Restaurant live streaming can impact your Wednesday night crowd just as much as your weekend visitors. Whether your restaurant is well-known or a hidden gem in your community, live streaming can help attract more patrons to your establishment. By trending on social media, you will be able gain more traction among foodies in your city. Live video with a little bit of creativity can make your restaurant a must-eat spot in no time. However, live streaming for live streaming sake won’t do you much good. Incorporate a marketing strategy that addresses what your patrons would like to see will entice them to give your restaurant a try.
Wine Tasting at Your Restaurant
If your restaurant is known for its wine, try live streaming an exclusive, free wine tasting for those who follow you on your social media. Advertise the tasting a week in advance across your platforms and implement a few rules for attendance. The attendees must follow the restaurant on social media, be willing to leave a review post event and sign a waiver to be on camera. The live event will help people who are unfamiliar with the restaurant gain interest. It will also display the ambiance of the location, which may entice more people to visit.
Restaurant Food Prep
Some people don’t care how their food was prepared as long as it tastes great. However, just as many are curious to know what happens behind the kitchen doors. By live streaming 30 minutes of cooking, patrons might have more respect for the restaurant. They may feel that your establishment is clean, transparent and cares deeply about creating good food. Chefs, sous chefs and line cooks do not always receive recognition, so live streaming is a way to give more attention to the artists behind the meals.
Origin of the Food
With the recent farm-to-table trend, many restaurants have been including this in their marketing, such as on their menus, restaurant descriptions, etc. Take it a step further, and show the audience the origin of their food. If the food is locally grown, show a tour of the farm, garden, etc.
If some of the ingredients are imported, contact your international liaisons and live stream your interaction as well as where the products or ingredients are grown or retrieved. This will eliminate the mystery behind where their food comes from. If your patrons care about healthy eating, live streaming will only be in your favor.
Recipe Sharing
No one knows what’s in the secret sauce. Do you remember Mystic Pizza? (The 80s movie with Julia Roberts in Maine with the lobsters). Leona, the owner of the pizza shop, does not reveal the mystery behind her amazing, must-have pizza to anyone. Most restaurants still uphold this standard. However, there is something to be said about sharing secrets. If you have a famous dish at your restaurant, then that dish should remain a mystery. However, live streaming a recipe for a simple meal might attract more visitors. If you live stream the making of a menu favorite, you know that people will tune in to find out the recipe. Their curiosity will not allow them to look away. Give a little, and your audience will appreciate your effort by becoming a regular.
Naming the Restaurant
Get the owner on camera. Sometimes people don’t even know who the owner of their go-to restaurant is. Put a face to a name and live stream a Q/A with the owner. Patrons can submit note cards with questions after they pay for their meals. Also, others can ask questions directly on the live stream. It would be fascinating for the audience to learn more about the restaurant. How did the restaurant get its name? Is this the owner’s first restaurant? What did they do for a living before? There are so many questions that the audience would love to learn more about the restaurant and its origin story.
Bartender Tricks
A restaurant is nothing without its chef. However, it is also nothing without a great bartender. Restaurant goers want their drink how they want it.
Live streaming a session with your restaurant’s bartender will attract more views. The bartender could teach a few mixology lessons and answer a brief Q/A.
People may want to know how to make the restaurant’s signature drink at home. However, many will want to know if the bartender is single, etc. Of course, the questions have to be approved by the bartender, but a live stream might be a fun, engaging way to interact with the patrons.
Live with Your Favorite Waitress
Everyone wants to know what it’s like waiting tables during a busy shift. By having a live stream with your top waitresses, the audience can learn more about working in the food service business. A live stream with your waitstaff will give the restaurant a more trendy vibe as it will allow people to get an insider’s view on the location. Also, live streaming can sometimes feel like a reality show. By incorporating the entertainment side of your business, more people might be remember your restaurant when they are looking for a place to eat.
Market Research
Even if the owner and managers know the market, they will never know what everyone wants from their restaurant. It wouldn’t hurt to ask during a live stream. Your live stream could be a form of market research, surveying the patrons. By knowing what foods, music and service people are expecting from your establishment, you can better deliver.
This can serve as a good platform for constructive feedback on how to improve your service and menu. For example, did people stop ordering the calamari because the price went up 5% or that the chef tried a new recipe? You might know the answer, but taking a poll during your live will help you confirm it.
If you are interested in incorporating a live streaming service in your restaurant’s marketing plan, consider experiencing a demo with Contentflow. Investing in a live streaming service that can offer you many functions without the fuss at an affordable price is always a good idea for increasing your business.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 876239, 959379 & 965502.
