Produce It Yourself:
Before You Begin

Small Business Marketing Video Production for:

What equipment and skills will I need?

What Should Your Restaurant Video Include?

Before you begin writing a script or planning your shots to produce a primary video that introduces your restaurant to clients, review the following marketing research findings. (collected 2/8/18 to 4/26/18).

Maximum Video Length Average: 61 seconds

Video Element	Recommended?	Want	Indifferent	Do Not Want
Owner Narration	Yes	30%	50%	21%
Animated Logo Intro	No	14%	45%	41%
Background Music	Maybe	23%	45%	32%
Food & Menu	Yes	87%	8%	5%
Inside Seating Area	Yes	74%	17%	9%
Staff	Yes	42%	42%	16%
Building & Surroundings	Yes	49%	39%	12%
Back Kitchen	Yes	32%	46%	22%
A Funny Skit	No	6%	31%	63%
Pricing/Deals	Depends	80%	15%	5%

Industry Overview:

43% of consumers said they search the internet for restaurants once per month; 32% once per week; 5% almost daily; 13% said never. On average, consumers say they have tried 55% of the restaurants in their area. 70% of consumers feel that if restaurants had a video, it would make choosing easier.

Things that Improve Customer Interest:

Well-presented food (unique, new, the backstory, portion size) 58%
Appealing Atmosphere (decor theme, clean, nice seating layout) 26%
Special prices (deals, happy hours) 13%
Friendly, professional staff 5%
Customer testimonials, recommendations or reviews 5%
Happy customers enjoying the food 4%
Location (proximity and niceness of area) 3%
Building and surroundings look nice 2%
Ample parking 2%
Child friendly 2%
How the chef prepares the food 2%
Clean kitchen 1%
Good narrative from owner 1%
Good ratings 1%
Outdoor seating 1%
Food is locally sourced organic 1%
Food is gluten free 1%
Interesting beer 1%
Newer plates and silverware 1%
Outgoing chef 1%
Smaller portion options 1%
Open late 1%

Things that Scare Customers Away:

Signs of uncleanliness 28%
Unappetizing food or food type 20%
Unappealing atmosphere (poor seating, decor, lighting) 14%
Unappealing location (noisy, undeveloped) 9%
Crowded (long lines, crying babies, noisy) 8%
Unsanitary back kitchen 7%
Unprofessional-looking staff 6%
Overpriced 6%
Using actors, staged scenes or graphics instead of authentic footage 5%
Aggressive sales message, exaggeration 3%
Poor production quality (low def, audio, editing) 3%
No parking 3%
Small portions 2%
Poor owner narration (pushy, fake, arrogant) 2%
Bad reviews 2%
Chef using bare hands 1%
A long story of why they opened it 1%
Shots in too tight, not showing full restaurant 1%
People eating 1%
Video is over 1 minute 1%
Customers dressed too caually 1%
Not showing actual dishes 1%
Video interviews customers while they are dining
Hours 1%
No buzz 1%

General Advice

32% of consumers said they would not watch a small business video online. The 4 most popular reasons they gave were that videos are…

Biased, exaggerated, overproduced, flashy, only showing the business in the best light, not a true representation
Cheesy, dated, gimmicky and annoying
Too long, too slow, failing to get to the point, not concise, clear, rambling
Fail to provide the needed information, waste of time, adds no value, only necessary for visual products/services

On the flip side, 68% of consumers surveyed say they would watch a video before choosing a small business. Some of the top things consumers are hoping to see in a video are…

Real footage, true representation, authentic, honest, not overproduced
Message is concise, clear, short and to the point
Full footage and information provided, nothing is left out
Message is calm and sincere, not pushy or aggressive
Does not try to entertain

Many consumers said they would rather watch a video review from an unbiased third party than to watch a video from the business itself. Smal business owners tend to want to show only the best aspects of the business in the best light. It may feel counter-intuitive, but including the business's shortcomings demonstrates honesty and earns customers.

Review over 150 restaurant marketing video examples here: Restaurant & Bar Video Examples.