SevenRooms Blog

One of the hardest things about any task is having to start from scratch.

Which is why we made you an Instagram template to jumpstart your restaurant marketing.

You have enough going on with your daily operations. Leverage our guide to see (and copy) what leaders in the hospitality space are doing to succeed on instagram.

The end result: You save time — every time.

The Background: Why This Guide Exists And How It Will Help You

When we dug into restaurant marketing in 2018, we learned that 92% of restaurants have an Instagram profile for their business.

Here’s the full breakdown of marketing channels and what % of our customers use each:

We also discovered that restaurants wonder these things about how to use Instagram For Business:

When should we post on Instagram?

What should we post about?

What should our caption say, exactly?

And restaurant marketers want an easy way to plan out posts in advance and organize everything in one place.

Solution: Easy Instagram Template + A Complete Guide With Examples

To get you what you need, we made two things:

1. A Google Sheets template (that you can download to Excel) where you can plan out each post and the date.
2. A PDF guide that shows you what other restaurants are doing, complete with text captions to copy and use on your own.

Resource #1: An Easy Instagram Scheduling Template

Here’s a sneak peek of what it looks like and what’s inside:

Tab 1: Planning Out Your Posts

• Upcoming holiday dates
• Automatic character length calculator
• Pixel dimensions for photo

Tab 2: Hashtags To Include

• Hashtags with traffic numbers for each

Tab 3: Accounts To Tag

• Accounts to tag in your post (includes tourism boards and food publications by city)

Tab 4: How To Enable Reservation-Booking Right On Your Instagram Profile

• 100% free way for SevenRooms users to set up a “Reserve Now” button

Pro Tip: To add new months, just “Command/Ctrl + A” in tab 1 to select everything, then “Command/Ctrl + C” to copy and then go to a new tab and “Command/Ctrl + V” to paste. Label this new tab for the following two months (i.e. “Nov/Dec 2018”).

Resource #2: A Complete Instagram Guide With Examples

Section 1: The Essentials: Everything You Need to Know About Instagram For Restaurants

This includes image size, ideas for captions, and tips that tell you what not to forget.

Section 2: The Best Instagram Examples for Different Situations

Here, we include 9 examples of instagram posts for various occasions.

1. You need a filler post for a slow day.
2. The weather today is absolutely crazy.
3. When guests tag you in their photos.
4. To get the word out about a new dish.
5. To drive FOMO with a special item that’s especially Instagrammable.
6. You have a new wine or are over-inventoried on an old one.
7. It’s a national holiday for an item you cook.
8. You want to fill seats for an event.
9. You just redid your menu.

Section 3: 10 Ways to Keep Followers Watching Your Stories

Because posts are just a part of what you’re doing to represent your brand and drive reservations on your Instagram business profile.

Ready to get started?

About the Author

Elise is the Senior Manager, Product Marketing at SevenRooms. In this role, she works closely with internal teams to communicate with customers about new features and to share their stories with the world. Elise is an ardent advocate of the SevenRooms product and the way it's transforming hospitality.