7 Restaurant Marketing Tips To Boost Food Orders In 2020

2020 is fast approaching and if you’re looking to increase your restaurant’s popularity, patronage, and overall bottom line this year there are a few things you can start doing now.

Driving more beverage and food sales, day to day, week to week, and month to month translates to more sales year to year. So start 2020 with your businesses’ best foot forward using these simple to implement restaurant marketing strategies.

1. Sampling Events

These events are a great way to invite interest in your new or most popular dishes and will get new patrons through the door. A good public event piques interest in your restaurant and is a fun and social way to promote your favorite plates. This can be done off the property at places like farmers markets, special events in your restaurant in a section, or even in public parks. Tasting is what convinces people to come to eat your food so offering a tasting event is a smart marketing tactic.

2. Instagram Foodie Pic

Instagram and other social media platforms have become a great way to promote a restaurant business. You will want to post images of the food, drinks, restaurant, events, and patrons. Food pics are the best though and be sure to look at some other great examples of food imagery. Have good lighting, make the dishes as spectacular as they always will be, and invite diners with a witty description. Then ask diners to put their own pics up using your hashtag or tagging you in the photo.

3. Have A Functioning Website

Some restaurants fail to have a website or fail to do it right. It should be good looking, easy to find, have contact details, but also have your entire food and drink menu. Often people will have to search the internet to find your specific menu and not having that on your website can deter people from coming through the doors as they don’t know what you have on offer.

You can build it out yourself using a simple web builder, or hire a web designer. You won’t need a massive or complicated website so it shouldn’t cost very much. You can also add an option to place orders for pick up online if you want to go that route.

4. Geo-Target Google Ads

Running online and mobile ads can also be an effective way to increase your food sales. Be sure that you are targeting your specific town and county only. You don’t want your ads to be displayed to mobile users in Texas if your restaurant is in New York. Also, certain times of the day should be used as you wouldn’t want your ads to be displayed at 1 am when you closed at 10 pm. Use targeted keywords that are specific to your type of food and your physical location. Don’t use broad terms like “pasta”.

5. Catering Services

Holding special events at your restaurant or catering special events at other sites is a great way to keep your sales going. Weddings, parties, corporate events, school events, are just a few of the gatherings that require good quality catering food. Be sure that you’re offering the menu items you have in various portions, so you can cater small to large parties.

6. Family Meal Platters

Another great idea to increase sales on slower nights of the week is to offer family meal platters for take-out only.

For example, if you’re an Italian restaurant you can do this 1 of 2 ways. One is to have 5 staples from your menu in the family platter portion of your menu that can be ordered every day at any time. Or you can offer a set single choice on 1 or 2 days a week, typically Monday or Tuesday. This will keep your sales going on the slower nights of the week.

This is just a shortlist as there are loads of different ways to increase your food and beverage sales. Implement all of these and start seeing the changes to your weekly sales right away.

Use the internet and take a look at the marketing of other popular competitors to get some ideas and see where you stand. Make 2020 the strongest year for your restaurant business yet and start the new decade with a bang!