5 free marketing resources for your restaurant

Ever wonder how some restaurants, bars or takeaways make their content look THAT good? Often, there’s no big secret or expensive team assembling this, but an owner, manager or member of staff who are utilising some of the many free marketing tools out there. The What The Fork team have put together 5 free marketing resources for your restaurant that will help take your content to the next level. After all, it is now normal practice to check out the instagram page of a restaurant, bar or take-away before visiting so it will only help to encourage potential customers. 

1. Canva

Canva is a lifesaver for the busy restaurant owner or manager. It is a graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content. The app includes templates for users to use. It is a free to use platform that offers further paid subscriptions like Canva Pro and Canva for Enterprise for additional functionality.

If you are looking for well put together, professional templates for your restaurant social media pages then Canva is an essential. Check out their website here.

2. Adobe spark 

Adobe Spark, similar to canva, is another hub for creating media for your restaurant. It is a great alternative to Adobe’s core offering that demands a relatively expensive monthly fee and offers different functionalities to the graphic-centric Canva. Adobe Spark allows you free access to 3 different services; Spark Page, Spark Post and Spark Video. These 3 functions will allow you to create a plethora of content to a high standard.

Spark Page offers free, impressive text oriented based stories. The easy way to think of it is the word processor you wish you had in high school! Spark Post is great for those compelling images and videos for your social media. It helps to make them attention grabbing for your customers. This will create a better customer experience and improve engagement  too. Finally, Spark Video is a storytelling tool that can create you a narrated movie. It sounds complex but we promise it is super simple. Click here for a detailed run through of Adobe Spark. 

3. Buffer

Buffer is a free scheduling tool that takes away the worry and panic of posting in a hurry. You can plan out anything that goes on your social media in advance. This is also a great way to improve the effectiveness of your restaurant social media as it helps to retain customer interest and improves the likelihood your content is seen by more people.

The great thing about Buffer is you can add two separate accounts for free! This means you can schedule your instagram and facebook content in one place. This will let you plan ahead and to make sure you don’t miss a posting opportunity. 

4. InStories

InStories is a clever app that helps you make animated stories for your social media. It provides a complete walk through of each step to make fun, engaging content and provides different value to the aforementioned Canva and Adobe Spark. 

If you’re still wondering what the app can do for you click here to see all of the different things it can offer.

5. Mailchimp

You may have heard of Mailchimp before as it’s a pretty big name. If you haven’t, Mailchimp is an email marketing automation platform that can be used for FREE. It also has other great functionalities like customer relationship management. 

It is the one stop shop for all things email marketing and we can’t recommend it enough. We suggest that you create an email listing and encourage your customers to sign up for news and offers. A great way to do this is by sending out an in app notification or requesting email permission when the customer is using table ordering.

Don’t have your own app?

If you don’t have your own app for table ordering, collection and delivery then be sure to check out What The Fork. We create your custom built app and offer a host of great benefits that allow you to take control of your online ordering. Find out more at What The Fork.

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