Because of the hyper-competitiveness of the food service niche market, eateries need to use a wide array of advertising and restaurant marketing techniques to attract clients. Restaurant promotions are among the most common ways food service businesses can boost their revenue. There are various types of restaurant promotions – loyalty programs, bundles, happy hours, and more. They might also have different goals. For example, some specials aim to promote new menu items, while others might be focused on boosting restaurant and catering sales during slow days or seasons. In the next paragraphs, we will share more about restaurant promotions, the most common types, and how food service businesses can benefit from them.
Key takeaway: Food service businesses can use restaurant promotions to achieve different goals. Some of them can be used to promote a new location, while others are suitable to test new menu items.
What Are Restaurant Promotions
Using restaurant promotions is essentially a marketing strategy to incentivize customers toward a specific goal. Some businesses mistakenly set too broad intentions like “increase revenue”. In order for restaurant promotions to be successful, they need to have objective and measurable goals. For example, a happy hour promo can be used to attract customers during off-peak hours. On the other hand, organizing tasting events or using the premises as a commissary kitchen for cooking classes can introduce additional revenue streams.
If you plan to introduce restaurant promotions, make sure you’re well aware of the specific goals you want to achieve. Furthermore, such special deals are often subject to testing and adaptation. You can introduce a promo and then change it to fit your company's needs better.
Promo Types and Restaurant Promotion Ideas
There are various types of restaurant promotions. Some of them are more suitable for small and independent restaurants, while others can help large chains achieve their business goals. Here are a few restaurant promotion ideas that can help your food service business.
- Discounts and coupons. Although they are among the simplest promos, their effectiveness has been proven over time. Discounts can be for a certain percentage or buy-two-get-one-free. Their goal can be to promote a specific menu item or to encourage visitors who look for more affordable options.
- Happy hours. Their goal is to encourage visitors during off-peak hours by offering reduced food and beverage prices.
- Restaurant loyalty program. By offering rewards to repeat customers, businesses can establish long-term loyalty among their clients.
- Themed nights. Restaurants can attract guests who enjoy specific dishes by introducing themed nights. For example, burger Mondays for a juicy start of the week, wine Thursday to give you the strength to go one more workday, or other creative marketing ideas.
- Limited-time bundles or seasonal dishes. In addition to creating a sense of urgency, these restaurant promotions also have the potential to reduce an eatery’s cost of goods sold by using more seasonal ingredients. Furthermore, using local and seasonal products is one of the best ways to make your food service business more sustainable. Read more about that in our guide for eco-friendly restaurants.
- Social media or gamified restaurant promotions. Businesses in the food and beverage industry can encourage customers to leave a review or post on social media about their dining experience for the chance to win a small prize. This improves their experience and makes them more likely to tell their friends about it.
Benefits of Restaurant Promotions
Although offering specials or introducing a loyalty program is associated with increasing the revenue of the business, restaurant managers have other reasons to offer promotions. For example, some customers may increase their tips (read more about restaurant tipping) if they get a combination of excellent service from waiters and a special offer. Additionally, thanks to restaurant promotions, eateries can test their menu design and engineering. Food service businesses that use QR codes for restaurant menus can easily introduce new special deals and track their sales and customer feedback. Other restaurant technology trends, like restaurant data analytics solutions, can also help in that regard.
Restaurant promotions can also be used to promote a new establishment. They are a way to increase brand awareness and can significantly help a recently opened restaurant to become popular among locals.
Other Restaurant Marketing Techniques
- Social media marketing on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
- Email marketing aimed at promoting new menu items or events to loyal customers.
- Local partnerships with other businesses like wineries or farms.
- Influencer marketing campaigns to promote new menu items, a new location, or achieve other business objectives.
- Being featured on local news can create a buzz around your business and bring new customers.
- Having a well-made website and offering online food ordering and delivery has become paramount in recent years.
- Paid ads on Google, Facebook, or other platforms can be used to retarget previous visitors, reach new customers, or popularize restaurant promotions to a broad audience.
Frequently Asked Questions about Restaurant Promotions
From guides on how to combat restaurant inflation to resources on pairings in restaurants and using food costing software, there are useful posts on BlueCart’s website. Check out our answers to common questions about restaurant promotions and their role in the food service sector.
How to Increase Restaurant Revenue?
There are many ways for food service businesses to increase their revenue. Attracting more customers and increasing the value are common ones. Additionally, eateries can focus on reducing their costs. Through investments in restaurant technology and software solutions for food service businesses, restaurants can automate various processes and improve their profitability. The key to restaurant success is to increase revenue while improving profitability. Thus, eateries need to simultaneously add more revenue streams, invest in marketing and restaurant customer acquisition, reduce their cost of goods sold, and scale their business.
What Are Restaurant Promo Codes?
Restaurant promo codes are coupons that customers can claim in order to get a discount on their order. It’s common for restaurant promo codes to be redeemable when ordering online. In addition to promo codes, some eateries also offer vouchers and reloadable gift cards. These items can be used as personal or corporate gifts. Food service businesses can significantly benefit from offering promo codes in addition to restaurant promotions. Promo codes create a sense of urgency as they often need to be redeemed within a specific time frame. Furthermore, they can have additional terms such as being used only during weekdays.
How to Scale a Restaurant Business?
Growing their company is the goal of every business owner. However, scaling a food service business is harder as its business model is often complex and might require large capital investments. In order to scale a restaurant, you need to optimize operations and improve efficiency. Once that’s done, the same good practices can be used at new locations. Some food service businesses can be scaled by adding more revenue streams. That includes introducing online ordering, selling restaurant merchandise, or organizing events. Nevertheless, the most popular way to scale a restaurant business is to open new locations.
BlueCart: A Solution for the Restaurant Industry
Although our platform is known as one of the best solutions for specialized and broadline distributors, BlueCart also has multiple solutions for food service businesses. That includes food inventory management functionalities, an endless aisle where businesses can find suppliers and easily order in bulk, tools to calculate the profitability of different restaurant recipes, and more. If you operate a food service business and wish to benefit from BlueCart as a buyer, simply sign up today. Suppliers can schedule a demo and see how our platform can help increase their wholesale sales.