In the restaurant industry, Food Bloggers are the most relevant social media influencers and in this article, we will discuss the best practices of engaging with them.

Why You Should Consider Engaging with Food Bloggers As a Viable Restaurant Marketing Strategy

Many people argue that social media influencers do not have enough reach or brand pull value so there is no use in engaging with them. This belief is a myth! Micro influencers actually have a very good brand value. This is because your audience actually spends time or enjoy their pieces, is loyal to them and trusts the blogger more than it would trust your local celebrity. Food bloggers are seen as experts on the issue of restaurants and their verdict can be taken as a guarantee of great experience and even better food. Because of their presence on social media, they can even increase your website reach and ensure that people at least know who you are.

 top it all up micro influencers such as food bloggers are far cheaper and more approachable than celebrities even if a minor one. Instead of spending a huge amount of money on a single campaign, you can engage with 3-4 different bloggers, cover a wider audience base and maintain a relationship with them so they will keep covering and posting about different events and updates in your restaurant. Most bloggers also do not simply write about your restaurant like a newspaper advertisement but talk about the experience, what they found great and what sort of connection they felt to your restaurant. This gives your restaurant a personality for people to relate to and an image even before they visit it.

How to Engage with Food Bloggers and Reviewers

Now that we have established why food bloggers are a good investment in your restaurant marketing strategy, now we’ll elaborate on how to engage with them. Read on to know how to chose and invite bloggers, what your etiquette should be, what platforms you should cover and what the payment structure should be like.

1. Choosing Your Bloggers

When it comes to choosing whom to approach there are a number of factors that must be kept in mind. You are not just featuring your restaurant as a one-time thing and chances are you will be engaging with the same blogger again. You cannot just haphazardly pick anyone or give the job to the first person that agrees. That being said here are 6 things you must keep in mind while choosing a blogger.

(i) Relevance

The first question that you must ask yourself is how is the chosen blogger relevant to your restaurant and brand image that you are trying to create. Bloggers have their own interests and fortes and most of them specialize in kind blogging. This means that they cover certain kinds of foods and restaurants. Some may cover only sweets and bakeries while someone else may be an exclusive vegan blogger. Someone else, on the other hand, may only cover theme restaurants or some may cover restaurants with a certain history only. Follow different bloggers and identify who would be relevant to your restaurant. It

(ii) Target Audience

The next thing to consider while deciding your blogger is to look at the audience they cater to. If their target audience does not match yours, it would be a wasted pitch. Go through their comments, likes and study the type of content they write and the target audience of restaurants that they cover.

(iii) Online Platform

While different bloggers are on different platforms there are some platforms that you will inevitably cover and on others, you will see an increase in your following. The platforms that most bloggers directly cover are- Zomato, Instagram, WordPress, Blogspot, Youtube (through vlogs), blogger etc. Through these platforms, people will be directed to your restaurant page on different social media platforms and your website.

(iv) Page Views and Reach

The next thing to consider while deciding which blogger you want to engage with is the page views and reach that they garner totally and on individual posts. It makes no sense to engage with a blogger who does not have the required brand pull even if they are talented. You can reach out to them of course but then it would be a marketing for marketing deal where both of you feature each other on your respective pages for creating a bond and goodwill while reaching out to each others audience.

(v) Location

Even though blogging is an online activity, for a restaurant which is local the location of a blogger is also important. If the audience of a blogger is based out of your city where the restaurant is located it makes no sense to engage with them no matter how good they are. Chose a blogger from the same city as their maximum audience would be from the there as well.

(v) Shared Interest

Finally, it is very important for the interests of the blogger you engage with to match with yours. Engaging with a blogger is same as getting a business partner or a new colleague and for the betterment of both your restaurant and the blogger it is necessary that your interests match. While choosing a restaurant, bloggers do their own research and have their own reasons to choose one restaurant over another. Depending upon the nature of the blog, a food blogger picks his/her restaurant. A mutual interest is thus a minimum for you to consider while approaching a food blogger.

2. Inviting the Food Bloggers

Now that how to choose a blogger has been dealt with, next thing is how to invite your chosen bloggers. Here is a step by step guide:-

(i) Contact the Bloggers

Most bloggers are very easy to contact and approach. Take a close look at their blog and you will find an email address or a phone number that you can contact them on. If you do not find anything you can always leave a comment saying that you would like to approach them and leave your own email id for them to follow up on.

(ii) Create a Relationship

We can not emphasize this point enough. Understand that your blogger will probably be there to stay as your brand ambassador and in a sense be the face of your restaurant for all his/her followers. It is better to create a healthy relationship right from the first email. Value their time and efforts, talk to them, tell them about your restaurant all this will make them connect to the restaurant better and the result will be a better feature for you.

iii) Be Well-Organised

Another complaint that most bloggers have with the restaurateur is that they are not well organised when it comes to engaging with a blogger. Send them a timely invite (at least a week before) to any event you want them to cover. Extend an open invite for a normal feature and decide the time convenient for both. Be well prepared for the visit and deliver o the promises you made, it tells that you are professional and a happy blogger would mean a happier you when the feature is finally out!

(iv) Give Them Something New

Bloggers love experiencing and featuring newer concepts and innovations. If you plan to invite someone for a regular feature, chances are that they will agree but it will not be a.