4 Restaurants In London That Have Nailed Their Organic Social Media Marketing
Are you looking for some inspiration when it comes to your restaurant’s social media marketing? Look no further than these 4 London restaurants that are killing it online with their social media channels.
From engaging content to clever marketing strategy, these businesses are doing social media right. So what can you learn from them?
Keep reading to find out more about their restaurant marketing strategies.
1. EL&N Cafe
EL&N Cafe is a London cafe chain that has seen great success with its franchise restaurants. And it’s no wonder why. With a social media strategy that involves creative and engaging content, EL&N now has over 10 different venues and is even expanding internationally too.
EL&N Cafe is known for being one of “the most Instagrammable destinations in the world”, boasting its beautiful pink floral decor and LED lighting, creating a wonderland for those looking for Instagrammable places to visit in London.
EL&N’s social media strategy is incredibly inspiring, with 564K followers on their main social media platform, Instagram.
EL&N Cafe promotes this by showing off its pink and lavish decor, using it as backdrops for its food images, placing florals, hearts & LED lights to stage its content photography.
EL&N Cafe also demonstrates that you don’t need to always be taking the same photos over and over again to promote your restaurant: If your establishment has branded takeaway cups or even merchandise, you can always snap a photo of it on the go.
Why not snap one of your restaurant’s takeaway items in front of a popular London monument?
Not every photo needs to be staged with great lighting, high budgets & expensive cameras, sometimes impulsive & candid photos also do very well for social media.
From time to time, EL&N also utilises influencer marketing, promoting images with influencers on Instagram that have visited their cafes. Both parties get content to share for their respective Instagrams, making it a successful collaboration.
Finding different types of influencers like food bloggers & content writers will help elevate your restaurant business especially if they share a similar lifestyle of your ideal customer profile.
Something that not a lot of restaurant owners use often is Pinterest.
Pinterest is a social media platform where users can share and save images and videos for later viewing. It’s often used to save recipes, fashion ideas, and home decorating inspiration.
EL&N Cafe follows a pink and floral aesthetic that interlinks with fashion and lifestyle, making their content perfect for Pinterest users to save use themselves which in turn, promotes their content rapidly.
Currently, their Pinterest account receives an impressive 1.8M views a month! So why not consider using Pinterest to promote your restaurant?
Remember, it’s not just about food pictures for content – share your ideas and lifestyle branding that you want your restaurant to envision.
If you’re looking for some inspiration when it comes to your restaurant’s Instagram marketing strategy, take a leaf out of EL&N Cafe’s book!
2. Bunsik
Bunsik is a smaller establishment located near Leicester Square, London, offering Korean-style street food and its most famous food item, Korean corn dogs.
Despite it being newer and smaller than the other restaurants, Bunsik has a strong organic social media presence that we thought we’d include to show how they promote themselves just as effectively regardless.
Being a fairly new account, Bunsik’s Instagram has an impressive 13.3K followers. Its profile features the famous “Cheese Pull” that has become a unique selling point to the tasty Korean corn dog snack that customers also like to take part in and post on their respective accounts.
Their Instagram highlights also feature their menu, as well as the store and wall of fame, making it easy for customers to access their information whenever they like.
Their content features a range of content such as videos and images, both combinations of planned sets and backdrops and candid behind-the-scenes images.
Their Instagram feed shows off an orange and yellow hue throughout their Instagram content branding, making their content recognisable & unique to them.
TikTok
Bunsik has 11.7K followers on TikTok with a total of 260.9K likes. Their content on TikTok is less restricted in creative nature compared to their Instagram that focuses on informational and eye-catching content. This time, their TikTok instead focuses on a mix of delicious food content and humour to create entertaining & viral videos.
Their content features videos like:
- Food preparation
- Personal content featuring staff
- Spicy food challenges
- How to locate them
Their TikTok undeniably targets a different demographic to their Instagram: by creating humorous and shareable content that aligns with gen Z humour, they are getting a far greater reach on the platform which is popular to a younger set of audiences.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content is any type of content that is created by users, as opposed to the brand itself. Like the “Cheese pull” content, this can include anything from photos and videos to blogs and social media posts that are created by customers.
Bunsik has a wealth of user-generated material, promoting Bunsik on a regular basis, particularly on TikTok where several of these reviews have gone viral numerous times, increasing their exposure even further.
Bunsik’s corn dogs, which have become their distinctive selling point, have attracted eager consumers to try this current trendy snack. Their most popular dishes have turned into a rich source of user-generated content for them.
Overall, they are a good example of great restaurant social media marketing that doesn’t require a high budget!
WA Cafe
WA Cafe, located in the heart of London, offers authentic Japanese baked goods and delicate sweet treats.
Their primary content creation approach on social media are their eye-catching cakes that look too good to eat.
WA Cafe has 18.3K followers on Instagram which is their primary social media platform.
They frequently share and compile customer user-generated content on their highlights and Instagram stories, showcasing customer unboxing videos, birthday celebrations featuring their cakes & more.
Cake images are one of the main types of images that WA Cafe posts on their Instagram. They often post pictures of menu items with intricate designs, as well as photos of individual slices of cake.
What impressed us were the different arrangements in their cake images that make their Instagram fun to look through.
Each photo is different and unique, yet shows off their Japanese cake brand. WA cafe has definitely mastered their product photography for Instagram and can perhaps inspire you with your own product photography skills.
If you’re looking to up your food presentation and photography for your socials, consider collaborating or hiring food photographers for their help.
With 2.7K likes on Facebook, WA Cafe also features its menu items on their Facebook page, making it easily accessible to customers.
Here, they can view images of the types of buns WA Cafe offers and click to view the name and price of the item or get redirected to their website to purchase if they wish.
Their Facebook page is also where you can read reviews from other customers that have visited WA Cafe, making it their primary social media platform for informational and informative content.
Hawksmoor
Hawksmoor is a steakhouse in London, known for their high-quality steak and customer service.
They have nailed their social media marketing by creating beautiful images of their food and providing helpful information for their customers.
Let’s dive into the details.
On Instagram, Hawksmoor has over 108K followers and posts stunning photos of their food.
They often post photos of their steak dishes, as well as images of the beautiful interior of the restaurant. Their images are mouth-watering and high quality, making it all too enticing for prospecting customers who visit their page.
Identifying hungry customers and drawing them in with eye-catching content is a great way to boost your restaurant social media.
Hawksmoor generously features tips and advice as well as their recipes that customers can recreate at the comfort of their own homes.
Their Instagram is a mix of eye-catching food content as well as educational content – teaching culinary-related topics such as the different cuts of steak, or wines to pair up your steak with.
Their Instagram is definitely worth following for all steak enjoyers out there!
Hawksmoor has a great online presence on Facebook, having over 48K likes on thier Facebook page and 334 reviews.
Their content on Facebook is similar to their Instagram’s content featuring aesthetically pleasing food photography and informative & helpful content.
By asking questions at the end of their posts, they encourage customers to engage in their content, helping their reach expand further than their current audiences. A great way to create engaging content!
Hawksmoor’s Twitter uses all the previously discussed content i.e. informational and eye-catching, sharing the same scheduled posts here too.
However their Twitter takes a more personal approach to handling their restaurant, adding a more personal flair to the account.
Here, they frequently retweet (share) other customer’s experiences with Hawksmoor as well as interactions with their marketing campaigns such as their #HawksmoorAtHome campaign, created at the height of the pandemic to encourage customers to make their own Hawksmoor steaks at home when restaurants were facing difficulties staying open due to the Pandemic.
Taking on a singular voice, voicing their opinions and highlighting their business approach and ethos to sustainability and good management, their Twitter takes a more personal approach than all their other social media.
This can make your business sound less intimidating especially when you have a large following, posts can begin to sound disingenuine or too corporate.
Adding personality to your social media management can make your restaurant sound more approachable.
It’s time to UP your restaurant social media game!
Social media marketing is a great way to connect with customers and keep them updated on your restaurant.
These 4 restaurants in London have nailed their social media marketing thanks to their approach in promoting their restaurant through content creation.
Most established restaurants that have a high budget will be contracting digital marketing professionals to help with their social media marketing and some may even use restaurant marketing agencies.
If you are just starting out, you may have to do this yourself or employ full-service digital marketing agencies to help you with your social media marketing needs.
The hard part is always getting started but it’s okay to ask for a little help!
Once you’re off, you can always try out paid media posts on social media platforms or things like Google ads later if you wish to promote your restaurant further.
What strategies are you using for your social media marketing? Are they working well for your restaurant?
Let us know in the comments!
For more restaurant marketing help, check out our other blogs:
Restaurant PR Agencies: What They Do And Why London Businesses Should Use Them
Top tips from a restaurant marketing agency. – Gastronomic Agency
