15 Best Restaurant Promotion Ideas to Keep Your Restaurant Thriving

Quick Summary: Exploring restaurant promotion ideas to increase sales? We have made it easy for you by listing some of the top and most trendy promotion ideas which can help small, medium to large restaurants promote restaurants effectively. Let’s explore them.

Promotions are a great way to increase sales for restaurants struggling to boost revenue. It’s not new, as restaurants have been using this strategy for years, though ideas for promoting restaurants are constantly changing. Simply put, what worked during the 90s or early 20s may not work in 2024 or ahead. Hence restaurants need to stop juggling traditional restaurant promotion ideas and explore new methods and promotion ideas for food products.

We have compiled a list of 15 ways to run restaurant promotions and keep your sales and revenue stream thriving. But, before we move ahead, we need to understand a few essential things, such as;

Restaurant Promotion Prerequisite

Before promoting your restaurant, it’s important to make sure that you have a solid foundation in place. It can be a well-functional website, implement an online ordering system, active social media channels, skilled staff, etc. Here are some restaurant promotion preparation to consider before launching your restaurant marketing campaigns;

Define your target audience

No restaurant promotion can be successful unless you know who you are promoting it for. It’s important to identify your target audience, understand your existing dine-in customers and analyze both of them. This will help you tailor your messaging and promotions to resonate with them. Some of the best ways to know and identify your restaurant customers are to ask a few questions to yourself;

• Where do your target customers live?
• What kind of food do your target customers enjoy?
• How often do your target customers dine out?
• What is the location of your restaurant? Is it near buildings, stadiums, or corporate houses?
• What is the age range of your target customers?

These are the best ways to know your customers and will effectively help you create restaurant promotions.

Decide what You Want to Focus on First: Revenue or Press

It is crucial for restaurants to decide if you want to promote your restaurant to increase sales, generate buzz, and attract press coverage. Based on your decisions, the promotion campaign will depend on the goals and priorities.

If the primary goal is to increase revenue and profitability, the restaurant promotion ideas will focus on driving more customers through the doors and increasing restaurant sales.

On the other hand, if generating buzz and attracting press coverage is the primary goal, the focus should be on creating unique and attention-grabbing experiences.

Develop a Strong Brand Identity

Your restaurant’s brand identity should be consistent across all marketing channels, whether it is your website, online ordering system, social media channels, or others. It will have a significant impact not just on letting your dine-customers get online but will also on attracting new customers, apart from helping you run successful restaurant promotions.

Create a Compelling Menu

Create a perfect menu, as it should be well-designed, easy to read, and feature items that your target audience is likely to enjoy. Then, connect with your technical team or SaaS-based online food ordering system provider to check how the menu can be created at customers’ convenience.

Establish A Social Media Presence

Social media is a powerful tool for promoting your restaurant. However, when you create a campaign, it could be, sometimes, platform specific. For example, you run Instagram marketing, Facebook, Pinterest, Tiktok or comprehensive social media marketing. But these things will be possible when you have a strong presence on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Train Your Staff

Last but not least, you must have a skilled manager and staff to provide excellent customer experience to customers visiting in-store for dine-in or order online.

15 Effective Restaurant Promotion Ideas in 2023 and 2024

With the basics, you know the basic nitty-gritty of creating restaurant marketing ideas. You know what it takes to make your restaurant promotion successful. For example, what you need to avoid and how to create unique restaurant marketing ideas. Now, let’s explore and understand the promotion ideas for restaurant that can turn things upside down in your favor if implemented effectively.

Viral Restaurant Promotion Ideas

Viral promotion ideas for food products nothing but create a buzz. It has to be designed carefully, keeping a lot of things in mind. We taken a few examples of viral promotion for restaurant and explained how it works. You can think of something similar so that it is newsworthy.

1: Create A Limited-Time and Secret Menu Item

A secret menu can be a creative and unique way to promote your restaurant by creating a sense of exclusivity. It can also reward loyal customers, encourage social sharing, experiment with new dishes, and collaborate with influencers. However, not all restaurants may have a secret menu. For example, “In-N-Out is one such restaurant actively promoting a secret menu. Here’s what this menu looks like and makes customers feel special.

You can use it as a way to build customer loyalty, generate buzz and interest, and set yourself apart from competitors. Of course, creating a secret menu requires careful planning and consideration. But when done correctly, it can be a fun and exciting way to promote your restaurant and attract new customers.

2: Host A Themed Event Or Pop-Up

What about creating and hosting a themed event or pop-up? Something that is aligned with your restaurant’s brand and personality? Creating themed events can be fun, but more than that, it can generate a lot of buzz around social media and attract new customers.

3: Launch A Social Media Contest, Give Away Something Huge

Small freebies are good for staple promotion, but it’s not helpful when you want to make something viral. Host a social media contest, offering something huge that encourages customers to participate actively. For example, Chick-fil-A provided free food to the first 100 customers visiting each new location.

This received massive coverage by the press. This is huge, but others offer such a massive offer to customers. You can think of IHOP, McDonald’s, and Burger King, which offer good reward options. This can help accumulate user-generated content, increase engagement on social media, and attract new customers.

4: Create A Loyalty Program

Launch a loyalty program. Again, you need to come up with something genuine and worthy. Do not offer something like “spend 100 bucks and get one dollar as a reward. You need to provide something really appealing that gives customers a compelling option to order food online.

This can help build customer loyalty, encourage repeat business, and generate positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

Staple Restaurant Promotion Ideas

Staple restaurant promotion ideas refer to tried-and-true marketing strategies that are commonly used in the restaurant industry. These ideas are not meant to make viral or something that gets published by news or press. They are effective to drive traffic and increase restaurant sales. Let’s find out how they make a difference.

5: Holiday promotions

Holidays can be a great time to offer special promotions and events at your restaurant. For example, you can choose any holiday, Black Friday, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and more you think are most popular in the region. Then, you use these occasions to offer special discounts. Besides, you can also provide a special holiday menu or host a themed event to attract customers and generate buzz.

6: Partnership with food delivery apps

You have implemented an online food ordering system to let your customers order directly from your website. But, what if you are at a new location with no-so-easy-to-find? You can take help of third party food delivery, like Uber Eats or DoorDash. However, it may cost you upto 30% of your total earning per order. You can choose this as part of your marketing till you get exposure among dinners. Later you can promote your own online food delivery system using social media channels and let users order using app and website. But, make sure you have gained enough exposure so you can achieve you goals quickly. Using third party food delivery, you can mega wide radius with discounted dishes.

7: 3-for-2 Offers

Offering 3-for-2 deals or buying “X” and getting “Y” free, and many others are pretty popular food promotion ideas for restaurants. It gives a sense of benefits where customers can get three items for the price of two or can get “Y” free when they buy “X.” These offers can help increase the average order value and encourage customers to try new menu items.

8: Organize Charities

Organizing charities will do two things: first, it will be a powerful way to promote your restaurant. Second, it will make a positive impact on your community. Even though you have plenty of options to organize charities, the two things —donating a portion of your profits to any cause or hosting a fundraising event will be great options for restaurant promotions. For example, it will attract customers (especially those passionate about the cause) and generate positive word-of-mouth. Apart from attracting customers, organizing such events can help you strengthen your relationship with other organizations in your community.

9: Create a Seasonal Menu

Customers look for something fresh and exciting when visiting your restaurant or ordering online. Seasonal ingredients are the best way to make them experience something new. However, you need to ensure a few things when creating a seasonal menu for your customers.

Research the seasonal ingredients that are popular during the period you want to create the menu.

Highlight local food and ingredients so you can build a good repo with local suppliers. In addition, it will indirectly promote your restaurant by bestowing you as a supporter of local businesses.

10: Offer Gift Cards

Gift cards will not just help you grow popular among GenZ people but also help you spike sales, albeit you have plenty of other options to increase restaurant sales. Those who want to give a gift to their friends or relatives can get the possibility to connect with you. Besides, it will encourage repeat visits from customers with gift cards.

11: Bring In Celebrities & Influencer

With TikTok marketing as one of the best options for small and local businesses to grow customers and popularity, Influencer marketing is yet another best option. Recently, we have seen a vast number of influencers popping up —thanks to social media channels like TikTok, Instagram, and others. They can help you attract more customers and grow popular in your region.

Tip: Connect with local influencers or celebrities, as they can help you get emotional attention from the local communities.

12: Provide Incentives for Social Media Follows

You can easily create a buzz by giving your customers incentives, such as complimentary appetizers and discount vouchers if they follow you on social media channels. Ask every customer to follow your channels and get the best offer. It will help you in many ways. For example, it will increase engagement and brand loyalty.

Winter restaurant promotion ideas

Winter restaurant promotion ideas are the effective digital marketing strategies that most restaurants apply to attract customers during winter. These ideas often incorporate seasonal themes that include warm and comforting dishes, winter events, holiday decorations and more. We have explained a few here for you to explore.

13: Winter Happy Hours

Offer a happy hour deal during cozy winter to encourage customers to visit your restaurant. Happy hour is a great idea to give customers enough reason to visit your restaurant, though you must have a compelling happy hour menu. For example, the winter happy hour deal may include heavy discounts on drinks, small plates, and more. You can also provide warm decor to let
customers feel comfortable and welcome.

14: Winter Comfort Food Specials

Highlighting warm and comforting dishes on your menu during winter can attract customers. A restaurant website highlighting the special winter menu will draw attention. You can choose various options, such as soups, stews, casseroles, and desserts like hot chocolate and warm apple pie. You may think of other add-on options to let customers try on something new.

Tip: Consider adding limited-time specials to create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to order online.

15: Offer customers the option to order online

Have you created a restaurant website? If not, you need to create a website for your restaurant. Or, if you plan to implement an online food ordering system, you will get everything included. Now, integrate your website with easy-to-order options so customers can easily place orders by choosing their favorite dishes.

Did you know 77% of diners say they visit restaurants’ website before visiting on premises or even ordering up?

A solid online presence will satisfy both —the customers who want to order online directly from your website and app and those who wish to explore the menu, options, and facilities before visiting your restaurant.

With the top 15 restaurant promotion and marketing ideas, you can get various benefits, including;

• Creating buzz about your restaurant
• Increasing restaurant sales
• Adding more new customers while maintaining the retention rates

How Foodiv Helps You in All These Promotional Activities?

We at Foodiv help you implement an online food ordering system. The SaaS-based system comes with all modern features and functionalities, offering multiple options for online and offline customers. Apart from this, we also help you with consultancy. For example, you can explore our blogs covering everything about restaurant startups, whether creating a website, running a successful restaurant, or creating promotion and marketing ideas. You also contact us to take help from our experts.