22 Restaurant Marketing Ideas For More Regular Customers

You need consistent business for your restaurant to survive — period!

But without proven restaurant marketing ideas you can use to drive in hungry patrons on the regular…

You’ll be frantically staring at the front door, wondering where in the world your customers are! (Hint: they’re at your competitor’s table.)

So here are 22 proven-to-work restaurant advertising methods you can use to promote your restaurant and drive in more regular business.

1. Stop blending in with all of your competition

Let me be honest…

There is NO shortage of restaurants who claim to cook the best food.

So before you spend 1 dime on restaurant marketing strategies, come up with the #1 reason WHY your prospects should even choose YOU vs. your endless competition.

Also called a Unique Selling Proposition (USP), you simply need a definitive statement which outlines:

• Who you are (Your purpose! Your team!)
• What specific (or special) food (or beverage) you provide
• Maybe how you prepare it
• Or with what special ingredients
• Or how you’re faster (or not)
• Essentially — how you do food BETTER
• And why you’re even in business

It’s not too complicated…

FREE report: How to write a mouth-watering Unique Selling Proposition in 2 minutes

Then once you have your USP down on paper?

You’re going to drench the rest of your restaurant advertising with it.

Your USP will go on:

• Your website
• Your restaurant postcards
• Signs
• Business cards/flyers
• Social media pages, posts, and ads
• Your online listing pages (i.e. Yelp!)
• And virtually any restaurant advertising you do.

That way it’s crystal clear WHY a prospect should choose YOUR place vs. your competitors.

So get your USP in the bag, and you’re ready for this next one…

2. Look like THE spot to eat at in town

Meaning:

You need a classy, non-dated logo professionally designed for your restaurant.

Here’s why:

Your branding instantly communicates what type of food and dining experience your customers will get with you.

So if your logo looks like this:

Customers automatically think:

Cheap fast food.

Which is fine if that’s truly what you’re offering!

My point is this:

Your logo must look legit and communicate the type of food and experience your customers will get with you.

So if you’re a high-end bar and bistro, you’d want something like this:

Remember this too:

Your logo highlights your restaurant’s NAME, which is likely what customers will use to google you (especially on Google Maps).

Plus:

With a professionally-designed logo, you can feel confident putting it on multiple restaurant marketing materials to easily (and inexpensively) boost your branding and professional appeal.

Now depending on your restaurant’s type, some of these materials may not be appropriate, but just check out these prices!

• Refrigerator magnet- literally pennies! GREAT if you offer delivery services!
• Pens- as low as 22 cents!
• Coasters (great for bars!)- as low as 44 cents
• Pint glasses- as low as $1.16 each!
• Branded shirts for your staff- SO many affordable options
• Logo design-$995

Those prices are definitely worth it to achieve the best restaurant marketing!

3. Invest in stellar professional photography

Don’t get your server who happens to own a camera to shoot pictures of your food…

It’s worth hiring a professional photographer to take high-resolution, well-lit photos of your food (and restaurant) so that your business and its wares look utterly irresistible.

We’ve all seen bad food photography, and frankly, nothing looks more pathetic or stale!

And remember this:

The amount you spend on a professional photoshoot will come back to you in droves because you can use these photos across ALL of your restaurant advertising — for years to come even!

Here are 4 places you can find local photographers for your restaurant advertising:

• Photosesh
• Angie’s List
• Gig Masters
• Gig Salad

4. Use this ninja trick to attract hungry prospects by the dozens

Your restaurant advertising should include a steal-worthy, money-saving special offer to give prospects a reason to try you out.

A special offer can be any one of these:

• A FREE dessert with meal
• Buy 1 dinner, get 1 FREE (BOGO)
• 10% (or 15% or 20%!) off entire bill (what a deal!)
• $20 birthday gift certificate
• $5 off any food purchase

You want your prospects to see your special offer and think:

That’s a DEAL. Definitely getting that!

Which is why you want to put your special offer on ALL of your restaurant marketing materials.

FREE report: 128 proven-to-work special offers you can use

Check out these 2 special offers on this bakery’s postcard we designed:

See how the usage of TWO special offers gives prospects more than one option for their dessert/event needs? Love that!

If you’re worried that discounting your goods and services will hurt your revenue, I want you to think again:

The idea behind special offers is you need to drive in LOTS of people to your business.

Once you service and WOW your prospects, you’ll have more people to upsell and turn into loyal customers who’ll buy again and again (and even refer their friends and family to you)!

And this is easy to do because people always need to eat!

5. Update your online listings to reach 93% of online prospects

As many as 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine, according to SearchEngine Journal. That’s almost ALL of them.

But this isn’t really surprising, right? How many times DO you google for things each week?

Most people will simply search for restaurants, like this: 

“Best seafood restaurant in [your town].”

And probably the first thing they’ll see, after searching, is Google Maps results with the top 3 restaurants (with reviews) that fit your search terms.

Like this:

Notice how many reviews each of those restaurants have — TONS! I talk more about reviews later in #8…

After Google Maps, you’ll see search-and-review websites like these:

• Trip Advisor
• Yelp
• Four Square
• 10 Best

So make sure you’re listed on those sites, too — and that your business profile is,

• Correct
• Up-to-date
• And filled with photos of your food, restaurant, and events! 

Getting your restaurant seen immediately by people searching online — specifically on the #1 most-used search engine — really starts with Google…

6. Nail your Google listing to generate FREE leads from Google

Register for a FREE Google Business Profile account. It’s how you’ll update the Google listing for your restaurant, meaning…

This:

Chances are your restaurant already exists in Google’s business directory, so if you don’t have a Google Business Profile account yet, you’ll probably just “claim” that you’re the owner of the restaurant.

Back to your Google listing…

Your Google listing comes from your Google Business Profile account.

Here’s why you need a Google listing:

When someone googles for a restaurant like yours — or for yours directly — they’re going to see the Google Maps area first.

This:

Check out this stat:

86% of people use Google Maps to find the location of a business — especially local restaurants!

So there’s a good chance that prospects will just use Google Maps to search for their restaurant of choice, not even bothering to scroll down Google’s search page any further.

When someone uses Google Maps, they’ll see restaurants plotted all over the map. I’m sure you’ve seen this. And when prospects click on any of the red pin icons — meaning yours — your Google listing will pop up.

Your Google listing shows everything googlers want to know instantly about your restaurant — as long as it’s filled in, that is!

Including… your reviews, which are SO important, I’ll talk about those more later in #8.

You need to make sure you have allllll this data entered correctly in your Google Business Profile account so that your Google listing is helpful for people searching for you, and so that Google is more likely to pull up your restaurant listing in its daily searches.

• Your business’s actual name
• Address (Google will verify it by sending you a postcard)
• Phone number
• Hours of operation (if these change ever, update it!!)
• Category of your business

Realize this:

Inaccurate information about your restaurant may actually prevent Google from bringing up your business in searches.

Meaning, your restaurant may end up showing up LESS in Google searches —

Which is NOT what we want considering Google is the #1-used search engine in the U.S!

You need to make sure you confirm you correct address AND get Google to verify it (via the postcard they sent out.) Without verification, your restaurants’ Google listing may not show up much at all.

Plus, let’s be honest:

Nothing is more annoying for prospects to look you up on Google, drive to your restaurant ready and hungry to eat, and then find out that you’re CLOSED when your information on Google said you were open.

So now that you know you need to have your Google Business Profile account set up and all your data inputted…

You now may be asking yourself this:

How can I get my restaurant to show up FIRST in Google Maps?

Remember this example?

How do you get your restaurant up HERE?

I have a few tips and tricks for you, and they’re up next in #7:

7. Be the #1 restaurant your prospects find where 86% search

Obviously, I’m talking about Google Maps!!

And besides what I already mentioned in #6 about prospects searching for local businesses (i.e., YOU) on Google Maps, check out these stats:

• 95% of smartphone users have used their phone to look up local information
• After doing so, 61% called the business they found, and…
• 59% then visited the business’s physical location
• And — 40% of all searches on mobile devices are locally driven

Meaning:

People depend on their mobile devices to find local businesses.

If you just look around…

It’s obvious that people spend a LOT of times on their smartphones.

So what am I driving at??

Getting your restaurant to show up on Google Maps (via your Google Business Profile account from #6!) is an effective way to reach prospects who are searching for restaurants on their mobile phones!

I mean think about it:

Where is the first place you go when you’re looking for a place to eat?

Probably one of these 5 places:

• Google Maps
• Yelp
• Trip Advisor
• Thrillist (I talk more about partnerships later!)
• Zagat

But…

Since Google Maps results show up FIRST whenever people search for “best restaurant in [your city name]” you need restaurant marketing strategies that put you there.

So here are 4 tips for getting your restaurant on Google Maps:

1. Fill out your Google Business Profile account (and keep it updated) — #6!
2. Get LOTS of 5-star Google reviews, using a review-generation strategy (#8)
3. Name the photo files (that you upload to your Google Business Profile account, #6) to include your restaurant name and location (city, state)
4. Get your restaurant registered on every online listing possible (#5), ensuring your name, address, and phone number matches exactly what’s in your Google Business Profile account

You can now run paid ads that show up on Google Maps, like this example here:

See the 2 little purple “Ad” icons underneath Panera and Benihana New York?

Those “Ad” icons indicate those are PAID ads showing up in Google Maps results.

I talk a little bit about paid ads later in #9, but probably the MOST important element of getting your restaurant found in Google Maps is reviews, reviews, reviews…

Up next!

8. Use Google reviews as 90% trust and act on them

When your prospects see positive reviews, they’re 90% more likely to trust and buy from you.

Plus:

People are more likely to click on a business when its Google reviews are positive, meaning those golden star ratings you see.

But even more important…

Your number of positive (4- and 5-star) reviews largely dictate your restaurant showing up in Google’s top 3 Google Maps results, here:

So obviously…

You want to gather LOTS of 4- and 5-star reviews of your restaurant online for the best restaurant marketing!

Which means this:

You need a legit review generation strategy.

Here are some ways to do that:

• Have your staff tell customers they’d appreciate a review
• Post signs around your restaurant (bathroom stall doors, bathroom walls, near the hostess stand, by the exit)
• Create a way to capture email addresses for customers so you can email them
• And then add a review link in your email signature
• Plus, send gentle email reminders that you’d appreciate a review!

Make sure to download this report to share with your staff:

FREE report: How to get more positive Google reviews to promote your business

It’s worth saying again:

You need to train your staff to ASK for reviews.

Unfortunately, people are quick to review a restaurant when they have a bad experience, so you need to be proactive and:

1. Make extra sure your staff stop bad reviews from happening by fixing problems BEFORE customers stomp out your front door (to then rant online)
2. Have staff ASK happy customers to review you online!!

Happy customers aren’t quick to review you online — you MUST remind them.

And one way to do this — especially if you have your customers’ email addresses on hand — is by using a review-generation platform such as Podium.

We’ve personally used Podium for our reviews and LOVE it. 

Here’s what happened to our Google reviews after implementing Podium…

We started using Podium on August 11, 2017. Before August 11th, we had 164 reviews total — 131 of which 5 stars.

Since then, and thanks to Podium, we’ve generated 242 total reviews (an increase of 78 in just 7 months)…

195 of which are 5-star reviews — a 489% increase from before we started using Podium!

Also, this is important:

Take the time to RESPOND to negative reviews.

ANY bad review online, left ignored, can turn into an absolute restaurant killer.

Here’s how to handle that:

When you spot a negative review online, make sure to quickly comment on it and respond with a sincere apology. Offer to remedy whatever occurred that was dissatisfactory with their service.

The LAST thing you need is a disgruntled former customer bad-mouthing your food and staff.

So handle the review well, and they could turn into a happy customer!

But:

Even if the customer can’t be satisfied no matter what you offer or do, your response online will at least show prospects that you care enough to communicate and try to help.

And one last note:

Respond to happy reviews, too! Thank satisfied customers who take their precious time to review you online — it’ll mean a lot to them to be acknowledged for their kind gesture, and your grateful response will encourage them to come back in for more!

9. Show up first on Google using pay-per-click ads

And for restaurants, the most useful pay-per-click (PPC) ad is Google Maps ads.

These:

What’s great about Google PPC is twofold:

• You ONLY pay when someone clicks on your ad
• And these ads show up FIRST (so your prospects see them!)

Your business’s listing in Google Business Profile (again, #6 — see how important that is!) is the springboard for what shows up in Google Maps.

And now you can add what’s called “location extensions” to your Google pay-per-click ads (run and managed from Google Adwords). These “location extensions” connect your pay-per-click ads to location-driven searches, such as what happens in Google Maps. So then:

People who search in Google Maps for restaurants like YOURS are MUCH more likely to see your restaurant — via your ad — first.

What’s not so great about PPC is it’s complicated, and Google Maps is slated to launch a lot more updates soon, so you need to be on the ball, in-the-know with Google.

FREE report: How to do Pay-Per-Click yourself (and not waste money)

Honestly…

Managing a PPC campaign can feel like a full-time job —

But as a restaurant owner, you’re already pretty busy!

So, it’s honestly probably worth it to hire a PPC professional to do it for you.

You can use PostcardMania’s PPC management services here.

10. Reach 79% of potential customers on Facebook

Facebook marketing is becoming more and more popular every year, and with good reason.

According to Pew Research:

• 79% of online Americans are on Facebook
• That’s 68% of ALL Americans
• 75% of them go on the site every day
• Users spend an average of 50 minutes per day on Facebook

In other words:

It’s a huge opportunity for your restaurant advertising!

However:

Many business pages’ organic reach (that’s how many people you can reach for free) have declined sharply. For some, it’s as low as 2 PERCENT, and taking into account Facebook’s January 2018 newsfeed changes, you can pretty much say “so long!” to your page’s posts being seen by your prospects for free.

That means you have to pay up for an ad, like this:

Here’s a ninja trick:

Run your Facebook ads at the same time you’re running your mailing your restaurant direct mail campaign. 

Here’s why:

You can match your Facebook ad’s special offer and design with that of your restaurant direct mail campaign

Like this:

Whether your prospects receive your restaurant postcards in the mail OR they see your restaurant advertising on Facebook, they see ONE cohesive marketing message.

Plus, get this:

If you’re mailing your restaurant postcards to everyone who lives within 10 miles of your restaurant’s location, you can then target those same exact people (meaning, the people on your mailing list) on Facebook, too — at the exact SAME time.

Amazing, right?

This coordination of mailing restaurant postcards plus simultaneously showing matching ads online in Facebook newsfeeds gives your prospects the perception that your restaurant is everywhere and the #1 of its kind to eat at.

It’s a smart strategy.

Called Everywhere Small Business, your restaurant can simultaneously target prospects with:

• Direct mail (with attractive restaurant mailers!)
• Google ads (across thousands & thousands of internet websites)
• AND Facebook ads.

And YOU don’t have to do anything.

Essentially your marketing will be shown EVERYWHERE your prospects already spend the vast majority of their time, generating the following:

• Calls to your restaurant (that we track for you)
• Clicks to your website (we track these too!)
• Millions of online impressions (eyes on YOUR restaurant)
• Essentially MORE leads with ZERO effort from you.

Watch the Everywhere Small Business video to see how exactly this program can exponentially increase your restaurant advertising at just pennies extra per piece.

And speaking of social media…

11. Get followed on Instagram — and generate buzz — by food lovers

Check out these Instagram stats:

• 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business
• 63% of Instagram users are active every single day
• 35% of users look at Instagram content multiple times per day
• 30% of consumers have purchased from a business they found on Instagram

But stats aside… people LOVE stalking great restaurants (which especially have killer food photography (#3)).

Marketing on Instagram isn’t just about sharing beautiful photos…

It’s about widespread, fast exposure for your restaurant.

Here are 3 ways to use Instagram as one of your restaurant marketing strategies:

• Use at least 30 hashtags/post (focusing on hashtags locals (or tourists) in your city would use
• Find influencers (Instagram users with at least 10k followers) and direct-message them to invite them into your restaurant to try your food
• Once an influencer LOVES your place, ask if they’ll promote you on their channel (either for FREE, or in exchange for a free meal)

Note:

There are people who exist on Instagram JUST to discover and promote businesses. Some of these people are TOTAL foodies.

Check out this channel run by a woman who LOVES and promotes great food spots in LA:

If you’re based in LA… I’d direct-message them (or comment on their photos!) and invite them into your spot! This same strategy can be applied to whatever city you live in.

It’s all about partnerships — which I expand on next in the world of apps…

12. Partner with and get on those delivery service apps!

You know what I’m talking about:

• Grub Hub
• Uber Eats
• Door Dash
• Postmates
• Seamless
• Yelp Eat 24
• Foodler

It’s simple… reach out to these apps and get your restaurant listed on them.

It’s just another way to increase visibility (and therefore sales) for your business.

13. Use this time-tested marketing tool to generate a 253% return on investment

Direct mail remains one of the best restaurant marketing strategies — and, yes, even in our digital age!

Consider these numbers:

• 79% of consumers say they open direct mail immediately
• 54% of consumers say they prefer direct mail marketing the most

Which is to say:

Restaurant postcards WORK.

Advertising with restaurant postcards turns out to be cost-effective because:

• You can target only your ideal prospects by neighborhood and/or demographics
• Recipients see your message without having to open their mail (time saving!)
• You save $$$ on postage when you mail postcards rather than enveloped letters

For example…

A Cleveland, OH, butcher shop wanted to generate more new customers, so they mailed out 2,500 postcards to a mailing list of residents in their area.

They received a 178 new customers from that campaign —

Which generated a return on investment of 253%.

As long as you have:

• A lead-generating postcard design
• A mailing list
• A plan to mail at least 3 times
• And a way to track your results (like this)

Your restaurant can generate leads and sales from mailing postcards!

Plus:

Check out these ready-made restaurant postcards you can use.

Order a FREE sample pack today!

14. Capture some of the 95% of leads visiting your website

Your website is a place for your prospects to find out 5 main things usually:

• Your menu
• Your location
• Your hours of operation
• How to contact you / place an order
• And depending on your restaurant, whether you cater or host special events

Honestly…

You don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on your restaurant website…

It just needs to be:

• User-friendly
• Fast
• Mobile-friendly
• SIMPLE and easy-to-navigate
• And set up with a way to capture leads who land on your website.

Why? Well, consider this:

95% of your prospects will visit you online before making any decision to buy from you (or not).

So that’s why your website must have incredible photography (#3!), and it’s also why you should use a pop-up.

A pop-up on your website can give your online leads your special offer (like a BOGO or 10% off their meal) BEFORE they leave your site…

This strategy also allows you to collect prospects’ email addresses so you can follow up with them later, giving them even more coupons/promotions, always inviting them back in to eat at your restaurant.

Pop-ups do require a little website intel to make sure they collect as many leads as possible…

You can check out PostcardMania’s affordable tool here.

15. Use online reservation tools to automatically fill your restaurant

There are many online reservation tools you can use to make booking your tables easier.

Here are 3 options you can check out which both list your restaurant and make online reservations possible through their websites:

• OpenTable
• Reserve
• And Yelp Reservations

I also recommend you integrate a booking tool into your own website.

That way, online visitors (who land on your website) can instantly book directly from your website and save time.

16. Improve your Google ranking with search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engines work by finding websites which match the keywords your prospects search with — which includes locations (like your city name).

So if your prospects enter “best BBQ in [Your City]” (aka “best BBQ in Atlanta”] your website will rank higher in Google to the degree that your website pages have the keywords “best BBQ in Atlanta” in them (as well as other factors that are more complicated which we won’t get into detail on here).

Notice that you see:

• Google Maps results
• And then big-name review sites next

Your restaurant’s SEO plays a large factor in your ranking in Google Maps.

But you can also make your website easy-to-find by search engines (like Google) using these easy-to-use SEO tips:

• Each page’s title (learn about page titles here) should be different
• Homepage’s page title should have “tampa seafood restaurant” (or the like) + your city & state
• Your contact data (on your contact page) must be correct
• Your business’s data must be referenced (cited) on other popular web pages (#5)
• You should have and use your free Google Business Profile account (#6)

SEO is not a one-shot deal, but must be continually worked upon and revised as Google’s algorithms (formulas) change all the time.

It’s probably worth it to hire an SEO professional, but word to the wise:

There are “white hat” and “black hat” SEO companies out there…

It’s important to find someone reputable (which doesn’t include a company who claims they can get you to #1 on Google in a short amount of time.)

17. Implement a friendly (automatic!) birthday program to celebrate more leads

Most people love birthdays because it means FREE stuff!

And there isn’t anyone on Earth who doesn’t love free (or discounted) food…

So why not implement a birthday program…

Or better yet?

One that runs on autopilot each month, driving leads (and sales) to your restaurant!

Genius.

Here’s how PostcardMania’s Birthday Program works:

• You buy a mailing list that targets everyone around your restaurant
• We design a postcard that includes your birthday offer (like $20 off birthday meal with this postcard!)
• We even personalize your postcards with your prospects’ names (on front and back!) 
• We mail your postcards for you every month…
• So your prospects receive postcards for their birthday!

And thus:

They celebrate their birthdays at your restaurant, taking advantage of a sweet deal (your special offer) that you give them…

And you inevitably make sales!

The best part of this program??

It runs on autopilot…

You can start or stop it at any point… but if you’re generating leads and sales, why would want to stop that?

You can watch the video on the easiest Birthday Program ever here.

18. Turn NEW movers into automatic new customers without lifting a finger

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a little over 11% of the American population moves every year. Many of those people want to know the restaurants close to their new homes (especially if you deliver).   

With our New In Town program, you can reach new movers in your area every month without you even having to think about it, which makes it one of the easiest-to-implement restaurant marketing ideas…

Here’s how it works:

• You tell us your target demographic and service area
• We design restaurant postcards for your business
• Every month, we automatically send all new movers that fit your targeting criteria your  restaurant postcards
• They call to redeem your offer, then you wow them with your service and create new customers!

But check this out:

Your restaurant direct mail pieces are personalized automatically with the first name of the recipient, so they take notice of your marketing!

Here’s an example:

By automatically mailing to all the new movers in your area, your restaurant can simply receive a steady stream of new customers who want to know the best spots to eat!

19. Reach out to food bloggers and ask for exposure  

Find out who is writing about food and restaurants in your area. This may require you to grab the newspaper, pick up a few local lifestyle magazines, and simple google “best food spots in [your city]” to see who’s writing about the food scene in your area.

You need to invite people into your restaurant who create and shape opinions.

Wow those people (writers, bloggers), and you’ll increase your exposure tenfold because they’ll share with a larger, attentive audience (in an article) all the fabulous things about your restaurant that others HAVE to try!

It’s all about generating that most important element of restaurant marketing…

20. Word of mouth — your best friend! 

Generating a viral word-of-mouth buzz about your restaurant is every business owner’s dream.

So how do you do that?

5 main ways:

• Create a mind-blowing restaurant experience that extends beyond your menu
• Get as many people talking about your restaurant as possible (#21)
• Tell your staff to spread the word
• Tell your staff to encourage customers to spread the word
• And consider what would make your restaurant share-able

Instead of just doing the bare minimum at your restaurant, make the customer experience truly special from start to finish.

Here’s a book you can check out for even more ideas:

And remember this:

The more restaurant marketing materials you utilize (like from this list), the easily you’ll generate more awareness (and word-of-mouth buzz) about your restaurant!

21. Use Google Alerts to track the online mentions of your restaurant (and competition!)

Now that you’re armed with more restaurant marketing ideas, you need to know what happens as a result of your increased advertising…

And one of the EASIEST ways to track your marketing is by using Google Alerts —

A FREE, automatic way to receive email alerts whenever (and wherever) your restaurant is mentioned any place online.

So if your restaurant got mentioned in a food blogger’s article, then you’d receive an email stating so. That way, you didn’t have to take the time to find that out on your own… it’s simply emailed to you!

Google Alerts is honestly amazing, but let’s take this tactic one step further…

You can set up Google Alerts to track what your competitors are doing…

Or rather, what others are saying about your competitors.

And once you have online intel about your competitors? I recommend you take the time to blind shop them.

Have a hungry friend eat at your competitor’s restaurant to test out their:

• Food quality
• New menu items
• New liquor menu
• Maybe their new location, if applicable!
• And overall experience (like talking with their staff!)

Because… why not blind shop? You may be surprised at what you learn! And this insight will inspire how you can improve your restaurant, too!

22. Track your leads and sales for the best restaurant marketing

Only TRACKING will show you what parts of your restaurant advertising creates leads (and sales) for your restaurant.

So — HOW do you track?

A new caller sheet is one way!

All you do is print off a stack of these sheets, give them to your hostess (or keep them by your phone for whomever answers it), and ensure that each and every staff member knows to use them to:

• Gather ALL vital information from people who call in
• Find out what marketing they saw
• And ensure if they don’t book a reservation, that you collect their email address to follow up with them with promotions you have

If a new caller sheet is too much paperwork for your hostess, you can just train your staff to ask customers — and report back to you — how they heard about your restaurant so you can log which methods are bringing in customers.

You can also use a handy spreadsheet like this one here which makes it easy to track:

• Lead sources (what produced the most leads?!)
• How many leads were generated
• And resultant revenue (the most important part of your marketing!!)

Tracking your marketing is SO important:

It’s the only way you’ll know exactly which restaurant advertising campaigns actually worked, and thus, deserve to be reinvested into and run again.

Probably the EASIEST way to track your marketing is by adding call tracking numbers to all of your marketing campaigns. Call tracking numbers are VERY inexpensive, and they show you which methods actually generate you leads.

For example:

If you mail postcards PLUS run Google and Facebook ads, then it would be smart to have different phone numbers on each of these ads so when phone calls come in, you’ll know which exact marketing advertisement produced that call.

How?

Call tracking services come with easy-to-use online dashboards that allow you to see which phone numbers produced which phone calls. They’re SO effective and easy to use, I can’t recommend them enough!

That’s why we automatically include call tracking in our Everywhere Small Business campaigns — they take major headache out of tracking your multi-channel marketing.

So there you have it!

22 restaurant marketing ideas for more brand awareness, customers, and revenue!

For even more restaurant marketing ideas — like if you’re ready to run a restaurant direct mail campaign — check out these restaurant postcard designs which are basically ready for you to use!

And if you have questions about anything mentioned here, such as marketing with Everywhere Small Business, leave a comment or you can email me directly at Joy.Gendusa@PostcardMania.com.

Ready to start your marketing campaign? Call one of my experts at 800-628-1804 — the consultation is 100% FREE!

Best,

Joy