Quite often you’ve probably come across a good restaurant marketing idea, but put it in the too-hard-basket; it cost way too much money, and you couldn’t be sure the juice would be worth the squeeze. Well here we take a look at Three marketing ideas that won’t break the bank, and will easily increase your profits.

Reach Out to a Micro-Influencer

We’re definitely not talking about a Kardashian hawking lip balm to millions of people here, but we are talking about using local social media users with a small but dedicated following. In our case we’re looking for local foodies that enjoy experiencing what your community has to offer. 

According to The Startup, micro-influencers drive 22.2 times more weekly conversations than regular consumers – that’s word of mouth restaurant marketing on steroids. 

How do you find them?

Go through your own social media and see who is commenting. Is there someone with 1,000+ followers? 

Search your own restaurant name as a hashtag and see who is commenting there.

Search hashtags related to your restaurant, e.g. #organiceats and see if anyone local has a dedicated following.

Use services like Scrunch, who can connect you with micro-influencer.

Reach out to them, thank them for their interaction, and invite them for a full service meal at no expense. In exchange, all you ask for is a post about their experience with you. For the cost of a meal, you’ve just reached out to thousands of people who really value what the micro-influencer thinks. 

Make Money Even When You’re Not Serving Meals  

Let’s have a look at what your restaurant and a large office have in common – tables, chairs, wifi… seems pretty similar right? So why not use your restaurant as shared office space when you’re not in service during the day? In terms of restaurant marketing ideas, it’s both creative and lucrative. 

The number of people who use coworking spaces in the U.S. has nearly doubled according to GCUC, and will increase to more than million people in 2022. Talk to your local chamber of commerce and see who might be interested in your space. 

It’s a booming industry that the likes of IBM and Microsoft use, so it’s been proven to work. All you have to do is turn on the lights, provide some wifi, and you’re making money even when your not making meals. And these customers don’t leave dirty plates. 

Keep Up with Your Reviews and Keep Your Customers

In terms of restaurant marketing ideas, replying to reviews on sites like Yelp may seem obvious, but for that very reason, its importance is often ignored. After all, you’ve got a restaurant to run, and you probably don’t have time check in on the negative Nancys online. 

But it really should be a daily priority that should not be overlooked. In fact, restaurant marketing agency Placepull say that “checking your online reviews daily is the absolute best way to get the pulse of what customers think of your restaurant.” 

You don’t even have to do it yourself, you can ask a trusted staff member to spend 10 minutes at the beginning of their shift to check reviews and reply to customers. There really is no barrier for this investment. 

By understanding your public perception, you are able to fix any problems, and keep your customers loyal. RJ Metrics reports that returning customers spend Three00%more; that sounds like a good return on a daily 10 minute investment. 

Those are Three simple restaurant marketing ideas that don’t require too much in terms of investment of time or money. They really can be done by anyone, even the busiest of restaurant owners. And for the small amount of effort required, we think these ideas will create easy additional profit for your pocket.

Make a start on one of these restaurant marketing ideas today, and see the snowball effect bring more and more money into your registers.