Emphasizing visuals over text, Instagram is the social media platform of choice for users who want photos of cute puppies, sun-drenched vacation destinations—and of course, food porn.
So if you’re running a food business on Instagram, then congratulations. You’re already on a fantastic platform for promoting your business. However, it’s not just any random Instagram post that will go viral and get you the attention you seek. Similar to cooking and baking, special techniques are involved!
If you want in on the secret sauce, then keep reading as we share how you can promote your food business on Instagram:
1. Build a brand
When you sell food, you aren’t just building a business. You’re also building a brand. However, a rookie mistake for new entrepreneurs is to spend all their time perfecting their recipes, and none on formulating their brand.
As a result, the marketing collateral for their food business may appear haphazard and lack design consistency. This doesn’t help with brand recognition or differentiation at all.
For inspiration on building a solid brand, check out the Instagram page of brownie retailer Browniegod:
The business’ brand colors are clear: lots of pinks to appeal to its target demographic of women. The brownies featured in its Instagram posts also look so pretty, you almost can’t bear to eat them!
Browniegod started off as a home business, with the brownies being sold at a market stall. But demand went through the roof, and the business now serves thousands of customers across the United Kingdom! Now that’s the power of a good brand.
2. Create promotional posters
Creating posters that feature your dishes in a drool-worthy light, and publishing these posters on Instagram, can do wonders in getting the word out on your food.
But what if your ace cooking skills don’t translate to designing beautiful Instagram posts? Don’t fret! Grab an Instagram post template from our template library, then use our drag-and-drop design editor to customize your Instagram post template to your liking.
Don’t forget to incorporate your brand values and colors into your posters too. We especially like what Mahfaiz’s Cuisine has done here:
A quick glance of both the above post, and the business’ Instagram feed, suggests that Mahfaiz’s Cuisine is going for a lighthearted and humorous brand vibe. And if so, it’s clearly succeeding!
3. Design a food menu
If you were running a restaurant, you’d create a menu of your dishes for customers to browse and decide what to get. And an Instagram-based food business is no different: compile a convenient list of all your wares so that your customers know what’s available for ordering.
But don’t just slap plain black text on a white background and call that a menu. People eat with their eyes first. Your menu hence needs to contain gorgeous photos of your food to get customers’ mouths watering.
You should also include the prices of your dishes. This helps prevent sticker shock as customers will know upfront how much they can expect to pay when ordering from you.
Take a look at this special Ramadan set menu offered by Soup & Co.:
The menu checks off all the boxes we mentioned earlier. It’s got well-taken photos, details of the included dishes, as well as the price for the entire set menu. We also love how Soup & Co. tells customers how they can place their orders. Its menu gets a chef’s kiss from us!
Want to create your own menu? PosterMyWall has a buffet of menu templates you can use, so just pick your favorite to get started!
4. Interact with your followers
Communication on your Instagram page shouldn’t be a one-way street, where your Instagram activity solely consists of blasting out new posts to your followers. That’s not how a community works.
Instead, take the time to interact with your followers, such as by responding to their comments and post tags. You may just make their day and solidify their goodwill toward your business. After all, they probably never expected you to reply!
Here’s an example from sourdough specialist Wildbreads:
After one of its followers tagged it in an Instagram Story, the business shared the Story on its own Instagram page. It also added a quick message to thank that follower.
In fact, as you scroll through Wildbreads’ “Mentions” Instagram Story Highlight, you’ll find it chock-full of thank-you notes from the business to its happy customers. This is a fantastic way of displaying social proof, where others will go “Wow, this food business has so many good reviews! Surely it must be worth ordering from!”
Effective promotion = a sure-fire recipe for success
Just like how humans don’t survive very long without food, businesses don’t last very long if they don’t have customers. Fortunately, everyone needs to eat. So if you sell food, the demand for your offerings will be there. You just need to go out and get it by promoting your business.
And if you’re running your food business on Instagram, tap on the power of the social media platform to grow your customer base! Use the tactics we’ve shared in this guide to promote your dishes far and wide on Instagram, and turn hungry users into loyal customers. Don’t delay—we can hear people’s tummies rumbling already…!
Senior editor at PosterMyWall.
