50 Creative Restaurant Marketing ideas & Strategies

Do you run a restaurant business and you want to increase customer loyalty and product sales? If YES, here 50 creative restaurant marketing ideas & branding strategies.

Starting a Restaurant Business – Market Feasibility and Research

• Demographics and Psychographics

As far as food is concerned, there are no defined demography that needs it. Every human needs food. It means that everybody i.e. the old, the young, children and teenagers et al, all have need of food and they are all potential customers of the restaurant industry. In essence, the target market for restaurant cum food business cuts across people of all walks of life, since everybody needs food to survive.

Well it is important to note that various restaurants most often design their restaurant business to service specific demography and this reflects in their choice of location and the type of restaurant that they choose to operate. For example, a restaurant can choose to start an intercontinental restaurant and also to locate their restaurant in highbrow area of town.

In order to stay focused on the kind of business brand they intend building, most restaurant would usually define certain groups of people as their target demography and it could fall under any of the category listed below;

• Students
• Working class
• Migrants
• International Tourists
• Top Executives
• Families
• Celebrities
• The Diplomatic Community
• Residence
• Corporate Organizations

50 Creative Restaurant Marketing ideas & Strategies

• Marketing ideas and strategies for a restaurant business

It is important to clearly state that in this dispensation, customers use the Internet to find restaurants, to read reviews, to view menus, and of course to reserve tables online; loads of processes have gone digital. This is why most restaurants are increasingly adopting technology and the internet for marketing and advertising their restaurants.

You can check here for a sample restaurant marketing plan template and ideas you can use for FREE. Below are some of the marketing ideas and strategies that you can adopt for your restaurant business;

• Direct Marketing
• Sponsor TV and Radio Programs
• Erect your Billboards in Strategic locations around the city
• Making use of sales Agents and sales reps
• Online Marketing (via your official website, social media platforms and blog et al)
• Referral Marketing
• Revenue Sharing Business Partners (Event Planners and Contractors)
• Public relations during exhibitions

Factors That Will Help You Get the Right product pricing for your Restaurant Business

It is a fact that any fluctuation in food cost directly impacts margins. One of the ways to get the right pricing and still make reasonable profit from restaurant business is to ensure that you buy foods and ingredients in bulk and perhaps directly from a farm market. This will help you to mitigate cost mitigate cost fluctuations.

Guerrilla Marketing Strategies for Our Restaurant Business

• Creating Brand Identity for Our Restaurant Business
  

It is very imperative that one eyes the big picture in branding. Why is this so? This is essentially so because of the need to explore all available means to get words out to all and sundry about our restaurant business. As such, we will to utilize every available means (conventional and non – conventional means) to advertise and promote the business. Boosting our brand awareness will a go a long way to endear us to the available market.

Here are the ways we intend creating brand identity of our restaurant business

• Designing a unique corporate logo
• Place adverts on both print and electronic media platforms
• Ensure that our workers wear our branded shirts at all times during working hours and also when we have to go man some tasks outdoors.
• Place our flexi banners with our company’s logo and contacts in strategic positions
• Sponsor relevant TV programs
• Cater for celebrities whenever there is a big show.
• Cater for celebrities when they are in a movie set.
• Maximize our company’s website to promote our business
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook ,Twitter, LinkedIn, Badoo, Snap Chat, Google+ and other platforms to promote our corporate brand
• Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in targeted areas from time to time

• Possible Competitive Strategies for Winning your Competitors in the Restaurant Industry

When it comes to competing favorably in the restaurant industry, you would have to be very creative to stay on top. Quality and mouthwatering meals, assorted meals, excellent customer service and easy to locate facility are some of the factors that you can serve as your competitive advantage.

• Possible Ways to Increase Customer Retention for your Restaurant Business

No doubt one of the strategies that you would need in order to generate repeated sales from your customers and also to retain them is to ensure that the quality and taste of your food and your customer service delivery are always on point.

The truth is that if the taste and quality of your food and customer service delivery fluctuates, you are likely going to struggle to get your customers coming back. People usually go for food that taste pretty great. You can also make uses of promotional ideas such as loyalty schemes, direct marketing, door drops, and merchandising.

Actionable Marketing ideas for Our Restaurant Business

Cost Effective Ways We Intend to Advertise/ Promote Our Restaurant without Using the Internet

Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on when it comes to advertising and promoting our restaurant business in the market place;

• Place adverts on national TV stations, Radio Stations and Newspapers / Magazines
• Sponsor relevant community program
• Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations
• Engage in road show from time to time
• Distribute our fliers and handbills to targeted areas from time to time
• Send out introductory letters to corporate organizations and households within our target market locations.
• Ensures that our workers wear our branded shirts at all times during working hours and also we will make sure we brand our vans, trucks and cars et al.

Affordable Ways We Intend to Advertise/ Promote Our Restaurant Business on the Internet

We are quite aware that the internet is presently the biggest platform when it comes advertising / promoting any business, and one good thing about adverting on the internet that is far cheaper than other conventional advertising platforms. This is one of the reasons why we will ensure that we explore all available on the internet to advertise our services.

Here are they ways we intend leveraging on the internet to advertise / promote our food services:

• Leverage on social media platforms such as; Instagram, Facebook , Badoo, Snap chat, YouTube, Twitter, Google + et al
• Begin to blog about foods and foods services.
• Start a website about our restaurant, where people can also place orders.
• Design an interactive corporate website and use the platform to promote our restaurant business
• Place adverts on high traffic websites
• Engage in blogging and make use of the platform to promote our foods services
• Leverage on email marketing strategy to advertise and promote our restaurant.

Creative Marketing Ideas Specific to Our Restaurant

Creativity is one of the things that make businesses stand out. Those businesses that already enjoy great referrals from advertisements have indeed brought a lot of uniqueness to the table. This should also hold sway with the restaurant business. We have to be able to think outside the box, or even without a box, to make sure that we reach the target people we want to visit our restaurant, as well as award us outdoor catering contracts.

These are some of the marketing ideas and strategies that we will adopt for our restaurant business:

• Direct Marketing
• Making use of sales Agents and sales reps
• Leverage on Online Marketing (via our official website, social media platforms, direct email marketing and blog et al)
• Leverage on Referral Marketing
• Revenue Sharing Business Partners
• Public relations during exhibitions
• Give free meals
• Have Open House Meal tasting days

Creating your Restaurant’s Suppliers/Distribution Network

If you are running a restaurant, it is very important that you create channels for vendors to supply you raw foods and other cooking ingredients. It will save you time and perhaps cost especially if they own farms where the needed raw foods and ingredients are cultivated. In order not to be disappointed, it will be wise to have more than one vendor / suppliers.