How to Promote Restaurant Week with Influencers

Partnering with influencers is one of the most effective ways to fill your tables during Restaurant Week. Instead of just shouting about your deals from your own channels, you get trusted local voices showing their audience exactly why they should book a table with you. This guide walks you through every step of the process, from finding the right creators and crafting the perfect offer to managing the partnership for a truly successful campaign.

Laying the Groundwork: Before You Reach Out

A successful influencer campaign begins long before you slide into anyone's DMs. Setting a clear plan first is what separates a strategy that drives reservations from one that just results in a couple of nice photos.

Define Your Restaurant Week Goals

Sure, the main goal is always to get more people through the door, but getting more specific will help you choose the right influencers and measure if your campaign actually worked. Think about what a "win" looks like for your specific restaurant.

Is your primary goal to...?

• Drive Reservations on Slow Nights: Restaurant Week can be busy on weekends but quiet on a Tuesday. Your goal could be to specifically fill tables mid-week.
• Highlight a Specific Menu Item: Want to be known for that incredible short rib dish on your prix-fixe menu? Make that the star of the show.
• Attract a New Demographic: Are you a classic steakhouse looking to attract a younger crowd? Or a trendy vegan spot hoping to appeal to traditional diners? Your influencer choice will directly affect this.
• Collect High-Quality Content: Restaurant Week is a perfect time to build a library of user-generated content (UGC) that you can share for weeks to come.

Actionable Tip: Attach a number to your goal. For example, "Increase Tuesday reservations by 20% during Restaurant Week," or "Get 25 high-quality photos we can repost from creators and guests using our hashtag #RW[YourRestaurantName]."

Know Your Audience (and Their Influencers)

Who is your ideal Restaurant Week customer? Get a picture of them in your head. Are they college students looking for a deal, young professionals on a date night, or families taking advantage of a special offer?

Once you know who you’re trying to reach, you can figure out who they listen to. The perfect influencer is someone whose audience overlaps with your target customers. A creator who primarily posts about budget-friendly eats might be perfect for promoting your affordable lunch special but a poor fit for your high-end dinner menu. Don't just look at follower counts, look at the community an influencer has built and ask, "Are these my people?"

Structure Your Offer: What’s in it for Them?

Local food influencers get a ton of requests during Restaurant Week, so your offer needs to be clear, professional, and appealing. A simple "free meal for a post" might work for a new creator, but established influencers are running a business. Respect their work by putting together a thoughtful package.

Consider these options:

• Paid Partnership: This involves a flat fee for specific deliverables. This is the standard for macro-influencers and many established micro-influencers (10k-100k followers). It secures their time and guarantees a professional level of work.
• Gifted Experience (Contra Deal): This is a collaboration where you provide the full Restaurant Week experience for free (e.g., meal for two, drinks, tax, and tip covered) in exchange for an agreed-upon post. This works best for nano-influencers (1k-10k followers) or newer creators building their portfolio.
• Hybrid Model: A popular choice is offering a smaller fee plus the complimentary dining experience. It shows you value their work financially while also letting them authentically experience what you offer.

Whatever you offer, be specific. Does it cover two people? Are drinks included? Will you take care of the gratuity? Making the experience seamless and generous goes a long way in building a good relationship.

Finding and Vetting the Right Local Influencers

Finding creators is easier than ever, but finding the right ones takes a little detective work. Look for influencers who feel like a natural extension of your brand.

Where to Look for Local Foodies

• Hashtag Hunting: This is a great starting point. Search Instagram and TikTok for hyper-local hashtags like #[YourCity]Foodie, #[YourCity]Eats, #[YourNeighborhood]Restaurants, or more specific tags like #BostonFood or #ChicagoBlogger.
• Geotag Recon: Check the new "Location" tab on Instagram when you search for your own restaurant or for others in your area. Who is already posting great content from nearby spots? This tells you they’re actively dining out in your neighborhood.
• Audience Polls: Run a simple poll in your Instagram Stories asking, "Who are your favorite local food accounts to follow?" You'll get direct recommendations from the people you want to reach.
• “People Also Follow”: When you find one great local food influencer on Instagram, go to their profile and tap the small “person with a plus sign” icon next to the "Message" button. This will show you a list of similar accounts, often leading you to other great local creators.

Vetting 101: Beyond Follower Count

A big follower number can be impressive, but it's often a vanity metric. What really matters is whether their audience is real, engaged, and lines up with yours. Here's what to check:

• Engagement Rate: This is the most important metric. Look at the number of likes and especially comments on their posts relative to their followers. A micro-influencer with 5,000 followers and 400 likes per post is often far more valuable than one with 50,000 followers and 500 likes. A healthy engagement rate is typically between 2-5%.
• Audience Quality: Read the comments on their posts. Are people having actual conversations? Asking questions about the food? Or are the comments just generic emojis and one-word replies from other influencers? Genuine conversation is a sign of a strong community.
• Content Quality and Vibe: Does their aesthetic match your restaurant's? If you're a bright, airy cafe, a creator with a dark, moody style might not be the best fit. Look for high-quality photos and videos, engaging captions, and an authentic voice.
• Past Partnerships: Scroll through their feed. How have they covered other restaurants? Did they just post a single picture, or did they create a helpful Reel with tips? Pay attention to how they disclosed the partnership. Professional influencers are always transparent.

Crafting the Perfect Pitch and Partnership Agreement

Once you’ve built your shortlist of ideal influencers, it's time to reach out. Your approach should be personal, professional, and clear.

How to Craft Your Initial Outreach

The best place to start is often a direct message (DM) on social media. After that, you'll want to move the conversation to email.

Your initial DM should be:

• Personalized: Start by saying what you like about their work. Mention a specific post or review of theirs. ("Hi [Name], loved your recent Reel about the best pasta spots in town! We were really impressed with your video style.")
• Clear and Direct: Get straight to the point. ("My name is [Your Name] and I'm the [Your Title] at [Your Restaurant]. We’re preparing for Restaurant Week and would love to collaborate with you to help spread the word.")
• Enticing: Briefly mention your offer. ("We'd like to invite you and a guest in to experience our full three-course menu on us.")
• Low-Pressure: End with a simple next step. ("If you’re interested, please let me know or send me your email, and I can send over the full details. Thanks!")

This approach respects their time and makes it very easy for them to respond.

The Influencer Agreement: Put It in Writing

Never rely on a verbal agreement, not even for a gifted collaboration. A simple, one-page document protects both you and the influencer by setting clear expectations. It doesn't need to be overly formal, but it should include:

• The Offer: What exactly you are providing (e.g., "Full prix-fixe dinner for two, including two cocktails per person, tax, and 20% gratuity").
• The Deliverables: The bare minimum content they need to produce. Be specific. E.g., "1 Instagram Reel (minimum 30 seconds), 3 frames in an Instagram Story, and 1 static feed post."
• Key Messaging & Tags: Specify your social media handle and any hashtags you want them to use (e.g., @[YourRestaurantHandle], #[City]RestaurantWeek, #YourCustomHashtag).
• Posting Dates: Provide a window for when the content should go live (e.g., "All content live between [Date] and [Date] to promote bookings for Restaurant Week").
• Disclosure: State that all posts must comply with FTC guidelines by clearly disclosing the partnership (e.g., using #ad, #sponsored, or Instagram's "Paid Partnership" label).
• Content Usage Rights: This is a big one. Define how you can use their content. For example, "Restaurant agrees it can reshare influencers' content to its own organic social media channels (feed and Stories) with creator credit for up to 6 months following the post date." If you want to use it for ads, that typically requires an additional fee.

Managing the Campaign for Maximum Impact

Your job isn't done after the agreement is signed. How you manage the collaboration will determine its success.

Setting Your Influencers Up for Success

Give your influencers the tools they need to create amazing content. Send a simple 'Creator Brief' a day or two before their visit. This one-page doc can include:

• The full Restaurant Week menu.
• A few interesting facts about the dishes or the restaurant's history.
• A reminder of the handles and hashtags to use.
• Contact info for the manager on duty.

When they arrive, treat them like a VIP. The host should know they're coming and the manager should stop by to say hello. A fantastic experience translates into fantastic, authentic content. Resist the urge to micromanage their creative process - you chose them for their voice, so trust them to use it.

Amplify, Engage, and Repurpose

The moment their content goes live, your work begins again. Maximize its reach with these three steps:

1. Amplify: As soon as they post, share their feed post or Reel to your Instagram Stories. This gets it in front of your audience and shows the influencer you're an active and appreciative partner.
2. Engage: Go to their post and be the first to leave a thoughtful comment. Thank them for coming in and then stick around to answer questions other followers have in the comments. If someone says, "Wow, that looks amazing," reply with, "It's our braised short rib! You can try it on our Restaurant Week menu - link in our bio to book a table."
3. Repurpose: You now have a folder of amazing, authentic content! As outlined in your usage rights, start reposting the best photos to your own feed throughout Restaurant Week. High-quality UGC is one of the most valuable assets from any influencer partnership.

Final Thoughts

Running a strategic influencer campaign for Restaurant Week is about building genuine partnerships, not just exchanging a meal for exposure. By setting clear goals, finding creators who truly resonate with your brand, and managing the collaboration professionally, you'll generate authentic buzz that drives real reservations and builds relationships that benefit your restaurant long after the week is over.

Keeping all of your content organized during a busy campaign - from scheduling posts to tracking influencer content and engaging with all the new comments - is exactly what can get overwhelming. We built Postbase to simplify that. We designed the visual calendar so you can map out and approve all your posts at a glance, while the unified inbox brings all of your DMs and comments from every platform into one clean place, allowing you to connect with every potential customer without feeling overloaded.