10 Low-budget Ideas to Promote Your Restaurant

Do you want to promote your restaurant within a limited budget? Don’t worry; this blog has the best ideas supporting your question. You can actually create successful marketing campaigns on your own. But, first, you must list your restaurant on free business listing sites to earn maximum traffic, free of cost. Moreover, a strong marketing plan doesn’t always require a huge investment.

We all are going through a difficult phase amidst this partial lockdown, especially the restaurant industry. So, not many of them can afford to adopt costly marketing strategies. Therefore, if you just have started a new restaurant and want some budget-friendly ideas to promote it, then continue reading this blog ahead.

1. Identify and Analyze Your Target Customers

You cannot promote your restaurant successfully unless you identify, analyze and understand your target customers. If you run a non-veg restaurant, can you really compel a vegan customer to visit your restaurant? The answer is a strict no! Running a promotion that isn’t enticing enough will make you land nowhere.

Focus on what motivates your customer to visit your restaurant. If a customer searches for the best and reasonable restaurants in Kolkata, will the search results display your restaurant? And are you located near a commercial building or a stadium? Try to figure out answers to such questions, and then only you can come up with great ideas to promote your restaurant and reach your target audience. 

2. Create a Business Page on Social Media Platforms

You have to be present where your customers are active. You can rely on the power of social media to promote your business within a limited budget. Make sure to choose the most popular social networking channels to create your business page.

One of the platforms can be Facebook.  This platform allows you to add a start order button for free and redirects the user directly to your home website, where they can place an order. All of this won’t hurt your pocket at all.

Apart from this, you can upload visually appealing photos of your food dishes on Instagram to entice the viewers.

3. Optimize Your Business Listing Online

You can just list your business on multiple online business directories and leave it as it is. You have to optimize your business listing. Provide all the relevant information about your restaurant to enjoy the free benefits of listing your business online.

Things To Do:

• Mention your opening and closing hours, including the holiday timings
• Add an accurate physical address
• Upload images of your food, storefront, and restaurant ambiance
• Include a direct link to your website’s homepage or the online ordering page
• Respond actively to your customer reviews

4. Invest in Geo-Targeted Advertisements

Focus on local digital advertisements when investing in digital marketing. It’s one of the budget-friendly ways to promote your business online. You should attract customers that are ready to eat, and for the new customers, your restaurant must be the closest option available.

Therefore, investing in geo-targeted advertisements can be an intelligent choice. With this option, you can display your ad in specific cities or a radius, thus, gathering the nearest customers. Most people search for ‘restaurants near me’ on Google and tend to visit those that are nearest to them.

You get the benefit of removing a customer out of your ad targeting that will not visit your restaurant due to the location factor.

5. Invest Your Time in Email Marketing

You should never underestimate the power of emails, even amidst the existence of other digital platforms. However, before proceeding with this strategy, you must create a list of your target customers.

Steps To Create An Email List

• Try to collect emails of potential leads through business meetings, event gatherings, etc.
• You can offer a small discount for every person who signs up.
• Collect email addresses via the signup form that will pop up when someone opens your business website.

After this, you can start sending emails to your customers. It can include discounts, offers, news about the new dishes, and anything that will entice your customers.

6. Keep a Pager to Retain Potential Customers

How saddening is it when you see a potential customer walk away from your restaurant just because you don’t have an extra table? This feeling is really frustrating and makes you feel powerless. But, the main question is how to retain them? Well, you can simply hire a pager to do this job.

Let the pagers guide your guests toward your restaurant. With a pager in hand, a customer can loiter around anywhere freely. For instance, customers would want to spend some quality time window shopping along the streets while waiting for a table. Once the table is ready, the pager will alert them.

7. Start a Blog or Video Series

You can start a blog or video series. You can earn new leads through innovative and unique content. It’s one of the great ways to promote your business consistently.

Things To Share:

• Interesting food recipes.
• Customer testimonials.
• Inspirational stories about your business.
• Cover the food industry as a whole.

In addition, whatever content you create, you can freely share in your social media handles, email campaigns, etc for online advertisements. Moreover, if you don’t have time to create blogs, you can hire a blogger to do the job for you.

8. Upload a Digital Menu

We are living in a digitalized world. Customers usually look for an online menu before visiting the restaurant physically. They like to look at the prices of the food items, etc. Do you know? The menu is the king of restaurant promotion; without it, you won’t go far enough.

Upload a digital menu on your website and other social media platforms. It will help you sell the unsellable and attract more customers. However, you must create an eye-catchy menu to lure the customers.

9. Be as Much Responsive to Online Reviews

As a restaurant owner, you must always respond to online reviews. You can gather reviews through online business directories. Whether good or bad, no matter what the reviews are, you should reply to them as much as possible.

If you ignore reviews and leave it as it is, customers won’t be visiting your restaurant the next time. In addition, you must provide a proper solution to negative comments. You can use bad reviews as the opportunity to learn about your business and correct your mistakes.

10. Offer Store Pick-up and Delivery Services

We all are amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, and most people prefer home delivery rather than eating in a restaurant. The demand for home delivery has risen since 2020. So, you can try offering additional services like store pickup and doorstep delivery.

If you are struggling to gather customers, offering these services is mandatory. You can easily join some food delivery apps to advertise your business and get found. On the other hand, you also mention these services on your website for viewers to order food directly from your homepage.

Make Your Plans Work Today

Finally, I hope these above promotional ideas will help you promote your business within a tight budget. In addition, don’t wait for tomorrow, but make your plans work today. Moreover, why don’t you take the first step and list your business in multiple online business directories in India? These directories will boost your online presence and connect you with the right customers, understanding their budget, location, need, etc.