When it comes to promoting your restaurant, video marketing is where it’s at. After all, research tells us that around 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching a relative video about your business. A growing strategy in the marketing world, video is available through multiple platforms, from Facebook live videos, to Instagram and YouTube – and consumers are tuning in and paying attention. Video grabs the senses and can be appealing to consumers both with visuals and with the audio combined.

Is video marketing expensive?

With the development of video technology, it’s become a much more cost-effective way to reach a wider range of your target customers who may well be stuck at home. There are apps you can get to make very simple videos that don’t take much time and there are a growing number of freelancers available to help create some video-worthy content for your business – at affordable rates.

The facts are here to show that video viewers are more likely to buy after watching video about a service or product, or at least find out more about it.

So, what benefits will video marketing bring to your business? Here, we’ll break down exactly why it’s becoming an essential part of your overall marketing strategy and how you can go about implementing it:

It raises brand awareness

Creative and promotional 20-second or 1-minute videos help generate awareness to your restaurant and encourage viewers to follow up by visiting your restaurant's website or clicking a link to benefit from a first-time purchase discount.

It boosts active engagement

Video gets three to four times more clicks than text-based posts on average. It also gets people talking about the content and - yor business, of course. Creating ads with a personalised video of your restaurant can help boost the engagement from your target audience.

Video is the most engaging content for users

With major platforms like YouTube, video now consumes around 80% of all internet traffic. Video marketing remains an important advertisement strategy, engaging the senses and can be creative in its output without being salesy. With the millennial population, video has proven to be particularly captivating, especially if funny, entertaining or information-sharing.

Video allows you to maximise appeal and engagement

Selecting two to three social media platforms and publishing your restaurant video on them consistently can help you build up a reputation.

Update your search engine optimisation game The better your ranking is on search engines, the more likely you'll come up on the first page of search results on organic search queries. Adding videos can help boost the ranking of your restaurant and earn more shares on social media.

So, to make highly-engaging and captivating videos, how do you go about it in an effective and affordable way?

Here are some tips on how to do this:

Quality over quantity You want to produce top quality videos that best represent your restaurant and post them strategically. For Facebook, 1 to 2 videos a week would suffice; for twitter, 2 to 4 videos a week; for Instagram, 1 video a week; for YouTube, 1 to 2 videos a week.

Short and sweet 30% of viewers stop watching video marketing materials after about 30 seconds, so keeping it short and sweet is important. The ideal length for Instagram is 30 seconds, 45 seconds for Twitter, 60 seconds for Facebook, and 2 minutes for YouTube.

Use Free Video Tools or Work with A Freelancer For the best video and sound quality, you’ll need to use more than a smartphone. Hire a freelancer who has specialised in your sector and can offer an affordable package. Professional filing equipment can be expensive, so for one or two videos, consider using one of any number of free video editing tools or an app that can be downloaded to put videos together.

Make it relatable Know your audience, and create videos that reflect the personality and tone of your restaurant that will appeal to them.

Leave a link 45% claimed that they clicked on the direct links in the video. So don't forget to redirect the viewers to your restaurant website by leaving a link in your video.