111 Marketing Ideas for a Restaurant

Reading time 5 min

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.

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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!

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111 Marketing Ideas for a Restaurant

  1. Focus on what your customers want
  2. Create an irresistible offer
  3. Ruthlessly improve the quality of your products
  4. Tell a Story about your business, your customers, or your products
  5. Ensure compliance with health and food safety regulations
  6. Build a brand
  7. Hire a pro to get high-quality food pictures and use them on your menu, on your website, and in your creatives
  8. Go viral by doing something crazy
  9. Start a loyalty program
  10. Offer your regular guests special offers that are limited in time and quantity
  11. Train your employees
  12. Profit from upselling
  13. Create a unique selling proposition (USP)
  14. Calculate your prices carefully so that you also make a profit
  15. Optimize the workflow for speed
  16. Offer complete packages including prepayment
  17. Create detailed recipes and set standards
  18. Set specific goals for sales and cost of goods (CoG) that your employees can pursue and achieve realistically and reward success
  19. Encourage your guests to review your restaurant online
  20. React to online reviews
  21. Invite influencers and build a relationship with them
  22. Start a Facebook group
  23. Offer free WiFi for your guests
  24. Prepare a list of temporary workers to be able to generate more sales in the short term
  25. Ask your guests how satisfied they are and what could be improved
  26. Make your employees stars – Think about the Baristas @ Starbucks
  27. Start SMS marketing
  28. Use specific colors and emphasize a topic to create a stimulating atmosphere
  29. Design the lighting to create the right mood
  30. Play background music to make your guests feel more comfortable
  31. Make sure the toilets are clean and well-equipped
  32. Provide adequate ventilation throughout the restaurant to create a fragrant atmosphere
  33. Ensure perfect cleanliness so that customers feel comfortable
  34. Thank your guests for being there
  35. Praise good employees
  36. Support your employees when they need help
  37. Work specifically on an excellent working atmosphere
  38. Talk to your customers to get to know them and their needs better
  39. Promote the experience more than the ingredients – sell the sizzle, not the steak!
  40. Prepare standard procedures for complaints and treat the guest generously in such situations
  41. Learn something new every day
  42. Dare to try something new
  43. Start an Email Newsletter
  44. Build an Email list
  45. Use a professional email marketing system
  46. Learn SEO (search engine optimization)
  47. Post on Instagram
  48. Ask your guests to take photos of the food to post on Instagram – user-generated content
  49. Keep everything pest-free
  50. Schedule your social posts in advance – e.g., with later.com
  51. Put up an Instagram Follower Counter in your restaurant
  52. Add your restaurant to Tripadvisor – The world’s largest travel site.
  53. Provide take-away
  54. Start your delivery or use delivery services
  55. Start a Ghost Kitchen to conquer other niches
  56. Distribute vouchers and coupons
  57. Register for a Google business account
  58. Register on Yelp
  59. Entry on Google Maps – Google.com/maps
  60. Start a website
  61. Use an online reservation tool
  62. Buy ads on Google search
  63. Buy Google display ads
  64. Start a Remarketing Campaign on Google
  65. Buy ads on Facebook
  66. Use the Facebook pixel to get more knowledge about your customers
  67. Start a Youtube Channel
  68. Find a project that is close to your heart and get involved socially
  69. Provide recipes as downloadable PDFs
  70. Make videos how to prepare your best meals
  71. Do interviews with customers
  72. Start a blog and show what’s happening behind the scenes
  73. Offer live chat on your website to get more reservations
  74. Create a Twitter account
  75. Optimize your menu for the perfect guest experience and more sales
  76. Describe your products vividly on the menu
  77. Keep the range of the menu small
  78. Remove the currency symbols from the menu
  79. Put out a fishbowl to collect business cards
  80. Start a Food Truck
  81. Buy your ingredients locally and tell your customers
  82. Hold competition
  83. Host live music
  84. Post on Pinterest
  85. Use an SEO keyword tool, find low competition keywords, and generate free organic traffic to your website
  86. 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.
  87. Write posts on medium.com and link to your website
  88. Answer question on quora.com and link to your website
  89. Hire writers to write posts
  90. Make the entrance eye-catching
  91. Make the kitchen open and insightful to build trust and spark interest.
  92. Create Sites on Google and link to your website
  93. Create an online ordering app
  94. Distribute flyers in your neighborhood
  95. Invite a guest chef and turn it into an event
  96. Create an event with your suppliers
  97. Build cooperation with businesses in your neighborhood
  98. Use a red carpet at your entrance
  99. Put out your menu at the entrance
  100. Make your restaurant visible for passers-by
  101. Invite residents in your target area by mail
  102. Promote birthday parties
  103. Promote packages for particular types of customers
  104. Offer catering to local businesses
  105. Place signs to your restaurant within a 3-mile radius
  106. Publish press releases and link to your website
  107. Build backlinks to your website
  108. Make your website mobile-friendly
  109. Use the Google Search Console to optimize your website
  110. Use Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic
  111. Register on business directories to get traffic and backlinks – see the list below – most are free
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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)
RestOSim is a free tool to draft a restaurant budget! It can help you to develop specific marketing ideas for a restaurant.