Restaurant Marketing Ideas that Require a Little Legwork with a Big Payoff

When you manage or own a restaurant, it is possible that you wear a number of hats at any given moment. The main concern is to make sure that clients enjoy their meals and leave the restaurant looking forward to coming back in the future.

Restaurant marketing may therefore not be at the top of your mind given everything that you have to handle.

The following cheap and free restaurant marketing ideas will ensure that you stay at par with your competitors, while making sure that your business receives a steady stream of customers each day.

Take Advantage of Facebook Advertising

Facebook ads are a great restaurant marketing channel. The ads make it possible for you to target Facebook users in your locality, as well as other types of users e.g. Foodie.

The good thing with the ads is that they can also be designed so as to encourage some actions such as—provide an email address, follow the restaurant’s Facebook page, or visit the restaurant’s website to perform an action.

Though Facebook ads are not free, they are cheap, and spending five dollars on ads will expose your business to a very big audience.

Get Free Business Listings 

When local web users are looking up places to eat in the area, your business should be among the first names that pop up. Make Sure to submit your information to all online directories in your area, have a Google+ page set up with address for your business, and be vigilant about seeking new sources to post your info.

So as to get there, you need to build business citations, and this means confirming that the restaurant is listed accurately in online directories.

Getting listed will boost your visibility in localized searches.

Hand Out Branded Merchandise at Big Local Events

You can give out branded t-shirts at events and festivals. Any person who wears the branded shirt into the restaurant will be provided with a free dessert.

Handing out branded merchandise is a great way to get folks to come back to your restaurant from an event, which is often a challenge, but an excellent opportunity to increase your customer base.
Be Active on Social Media

You have to ensure that you are on as many social networking platforms as possible. Ensure that Facebook is on that list as it is the king of social networking with over one billion users all over the globe.

Open an Instagram account which will allow you to showcase photos of your food, as well as fun images of the customers and the restaurant personnel.

If targeting customers below the age of twenty-one years, then you will definitely need to open a Snapchat account which has proved to be very popular with users in this age group

Build an Email List

Once the restaurant website is up and running, you will need to start creating an email list. Visitors to your site will opt-in to the list with the hope that they will receive valuable information.
Email lists can be used in driving traffic back to the restaurant.