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The brand-building beauty of QSR blogging

Does your QSR have a blog? If not, you're missing a great way to connect with customers and employees, not to mention the marketing value. Here are some thoughts on why and how.

August 20, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Blogging — at least blogging well and with a good heart that offers usable information — is one of the truly great things of our time, here in the so-called Information Age. Granted, there's a ton of cruddy blog content out there that's just trying to sell something or relay the obvious, but done right, blogging can be a great way for a QSR to really get its name and personality out in front of a lot of people and build solid connections with them.  

So then, why don't more restaurant brands do it? 

Granted, there is that matter of time and the complete lack of it that most restaurant leaders have. And blogging does require a brand website with a back end that allows content input like most already have for their press releases or other changing content. But, that might be over-complicating the actual task of blogging for many brands. 

After all, blogging at its best distills information or feelings down to small "bites" of everything from sage business leadership wisdom or culinary expertise, to commiseration or celebration about this thing we're all stuck in called life, along with the food QSRs serve to sustain it. We're not talking anything too lengthy, rather blogs in the area of 250 to 500 words (this blog, by the way, is about 660 words), or about a half or full page of writing. Intersperse that with great photos that really enhance the topic and put readers in the brand, and you get the idea. It's not "War and Peace." 

Instead, great blogs are brief info-, expertise- or even sentiment-packed pieces that will serve as high-powered magnets to literally pull customers into your restaurants. The idea is to offer the kind of content you'd want to read ... quickly ... in the time every harried individual today doesn't really have. 

Yes, but what can a QSR brand blog about?

Ahem, excuse me, but isn't food and beverage what a QSR is all about? Have you noticed lately how popular eating and drinking is to most carbon-based life forms?

People not only want to eat, drink cook, photograph, smell and — well, let's be honest — drool over your brand's menu offerings, but they are constantly looking for reasons to do that. And, this is just a guess, but as a restaurant brand, we suspect it's likely you or one of your QSR in-house experts (cooks, servers, marketers, etc.) know something about all of those aforementioned activities and might even be able to tell readers things they didn't know like: 

• Best ways to grill burger meat.
• Secrets to crispy fries. 
• Ways to maximize your eat-out dollar. 
• Best ways to get your pictures on a brand's Instagram page.

And, I could go on and on, but you get the picture. 

But, who has time ... or even wants to write? 

Then again, maybe you just simply cannot put two words together or don't even want to. Likely, there are some writers or even current bloggers on other subjects working somewhere in your stores or system who might feel otherwise or just be willing to contribute content, particularly related to their area of job specialty. In fact, in this arena, the more contributors you can muster up the better.

For instance, perhaps one of your best cooks can make a list of tips on cooking for crowds or your marketing staff could contribute Q-and-A blogs with the various pros you have on board. Don't limit yourself to so-called "how-to" or "news-you-can-use" blogs either, but maybe think of ways to do a blog almost entirely of photos of menu items or customers with captions. Talk about drawing people to your website — you know the one with your online ordering portal, right? 

The point is, every brand is made of people and people have stories to tell and valuable information to share. Long and complicated is not necessary, just an honest desire to help people out, brighten their days or just connect. The payoff in so-called brand intimacy — a key measure of overall customer experience — could translate into better business overall. 

Photo: iStock 

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.