Restaurant Marketing Tips to Keep You in the Spotlight

Be it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or anything in between, people have an abundance of options for eating out. It can be a struggle for new restaurants to establish themselves as a community staple among the comings and goings of other dining locations. You could have the best food in town, but if your advertising is sub-par, your foot traffic will never reach the level it potentially could.
Relying on word of mouth alone will only get you so far. In order to keep your tables occupied, you need to keep a steady flow of new customers coming in. The best way to accomplish this is with direct mail restaurant marketing. Both direct mail and online targeted ads have the greatest potential to reach your restaurant’s would-be customers. If there is a particular gender or age group that visits more often (there may not be in which case your target market is just the locals) you can send your marketing message to those individuals directly.
Of course, your message also needs to be presented in an appealing and professional-looking format in order to persuade its recipients to give your restaurant a try. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of things you should consider including in the design of your direct mailer or digital display ad in order to maximize its effectiveness.
Mouthwatering Food Photography
A well-taken photo of good food gets instant attention. Don’t be shy when showing off your popular menu items, ensure they are the focus of your mail piece. People pick the restaurants they want to visit based on whether or not they think the food will taste good, so ignite their cravings with a close up-shot that highlights every delicious detail. If you lack the high-end equipment needed to take quality photographs, consider hiring a product photographer to do the job. You can keep these photographs handy not just for mail marketing but signs, billboards, menus, and more.
Scrumptious Special Offers
People have a plethora of choices for eating out, so it can be difficult to harness their attention. A special offer can be helpful in giving first-time customers a reason to come to your restaurant instead of others. Include a coupon in your mail piece, and don’t hesitate when it comes to the generosity of your offer. For some free food, you could earn the lifetime value of the new customers who decide to take up your offer. This is why the coupons you include should pertain to your best menu items. You’ll want to give all coupon recipients an outstanding first impression of your restaurant to increase the likelihood of their continued business.
Delicious Menu Highlights
Reading a menu can be an enjoyable experience because it excites the mind with possibilities and options. Sending out a mail piece featuring your menu or even just the highlights, will get people reading about your food. If your menu items are well presented on your mailer, it should stimulate cravings within the reader. These cravings have the potential to become orders – possibly several orders if the recipient decides to hang on to your menu for future reference.
The three previous tips have a common theme between them, and that is that in order to market your restaurant’s food well you have to show confidence in what you produce. Eating out is an investment of money and time, and there are some people who can’t afford to indulge in it very often. They need reassurance that if they choose your restaurant, they’re going to have a good time. So, make sure your design clearly shows the best your establishment has to offer.
Of course, when it comes to mail piece design, it’s best to have an expert to work with, as well as someone experienced with creating targeted lists. Cactus Mailing has 20 years of direct mail experience, and also provides a Smart Marketing package to combine direct mail and targeted Google display ads into one campaign. If you’re ready to take your restaurant’s popularity to a whole new level, fill out the form below or give us a call!