Our top 3 ways to grow your restaurant business

Now that customers are able to interact with your restaurant’s marketing at multiple touchpoints in their day to day life, it’s important to consider whether your restaurant is offering a consistent experience for customers. From the moment they visit your restaurant to the online marketing materials they view of your brand. With this in mind, we have 3 simple steps you can add into your marketing plan to increase table bookings and grow your restaurant business.

Keep diners engaged with exclusive offers

If you’re struggling to encourage customers to return to your restaurant after their first visit, setting up a loyalty program is a good way to capture their interest and gain repeat custom. However, just as your menu needs to be interesting to diners, so does your loyalty scheme.

Digital loyalty schemes, such as loyalty apps, are a convenient way for both owners and customers to redeem rewards. Alternatively, you can choose to keep it traditional, with printed loyalty cards, where a customer receives a stamp on each visit.

There’s also the option to integrate a loyalty program into a good point of sale (POS) system. By entering diners’ membership numbers into the system, points are directly calculated and redeemed. Plus, valuable customer data is also captured with every transaction; such as what a customer ordered, how often they visit and how much they’ve spent in your restaurant.

The more personal or exclusive the offer, the more it will help your customer feel rewarded, persuading them to choose your restaurant over competitors.

Increase table bookings by making it easy

To receive more bookings at your restaurant, you’ll want to make it easy for customers to place a table booking wherever they are – out shopping, on a train, in the bath – so it’s more convenient for them.

Opting to use an up-to-date book a table widget will encourage more online reservations. Online bookings not only free up your restaurant staff from answering the phone, but also provide a more instant experience for customers who can confirm a table booking with just a few clicks.

Consider what’s important to you when choosing the right booking widget. Is it that it’s easy to use or reduce no shows? Does it help you manage your restaurant capacity by offering waitlisting features or table management? Or it could be whether it can capture customer data? Booking widgets we would recommend using are OpenTable and Res Diary.

Also, if your restaurant marketing offers food to takeaway, have you thought about running a click and collect service? This will allow you time to prepare customers’ food orders in advance, helping to reduce any queues or cut down wait times for customers sitting at tables.

Attract interest through creative campaigns

Restaurant marketing campaigns could be daily, such as an after work happy hour with 2-4-1 cocktails at 6pm, or weekly focusing on repeat offers or events in your restaurant. Both daily and weekly campaigns will help grow awareness around your restaurant’s brand.

Alternatively, you could opt for monthly or quarterly campaigns if you don’t have the budget to promote more regular offers. Ensure you’re raising awareness and excitement for these campaigns before they launch, to keep your customers interested, excited and in the know.

Your restaurant marketing campaigns can also be seasonal, these are great in helping to boost sales at certain times of the year, particularly quiet periods in the restaurant industry such as January. Having an expiry date on campaigns also creates a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) in customers and can increase your table bookings.

Now that we’ve suggested some restaurant marketing ideas to attract new diners, you’ll need to ensure they receive a great experience that leaves them wanting to return again. Focus on cultivating long-term relationships and encouraging repeat custom through creative marketing and fantastic customer service.

Need a hand to get started? Start your free detailed digital marketing audit and make your restaurant more appetising. An audit will provide you with the knowledge and insight you’ll need to take control of your future marketing and get the delicious results you’re looking for.