I’m passionate about connecting with the right people, and that’s exactly why I want to invite you to host a “takeover”, a marketing strategy in which you trust an outside food expert with your Instagram to interact with your community through stories and live broadcasts while you do the same in their account.
Here are five ways to achieve a great result by just making alliances and exchanging accounts.
1.- Takeover
If you are looking for a positive result, on a slow day invite a chef owner from another restaurant in your city to collaborate with you. Ask them to use all of their creativity to create a dish, an original recipe that they have not presented anywhere else. Let people on your social media know about this alliance and set a date to present it to the customers.
In the morning of the event day, tell the guest chef to take over your restaurant’s Instagram for a live broadcast. Let them talk to your community about the original recipe and the collaboration with your business. Then ask the chef to share stories in which they invite people to live the incredible experience they prepared for that day.
You should do the same (do live broadcasts and share stories), but from the guest chef’s Instagram. Say hello to their community and invite them to the event.
By exchanging your accounts, you are offering a different experience to the community of both users, which is very appealing and, in the end, this strategy helps you to obtain great and very positive results.
2.- Create a special dish with a guest chef
For this strategy you should invite a chef to create a very special dish with you. The recipe should combine their style and culinary knowledge with the essence of your restaurant, or combine the richness of each of your cultures. Here’s an example: one of my clients prepared Venezuelan arepas, a typical dish from my native country, but they filled it with a typical stew from the city of Monterrey, Mexico, where I am currently located. The result was great because they managed to adapt a Venezuelan food with the flavor of Mexican gastronomy.
3.- Create a special product in collaboration with a local business
Making alliances with local businesses and developing a special product for and between the two of you is a strategy that will help you have greater exposure. That is, if your business specializes in desserts, then collaborate with a colleague and create a cake with the special touch of both cake shops. It is very important that the product is available for a limited time.
4.- Promote a dish on your menu to highlight a key ingredient and its brand
I am 100 percent committed to supporting local products, and this alliance strategy is focused on promoting a dish on your menu and highlighting a key ingredient that you buy from a supplier who, just like you, works with passion and energy using their social networks. For example, if I had an arepas restaurant, then I would focus on highlighting the artisanal cheese from our supplier.
5.- Create an event where your chef and the guest chef each prepare a special dish that will only be sold on that day
You are going to hold an event on the slowest day of the week and invite a chef. The guest and your in-house chef will each prepare a delicious dish that your customers will have the opportunity to try that day only, and then vote for their favorite.
I recommend doing it once every two months, so you build up expectation of who will be the next guest chef.
In the end, each of these alliances leads me to conclude that strength lies in unity. Rather than perceiving others as competition, it is seeing the opportunities that can be created together.
By: Valentina Salazar, food marketing consultant.