Offline restaurant marketing ideas
Offline marketing efforts for restaurants always should work in sync with its online marketing agenda.
Distribution of promotional flyer and standees: This is the fastest way to attract hundreds of hungry people at one shot. Almost every restaurant is doing this, but not everyone is getting results out from this practice. You must know the drill to successfully do it.
No matter what you are trying to sell, be it the announcement of your newly opened restaurant or an upcoming food festival or an introduction of a happy hour, flyers and standees always work! You just need to know how to do it.
The first rule of thumb is, the flyer and standees that you are going to distribute, should stand out in the crowd. You need to choose the color scheme (Yes, colors can influence appetite) and food images very tactfully. Keep your target audience in mind. For example, if you target corporate people, the design must differ from the one that targets college students. Let’s have an example from Raffles City:
Raffles City tried to attract office goers. And they rode on the hurriedness that any office goes faces in the morning. So, they enticed their target group with multiple mouthwatering images of different breakfasts. An empty stomach cannot just go away without noticing it.
However, there is one factor involved. You need to place and distribute the standees and flyers at the right places, where your TG frequently visits or passes through.
Networking with businesses around: Networking always pays off. As a local business, a restaurant must network with other local businesses in the vicinity. There are a couple of reasons to cite.
First of all, the more affinity you will grow with your neighboring businesses, the more likeliness you get in the neighborhood. This mean more referral traffic to your restaurant.
Secondly, restaurants are often contacted to partner or provide catering services to weddings, corporate events and conferences. You could get a chance to partner in such events, if you network well with other businesses.
It’s always a smart move to network with prominent food bloggers. You can ask them to write about your restaurant and food in exchange of a free meal. However, there is a drill to do it effectively.
Online resources can help you network.
Advertise on traditional media: In this digital era, people still spend time on traditional media. Don’t miss a chance to advertise your business on these channels. TV, radio, and local newspapers are the best places to serve this purpose.
TV ads seem to have a strong impact on online traffic as well, which matters most for any online business. Benny Blum testified this on Search Engine Land with some amazing and eye-opening graphics.
He explained how the overall traffic took up during a TV flight. He said, “during the 10 week reporting timeframe, visitors increased by 15-25% during the TV flight.”
The same is true for newspapers and radio ads. However, tapping the right time to run the ad, followed by other factors like optimum budget and ad content, based on your TG, play a pivotal role behind the success story of your offline ads.
Encourage sponsorship: Sponsorship is again a great idea to make allies in the industry and at the same time earn a brand awareness for your restaurant. You can sponsor any person or cause, but make sure it adds up to your marketing reach.
Scholastica Travel Inc organized a fundraise for an educational trip, for which they partnered with 20 restaurants. The rules were plain and simple. The restaurants gave away 10% to 20% of the sales on the designated night for all the groups that an organization brought to the restaurants.
The benefits?
- It creates a buzz around a restaurant.
- It sets a perfect introduction to a restaurant to local people.
- It enriches the social image of a restaurant.
- It fills the joint, even in the slow hours.
Collect data about your clients: Now the most crucial factor for any business, collecting your customers’ data. You should focus on gathering more and more customer data, so that your newsletters, deals and offers reach more and more people.
Your customer feedback form is important. Make sure you manage to get at least one contact details from each of your customers and use them accordingly. In case someone gives his phone number, you can include it in your SMS-marketing. If someone gives his mail address, you can send him your newsletter. Put your social footprints on the form.
A great opportunity to connect your offline marketing and online marketing is, ask your customers where they heard about your eatery. It can be either from an old customer or an online encounter. Cash on the opportunity. Request them to Like you on Facebook or write a review on Zomato, provided they like your food. You don’t want an unhappy customer to show a path to vent out his frustration. Do you?