3 Promotion Ideas to Help Your Restaurant Stand Out

June 26, 2019

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You’re up at dawn and managing your restaurant until late in the day.

With so many dining options competing for diner’s attention, you might be asking yourself how to market your restaurant to gain a competitive edge and attract new customers.

With new establishments popping up every month, it can be hard to get your message in front of the people who love the food you serve. In a noisy marketplace, how can customers hear your voice and enjoy the dining experience you offer?

We will leave you in charge of the food and share some unique restaurant promotion ideas you can use to attract and retain a larger customer base.

Marketing your restaurant effectively depends on how you engage potential customers in unique and memorable ways. Here are three restaurant promotion ideas to use for your business.

1. Start with High Quality Photography

How often to you visit a restaurant and end up ordering something you saw in a photo?

How often do your guests post photos of the food they enjoy?

Researchers say that people eat with their eyes first, so it makes sense to share high quality photos of your food. A high-quality photo helps people envision an experience and make a great first impression.

“As a chef, I won’t get a second opportunity to make a first impression. A badly presented meal will set the mood for the rest of the customer’s dining experience.”
— Jason Ford, Ford on Food

To take full advantage of this promotion idea, we recommend posting your photos on a regular schedule. And the best part? You don’t have to use a professional photographer to capture the character of your food. The mobile phone in your pocket takes beautiful photos, especially when you follow our tips for lighting and composition.

Follow these few quick tips to help people imagine what your food will taste like when they see it with their eyes:

Use natural lighting
Try strong color contrast
Incorporate a simple background
Remember the rule of thirds: Place the hero of your photo 1/3 of the way from top, bottom or sides — not the center
Tile your camera slightly to create drama in the photo
Have only one point of focus (your food!)
Take photos of your dishes paired with a recommended beverage

How can you market your restaurant even more with this strategy?

When you post your photos on social media, include hashtags. Hashtags help other people find your photos and your restaurant, leading to a more effective social media presence and interest from prospective customers.

Don’t forget to feature your food photos on Yelp, Trip Advisor, and of course your Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Bonus tip: Encourage your guest to post their photos of your food. Place a table tent on the table with a hashtag that references your restaurant. It’s part of the experience!

2. Grow your Audience with Food Bloggers and Influencers

You could have the best food in town, but if people aren’t hearing about it, it’s bound to hurt your business. One of our favorite restaurant promotion ideas is to invite food bloggers to visit your restaurant and share their experience to create buzz about your business. There is no shortage of food bloggers who love to experience the cuisine you have to offer.

First, do a little research to find food bloggers in your area that have interest in the type of food you offer. When you identify your best prospects, invite them to your restaurant and entice them with a free meal, dessert, or appetizer. Be sure to ask them if they would like to objectively review your restaurant and share their experience online.

For example, standing out in the restaurant industry can be as simple as having the right endorsements from influential people in Nashville. Since there are plenty of food bloggers that have large followings, one review can have a large impact on your business.

If you’re asking yourself how to market your restaurant, finding food influencers is a great place to start.

3. Sponsor a Social Media Contest

From Yelp to Instagram, so much of the restaurant promotion scene involves social media, but simply posting sometimes isn’t enough. This restaurant promotion idea takes that inspiration and turns it into a social media contest.

Contests are a great way to keep your customer base engaged with and encourage loyalty for your restaurant when they aren’t there.

Getting started is easy. We recommend using Instagram, given the importance of photos when it comes to the food industry. Think about how you want to engage your audience.

For example, if you want people to be more engaged with your food, create a photo contest where your followers compete to take the best picture of your food and share it with a hashtag like #instafood that you can track. Check out the most popular hashtags and give your posts a boost!

To be successful, this idea requires you to offer some kind of incentive for participation. When you promise the winner a gift card and a special shout out from your business, they’ll enjoy their next meal and 15 minutes of fame!

An extra benefit of social media contests is that you’ll get tons of great content that can help fuel any other unique restaurant promotions ideas you come up with on your own. For example, you could use the customer photos from your contest and update your menu. Crediting the images on your menu to real customers creates a deeper level of engagement that other restaurants might not have.

Bonus tip: One restaurant and brewery in the Midwest encourages patrons to take selfies wearing a shirt from the restaurant when they travel. Guests have shared photos from as far away as Barcelona, Spain; The Arctic Circle; and Singapore. Combine this idea with a social media contest, and you’ll have lots to talk about when they visit!

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