining in your eatery or remaking one amongst your signature dishes or beverages.

This encourages them to start sharing your hashtag as well as spreading the company message.

 

6. Communicate with other TikTok users

 

TikTok shines in engaging its user base as it is among any social media channel’s top objectives.

For instance, if you upload a video clip of your eatery on TikTok, numerous TikTok users will watch it and post a comment.

 

 

This demonstrates that people are truly willing to interact with companies such as your restaurant on TikTok.

This could benefit your business tremendously.

As a result, you should make it a point to regularly interact with users who visit your restaurant’s TikTok page and leave comments.

In the comments section, you can also ask these users to tag their friends.

 

7. Give your TikTok users a behind-the-scenes visit

 

The viewership number on TikTok is growing by the day.

Then, why not take advantage of it and start giving your audiences a behind-the-scenes look?

Numerous restaurants have begun to follow this model.

What is the end result?

Customers will be more likely to return because they feel themselves to be a part of a diner’s community.

Furthermore, maybe there is something distinctive about the way your restaurant operates or preps a famous item on the menu.

Shooting behind-the-scenes video content is an excellent way of sharing your unique food business with your TikTok viewing public.

 

8. Test TikTok advertisements

 

The best part about TikTok advertisements is that the platform is still in its early stages and hence, the adverts are unable to compete too much.

The unfortunate thing, however, is that they’re very pricey, with a minimum investment of $500.

If you believe it is worthwhile to invest in luring a young audience, the following ad types are available to you:

– In-feed advertisements come on people’s feeds in between some videos.

CTAs can be used to increase website clicks and convert visitors into customers.

 

 

– Branded hashtag challenges are essentially an enhanced challenge which you advertise in order to increase engagement.

– Branded effects enable you to create a 2D / 3D effect that’s also branded alongside your emblem or name — that individuals could use in one‘s photos.

– Brand takeovers literally mean that you consume a major space on the platform by displaying your ad to users as soon as they access the app. In the clip, you can connect to online pages such as your internet shopping page to increase conversions.

– Topview provides your videos with a premium advantage by displaying them at the upper edge of the person’s page.

– To design an advert on TikTok, go into the app’s business page.  You must give some time for the profile to be accepted after creating an account and entering data about your eatery.

 

9. Showcase your vendors

 

Many young folks — TikTok’s main audience — seek brand names that are authentic and transparent.

Videos that show them the places and people behind their meal options can help them make that connection.

 

 

Highlight the homestead where the leafy greens tomatoes are cultivated, or try introducing audiences to the pastry chef who creates the pastry you serve.

Consider taking them to a taste test and show them how you select a particular champagne or mozzarella.

 

10. Boost influencer content with PPC ads

Using influencers on TikTok to get your restaurant brand out there is a sure fire route to success.

The only downside from using influencers by themselves are that their audience may not be relevant to your restaurant’s location.

If you think about it, if an influencer has 10k followers… at least 50% of their followers won’t be active, a further 30% won’t live near your restaurants and then a large percentage of what’s left may see an influential piece of content and not be interested.

 

To avoid this mistake restaurants make when using influencers, make sure you use PPC ads to boost their content.

On TikTok, this is called spark ads.

It’s where you can boost other peoples content (in your case influencer content) to your exact target audience.

The advantage of this is not only will you only pay to push your ads to people within a certain radius of your restaurant, but the influencers content now has a button on it to book now, so the customer journey is super short.

 

Conclusion

 

TikTok is an excellent social network for advertising your eatery or restaurant on a limited income.

It contains millions of users across more than 150 countries and is extremely popular among Millennials and Gen Z, making it easier to interact with modern generations.

TikTok for restaurants enables venues to build and share online videos by utilizing filters, hashtag challenges, and special effects.

 

 

Only with one vlog, your brand has the potential of becoming an instant viral sensation — thanks to the system’s engaging and instantaneous nature.

TikTok for restaurants must be your way to go if your brand’s self — image can benefit from a more fun, free-spirited persona.