If you’re the owner of a local or chain restaurant with a bar, it’s likely that you have considered marketing to attract new and repeat guests to your establishment. It’s important than your business is marketed properly, so we’ve put together some helpful restaurant marketing ideas that will help elevate the presence of your restaurant. With a strategic approach to restaurant marketing, you can increase your customer base and even begin to build fans of your restaurant’s atmosphere and culture, happy hours included!

Strategies to Market Your Restaurant

Engage Fans on Social Media and in Apps

Social media and restaurant apps have completely changed the landscape of how we consume advertising, and this can be leveraged strategically to put your make your restaurant one of the most popular in your city. Restaurant marketing has never been easier thanks to tools like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and apps like OpenTable and Just Happy Hours. Also, restaurants are a very strong niche for bloggers who write solely about the best food in the city. Managing your restaurant’s social media accounts will give you a channel to interact with your customers, answer any questions they might have and post about special menu offers you might be having.

Use Celebrities/Influencers

The appeal of your favorite celebrity is something that will always be exciting, no matter how old you get. Today’s generation looks to online digital content creators and social media influencers for advice on all types of products and services, from cosmetics to sports gear to tech and yes, to which restaurant to try next. This provides a great opportunity to gain traction by sponsoring someone with a big following. If a social media influencer who has a strong demographic of hundreds of thousands of followers in our area, you’re in luck! You can invite this influencer to your restaurant for an online review on their personal social media channels.

Implement Fun Giveaways and Contents

Nothing motivates people more than winning free stuff and when that free stuff consists of food, it’s even better! Once you set up your social media channels and consistently post specials, events, and of course, photos of food and beverages, you can quickly amass a large following and promote giveaways there as well as on other advertising channels.

Giveaway items people love include gift cards for your restaurant, free cocktail hours, merchandise items like t-shirts, cups, and magnets, and behind-the-scenes restaurant tours. Encourage contestants to enter to win by tagging friends, submitting photos at your restaurant, and designing new menu items.

Of course, the most common way to gain new customers is through word of mouth. When people’s friends recommend their favorite restaurants to their close friends or social circle, those people are far more likely to consider trying out the new restaurant spot than if they had just heard it from someone they don’t know. This will help create a domino effect in building your customer base.

You can attract new guests to your restaurant by offering a prize that brings in more people. Get a legal advice and read more about chapter 7 bankruptcy attorney in California on https://www.sandiegobk.com/ site. For example, you can offer an all-day happy hour for the winner and two of their friends. This is sure to make not one but three very happy customers, who are highly likely to tell their friends about the great experience at your restaurant.

Offer Specials For Birthdays and Loyalty Program Signup

Since people love to celebrate the milestones in their lives and those of their loved ones, offering a free specialty menu item or dessert with one’s meal on the day of their birthday will make them more inclined to visit your restaurant or bar.

You can combine the birthday offer with signing up for a loyalty program, if you have one. Some restaurants even offer one free item for signing up for the loyalty program and another for visiting the restaurant for a birthday meal. If you’re concerned about guests who sign up for the loyalty program just for the birthday offer and promptly unsubscribe, you can set the program to require signup at least 30 days prior to the subscriber’s birthday.

List your restaurant happy hour details on the Just Happy Hours happy hour finder app for free!