The Do’s and Don’ts of Influencer Marketing in Hospitality.
- Hello Duchess
- Jun 13
- 4 min read
Top tips for influencer marketing in hospitality, from an agency that's been doing it for 11 years.
I want to begin this blog post by saying I don’t consider myself a philosopher, to any standard. The other day I came across a TikTok video where a woman referred to a Diet Coke as a ‘refrigerated cigarette’ - that's philosophy.
I do, however, consider myself to be a ponderer, and today I’m pondering a topic so complex I feel I’m going to need a refrigerated cigarette to get through it; if a customer has a great experience at your venue, but no content is created, did it even happen?
For the modern restaurant, bar, and cafe owner or manager, the answer is a resounding (and perhaps unsettling), ‘no’. An experience that is not documented, shared, and amplified online holds just a fraction of its potential value. This is the reality of the creator landscape, a picturesque and somewhat confusing labyrinth where social influence has superseded traditional advertising - and where your next customer’s decision on where to eat or drink is being shaped. Not by a magazine review alone, but by a 15-second video they saw from a digital creator they trust.
Influencer marketing has come a long way on its journey, from a tiny, weird-looking caterpillar being rejected by corporate marketing departments and traditional press into a, well, still weird-looking yet more accepted butterfly that should be a central pillar of any serious marketing strategy. As the field has emerged from its cocoon, its complexities have deepened. Navigating it successfully requires more than a complimentary meal; it demands strategy, respect, and a nuanced understanding of a new set of rules. Here are some do’s and don’ts for hospitality influencer marketing in 2025.
The Do’s: Building strategic partnerships
Do: Prioritise long-term partnerships over one-off posts. The most impactful collaborations are born from genuine advocacy. A single, transactional post may generate a temporary spike in visibility, perhaps some new followers, but it does little to build enduring brand trust. In 2025, your focus must be on identifying creators who genuinely align with your brand’s ethos and cultivating relationships with them with the view of positioning them as long-term ambassadors. An ongoing partnership allows for a deeper, more authentic narrative to unfold, transforming a creator from a hired megaphone into a trusted voice for your brand.
Do: Champion creative freedom. You are not commissioning a food photographer, you are collaborating with a storyteller. The primary value of an influencer lies in the unique perspective and authentic connection they have with their audience. Handing over a rigid, overly prescriptive brief is the fastest way to strip the content of the authenticity that all invested parties want. Instead, provide a clear outline of the focal point, perhaps a new menu item or a weekend event, and arm them with all the knowledge they may need but trust the creator to translate them into their native language.
Do: Look beyond the follower count. Follower counts may just be the fool’s gold of influencer marketing. A seven-figure follower count means little if the audience is unengaged or entirely misaligned with your target demographic. Instead, look at the metrics that matter. Focus your magnifying glass on engagement rates, audience demographics and the quality of the conversation happening in the comments. A local micro-influencer with 5,000 highly-engaged foodies in Bristol is infinitely more valuable than a macro-influencer with a few hundred-thousand passive observers globally.
The Don’ts: Avoiding common pitfalls
Don’t: Mistake a creator for a production house. While many creators are multi-talented, their core skill is building and engaging a unique community, not necessarily producing campaign-level creative assets. If your goal is to acquire high-resolution images of your dishes for your own menu or website, I would suggest looking into food photographers.
Don’t: Offer ‘exposure’ as sole compensation. Would you allow a customer to pay for a meal with the promise of telling everyone in the office how good it was? No? So you agree exposure isn’t a viable form of payment. Content creation is a skilled labour that involves significant time, effort and investment in equipment and software. While a complimentary experience is a valuable part of the package, professional creators rightly expect to be compensated for their work. Offering fair payment shows respect for their craft and positions your brand as a serious, professional partner.
Don’t: Let the performance data disappear. A campaign does not end when the content goes live. To understand the true return on investment, you must track performance with rigour. Go beyond likes and comments. Use unique promotional codes for a discount, trackable links to your reservations platform and ask customers how they heard about you. Analyse the long-tail impact on brand awareness and footfall over the following weeks and months.
In 2025, influencer marketing is no longer a simple transaction; it is a collaboration between two storytellers. Success requires a strategic shift away from venues having complete creative control and towards partnership, transparency and mutual respect. Because in the end, content is not just the proof that an experience happened, it is an integral part of the experience itself, the digital memory that sparks desire and inspires the next customer to walk through your door.
Comments