1. A LOW COST GUIDE TO
RESTAURANT PROMOTION

2. RESTAURANT MARKETING
 Less people are choosing to eat out in restaurants,
seeing the practice as a luxury expense.
 This makes attracting regular business more
challenging for the business owners
 There are of course a multitude of factors causing the
success and failure of a restaurant
 A wide range of Food PR and marketing tactics are
available to restaurants to help in promoting your
food, restaurant and attracting new and regular
customers. These tactics don’t need to be expensive
just effective, and it is often the simplest and
cheapest ideas which can provide the biggest pay
offs.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA
 Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites provide a
cheap (often free) means to attracting prospects to your
restaurant.
 Interact with them and convert them from curious browsers to
committed fans.
 Facebook is full of tools and different means to decipher valuable
marketing information about people who are interested or not
interested in your restaurant
 Running promotions, giveaways and encouraging positive word of
mouth sharing can lead to a rapid increase in followers
 This leads to every future news story or promotion being seen by
an ever wider collection of people.
 A strong presence in the online world will ensure you remain front
of mind for customers old and new.

4. GENERATE POSITIVE WORD OF MOUTH
 Visitors and tourists will likely not know about your restaurant
 Visitors will likely ask around for a good place to eat.
 Get to know all the nearby hotels, bed and breakfasts and other
establishments and ensure that your restaurant is recommended
above all else.
 Provide a regular stack of menus, gift vouchers and tokens to
hand out to interested guests and always inform them of any
special events or menu changes.
 Keeping on side with local hotel and concierge staff will extend
your outreach massively and attract a whole new avenue of
business.
 Encourage satisfied guests to share their experiences with friends
and family to generate further positive word of mouth business.

5. FESTIVALS AND EVENTS
 Establishing a strong presence for your restaurant within the local
area generates positive word of mouth feedback and helps you to
build a good reputation in the eyes of the public.
 You need to be visible and memorable in your area in order to get
people through the door
 Attend local events and food festivals. Hire a stall at a local event
and aim to spread the word amongst the community as far and
wide as possible.
 Provide lots of takeaways for people to get back in touch and
collect contact information from any interested people.
 Hand out menus, business cards and vouchers to as many
people as possible.
 Treat the event as a means to promote your restaurant and
improve your visibility, not simply profit making.

6. EMAIL AND DATABASE MARKETING
 Email and database marketing still holds a valuable place in the
food and restaurant industry.
 Loyalty card schemes are rife throughout supermarkets as a
means of collecting marketing data on shopping habits and
contact information of customers.
 Restaurants are no different in their desire to horde customer
information.
 Developing and maintaining contact lists or a database of
customers can lead to a range of marketing and promotion
strategies.
 Sending out regular email messages containing current
promotions or advertising new menu items is a virtually cost free
means to promote your company to thousands of interested
people.
 Keeping on top of customer contact information can also help you
to develop more personal relationships with regular customers.

7. SUMMARY
 More and more people are turning towards cheaper fast food
dining when it comes to eating out – if they even dine in
restaurants at all.
 This makes marketing and promoting a restaurant significantly
challenging, particularly for higher end establishments.
 People are still willing to pay for a product or service of
exceptional quality.
 Word of mouth remains the strongest means to promoting a
restaurant, whether that is through traditional means or online.
 A little imagination and creativity can get people in through the
door.
 From there, exceptional quality of service and food in a pleasant
environment will lead to plenty happy and repeat customers.