When looking to promote your restaurant on a low-budget then you must get creative. In my local market of Shreveport, Bossier City and Minden La, I’m working to help our local restaurant owners market their business to the massive without spending too much on advertising.

So in this bog post I’m listing the 6 ways you can promote your restaurant in order to gain more customers at an affordable prices and free tactics. Here Goes…

Post an Ad

One of the most simple task you can do is to post an ad in your local newspaper. You may say that many restaurants are posting ads in the newspaper right? Not so

Most restaurants don’t even think about posting ads in the paper only because of the lack of knowing how effective it is. So create a special give away that get people in the doors, and see how the profits grow.

Give Out Coupons

This is very effective if the coupon is tempting enough for customers to redeem it. So come up with your best deal of all time, and put it out for the local public.

People love free stuff, and if its good enough they will be there in your restaurant. You can use sites such as Groupons or just create one yourself, and keep 100% of the profits versus given half of it away to Groupon.

Get Social

Can’t tell you how many people are on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. But one thing I do know if I had a restaurant, and looking to market it to thousands of local customers then I’m signing up.

Just signing up is not enough because you need to know how to customize your profiles for local searchers. Meaning you need to have the right photos, information on those profiles sites to be found and heard. Lots goes into this but done right can mean thousands of new customers without breaking the bank.

Create a Video

One of over looked restaurant marketing tactics I see from owners who I talk to are the use of video. People today are more likely to watch a video versus reading anything. “Call Us Lazy”

So make a simple video of the restaurant, and post it online on your YouTube Channel for the restaurant. PLus share that video on the social sites you signed up for.

Next inform the customers about you guys new video of the menu, staff, owners and just simple video of customers coming in and out of the restaurant. Now you have something all your customers can share on their social platforms which equals free marketing. Wink Wink

Two for One

Sometimes it best to have those deals that forces people to buy two of something to get that third item for free. It’s be something like buying two entrees and get two deserts for free, which is something you’re not losing any money on because the prices of the entree will pretty much cover any lost.

Building Local Profiles

I can write all day about local profiles sites such a Yellow Pages, Super Pages, Mante and too many more to even name. These are just sites where you can start building an online presence by creating free accounts for your restaurant.

This will make your restaurant even easier to find online only if setup correctly. You hear me say this all the time about setting up things correctly because I have realize over the years if it’s not done right then you’re not getting the results you want.

So make your profile fully customizing and completing your profile so it ranks as high as it can in the search engines, and on that given profile site. If you don’t do this then your time setting these up will be wasteful.

There are thousands of these profile type sites but the ones above is a great start to build that online presence.

I have created the ultimate guide to restaurant marketing ideas that you can use to dominate your local market today. This is not rocket science when you just sit back, and think about what it takes to market your restaurant.

All it takes is some planing, and implementing which translates into results of more customers and profits.