• YouTube offers a tremendous opportunity to raise your restaurant’s visibility among and market products to current and prospective customers of all ages—all for zero dollars!
• Spotlighting your staff is a surefire way to introduce your pizzeria to a larger audience and form a more personal relationship with customers.

Related: How to advertise your pizzeria affordably on YouTube

By Kristin Dyak

Since its founding in February 2005, YouTube has grown from a fledgling video sharing platform for web-savvy individuals to the second highest-trafficked website in the world—one that nearly everyone has heard of and billions of pizza lovers visit each month.

In fact, YouTube is now the most popular online platform in America, attracting more than two billion logged-in monthly users, according to the Pew Research Center. And its growth shows no signs of stopping, given its incredible popularity with users of all ages. The platform is popular with tweens and teens, and a whopping 90% of 18- to 24-year-olds say they use it. But, unlike many social platforms, it is highly trafficked by older age groups as well, including 73% of Americans aged 36 to 45, 70% of those aged 46 to 55, and 67% of those aged 56 and older.

These are definitely what you’d call “heavy users.” Hootsuite data reports that people watch more than a billion total hours of the platform’s content each day, and it’s no secret that many Generation Z members and millennials view YouTube as an essential streaming option—something that plays the role of TV in their daily lives and has helped make “cutting the cord” (abandoning traditional TV) possible.

With all of this in mind, it’s clear that YouTube offers owners and operators of pizza restaurants, both big and small, a tremendous opportunity to raise their restaurant’s visibility among and market their products to current and prospective customers of all ages—all for the very affordable price of zero dollars!

Here are seven ideas for easy-to-create, engaging content that will resonate with your pizzeria’s audience:

1) Restaurant Origin Story

What better way to promote your pizza restaurant than by telling your audience the story of how your business came to be? Whether this consists of a slideshow of photos from building the restaurant, a sit-down story of the owner talking about their experience, or both, this content allows you to connect with your community and foster a friendly, personal feel. Plus, it will help your restaurant meet one of the primary goals of all businesses: building brand affinity and creating lasting relationships with your customers.

2) Menu Walk-Through

Highlighting the delicious items on your menu is an ideal way to show both current and new customers what they will experience if they choose your restaurant, whether for dine-in, takeout or delivery. A picture really is worth a thousand words when it comes to food, and there’s no end to how many visuals you can offer—images and videos of not only the final product but also the fresh ingredients that go into them. You can even make the content more personal by having your chef describe his or her favorite items, and, as an added business bonus, this can enhance your efficiency.

3) Meet the Team

Spotlighting your staff is a surefire way to introduce your pizza restaurant to a larger audience and form a more personal relationship with customers. People want to feel connected to the places that they support with their dollars, and seeing and learning about who works there helps do just that. An upscale, artisan pizza restaurant, for example, might create a sit-down segment introducing the chefs and waitstaff in a formal setting, whereas a fast-casual restaurant might reflect its overall vibe through a video featuring employees accompanied by upbeat music and fun transitions. No matter how you choose to style it, giving your workers a voice not only elevates the rapport between your staff members, but also gives your target audience a window into the world of your restaurant.

4) “Welcome to Our Pizzeria” Tour

Because your surrounding neighborhood is an essential part of your restaurant’s target audience, creating a video tour of your pizzeria can be a great way to connect with it. Audiences may recognize certain features and become instantly familiar with your location, which can elevate traffic to your business. Also, because ambience is a major factor in restaurant choice, it’s important to highlight enticing components, such as lighting, seating and comfort. Remember, every neighborhood needs a go-to pizza place, and this YouTube content can help convince your community that it should be yours!

5) Holiday/Special Event Campaign Videos

Holidays and special events—such as Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, National Pizza Day, National Cheese Day and others—open the door for producing engaging, creative content. Whether your restaurant offers a heart-shaped pizza, a two-for-one deal or a gift card campaign, there’s no limit to how many seasonal specials you can promote via video. As we all know, there’s nothing better than a video of mouthwatering pizza set to the sound of “Jingle Bells”!

6) Cooking Demonstrations

Making pizza is often a fun, interactive way to bring family and friends together. With this in mind, rounding up your chefs and creating a cooking demonstration that shows your audience how to make the perfect pizza from home—ideally with your ingredients or make-at-home kit—can make great content.

7) Farmer’s Market Shopping

More and more customers care about and prioritize where their food comes from when making purchasing decisions, so showing that you not only use great ingredients but also support your local community is a powerful thing. You can easily take your YouTube audience on a vlog-style shopping trip to a local farmer’s market, showing them all the good stuff that goes into—and on top of—their pizza.

This list could go on and on, but with content creation at your (or your marketing firm’s) fingertips, there’s no doubt that you’ll soon be coming up with more ideas than you know what to do with and posting like a pro, especially after you start seeing your video views—and your pizza sales—go up!  

Kristin Dyak is digital marketing director at The Cyphers Agency, an independent, full-service creative agency offering advertising, public relations and digital services to diverse regional and national clients. To learn more, visit thecyphersagency.com.