5 Tips for Marketing Your Restaurant

Posted 11 months, 1 week ago at 10:03 am. 182 comments

When you want to get higher numbers of people through the doors of your restaurant, there’s a lot more to it than just simply opening up earlier and closing later!

So here are 5 useful tips to help market your restaurant in the right way;

Don’t be afraid to up-sell – Something as simple as telling diners about your fantastic starter specials for example, rather than just asking if they want a starter or not can make a big difference to your sales. Recommending a good wine to go with the meal also gives you the opportunity to up-sell and show customers you’re knowledgeable about your dishes.

Never just advertise as a one-off – It’s generally accepted that people need to see a piece of promotional material about 6 to 7 times before they really take notice of it. So don’t get disheartened if your adverts or flyers don’t get a response right away; persevere with it and you’ll reap the benefits.

Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback – When you’re involved in the day-to-day running of your restaurant it can be easy to miss something glaringly obvious that you’re doing wrong. Ask your diners to complete a short feedback form with the incentive of a prize and leave a box at the door for their comments. You can use the positive comments as testimonials and the bad ones as ideas on how to improve.

Take your restaurant for a walk – If people aren’t coming to you, then you should go to the people. Setting up a stall in your local market or taking samples of your food to busy nearby shopping areas will really help to improve your trade and let people meet the personality behind the restaurant.

Write a newspaper column – There’s such a huge interest in all things food at the moment, so why not approach your local newspaper and offer to write a column in return for a free mention of your restaurant? Things like recipe ideas always go down well and by being perceived as an expert in your field, you’ll soon find people will want to come and eat at your restaurant.

The worst thing you can do as a restaurant owner is nothing.

If you don’t continually try to promote and market your restaurant, you will lose business to the restaurants in your area that are being proactive.

If you’re not sure where to start, contact us today and we’ll devise a restaurant marketing plan that works for you.