Elite Restaurant Equipment / Restaurant Marketing
10 Effective Ways to Better Market Your Restauran
Editor's note: This article was written by Lorri Mealey and can be found here.
Even on a shoestring, restaurants have to market themselves. Every restaurant has competition, whether it's the Italian restaurant around the corner, the McDonald's a half mile away or mom's Thanksgiving leftovers in the home freezer. Yelp is the most common restaurant marketing used online.
Guerilla Marketing
Guerilla Marketing is using a number of smaller tactics rather than utilizing larger tactics like the national TV ads that franchises use. Guerilla tactics are cheap if not free.
Top 10 Guerilla Tactics:
1 - SIGNAGE
Make sure you have the largest, clearest and most clever sign that local ordinances will allow.
2 - FLYERS
Make sure people know you're opening. Give them 15% off an entree the first week you're open.
3 - SAMPLING
4 - LOYALTY PROGRAMS
Offer people something for free after they've bought 10 items at your restaurant. Give people a reason to come back often.
5 - PUBLIC RELATIONS STUNTS
Grab media attention. Have your staff dress up as chickens and walk around your neighborhood, if you serve the best roast chicken in town. Be creative. Do whatever it takes to get noticed. Hand out menus and cards.
6 - GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND WARMTH
Treating people graciously and making them feel special will create buzz. People will tell their friends about a great experience they had.
7 - PROMOTIONS
Offer special themed dinners, guided wine and cheese tastings and other fun events to give people a reason to come to the restaurant on a usually slow night.
9 - CUSTOMER COMMENT CARDS
Collect names, email addresses and birthdates of your cutomers. Email them a special coupon 3 weeks before their birthday.
10 - THE WEB
The Web - Having a simple website that shows people your menu, what kind of payment you accept, your operating hours and gives an idea of your restaurant concept is a great marketing tool.