Many restaurants often think that online marketing on social media is just posting pictures of food, announcing promotions and recommended menus. But if we do that, customers will see our page as just a general advertising page. Of course, no one wants to watch advertisements. Today, MHA would like to present a technique for doing Content Marketing by telling stories, or so-called restaurant storytelling, which will help customers feel like following and want to use our restaurant services more.
Why should we tell stories about restaurants?
1. It can create a difference between our shop and other shops very well. Although taking photos, controlling the color tones, adding the shop's logo or identity to the photos we promote on social media already create a difference, good storytelling will help customers clearly understand that difference and get to know our shop's identity more.
2. According to psychology, people prefer to talk to people rather than talking to machines or automated systems. Storytelling simulates a conversation between a restaurant and its target customers, creating an initial interaction or relationship with customers.
3. A good storyteller will be able to create followers and receive news of various promotions from the store without customers feeling pressured to sell. This means that the content of our store will become part of the content that customers must receive regularly, including leading to Like and Share to increase the number of people accessing the media.
How to start telling a restaurant story
1. Define the restaurant's character (Characteristic) . Think about it. If our restaurant were a person, what kind of person would it be ? For example, Somtam Rak Ban Kerd restaurant, define the restaurant's character as an honest person who speaks straightforwardly. Defining this character will help us define the core of the storytelling, mood, and style of storytelling without clashing with the image of our shop. And if the character we have defined can communicate well and customers understand, we can also use that character in various designs, such as the shop's mascot, shop logo in the future.
Tip: If you can’t think of a character for your restaurant, try considering the characteristics of the owner’s character and using them as the restaurant’s character. Or, you can cut out some of the owner’s characteristics and use them as the character. Or, you can consider the customers who use the service as the main factor.
2. Determine the restaurant's main message (Key Message) in creating content each time. The content should go in the same main direction. Determining the main direction of all of this content is called defining the restaurant's Key Message. For example, a restaurant that has a distinctive feature of a specific food recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation can tell the story of the history of the restaurant, the food recipes, ancient stories, or may tell some current stories, but it must not be to the extent of telling stories in a modern style like a modern restaurant, which will distort the character that has been set in the customer's feeling. Determining a good Key Message must make it feel like when listening.
1. Yes! This is what this shop is like.
2. It's a hit! This is what customers want from the store.
The key message should be short, concise, to the point, and communicate the identity of the store very well.
Tip: If we refine the Key Message to make it more beautiful, we will get the store's slogan, Caption, and #Hashtag to use in other content creation. The store may create the store's slogan at the same time.
Credit: Facebook page: Meow climbs up the kitchen cabinet
3. Set the mood and style in telling the story. Mood and style will determine the language used in telling the story and convey the identity of the shop in a unique style. It usually uses fun, warmth, and friendliness in telling the story, or some shops that have their own unique characteristics or make jokes according to memes that are popular at that time. Therefore, in telling the story each time, the content comes out as fun, teasing, and sometimes making jokes, but it still connects with the shop.
Credit: Facebook page: Emeow climbs the rice cabinet
Tip: Thais love fun! Telling a fun story or telling a story that makes readers laugh can reach more readers. However, it is not necessary to tell a funny story every time. It depends on the story that is presented each time.
4. Set the content schedule for each period. What content will we post? The storytelling can be set to 1-2 stories per week, depending on each shop's convenience. For more information, please visit: Open a shop page but don't know what to post.
What kind of story should I tell about the shop? And what kind of story should I tell to make it interesting to read?
1. Try starting with one of the restaurant's menus, especially the restaurant's signature dish . Try to talk about the ingredients, raw materials, cooking methods, and how to eat it to get the best taste. The more you tell about the intention in making this menu so that every customer gets the best food from the restaurant and describe the taste, the more interesting it will be.
Content format: Should be a photo album or a short video clip of that menu, and write a caption with no more than 250 - 300 words.
Storytelling style: Depends on each shop's storytelling style, but try to use a visual description of things that the picture doesn't show, such as taste, smell, and texture. You may use slightly over-the-top language to create a more enjoyable reading experience.
For example (Here, we will give an example of a table of content posting with details)
2. The origin of the shop can be told. Many people wonder how a shop with no long past or no story to tell can tell its origin. In fact, we can tell a story from many elements, such as what the owner did before opening the shop, what was his interest in opening the shop, and what was his approach to opening the shop. Or if there is no story from the past, try looking ahead and creating a story for the shop, such as the shop's goals, the happiness that you want to share with customers.
Content format: Pictures of the owner, founder, old pictures of the shop, pictures of the current shop, shop sign, signature corner of the shop, a set of pictures to tell a story, not more than 250-300 words, depending on the format.
Storytelling style: If it is a restaurant with a history of inheritance, use narrative storytelling mixed with descriptions of inheritance, passing on deliciousness from generation to generation to customers from the past to the present. Or if it is a new restaurant, try telling the origin and main points that make your restaurant different.
For example
3. Knowledge about food, especially the restaurant's menu. We can tell everything from the benefits of each menu, the benefits of the ingredients, and the history of how this ingredient came to be. Telling stories like this will make readers want to follow more because they benefit from reading our content. In this section, we can tell a long story or adjust it to be in the form of short content with pictures to increase the frequency of our content posting each week.
Content format: Infographic or related images, with a caption of no more than 250-300 words. However, if using Infographic, the content can be reduced further and then linked to the restaurant's menu.
Storytelling style: - Did you know? - Things people misunderstand.... - Benefits from....... It is a storytelling with useful information, referring to reliable sources of information, but not telling in an overly academic way. Use the same emotion and style, but add a bit of formality. Don't forget to cite by including links to the sources of information you found.
For example
It shouldn't be too difficult to tell stories about the restaurant and its menu. For the stories in the 3 main categories recommended, we can also break down the content into episodes or create a lot more related content. In fact, there is still a lot of content that we can use to tell stories, whether it's festivals, beliefs, current situations, or even anniversaries, which the restaurant can use to tell stories.
However, do n't forget that the purpose of storytelling is to do a form of Content Marketing that aims to promote our restaurant to be known. Therefore, don't forget to link to our restaurant, link to the food menu, or even add food ordering information into the content at the end. Then come back to find new online marketing content from MHA in the next episode.
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