Kulture Konnect Blog

Marketing trends are evolving year after year. Getting your restaurant marketing strategy right is not always easy if you don’t know where to begin. 

For the new year, there are many trends that can be used to successfully market your restaurant. These 10 fresh restaurant marketing ideas will help you stay on top of recent trends and are key to get the attention of new/existing customers.

The Instagram “Nametag”

In October, Instagram rolled out the “Nametag” feature which works similarly to a QR code. Other platforms such as SnapChat were the first to come up with this idea as it made it easier for users to add friends just by using their smartphone camera to scan usernames. These codes allow others to find and follow your account quickly (Mashable).

There's only a few weeks left til 2019 kicks off and with that in mind, it's the right time to start planning your new Instagram strategy. But before doing so, let's take a look at which Instagram trends to expect this coming year.

Brands Will Work With More Micro-Influencers

Nowadays, micro-influencers are more prevalent and relevant than ever. They are present in all categories like health, food, fashion and sports. They have particular niche audiences that they are constantly and profoundly engaged with. Coupled with the fact that they like to collaborate with like-minded brands, these attributes make them great partners for other brands and businesses looking to improve their customer engagement.

2018 experienced some drastic changes in the way people saw and interacted with Instagram posts on their timeline. Today, their algorithm continues to be more engagement driven rather than chronological. But one thing that Instagram has changed for the better, is that everything from ads to posts you see from your friends and family are getting more and more customized. Whether it's a brand that you're loyal to or if it's your best friend, whose photos you like and exchange comments with.

What's important to understand with the most recent algorithm is that Instagram will show you content that interests you, content that matters to you, so, the chances of you engaging with it are higher. Now, this is helpful but also problematic in some cases. When you see content you like you're likely to spend time on the platform and scroll your newsfeed for a hot minute. But this also means in order to show you content from brands that are trying to build your interest, they will most likely have to invest in some form of paid advertising. 

This year, Kulture Konnect proudly sponsored March of Dimes, Signature Chefs Auction that allowed the organization and culinary chefs to raise money for a cause that supports helping mothers and babies overcome premature births. As a marketing agency, we find it rewarding to get involved in our community and be a help to organizations that we truly believe in. When we were approached to help March of Dimes, Signature Chefs Auction social media strategy, we simply could not say no.

Not only was it an opportunity to give back but it was also an honor to be a part of March of Dimes first Inland Empire Signature Chefs Auction. 

In an effort to raise funds to fight against premature births, March of Dimes is known to host this annual event in different cities around the U.S., where local well-known culinary artists get together to create samples of their work for attendees before an auction to raise money for the cause (March of Dimes).

More than one-eighth of the planet's population share something in common - according to Hootsuite, all of them have Instagram accounts.

Instagram is a social media network that is only becoming more popular by the year. Today, Hootsuite reports that 1 billion people use Instagram. 

For businesses, Instagram is a key player in their marketing strategy. Though Twitter used to be the front-runner for business profiles, Instagram has been able to take the top spot with tools such as the "business profile" option.

Today, 71 percent of businesses use Instagram and about 25 million business profiles exist (Hootsuite).

Creating an Instagram account for your business is easy.

The hard part? Building your Instagram following.

Restaurant owners from the Palm Springs and Coachella Valley had plenty to look forward to last Wednesday at the Dine GPS Restaurant Bootcamp presentation at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa. The panel consisted of food produce giant Sysco, who revealed food trends and the latest restaurant concepts. Popular reservation system Open Table shared trends among diners from the Palm Springs area. Last but not least, our very own restaurant marketing expert, Jorge Pacheco, discussed the benefits and the most essential parts of social media. Let's recap some of the most important points of Jorge's presentation.

Today, children are asking for tablets instead of bicycles when they turn five, and a two-year-old knowing how to take a selfie before speaking a complete sentence is considered completely normal. This is the age of millennials, the generation that is all about using digital outlets. And it is no secret to businesses, as they have turned to digital marketing as their primary source of advertisement and that's because of how inexpensive digital marketing is to gain brand awareness.

This is telling of our society and the way we have allowed the internet to play everyday roles in our lives. Statista shows that 77 percent of the US population has an existing profile on a social media platform in 2018. The American Press Institute reported that 88 percent of millennials get their news from Facebook alone. Does this tell us that we are no longer relying on print?

Is print truly dead? Believe it or not, people are still using print for their advertising needs. One example, it was found that billboard ads still reap benefits. MediaLease found that 56 percent of people will share an ad they have looked at by talking about it. Word of mouth, folks.

Kulture Konnect's co-founder, Jorge Pacheco, is on a roll. We praised and cheered him on as he presented for the second time at the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo in early August. He made us proud after conducting Kulture Konnect's first live social media webinar in late August.  This month, Jorge Pacheco was asked to be a presenter at this year's Dine GPS Restaurant Bootcamp in Coachella Valley. As a team as a whole, we are extremely excited to be a part of Dine GPS. Jorge has done a great job over the years sharing his knowledge and insight regarding restaurant marketing. He has shown his strong skills and ability to help restaurants execute successful marketing and promotional work.

If you are a restaurant in the Palm Springs or Coachella Valley area and would like to gain more knowledge about social media, marketing and promotions please do feel free to attend the Dine GPS Restaurant Bootcamp. Here are the event details.

In a world of digital comfort and online networking, social media marketing has become one of the best and most convenient avenues to bring in more business to a growing or already established company. Wineries are no exception, as they are able to dazzle old and new guests by creating charming online content filled with irresistible images of its finest wines and beautiful scenery. To be the best in the business, it is best to utilize the always evolving wine marketing styles.

A new business has the ability to become successful not only through hard work, but also by following trends and reaching out to new and current customers on social media outlets.

Here are some cool and modern strategies that most successful wineries follow on social media.

With social media being utilized as a marketing tool to build and grow brands, engage with consumers and reach a specific target audience, you want to be able to measure and review your monthly analytics effectively. Each platform whether it might be Facebook, Instagram or Twitter includes an analytics page designed to help you understand the behavior of your fans and consumers.  Depending upon the results from your analytics page, you should be able to glean from your data in order to make better marketing decisions. The problem is with an overwhelming amount of social media analytic data to process, it is fairly easy to leave out the most vital metrics and determine which metrics really matter. We can help.

We designed a Social Media Reporting Toolkit for business owners and professionals that will help you focus on the most important metrics and setting the right goals. In result, proving ROI.