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Are you looking for some great marketing ideas for a restaurant? Then you are exactly right here!
Before we start, however, I would like to tell you a little story that touched and motivated me.
The KFC Story
It’s the story over KFC founder Harland Sanders. He struggled all his life, but when he was about to retire, he found that his monthly pension was only $ 105, and he was as good as broke. Depressed, he wanted to end his life, and he started to write his last Will. At this moment, his favorite recipe for fried chicken came to his mind, which people liked very much. All he had now was that one recipe. So he pulled himself up again and founded KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the rest is history.
Incidentally, Harland Sanders was only able to win his first franchise customer after receiving over 1,000 rejections. A few years later, his tenacity allowed him to sell his company including the recipe for $ 2 million. Then he was able to enjoy his retirement.
This story is not only a lesson in perseverance but also an example of successful marketing.
Below you find 111 specific marketing measures that you can use profitably and there should be no more shortage of ideas. Due to the sheer volume, it is advisable to pick a few points and pursue them purposefully.
So let’s get started with marketing ideas for a restaurant!
111 Marketing Ideas for a Restaurant
- Focus on what your customers want
- Create an irresistible offer
- Ruthlessly improve the quality of your products
- Tell a Story about your business, your customers, or your products
- Ensure compliance with health and food safety regulations
- Build a brand
- Hire a pro to get high-quality food pictures and use them on your menu, on your website, and in your creatives
- Go viral by doing something crazy
- Start a loyalty program
- Offer your regular guests special offers that are limited in time and quantity
- Train your employees
- Profit from upselling
- Create a unique selling proposition (USP)
- Calculate your prices carefully so that you also make a profit
- Optimize the workflow for speed
- Offer complete packages including prepayment
- Create detailed recipes and set standards
- Set specific goals for sales and cost of goods (CoG) that your employees can pursue and achieve realistically and reward success
- Encourage your guests to review your restaurant online
- React to online reviews
- Invite influencers and build a relationship with them
- Start a Facebook group
- Offer free WiFi for your guests
- Prepare a list of temporary workers to be able to generate more sales in the short term
- Ask your guests how satisfied they are and what could be improved
- Make your employees stars – Think about the Baristas @ Starbucks
- Start SMS marketing
- Use specific colors and emphasize a topic to create a stimulating atmosphere
- Design the lighting to create the right mood
- Play background music to make your guests feel more comfortable
- Make sure the toilets are clean and well-equipped
- Provide adequate ventilation throughout the restaurant to create a fragrant atmosphere
- Ensure perfect cleanliness so that customers feel comfortable
- Thank your guests for being there
- Praise good employees
- Support your employees when they need help
- Work specifically on an excellent working atmosphere
- Talk to your customers to get to know them and their needs better
- Promote the experience more than the ingredients – sell the sizzle, not the steak!
- Prepare standard procedures for complaints and treat the guest generously in such situations
- Learn something new every day
- Dare to try something new
- Start an Email Newsletter
- Build an Email list
- Use a professional email marketing system
- Learn SEO (search engine optimization)
- Post on Instagram
- Ask your guests to take photos of the food to post on Instagram – user-generated content
- Keep everything pest-free
- Schedule your social posts in advance – e.g., with later.com
- Put up an Instagram Follower Counter in your restaurant
- Add your restaurant to Tripadvisor – The world’s largest travel site.
- Provide take-away
- Start your delivery or use delivery services
- Start a Ghost Kitchen to conquer other niches
- Distribute vouchers and coupons
- Register for a Google business account
- Register on Yelp
- Entry on Google Maps – Google.com/maps
- Start a website
- Use an online reservation tool
- Buy ads on Google search
- Buy Google display ads
- Start a Remarketing Campaign on Google
- Buy ads on Facebook
- Use the Facebook pixel to get more knowledge about your customers
- Start a Youtube Channel
- Find a project that is close to your heart and get involved socially
- Provide recipes as downloadable PDFs
- Make videos how to prepare your best meals
- Do interviews with customers
- Start a blog and show what’s happening behind the scenes
- Offer live chat on your website to get more reservations
- Create a Twitter account
- Optimize your menu for the perfect guest experience and more sales
- Describe your products vividly on the menu
- Keep the range of the menu small
- Remove the currency symbols from the menu
- Put out a fishbowl to collect business cards
- Start a Food Truck
- Buy your ingredients locally and tell your customers
- Hold competition
- Host live music
- Post on Pinterest
- Use an SEO keyword tool, find low competition keywords, and generate free organic traffic to your website
- Use a high-speed quality web hosting for your website – the longer it needs to load, the fewer people will see and the more minor sales you will make.
- Write posts on medium.com and link to your website
- Answer question on quora.com and link to your website
- Hire writers to write posts
- Make the entrance eye-catching
- Make the kitchen open and insightful to build trust and spark interest.
- Create Sites on Google and link to your website
- Create an online ordering app
- Distribute flyers in your neighborhood
- Invite a guest chef and turn it into an event
- Create an event with your suppliers
- Build cooperation with businesses in your neighborhood
- Use a red carpet at your entrance
- Put out your menu at the entrance
- Make your restaurant visible for passers-by
- Invite residents in your target area by mail
- Promote birthday parties
- Promote packages for particular types of customers
- Offer catering to local businesses
- Place signs to your restaurant within a 3-mile radius
- Publish press releases and link to your website
- Build backlinks to your website
- Make your website mobile-friendly
- Use the Google Search Console to optimize your website
- Use Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic
- Register on business directories to get traffic and backlinks – see the list below – most are free
20 Business Directories Where You Can Register With
Looking for marketing ideas for a restaurant? Register on business directories get more customers and to improve the Google ranking of your website (SEO).
- Acompio – Global source for business information – free
- Bing places for business – free
- Brownbook – Global Business Listing Database – free
- Cylex – Over 35 online business directories – free
- Elocal – Live Local – Search Local- free
- Hotfrog – Freshest local business directory of the U.S.- free
- iGlobal – Online directory with presence in more than 60 countries- free
- Judy’s Book – The Social Search tool to get trusted scoop on local places. (fee-based entry)
- Mylocalservices – Directory for local businesses in the U.K.- free
- N49 – Canadian Network – free
- Navmii – Open Street Map (fee-based access)
- Pages24 – A new modern business directory in the USA- free
- Show me local – Global Business Directories- free
- Tupalo – Your local guide. (fee-based access)
- US Info – Search for companies and persons anywhere in the world- free
- UScity – America’s oldest business directory on the web for local businesses with 450K+ active monthly users- free
- where2go – Independent website directory- free
- Yalwa – Business Directory – Find, rate, share – free
- Yasabe – Reach U.S. Hispanic customers (fee-based entry)
- Yext – One registration for many directories (fee-based access)
