Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that uses social media to promote brands, products, and experiences. Influencers are people who have gained popularity online and established a community of followers. Generally, consumers are leaning away from traditional advertising and moving toward recommendations from influencers. Customers tend to trust the opinions of influencers more than they would other marketing efforts because they find them to be a more reliable and honest source.
There are different niches when it comes to social media marketing. Some influencers may focus more on fitness recommendations, while others may promote their favorite beauty products. Influencer marketing has recently become one of the biggest ways restaurants advertise. An influencer will visit a restaurant and showcase the food, drinks, and environment by uploading to their social media feed, creating short videos, or writing blog posts.
What Is A Food Influencer?
Foodie culture has emerged over the past few years and continues to grow. Food influencers — sometimes referred to as food bloggers — are foodies who document their food adventures on social media. They post about what they eat and where they go for their followers to see. They'll often go to — or be invited to — new restaurant openings, new menu item debuts, or special events.
There can also be subcategories of food influencers. Some may highlight vegan restaurants and dishes, while others focus on the best brunch spots or top places to go for happy hour. What makes food influencers stand out on social media are their pictures and videos. Food calls our attention visually before we even taste it. If something looks delicious, we're more likely to want to try it. Therefore, food bloggers have a great opportunity to promote food and restaurants because their niche lends itself to social media platforms.
A lot of people often wonder if influencers are paid for promoting a restaurant, and the answer varies case by case. Some are paid monetarily, some receive a free meal or gift card in exchange for an honest review, while some may receive both. Their compensation usually depends on how big their following is and the type of content they'll be producing for any given initiative.
Why Is Influencer Marketing Important To Restaurants?
Influencer marketing can be an extremely helpful tool for restaurants to promote what they have to offer. It operates as a modern form of word-of-mouth marketing, which restaurants often rely heavily on. People are constantly looking for and providing restaurant recommendations to friends and family, and influencers are now extending those recommendations to all their followers. And, because people trust people they know — especially when it comes to food — followers can rely on the influencers they follow to steer them in the right direction.
Social media is useful in advertising restaurants because people enjoy being able to see pictures of what they can expect when they go there. They're looking for pictures of the food and ambiance, as well as a review of how the food actually tastes. When an influencer posts about your restaurant, their followers may be intrigued and are more inclined to visit your restaurant themselves.
This form of marketing, when successful, can result in more foot traffic
at your restaurant, more sales, and more followers on your restaurant's
social media accounts. It's a generally more cost-effective marketing
strategy and often can have a more rewarding payoff. 
Things To Consider When Collaborating With A Food Influencer
Working with a food influencer can be a rewarding experience for both parties involved. But, it's important to know what to expect from the collaboration and to be prepared before reaching out to an influencer. Below, we've listed some things to think about when considering influencer marketing.
Choosing The Right Influencer
While it may seem obvious that you'd want to choose the best influencer, there are a lot of things to consider when establishing what that means for your restaurant. The "best" influencer may not necessarily be the one with the most followers; in fact, in many cases, it won't be. It is more beneficial for you to work with a local micro-influencer to promote your restaurant.
Micro-influencers usually have at least 2,000 followers on their social media, which can be significantly less than macro-influencers who can have up to 1 million followers. By working with a smaller influencer, you're more likely to find someone with a smaller, close-knit community of followers who really trust that influencer.
It is integral to make sure they're local as well. Partnering with an influencer who lives in another city or state will likely have followers from that same location, which won't get you the foot traffic you want. You want to drive local customers to your restaurant, and having an influencer that mainly posts in and about your city is the best way to do so. This can help you build a more consistent and loyal customer base. Even if you want people visiting your city to come by your restaurant, they could look up local influencers in the city and potentially come across your establishment on that influencer's feed.
You also want to ensure the influencer you choose to work with matches your restaurant's vibe and the audience you want to attract. If your restaurant is loud, fun, and upbeat, you'll likely want to work with an influencer who has that same energy. Or, if your place has a quiet and cozy feel, then similarly, you'll want to work with someone who focuses on restaurants with that atmosphere. Finding an influencer who matches you and your restaurant well is important because you want them to feel comfortable in your environment. Additionally, their followers will expect a certain type of recommendation, so you'll appeal to a specific audience by making sure you fit into their niche category. It may not be a great fit if their followers are mainly young college students and your restaurant's primary customer base is families. Make sure the influencer you decide to partner with matches your restaurant's vibe and audience well.
Choosing The Right Platform
Finding the right influencer goes hand in hand with finding the primary platform you want to use to promote your restaurant. This will tie directly into your goals; choosing a social media platform that best fits your needs will depend on what you want your results to look like. If your goal is to have more traction and grow your following on a specific platform, then you may want to focus on using that platform.
Luckily, some influencers may work with multiple platforms, which could
benefit you. For example, an influencer who posts videos on one website
may also post regularly on a photo-sharing app. Others may focus mainly
on pictures, but also upload detailed blog posts with full-length
reviews. Where you want customers to get information about your
restaurant will influence your decision on which influencer you choose.
Knowing and establishing which social media platform will be most
beneficial to your restaurant will help you make a more informed
decision.
Compensation
Just as you want an influencer's followers to trust their opinion, you also want to ensure the influencer trusts you. This includes establishing a mutually beneficial compensation agreement. The compensation you offer will likely differ from influencer to influencer, depending on how many followers they have and how much content they'll produce.
Many micro-influencers accept gift cards or a free meal for themselves and friends or family in exchange for an honest review. You can welcome them into your restaurant and give them food to enjoy and produce content. Larger influencers often expect monetary compensation, so that may be something to keep in mind. While influencers are often open to discussion and negotiation, it is also important to remember and respect their rates and expectations. Determining your budget ahead of time will help you establish what you're willing to offer them and help you to come to an agreement with them. Keep in mind that if you want to do a giveaway or contest, you'll want to take that into consideration when determining your budget.
Remember: Never ask an influencer to leave you a positive review in exchange for something. This can make you lose credibility and come across as trying to 'buy' a good review. Let your food and service speak for themselves, and the positive review will come authentically!
Multiple Initiative/Campaign Ideas
Although the influencer will have their strategies and plans for content, it doesn't hurt to provide some suggestions and collaborate. You can let the influencer know what you think, so you can agree on which campaign works best for you both. There are many different avenues you can go through when it comes to influencer marketing, which can make coming up with a campaign exciting.
This also means determining the length of this partnership or campaign. Do you expect just a one-time post, or do you want this to be more of a long-term collaboration? You can consider different options such as:
- Doing an online giveaway or contest
- Having them visit your restaurant once for a meal
- Hosting an influencer event with multiple influencers present
- Hosting an event in collaboration with one specific influencer as a featured guest
The influencer you choose to work with will likely have experience in collaborations and will be able to give insight into which campaign they believe could work best for them and your restaurant. By collaborating and discussing, you can find an initiative that would be both fun and profitable for your business!
Consider Having Your Own Social Media Presence
When collaborating with a social media influencer, they will do the social media heavy lifting. It is also helpful for your restaurant to have its own social media presence. Having your own page will help customers get to know who you are beyond just what the influencer is posting. They will be able to tag your restaurant's page in their posts, leading their followers to your account.
From there, they will likely scroll through your page to get an idea of
what you have to offer. This is an excellent opportunity to show your
restaurant's personality before they even visit, so they can know what
to expect. Also, by having information such as your hours, location, and
link to an online ordering site, potential customers will have all the
information they need in one spot. Working with the influencer will also
help you get content for your page. With their permission, you can
repost or re-share their pictures or videos on your page, giving you
high-quality content to upload. 
How To Collaborate With A Food Influencer
Once you have taken these things into consideration, it's time to reach out to the influencers you want to work with. If you're not sure what that process can look like, we've broken down the steps to working with an influencer.
1. Do Your Research
The first step to collaborating with an influencer is doing your research. Some things you'll want to check for are:
- If they're local
- If their vibe fits what you're looking for
- If they post honest and genuine material
- How much they engage with their audience
- If the quality of their content matches your expectations
These factors will help you establish which influencer works best for you. You'll search through multiple social media pages before determining which influencers you'll want to reach out to. As mentioned before, you'll also want to research which platform you want to use. Take a look through different social media sites to determine which works best for you.
Having all the necessary information ready on your part will show them that you are prepared, professional, and eager to work with them.
2. Reach Out!
Once you have all your information ready, and you've found a good fit, it's time to reach out to them! Many times, reaching out through direct message (DM) works best for influencers. Other times, they will have contact information in their bio, so if they do, that's a perfect way to get in touch with them. Some influencers work with agencies and provide their agency's contact information. If you do contact the agency, be sure to mention the name and handle of the influencer you want to work with.
In your pitch, provide a little background on your restaurant. This establishes a rapport and lets them know off the bat what kind of collaboration this will be. You can outline what you're looking for out of this collaboration from both ends. For example, if you are offering a free meal in exchange for content, make that known in the pitch. You'll also want to ask which brands or restaurants they've worked with previously and if they have the analytics available. This will give you a clearer idea of what the results of this campaign can potentially look like.
Remember: Be patient! Some influencers may not check their DMs on a consistent basis. Being understanding if it takes them some time to respond to you lets them know you care about this collaboration.
3. Establish An Agreement
This should be a collaborative discussion to ensure both parties are on the same page. You should be prepared with your expectations and terms, but also be willing to negotiate. For example, you'll want to let them know what kind of content you want them to post, whether it be one or more social media posts or a full-length blog post. You should also be clear on compensation.
By the end, you should have a clear understanding of expectations on both ends, the terms you've both agreed upon, and have an agreement set in place. Then, once you've agreed, you can plan a date and time for your campaign and make it happen!
4. Measure ROI
Following the campaign — depending on what that looks like for you — you
can measure your return on investment or ROI. With influencer marketing,
it can be tricky to determine the success of a campaign. If you do a
giveaway or contest, you can measure by seeing how many people entered.
You can also check to see if your follower count has increased or if the
number of customers increased compared to before the campaign. If it is
successful, it can open the door to other influencer marketing
initiatives in the future.
Try It Out!
Influencer marketing can be an exciting new way to promote your restaurant. By finding the right influencer, deciding the right platform, and establishing a mutually beneficial agreement, you can have a successful campaign. You'll drive more customers to your restaurant, have more followers on social media, and open the door to other collaborations in the future!
