How Quick-Service-Restaurant (QSR) Industry Is Benefiting From Social Media Marketing?

Recently we have added one more feather to our crown with Tea Junction’s social mandate. Tea Junction, from the house of Ambuja Neotia, is one of the most popular destinations for chai and snacks in East India. While our collaboration aims to simplify their social outreach, it is important to consider how social media is a game-changer in the QSR industry. In this blog, we will understand the transition of QSR from traditional to digital marketing, and how social media is benefiting the QSR industry.

For as long as we remember, QSR brands have always been the mainstays of traditional advertising. Although traditional advertisement has not been replaced digital strategies that are consumer-centric are grabbing more and more attention.

It’s not just digital- It’s digital first!

One might have not thought of QSR brands as a likely candidate for digital transformation a couple of years ago, but it has really gone digital in the last couple of years. Why? Because your consumer expects!

With a target audience made of millennials and GenZ, who tend to use social media more frequently. The audience looks for information they can relate to and emotionally connect. In this space how a brand communicates with its audience is important. They are using food delivery apps, and continuously looking for new places to eat on Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat and they want to interact digitally (often with zero human interaction).

This presents marketers with significant opportunities; in terms of— engagement, data, and customer experience. This data and customer experience help social media managers to do hyperlocal marketing, contextual, and push-marketing through offers and discounts disclosed on social platforms.

Benefit Of Social Media Marketing For the QSR Industry

There are approximately 371 million post-tagged #food and more than 1 million with #drinks, and #beverages on Instagram. In this, social plays a crucial role in reaching out to the target consumer, and showcasing what’s best the QSR has to offer. This gives the brand a space to create its own brand identity and make a popular name among food lovers.

If your business doesn’t have a social media account, or worse an updated account you are missing a huge revenue. If you are on the fence about committing to social media marketing, we have put together a list of a few ways it will benefit you.

Visual Marketing

We eat with our eyes, even before we taste it! From food bloggers to customers visiting the restaurant, everyone wants to show what they are having today. Instagram is particularly ideal for visual advertising and “foodstagramming” is not waning away in popularity.

To market the QSR industry it is important to populate your social media account with mouthwatering food. Make it irresistible: let your food talk to consumers, let that cheese dip on your fingers #foodgasm has 67.7M posts for a reason.

Increases Brand Visibility

As mentioned above social media is the place where GenZ to millennials go to find new places to eat. The platforms have billions of active users worldwide, providing QSRs with an unparalleled opportunity to increase their brand visibility and reach.

By establishing a strong presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Moj, QSRs can engage with a vast and diverse audience. Through strategic content creation and targeted advertising, quick-serving restaurants can create storytelling that creates their brand personality. To add value they can provide menu offerings, promotions, and unique value propositions to potential customers. As a result, social media enables QSRs to reach a wider audience and create brand awareness that extends beyond their physical locations.

Targeted Advertising

Social media platforms offer sophisticated targeting options, allowing QSRs to deliver their messages to highly specific and relevant audiences. The utilisation of demographic data, interests, behaviours, and location-based targeting ensures that their advertisements and promotions are shown to the right people at the right time.

After setting up a business profile on Facebook and Instagram, you get access to a series of metrics that enable you to understand the age, gender, location, and user behaviour of your audience. We gather the data and work on client briefs to create tailored messaging for different segments of the audience. This helps in achieving higher engagement rates, conversion rates, return on investment(ROI) and return on ad investment (ROAS) for their marketing campaigns.

Community Building

Social media provides QSRs with a direct and interactive channel to engage with customers. Social media managers for QSR brands help to respond to customer inquiries, address concerns, and provide real-time updates about new menu items, promotions, or events.

By actively engaging with the audience, QSRs can build a sense of community and foster loyalty among their customers. Social media platforms also allow QSRs to run contests, polls, and surveys, encouraging customer participation and involvement. Such engagement initiatives help QSRs gather valuable feedback, gain insights into customer preferences, and adapt their offerings accordingly, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

User-Generated Content And Social Proof

Social media platforms facilitate the creation and sharing of user-generated content (UGC), which is an effective form of social proof for QSRs. Customers often share their experiences, reviews, and photos of their meals on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

QSRs can encourage customers to create and share UGC by running hashtag campaigns, hosting photo contests, or offering incentives. UGC serves as authentic and influential content that showcases positive experiences and encourages others to try QSR’s offerings. By leveraging UGC, QSRs can amplify their brand message, build trust, and attract new customers.

Easy Way To Promote Features

With the growing popularity of online ordering and food delivery services, social media plays a crucial role in promoting QSRs’ digital platforms. QSRs can utilize social media to promote their online ordering systems, mobile apps, or partnerships with food delivery aggregators.

By showcasing the convenience, speed, and variety of their online ordering and delivery options, QSRs can capture a larger share of the growing market for food delivery. Social media platforms also provide opportunities for QSRs to highlight promotions, discounts, and exclusive deals for online orders, further incentivizing customers to engage with their digital platforms.

Conclusion

Social media has become an indispensable tool for QSR marketing by offering a range of benefits. With PromotEdge’s experience and expertise, it becomes easier to market your brand in this highly competitive market. It is an entirely integrated digital marketing agency that offers a range of services. These services include social media marketing, search engine optimisation, and performance marketing to audio-visual production. Do you want to scale up your restaurant? Then get on a quick consultation call with PromotEdge today.