Article

How Instagram helped family-owned fast casual build customer loyalty

The small restaurant brand now has 1,000 followers.

August 15, 2013

Editor's note: This story was updated to included the infographic on March 22, 2016.

Instagram has helped one family-owned restaurant with three locations in Orange County, Calif., reach 1,000 followers. The photo site, along with its mobile app, inspired more customers than ever to digitally engage with Bagles & Brew, said Edmond Cartojano of Taste Marketing Strategies, the company behind the restaurant's Instagram launch.

"We knew Instagram was going to be a good marketing opportunity for Bagels & Brew to jump on," he said. "Instagram users were already engaging with the restaurant without being asked. Customers were sharing photos of their food, [the] interior and other fun moments with their followers. This is one of the best forms of digital word-of-mouth advertising because it gives users a visual recommendation of the restaurant directly from their friends."

Taste Marketing Strategies launched Bagels & Brew's first Instagram promotion in May, creating an ongoing weekly contest. Customers are asked to share photos of their experiences with the café on Instagram, tag the photos using #bagelsandbrew and follow the bagelsandbrew account. The promotion was communicated via marketing displayed on each table in the restaurants. Every Friday, the restaurant shares winning photos on Instagram, awarding a $25 gift card prize for most likes of the week and a $15 gift card for best photo of the week.

"We strategically coordinated the promotion to have two different winners each week, Cartojano said. "Having a winner for most likes encourages active power users with a lot of followers to enter the contest and, consequently, advertise Bagels & Brew to these followers. Having a best photo winner encourages Instagram users to share great photos and gives all participants an opportunity to win despite the number of followers they have, while also giving Bagels & Brew the opportunity to share great marketing images as well."

As a result, 277 Instagram photos have been submitted to the contest with the number of followers increasing by 464 percent, gaining 800 followers since the launch of the promotion to date. Collectively, the submitted photos have received more than 11,500 likes.

"We're seeing alot of great photos being submitted to the contest, and it's surprising how many likes some customers get and how much work is put into some of them," said Michelle McKay, co-proprietor of Bagels & Brew. "It's been 19 years since we opened our first Bagels & Brew, and our original loyal customers are growing up. We're seeing a new generation of customers come in, and it's been great turning them into our new loyal customers using social media like Instagram."

Bagels & Brew's Instagram account last week surpassed 1,000 followers. To celebrate the milestone, Bagels & Brew is offering each follower a free bagel with cream cheese announced on their Instagram account today.

Below is an infograhpic showing how Instagram can help build businesses. 

Photo courtesy of Namethatfont.net.