How To Drive More Guest In Your Restaurant Without Spending A Fortune

First I want you to take a map of your local trading area (the area in which you do business) and hang it on your office wall. Locate your business and make a small colored circle around your business. Using a ruler, mark one mile out in all directions. Then draw a circle. This area usually defines your primary target market.

Now make the same marks 3 and 5 miles out and make a circle. The 3 mile radius becomes your secondary and the 5 mile becomes your tertiary trading area. If you live an area where your guests can easily travel to your restaurant quickly and cover 10 miles in 10 minutes, use a 10 mile radius for your tertiary trading area.

Once you have defined these areas open up your yellow pages and write down the zip codes in your target market. Defined your target zip codes and use a list broker or go to standard rate and data service or Accudata and get a list of your target audience. Your target audience is defined by age, income, home value, credit card ownership, hobbies, etc. Define your target audience so you can market to them affordably.

You can buy just the list of the target audience you define and send them a postcard or letter offering them a FREE item from your restaurant. If you use GuestMarketing you can have them log on to your website and register for your club/program and receive your FREE offer via email. You now have their email for future marketing efforts.

You can then define major employers in the area and provide fliers for their employee cafeteria or take out an ad in their employee newsletter.

You can offer a discount to certain companies on certain days of the week.

Contact realtors and local moving companies and make arrangements to offer their clients an introductory offer (FREE) to your restaurant. This way you help make your restaurant a new habit when they move in to town.

Contact the managers of local apartment and business complexes and offer gift certificates to their tenants as a benefit of living or working in their complexes.

Local hotel concierges are natural referral sources for your business. Guests constantly ask where to eat, if you make a win-win arrangement with the concierge, and your food is good, they will most likely recommend your restaurant.

Don’t forget about the hotel bartender. After a meeting or long day, guests come to the bar, have a drink and ask the bartender where is a good place to dine.

Contact your local radio station DJ’s and make arrangements to deliver your signature dishes. Even better, make arrangements to cook your signature dishes at the radio station. Do this during the morning and afternoon drive times and bring many giveaways of gift certificates for prizes and FREE promotion.

Schools are constantly looking for ways to raise money. Offer to host a dinner on your slower nights. Provide a percentage of your sales to the school for promoting and publicizing the event. You can prepare a low cost, high perceived value menu and donate a large portion to the school. Make sure you have a press release written for the event.

The people who come to the fund raiser may not have been to your restaurant and if you provide a great experience they will return.

These are just a few ideas to help stimulate sales in your restaurant.