8 Restaurant Brand Storytelling Tips to Drive Customer Engagement
If you’re looking for a way to ditch ineffective marketing efforts and refresh your restaurant through some fresh, engaging content, there is a solution. That solution consists of two words – brand storytelling. Brand storytelling has proven to be a success across all industries. Its power to draw the reader in and boost engagement makes it one of the most popular marketing techniques. So, do you want to increase customer engagement and grow your restaurant business? If the answer is yes, brand storytelling is what you need. On that note, we present to you some tips that can help you out with that mission.What is Restaurant Brand Storytelling?
Before we get started, let’s identify our core element. In its essence, brand storytelling means using a narrative, rather than a list of selling points, to connect with your customers. Another way to consider brand storytelling is to create a story and cast your customers as the lead characters. The stories usually outline your values for customers to identify and find the ones to which they relate. Though the end goal of brand storytelling is always the same, the execution can take various forms. Through videos, visuals, and writing (we’ll get to that), companies hope to craft a story about themselves, where they came from, and why they’re here. When customers identify that story, they see themselves in the story, and they patronize your business. It’s all about knowing your audience, knowing what they value, and how you can present those values in a compelling way for restaurants.1. Find Your Authentic Voice
The purpose of brand storytelling is to bring your restaurant business to life and present it as a unique brand. Even if you have dozens of competitors, there’s something different about you. That’s the ace in your sleeve. That’s what will ensure that you write compelling brand stories. To find your voice, you have to intertwine your restaurant’s brand identity and target audience identity. For example, if you’re a family-oriented restaurant, you want your writing to be family-friendly and emphasize the atmosphere they’d experience eating there. However, if your restaurant has a quirky personality or is aimed at a more adult crowd, you can mix the family-oriented writing style with more humor or stylized messaging. Take your time to figure out what kind of voice will genuinely represent your restaurant. At the same time, keep in mind that you’re not writing for yourself but for your customers.2. Write in Simple Everyday Language
You won’t drive engagement if the readers can’t understand your stories. People don’t want technical terms and complicated wording in storytelling. The restaurant industry is full of jargon and slang! What they do expect from storytelling is a smooth flow of comprehensible words and well-written sentences. The foundation of a good story is for a wide audience to understand it. Using complicated words or bloated sentences might satisfy a wordcount (or an ego!), but they’re never fun to read. Opt for a conversational tone or one that reflects the words you’d use in conversation. A good way to check your tone is to read your writing aloud. Often, we can identify clumsy or redundant areas that we didn’t notice on the page by giving voice to our words.3. Rely on Editing
“Writing is Re-writing” goes that old saying. For stories to be useful, they demand effort and work. You can’t write a few sentences in minutes, call it a story, and publish it. (Well — you could, but it probably won’t drive engagement.) Your restaurant isn’t the only one trying to drive engagement with brand storytelling. To stand above the crowd, ensure your stories are well-written. So, writing is the first step; the next is editing. Even if you’re a talented writer or have an incredible writer on your team, you can always tweak the content with online editing tools (e.g., Grammarly). Even the best writers can improve! Additionally, if you’re unsure about your storytelling content, reach out to professional editing help. You can collaborate with an editor from a writing service. Writing services provide an expert editor to help you make good writing better. Even if you’re not a professional writer, you likely write things every day, from text messages and emails to student papers and work reports. Writing is not a small task. There’s no room for mistakes or incomprehensible sentences when you want to stand out and win over new customers.4. Evoke Strong Emotions
Good stories evoke emotions. It would be best if you used language that evokes heartfelt emotion in your customers’ hearts. There are several different methods you can apply to brand storytelling that increase emotional engagement. Here are a few recommendations:- Use humor to make customers laugh and boost their endorphins.
- Use sensory adjectives to make your story more alive and vivid.
- Share some interesting facts that will leave the customers’ surprised and intrigued.
Very well put! People love an authentic brand. By nature, it is human and very comforting to learn that others share similar experiences. When brands make a conscious effort to reach their community through emotional connection, they break the ice and cultivate a very connected audience with a strong sense of brand affinity. Also, how disconnected do we feel when we engage with brands that hide behind automated communication?!
At Food Story Media, we tell the unique and honest stories of extraordinary chefs and their individual journeys to culinary excellence, and we’ve found that this continuously rewards them with a very engaged and loyal audience.