Restaurant Promotion: 17 Best Tactics for 2022

The greatest challenge for restaurant marketers or agencies with restaurant clients is to make their restaurant stand out in a crowded market, even when they offer the same food items as other restaurants in the neighborhood. A solid marketing strategy requires devising restaurant promotion ideas and attracting a customer base to increase sales.

To assist you with devising marketing strategies, you need to be armed with the best tools, and hence many marketers and agencies turn to Postalytics.

The Postalytics platform offers quick and easy-to-use features that you can use to create an impactful campaign efficiently and effectively. Postalytics has CRM integration options, multiple options to create marketing collateral such as postcards, and automated direct mail features.

Below we will provide some restaurant promotion ideas to create a unique campaign for your client or restaurant business.

Direct Mail Promotion for Restaurant Industry

Direct mail marketing is a powerful tactic that can assist in attracting restaurant customers.

One of the major benefits of using direct mail over other methods is that it is highly targeted. When using Postalytics, our targeting options allow you to send your message to the right audience.

Personalizing your message will also help drive new and repeat customers. With our easy-to-use templates, you use the receiver’s name, add images and graphics, and write personalized messages.

We offer free templates for you to use, or you can create your own. Marketing agencies can even opt for a white-label solution. With the Postalytics Agency Edition, you get unlimited white label client accounts and dashboards that deliver the user experience that you need. Use your agency logo and color scheme. Give your clients delivery, and response data they never dreamed was possible with direct mail. All with your agency look and feel.

You can also use automated direct mail to augment your email & digital strategies. An easy way to start is by sending a direct mail piece to all email non-responders.

You can send the following direct mail campaign via our platform:

Flyers

Flyers are ideal options to promote a restaurant, build their brand, announce a special event or offer discounts. There are a range of food promotion ideas that can be promoted on restaurant flyers and mailed. In addition, you can add QR codes to flyers that drive people to a dedicated landing page- perfect for showing your menu online, happy hour deals, or special promotions.

Brochures

Postalytics also help you create restaurant brochures to send to potential clients and local businesses. Best of all, there is no need to worried about negotiating printing or mailing costs, as Postalytics does for you. Again, saving you or your agency time and money.

Postcards

Postcards are another great way to build brand recognition. When people receive a physical piece of mail, they are more likely to engage and take action. Postcards can be used to send a birthday offer or introduce a loyalty program. The personal contact that a postcard offers is sure to delight customers.

If you don’t have a big marketing budget, no need to worry, Postalytics has no minimum orders. So you can run a direct mail campaign of any size and still take advantage of our new technology self-service tool for direct mail that creates, automates, prints, ships, and tracks your direct mail.

Looking for more restaurant promotion ideas? Then read on!

The Big Opening Launch Promotion

Direct mail advertising makes it easier and simpler to target potential customers when you want to promote a restaurant’s big opening. You can set up and launch mass campaigns in a manner of minutes and then track the results via the Postalytics platform.

Using QR codes and personalized URLs also helps provide data for your campaign and allows you to track which customers are responding to the campaign.

You can send flyers and postcards to targeted customers based on distance from the restaurant, neighborhood, median household income, and age group. You can opt to generate leads through Postalytics using our free lead lists for target demographics.

Local Events Promotion

If you want to target the local community, you should participate in local events. Is there a local sports team you can work with to run a campaign? Can you participate in events being held by local businesses? For example, running a food truck at local events is ideal for getting a restaurant’s name known. A great restaurant promotion is to have a food truck at music events.

If your restaurant does participate in a local event, ensure to ask for a list of attendees so you can follow up with a direct mail campaign. Offer customers a discounted menu item, free coffee, or free desserts to drive more sales

Charities Promotion

Supporting a charity can encourage target customers to visit a restaurant. One of the best restaurant promotions is to offer a small percentage of profits for a day to a worthwhile cause. Promoting a restaurant’s affiliation with a charity can drive more customers.

Celebrities and Influencer Promotion

We all know that food bloggers and influencers can encourage people to act. Contact an influencer or well-known food blogger and ask them to visit the restaurant. Posts on social media channels by a food blogger can really drive restaurant sales.

You can combine this with running restaurant promotion campaigns on your restaurant’s social media platforms or other online sites.

Holiday Promotions

Food lovers love to go out during the holiday season and on special occasions. A direct mail strategy can help promote menu items during key holiday purchasing seasons. For example, a popular restaurant promotion idea is to run a Mother’s Day campaign. You could also push Saint Patrick’s day in a direct mail campaign offering drink specials or free fries to both first-time customers and regular customers.

Loyalty and Reward Schemes

Loyalty programs and rewards schemes can attract repeat customers.

And any marketer knows that the best customers are loyal ones. Offering discounts and free food by earning loyalty points can encourage regular repeat visits. You can send mail to loyal customers to keep them updated on their status and incentivize them to visit.

Takeout Promotion

Savvy marketers also promote takeaway services to target people who prefer eating at home.

You can send menus to your database, highlighting takeaway options, family meal kits, to-go cocktails, etc.

Delivery Company Promotion

If you are a restaurant owner or marketer, you can run a promotion with your local delivery service. Promote online ordering for your restaurant and get the delivery company to push in their social media channels.

One-Off “Pop-Up” Promotions

“Pop-up” promotions are a great way to get noticed on social media, feature in user-generated content, and perhaps even attract free advertising.

You could set up a food truck in an unexpected place or visit an office and offer your food to staff. Cross-promoting with another restaurant is also a way for a restaurant to get noticed.

There are many creative ways that marketers can run pop-ups.

Discount Promotions

Restaurant owners often add discounts and coupons into their marketing strategies to increase customer loyalty and boost sales conversion rates. People love discounts, and sending offer discounts in the mail is a great way to boost sales.

Special Deal Promotions For Previous and New Customers

Other promotional deals that work well in a direct mail campaign include:

BOGO

Bogo refers to a discount when a person buys one or more items and gets an additional one at a discounted price or completely free. You can add BOGO coupons to any flyer, brochure, or postcard.

Happy Hours

Introducing happy hour is a common way for restaurants to motivate people to visit. Happy hour can be at any time and any day of the week and can be used to fill quieter service periods.

Free Dessert / Free Starter Promotions

We all love getting something for free, especially a free meal. If you don’t have the budget for a free meal, you can provide a free starter or dessert for brand promotion.

Lunch Promotions

As many people prefer to dine at night, you can incentivize them to visit during lunch with a tasty promotion.

Weekday Promotions

One of restaurants’ greatest challenges is getting people to visit during the week. Running a campaign with a weekday promotion is an effective way to combat this.

Social Media Promotion

While direct mail is perhaps the most powerful marketing tool, there is also a need for a social media strategy for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These can reinforce the traditional advertising campaigns that you run.

Newsletters and SMS promotions for restaurant

You can ask visitors to your restaurant website to provide data such as mobile numbers and emails. This data can be used for email newsletters and SMS promotions.

Like direct mail campaigns, you can send discount offers, coupon codes, and deals through newsletters or SMS.

Freebie Promotions

As we have said, people love things for free.

Offering smaller select menu items for free will entice customers to spend on bigger and more profitable food items. Promote your freebie offers in direct mail marketing campaigns and tell your clients why they need to visit.

Partnerships Promotions

Restaurants can partner with local businesses and run partnership promotions. You can promote partnerships in newsletters, postcards, letters, and emails. Partnering with a credible or well-known local organization will help build your brand recognition and credibility.

Online Order or Delivery Promotions

As many people prefer to order online, running a delivery promotion is a great way to engage customers. Offering free delivery is a great incentive for people to try a new restaurant. Just be sure the online ordering process is simple, and the delivery can be easily fulfilled.

Restaurant Promotions: Final Thoughts

Whether it is an Italian, Asian, or Mexican restaurant or small food stall or food chain, as a marketer, you need a great strategy to ensure your restaurant will attract customers.

While we have listed a few marketing ideas, the best tool any marketer can have is Postalytics.

Our platform allows you to send letters, postcards, and flyers to your target demographics easily and effectively. In addition, you can track metrics of any campaign, and retargeting email non-responders is made easy.

We offer white label solutions for marketing agencies and handle the printing and postage, eliminating the hassle and ensuring you receive the best price. If you are serious about restaurant promotion and attracting new customers, then follow the button below.