Ongoing Instagram marketing and content strategy for a well-established grand café in the centre of Groningen — combining regular content creation, visual consistency and a structured approach to restaurant social media marketing.

De klant

Grand-Café Schimmelpenninck is a well-established café in the centre of Groningen, with strong offline recognition, loyal local customers and a distinctive interior and atmosphere. Its Instagram had real potential still untapped: with more regular posting and a clearer visual identity, the account could better reflect everything the café already offers in person.

De uitdaging

Restaurants move fast, and social media rarely gets the dedicated time or planning it deserves. Between service, staff and suppliers, it’s easy for a great place to end up with a feed that doesn’t quite keep pace.

The goal wasn’t to reinvent the café or change what already worked. It was to make its existing identity more visible online and build an Instagram presence that felt consistent, recognisable and relevant to potential customers.

De strategie

The account is managed around a clear content structure: a regular posting schedule, a mix of high-quality photography, reels and stories, and a visual style aligned with the café’s own identity.

The Instagram strategy focuses on showing the place as it actually is — its food, atmosphere, interior and people — rather than relying on generic restaurant promotion. Captions are written to encourage engagement while giving the content more context and personality.

The focus has always been consistency first: showing up regularly, with content that looks and sounds like the café. For a local restaurant, Instagram becomes more than a place to post photos — it becomes an important part of the overall marketing strategy.

Het resultaat

Within the first 30 days of consistent management, the account reached over 11,000 unique accounts, with nearly 75% of that audience discovering the café for the first time.

Beyond reach, the more meaningful signals were behavioural: 1,687 profile visits, 166 website clicks and 39 direction requests. People were moving from discovering the café on Instagram to actively looking for more information and planning a visit.

The momentum has continued well beyond the first month. In August alone, content generated over 30,000 views — up 116% from the previous month — with 84% of that coming from people who didn’t yet follow the account. New followers keep coming in, and the link in the Instagram bio, which connects directly to the café’s booking platform, continues to convert casual scrollers into real reservations.

Voor een lokaal horecabedrijf verandert dit soort zichtbaarheid Instagram van een passief socialmediakanaal in een praktisch hulpmiddel voor restaurantmarketing en het aantrekken van nieuwe gasten. De campagne wordt uitgebreider toegelicht in de case study over Instagram-marketing voor restaurants restaurant Instagram marketing case study.