During a recent Discovery Call with a client, they brought up the question of “Well, how will you actually create a strategy that will work for our customers?” And while I thought this question was kind of… challenging my expertise in such a forward way, I understood that it really is a question a lot of business owners have whenever they are looking to work with someone. So, it’s a valid question of course.

So! Along with some other more specific suggestions (since they’d already shared with me some immediate goals that they had) I mention that

the easiest and most readily available strategy to really target their customers is by asking and listening to their existing customers.

Let’s paint a better picture shall we?

Someone sits down, a regular or someone who starting to become one, and says something like “I never know what to order here, I just trust whatever you recommend." Or “How did I not know you did Sunday brunch? I've been coming here for two years. Or something even simpler like “I’ve been telling everyone about this place”. First of all, score! You’ve been doing such a great job in-house that someone is just already doing your most valuable type of marketing (word or mouth), but secondly, that moment, is content brief.

Most owners are just too busy doing other things to realize that these are small interactions are what your content strategy can build off of.

The Problem

As someone managing their own content strategy and content creation, you need ideas. You need inspiration. You need to figure out that to post next, and you need to get it alllll done before this upcoming Thursday,

So you scroll, and you scroll, and you look at what other restaurants are doing. You search for “Instagram ideas for hospitality” and then you just stare at your phone and wait for something to come to you.

Meanwhile, your content strategy is actually being curated in real time. At the bar, in your DMs, in the comments section, in the questions your staff asks every week. Your unique content strategy is there, you' just haven’t notice yet.

Here’s how to get you started

The Fix

The repeated question is your next post

Your customers telling you what they don’t know is a gap in your content.

If someone ask’s your staff “wait, what’s actually in this?” more than once isn’t a coincidence. If people keep DMing to ask what your reservation policy is, or whether you accommodate dietary restriction, or how far in advance do they need to book for a group are questions that you can turn into valuable content.

FAQs aren’t just for you website. They’re also for your content calendar.

So:

Start noticing what gets asked twice. And if you’re having to answer the same question in your DM, then you need to make a post about it.
The moment your bartender has to answer the thing repeatedly, a reel should be made.

Your audience is literally handing you your content brief. They’re just doing it one question at a time.

Your analytics are already telling you what to say more of

The posts that perform well aren’t random.

There’s something in the ones that are landing, like tone, topic, the type of details, that are worth paying attention to.

When a post gets saved more that usual, that’s someone bookmarking it to come back to. When a reel gets shared, that someone saying “you need to see this”. When DMs light up after a specific caption, that’s the topic striking that content inspo bug.

This is why recording your results matter. It’s not for vanity or to compare yourself to accounts with 10x your following, but to notice patterns.

Overtime, you data builds a map of what your community actually connects with. And that map is your content strategy.

One or two posts won’t tell you much, but

six months of posting that’s being tracked and reviewed, is telling you a lot about what you should be posting.

Your staff are collecting research you haven’t asked for

Every “How’s everything tonight?” is a data point.

The compliment about a specific dish that comes up 3x a week, the guest who mentions that drove 40-minutes to your place because a friend recommended you. The particular table that asks if you’re open on a particular holiday.

Your front-of-house team is in constant conversation with your community. They hear things you don’t. They notice patterns you can’t see from inside your office. The question is whether any of it makes is back to you.

It doesn’t have to be a formal system. It can be as simple as

asking in team meetings if anyone has notices anything pop up recently, and over time you can have a really clear picture of what your community is curious about, what they love, and what they’re looking for that they haven’t found yet.

Your staff aren’t just running the room but are your most direct line to what your people are thinking.

Your DMs and comments are a content brief you haven’t opened yet

What people respond to in social media is not accidental.

The caption that gets 10 DMs is telling you something. The carousels that gets saved over and over is telling you something. The reel someone watched twice and the tagged their business partner in is telling you something too!

Comments that ask follow-up questions? Your next post. The DM that says “I’ve been thinking about it since you guys have posted it” is a topic to go deeper on.

Most people check their metrics and close the app. Do better and look at what caused spikes in them, take note, and more more of that.

And then there are the moments that speak for themselves

What people photograph without being asked. What they order twice. The dish they describe in detail when they're recommending you to someone else. The corner of the room that keeps showing up in people's stories.

These aren’t just nice moments. They’re your audience voting with their attention. They’re telling you what’s memorable, what’s worth talking about, and what makes you place feels like its theirs too.

Pay attention to what people document.

That’s the version of your business they want to share with people they’re close with. Those are the moments worth featuring in your content.

Where to start this week

Create a system that will take notes on what you observe.

Take notes on:

what people are saying
what people are consistently DMing you about
what your staff has seen or heard a pattern on
when a post performs well

Take notes and review them come content batching session.

Your regulars have been giving you the brief all along. You need somewhere to put it.

Farnsworth Street Marketing is a community-first marketing house for hospitality businesses and values-aligned brands. If you're building something real and you're ready to stop guessing what to post — let's talk.

Here’s a Secret: Your Regulars Have Been Giving You Your Content Ideas All Along