Just like any other business, new restaurant owners try to come up with ideas on how to promote their business to people near their area of ​​operation. So you understood a few things like people are hungry at least once a day, they like to socialize, they like to hang out in nice places with their friends and loved ones, so they will definitely do that in a diner late or early. later, right? There is some truth to this analogy, in fact, you could even conduct feasibility studies to further support your assumptions before opening your restaurant. Well, not everything works out as planned, so you need to have unique restaurant promotion ideas to be successful.

However, before you start doing that, learn a few rules about restaurant promotion first. They are the following:

1. Know your customer base – Don’t just launch your restaurant marketing plan without clearly knowing and understanding your customers. Find out what their age groups are, their location in front of your unit. When people are hungry, is your place easily accessible for them if they want to grab some food? Do you offer an affordable menu? You have to consider these things for your marketing campaign to be successful.
2. Look at your business challenges – Sometimes, business challenges do not come from outside, but from within the organization and staff. There may be times when they are inactive at work and they are not doing it on purpose, but the situation creates such scenarios. You need to come up with a plan to prevent this from happening and make the most efficient use of your time.
3. Income or press? – The goal of your unique restaurant promotion ideas should be to create more press than revenue. Why? Because the long-term benefits of increased press coverage is that it will increase the chances of your business making a profit exponentially. Not to mention the gain of ideal clients. So, use all of your resources, including social media, to spread the word about your burgeoning new business franchise.
4. Know your margins – Make sure you have calculated the costs to create the food on your menu, so that you can make combined offers and discounts without breaking even or earning less than the amount of the initial investment you have made. You may have to hire a professional to help you do this.

Here are the top 10 unique restaurant promotion ideas:

1) Leverage on larger events

If your restaurant is somewhere in the city, chances are there are big events happening throughout the year. This is a perfect opportunity to pitch your unique restaurant promotion ideas and offer dining discounts if you’ll be attending a nearby concert or big movie event. By doing so, you can see an increase in foot traffic of at least 7%, but it could be more. Even if it doesn’t go up assuming your regular income is $10,000 a day, you’ll still get an extra $700 for it! Or it could be $2,000 more, who knows? Like I said, the opportunity to take advantage of a bigger event near you increases your chances of winning.

2) Charities and celebrities

You can also invite a big name or local celebrity and do a fundraiser for your local charity or fire station. Pick a celebrity whose rates are within your budget range and while you will be donating the proceeds from the day’s revenue, it wouldn’t be too bad as you will strengthen the reputation of your restaurant business and get more customers as a result. It is a practical investment that is worth every penny you have invested.

3) Holidays

Giving gifts and presents on special occasions or holidays is also another way to market your restaurant business. Pick a holiday or maybe a specific holiday declared by the town or city you do business in, like St. Patrick’s Day or Christmas or the city’s Founding Day or something like that, and offer discounts or giveaways to their sponsors. You will definitely attract more customers than usual and make a huge profit.

4) Loyalty Offers

Offer a loyalty card to long-time customers and you’ll give them a reason to hang out at your restaurant. They could even bring their family and friends with them and encourage them to be loyal customers too, so they can earn loyalty cards too. In this way you will make your clients your marketing agents and you will not even have to pay them for their work.

5) Package offers and fixed price

This is one of the best unique restaurant promotion ideas as it allows you to pair your best selling and least selling items in your inventory. You’ll be able to eliminate most of the items that don’t sell very well, while giving your favorite menu all the attention it needs. Be sure to offer offers that are not below the profit margin or you will suffer a loss of profits.

6) Take them to the gates

There may be items on your menu that are not selling well, because they need to be consumed by more than one customer. What you will have to do is offer it again at a discount to a certain number of people who are willing to include it in their order. This restaurant marketing plan is called a “get them in” strategy, where people are persuaded to buy this particular item on the menu and buy more items along the way.

7) Downtime

In some cases your restaurant business will experience slow nights and your staff and other utilities will not be used properly and you may need to use them in some other way that benefits your business. What you can do is bid with a limited window of opportunity, say the promotion will only be available between 5pm and 7pm every day. This will create a temporary surge of customers coming in and your staff will be helpful.

8) Community events

Participating in community events will help your restaurant get press time for lots of people and they will become your patrons too! It could be anyone, someone whose house burned down and needs extra money on top of their insurance coverage; a local soccer team that also needs funding; Or it could be a youth organization looking to raise funds for their community project or something. Exposure is the key here and the more exposure your business gets, the better it is for you.

9) Buy in bulk and increase sales

Have you ever been to a nice place and find something really nice that you like to buy and buy more? Well, this will be true for any business. Sooner or later, someone somewhere is going to walk into your restaurant and discover that your avocado smoothie is the best thing they’ve ever tasted in the world! You can bet that they will come back for more, so what you will do is offer them a discount for every 5 or 10 glasses they buy. Not only will you get a repeat customer, but you’ll also get item sales volume like you’ve never had before.

10) Releases and Openings

And last but not least, new menus are launched and new branches are opened. Offering deep discounts or an all-you-can-eat deal will definitely give your business the boost it needs. Just like all the other strategies on this list, this too will attract new customers and likely make them your loyal bosses. It is important to first build a strong customer base before reaching out to more people.