How To Get More Customers Through Your Doors Using Instagram

One sure fire way of getting new customers through your doors it to give your cafe or restaurant a revamp or introduce a new seating area, such as an outdoor dining area. People love to be nosy and if they hear that you’ve totally redesigned your venue they’re sure to come along for a look.

As a cafe furniture retailer we’re always trying out different ways of making more sales either online by offering discounts and special promotions or by letting everyone know that we have some exciting new products to view in our showroom. One of the methods we use is Instagram and we thought it might be an idea to share some of our tips for using Instagram to gain more business which you might be able to try too (that’s if you’re not in the market for some new furniture, of course!).

If you like taking pictures, then Instagram is a great platform for promoting your venue and is fun too. Sure you could take some pictures of your food and drinks, but as you’ll be competing with tons of other bars and cafes in your area, then it pays to be more creative in order to engage and grow your audience. Here are a few ideas to try.

Contests

Wherever you look there’s always a content whether it be for a clothing brand or for your favourite brand of crisps or chocolate. Contests help raise awareness about your venue and gain you followers. Ideas revolve around contestants taking pictures of themselves or of something, and could be one of your followers taking a picture of themselves biting into your latest club sandwich or triple layer chocolate cake with a hashtag promoting the name of the venue. The prize could be a free meal.

Instagram menu

Persuading your customers to take a picture of your Caesar Salad or Vegetarian Lasagne and tagging it to your venue’s name including the word ‘menu’ is a great way of promoting your menu without really having to do any work yourself. Once several people have done this, anyone will easily be able to see your menu on Instagram using little more than a simple hashtag search. You could encourage people to do this by offering a free mug of coffee or slice of cake.

Unusual Posts

The Bucket Challenge was immense fun and gained huge momentum although many people probably didn’t know what the money was being raised for. If you could think of something unusual and wacky that would catch people’s attention in a similar way, then it has the potential to be huge and create more awareness for your venue than you could ever hope for.

Behind the scenes

Another great way to engage with your audience is to take pictures of what’s going on behind the scenes at your venue. This creates a bond and if you can find funny things to take pictures of, then people will be eager to follow you for more. The possibilities of promoting your venue are endless simply by getting creative and thinking out of the box. Get it right and you’ll soon have more customers through your doors.

As well as great marketing tips, we also have some pretty amazing cafe furniture for sale too. Why not browse our online store or visit our showroom. If you need more information on any of our products just give us a call on 02 8379 7737 or email us at [email protected].