"Social media marketing." You've heard the phrase, but do you really know what it means? In recent years, sites like Instagram have become a valuable advertising platform for brands – and especially nightlife venues – to promote their business. With the right tools, your nightclub, bar, lounge, or event space can build awareness, increase sales, and reach new customers better than ever before. Let TablelistPro tell you how!
1. Optimize your profile to Instagram Business.
It all starts with the basics. If you haven't already, quickly and easily convert your Instagram page into a Business Profile. With over 25 million of them existing worldwide, companies are relying on this platform as more than just a social networking site. It's time your venue does, too!
By doing so, you'll be able to list important information pertaining to your venue like its hours, address, and phone number, while gaining access to all of the business features: real-time metrics on how your posts and stories perform throughout the day, and insights into your followers and how they interact with your content.
2. Utilize Instagram Ads.
Not only does Instagram give you the ability to boost a post from your actual feed, but you can also create an entirely separate advertisement. With four types of custom ads to pick from, the choice is yours!
From here, you can use Instagram's precise targeting options to reach the people who matter to your venue most, narrowing your audience based on location, interests, demographics, and/or behaviors. Further, Custom Audiences will run ads to customers you already know based on their email address or website, Lookalike Audiences will target new people who are similar to your existing customers, and Automated Targeting creates an audience that might be interested in your venue based on their location, demographics, and interests.
As an example, here's what one of TablelistPro's own ads looks like:
3. Use an Instagram automation software.
For a small monthly fee, web services like Instazood and Boostgram are designed to automate your likes, comments, follows, and direct messages based on your chosen hashtags or geolocation targets. The results are undeniable, proven to expand follower counts with authentic accounts and bump post engagement. Keep in mind, though, that because these are often the only two targets used as the basis for engaging, you may find your account following or liking completely unrelated people. That's why we don't suggest relying solely on automation to build your social accounts.
When it comes to sending an automated DM, make it personal, not spammy! The message should be short, to-the-point, and friendly. Use this opportunity to start building a relationship with your potential customer and show that you're interested in engaging with them specifically. Unlike in your Instagram bio or caption, you can include a link within your message that shows a preview, taking your customer to your desired page.
Here's a sample DM we've sent out in the past on TablelistPro, driving potential clients to our Typeform page:
4. Include links in your Instagram Story.
Once your account is verified or you builds up your number of followers to 10,000, Instagram lets you add a URL to your stories, prompting users to swipe up to be directed there. Incorporate this whenever applicable, as it will help drive traffic to your website and ultimately boost sales.
Want to maximize bookings at your venue? By partnering up with TablelistPro, you can monetize your website with an embeddable widget to sell tickets, tables, or packages directly on there. By doing this – and adding that exact link to your Instagram Story – it will drive customers to the event page, avoiding potential customers getting lost from Point A to Point B.
5. Add relevant hashtags.
It may sound like a basic rule of thumb, but many businesses end up neglecting this marketing tactic. Unlike Twitter, which sees a 17% drop in engagement for posts with two or more hashtags, Instagram actually increases engagement with the use of them.
Be sure to do your research! To spark your imagination, try using ones that are related to the nightlife industry itself, your venue's location, or the type of music typically played at your venue. Up to 30 of them are allowed, so make them count.
We suggest burying these in the first comment of your post so it doesn't take away from the caption itself, as shown below, and constantly switching up the hashtags depending on the content of your posts.
6. Use Insights to your advantage.
Instagram Insights gives you essential data you need to learn more about the people interacting with your business, as well as the successes (and failures) of your posts and ads. You'll be able to track your venue's performance on Instagram over a designated period of time including change in followers, impressions, reach, profile views, website clicks, and email clicks. You may also see the demographics of your followers like gender, age, location by city or country, and when they are most active.
Once you're given this information, consider modifying and improving your marketing strategies on Instagram.
Now that you have the Instagram marketing tools to take your venue to new heights, why not do the same using TablelistPro? Click the image below or email us at hello@tablelist.com to get things started.