In this article, you will learn the best local marketing ideas for restaurants. “Local” is the focus here, so we’ll discuss how you can get more eyeballs in your immediate neighborhood. Sure, some of these restaurant marketing ideas may also get you outstation sales but that will surely be a bonus.
Most of these techniques require almost 0 investment from your end. For most of these techniques, I’ve backed up the strategy with data and numbers, to prove it works.
The majority of these are non-technical methods and can be implemented by you even if you aren’t a tech-savvy person.
Before we start, I urge you not to ignore the “bottom line” section at the very end of this piece. That section probably will offer you the most effective tips that exist. Let’s get started then.
1. Target students with your promotions
This is one of the oldest local store marketing ideas in the book.
Students are your biggest “group customers”. As they come out of their schools and colleges, hungry, they need a place to eat. Generally, one student invites another, who invites a third and the chain grows. Students do a lot of things “together”. You’ll rarely see a student eating alone. At least they’ve their romantic partners with them.
This is why McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, most airlines, Microsoft, and almost every big brand are big on student discounts!
The point is, whatever strategies you apply from this guide, at least some of those should be tailored or specialized for students.
And this has nothing to do with your restaurant’s proximity to a school or college. As a general rule, a student has more time than money. Hence, they don’t mind driving an extra mile which costs them 5 minutes but saves them 5 bucks!
Hence, introduce discounts and offers that can only be availed by students.
2. Introduce group offers
The goal of your local restaurant marketing should be to “increase” the number of customers. Or at least the visibility and exposure of your restaurant. This is best done by introducing “group” offers.
Group offers are discounts, special free items, or anything else that customers get when they come in as a “group”.
Imagine there’s a group offer giving away a 20% discount on a group of 3. If two people have plans, they may try to include one other person. It’s a win-win situation. They’ll end up paying 20% extra if they don’t form a group anyway, so they include a third person and split the bill which saves them money and gets you one extra customer.
Some groups offer ideas you can implement to market your restaurant locally:
- Percent discounts: X% on the total bill.
- Fixed discount: $X off the total bill
- Free Drinks or snacks if the total bill exceeds X amount.
- Special group meals that can only be ordered by a group.
3. Loyalty Programs
Did you know it costs up to 10x more to acquire a new customer as compared to selling to an existing customer? But, you don’t even need data to understand why this works. Loyalty programs are programs that offer benefits and discounts to “returning” customers. So, people generally don’t get anything on their first visit, but rather on the second (or even third, if you want to).
You can offer coupons to your first-time visitors. The coupons can offer anything you want. They can be a percent discount, redeemable points, fixed discount, or even for free drinks.
Here’s why it works:
To prove it works, here’s a study that found coupon-holders visit a restaurant almost twice as often as those who don’t have a coupon! Here’s the “why”:
- The customer remembers your restaurant because they know they’ll get an offer if they come back here.
- They feel special and recognized. This increases their chances of introducing your restaurant to others. These new customers continue this Loyalty program chain and your restaurant grows.
Some of the best loyalty program ideas you can implement:
- Tiered-loyalty programs: You can create “levels”. These levels are unlocked by the number of times customers visit your restaurant or the amount they spend. Higher levels unlock better deals.
- Referral program: Add an extra incentive to your loyalty program, e.g. a 5% extra discount or free fries if a returning customer brings in a friend. This 5% extra benefit should be on top of the loyalty benefits that they’re supposed to get anyway.
- Point-based loyalty programs: Instead of offering discounts or items directly, let your customer choose. Every visit may earn the customer X points. Each point should be equal to $X in your restaurant. The customer can choose to redeem these points however they want.
- Loyalty-only dish: You can keep 1 (or a few) dishes that can only be ordered by your loyal/returning customers. You may decide X number of previous visits or X points or any other metric you want. This will make these customers feel special and give new customers reasons to return.
How to create Loyalty programs:
The easiest way is to print out coupons. You can use tools like Canva to create one in seconds. Here are some Canva templates where you can simply upload your logo and change the text.
If you wish to go digital, you can use loyalty program software like Bingage and Xeno that can track visits, spends, referrals, and more for your customers.
Host physical stalls at schools, parks, and residential areas.
When thinking of local restaurant marketing ideas, you must target “local” establishments. This is crucial at least for new restaurants who are just trying to introduce themselves.
You can set up stalls in schools & colleges, in parks, or anywhere else that has a population. Offer free drinks or fries, or maybe a heavily discounted sample menu.
The goal isn’t to make sales or profits. The goal is to get noticed. Ensure the customers get the best experience here, make sure they remember your address.
It works because even if a person doesn’t physically come to your stall, they’ll see your stall. This will tell them you exist. Your goal has been achieved.
Ensure you have the proper permissions before doing this.
Here’s why it works:
- Physical presence is always stronger than a digital signboard. If people see you, your staff, and your menu physically, it creates a much stronger impact.
- Prepare a sample menu and serve small-portion sample dishes. This tells the visitors what they can expect at the actual restaurant.
- You get a chance to make their stall visit memorable. If this first touch goes well, customers may visit your restaurant simply because of the experience you provided earlier.
5. Get listed on Google My Business
This is probably the first “technical” aspect we’re discussing. It also is probably the first and most important task you should do when thinking about local restaurant marketing.
Google My Business listing is simply listing your business on Google. 97% of users like to learn about businesses online.
In fact, as soon as someone sees your stall, hoarding, or anything else, what do they do? They try to search for you. They do this to either check your reviews, the location, or the ambiance of the place.
Getting listed on Google My Business has tons of other benefits like:
- You can respond to reviews posted by others.
- You can add your own photos to attract more customers.
- No one else can claim your listings.
Here’s a detailed guide on how to get listed on Google My Business
6. Local Hotspot Marketing
This is one of the most creative local marketing ideas for restaurants. You choose a hotspot in your local area. A place everyone knows and goes to. It can be a bridge, a market, or even a road.
You need to design your campaign around this hotspot. Some ideas you can use:
- Ask people to go to the location and tag your cafe. You may offer any promotion (discount/free dish).
- Ask users to take photos of your restaurant’s food using this local hotspot in the background for a discount/prize.
- You may even incorporate themes from this local hotspot in your restaurant.
The entire point of doing this is to tell your audience that you’re local and you respect the local culture. Plus, any marketing stunt that involves local hotspots may garner extra local attention from the locals.
7. Register on local food delivery apps
No, this isn’t simply about “getting more orders”. That’s a sales technique, not what we’re covering in this guide. However, I feel it’s important to mention that 70% of users prefer ordering online as compared to going out.
Registering on local food delivery apps has more than just “sales” to offer:
- Research has found that users who order online are 67% more likely to visit that restaurant than those who don’t.
- Even if no one orders or visits your restaurants, they definitely see your restaurant on the apps. Especially because these apps show all local restaurants to a user. Hence, in the worst-case scenario, you get free exposure and eyeballs.
- You can reach your customers directly. With the right offers, the apps will display your restaurant directly to the users. Yes, even if they don’t search for you directly.
Some food delivery apps you must be on include:
- GrubHub
- Uber Eats
- DoorDash.
8. Social media presence and marketing
Social media is ripe with potential customers for your restaurants. What you lack is the exposure and magnet to pull them in. Social media marketing is that magnet:
How to get started with social media marketing:
- Register your restaurant’s username across all social media platforms.
- Follow your competitors. Yes, competitors. This tells the algorithm who you are and you may be shown as a “suggested profile” to those who follow your competitors.
- Start posting consistently. Photos of your dishes, your restaurant, or even staff members’ work! Create banners, flyers, and marketing materials. It’s best if you schedule your content. You can also use social media monitoring tools to analyze the best time to post, the most effective content, etc.
- You can also host digital events. Create a simple event flyer, and ask users to share it. Pick X number of people from those who share and offer them discounts/free dishes. As it’s a local community, this small investment will get you the most conversion-oriented eyeballs.
9. Oldest but effective ways to market your restaurant locally
Okay, we’ve discussed all the “creative” local store marketing ideas. As they say, Old school is the new school.
So, get started with flyers! You’re targeting a local community. You may distribute flyers at the local gas station, movie hall, bus stand, or anywhere else. It’s a good idea to combine this flyer with some offer, an extra incentive for people to not throw your flyer and actually come in.
Local partnerships are another perfect attention grabber too. The same flyers you were delivering, can be better delivered. Partner up with your local gas stations and other businesses. They share your flyer with every customer who walks in. Now, most customers walking in already have a relationship with these businesses. Hence, sharing your flyer feels like an endorsement.
Of course, you can go all in and hire big, bold hoardings as well. These are generally more expensive but the most attention-grabbing. How well they work or do not work depends on the area of the hoarding, the hoarding crowd near yours, and so on.
You could also donate your leftover food each day! This has two benefits. First, someone gets fed. Second, people know you care. Emotion is a big seller and if it’s done helping someone, no losses there eh?
Bottomline- Which are the best marketing ideas for restaurants?
The absolute best marketing idea is -” quality” and “rationally-priced” food. No matter what marketing strategy you use, you can never get someone to return without ensuring well-priced quality food. These factors do not work individually either. The food must be both of good taste and quality, as well as priced within reason.
On top of that, the customer service has to be flawless. I’m sure you can remember ticking off restaurants in your life simply because of rude, delayed, or bad customer service, can’t you?
In other words, use all the local restaurant marketing ideas mentioned above but without skipping quality, price, and customer service.
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