What is the best way to generate traffic besides word of mouth in the restaurant industry?

Answer 1

Run a coupon in the local newspapers.

Answer 2

Put some "by the road signs" all around the city where your restaurant is located, giving direction towards your restaurant (don't know what those are called exactly, but they look just like those FOR SALE signs when selling a house). Only I believe you will need to get the permit for this from the city.

Or you can place announcements in some newspaper and magazines. Or you can organize a presentation on a frequent square in your city (again, a permit from the city is needed). Or you can arrange an interview at a local radio or TV station, but this usually costs a lot.

There are many ways. Promoting a new restaurant usually requires a lot of marketing in the beginning, specially if it is not located in a very frequent place (where a lot of people pass by all the time).

Or you can hire a marketing agency to give you some instructions or to do the work themselves.

Answer 3

Get on the web, search for websites that recommend restaurants in your area & submit a description of yours so that visiting groups know what your house style is.

Host an event - if you can't get a celebrity along, try local charities - or publishers; you might find their authors are happy to attend a book signing.

I reckon coupons are no good for repeat business, and make it a little downmarket, and also bring in separate groups with no common interests, who only want to try new places once & then move on. Hey, maybe that's just me.

Get ready for Hallowe'en themes!

You don't say who your target market is? Want to attract pensioners, teenagers, couples, big parties? Want to exclude some of these? Loud, quiet, romantic, party atmosphere ... what's the most active group which regularly dines out, where you are based? Do you give incentives for large parties?

Are your staff friendly & do they ask what the occasion is? People like to be acknowledged. I've been to anonymous restaurants & OK ones - the ones I regularly go back to are the ones where the staff were alert & friendly, but not intrusive. While the place is quiet is a good time to get to know your early customers & why they are there.

Do they have a common interest, your customers? Are they a clique that would alienate others, are they a friendly bunch who will come back again & bring friends? Is your music too loud, too off? Do you want office parties who don't really want to talk to each other all night, or couples who do? Are there companies in your area looking for a good place to take their staff out for Xmas?

Answer 4

If a customer has a great experience with a restaurant word of mouth is great, if it a bad experience it could be a disaster. More people talk about bad experiences than good ones. Your weekly local magazine is a great start. Its not expensive and the community reads it. It also depends on the clientele you are trying to generate. Up Scale maybe a commercial on your local TV station. Radio is also a good way. Make sure you participate in community activities when they are available. Out door Art Shows, Festivals ect are wonderful ways to get your name out into the main stream. I have worked in clubs and restaurants for years from the mom and pop diner to the award winning four star and i have found out that everyone likes something free. I was a chef at a small Bistro in Florida and the owner was notroious for giving away food and drink. Now he is the owner of a restaurant that has won a huge amount of awards. He never felt that he was too good of a restaurant not to participate when the community needed a new community center, or we had our local Fishing Festival.
Restauants are alot of hard work . Best of luck to you

Answer 5

Invite local celebrities for a free meal (creates buzz), join your Chamber of Commerce to network with other business people and to get advice and exposure through their membership, put an ad in the Yellow Pages (people throw out newspapers, but they keep the same phone book forever), hold special charity fund raising events which will get some free press for your restaurant and maybe even some return business from grateful charity workers. If you have a bar in your restaurant, offer a singles night, or host a "Dating Game" style contest and invite local radio stations to cover the event. Every time I turn on the radio these days, they're broadcasting from either a bar or a restaurant. Local radio stations are always starving for fresh ideas. I saw a radio station covering a pet give-away at the local dog pound, so don't be shy about calling them up with your ideas. This is all I could come up with at 10:14 pm. Good luck.

Answer 6

Get a food critic from a newspaper, magazine to come in and critique your restaurant. Offer your restaurant for a reality tv programme, ask a celebrity chef to come and endorse an item on your menu. Phone up your local radio station and say that someone famous has been seen in your restaurant. Be creative and don't stop seeking publicity, Hire a look alike to be photographed in your restaurant, or hire them to open your restaurant remember all publicity is good! Even go out during the day with flyers offering two for one, or dessert free. People love a bargain. Depends what kind of clientele you're looking for.

Answer 7

Service.
There's been a couple restaurants that opened up in our neighborhood with dang good food, but lousy service. Whenever I hear someone talk about the restaurants, it goes "Well... the food was pretty good, but the SERVICE!"
I know you asked for "besides word of mouth" but stellar service will feed word of mouth just as much if not more than the food you serve.
Open the door for people, greet them when they come in, have enough staff to give people the best service they've ever had and they'll be back.

Answer 8

You usually need to put at least 15-20% of your gross into advertising to be successful. Learn all you can about the demographics in your area and target your perspective customers based on it. Here's a few hints:

-Try to track where your business is coming from. If you're paying for an ad in a circular but you get only 1 or 2 customers from it per month, ditch the ad. It's not paying for itself.

-Sell up. Most people don't come in for just an appetizer. Give 'em a complementary one and they'll come in for an entire meal. People like free stuff even if they have to pay to get it.

-Win local "Best of" awards. It's the best free publicity a small business can get. Local newspapers/magazines often run them. It's usually a popularity contest with whoever gets the most votes wins. Get everyone you know to submit your business' name and you're in. It's amazing the amount of new business these types of awards generate.

-Don't underestimate the phone book. Believe it or not, people still use this as something other than a door stop. An ad that projects a professional image of your business catches people's eye. They'll call you first.

-Get involved with your local Chamber of Commerce. Members take care of each other and help promote each other's business.

-Make friendly with other small businesses. Trade meals for treatments at a local day spa or for flowers at a local florist. Make nice with them and they'll send business your way on recomendations.

-Local high school looking for a donation for the football team? Give 'em a gift certificate for a dinner for two. One, its a tax write-off. Two, think of how many people will see your name as a donor. Broad advertising at a very minimal cost.

Spend your advertising dollars wisely. Are people going to drive 40 miles to go to your place? If yes, radio advertising may not be a bad idea. If you're looking at targeting the business lunch crowd, mailers may work better.

Obviously this isn't everything that you can do, but I hope they help.

Answer 9

It depends on your location. If you are in a remote area then it will be harder to generate the traffic, because a lot of restaurant succeed from foot traffic. However, if you are in a very busy section, of your town, you could do coupons for passersby and in mail. It would introduce the community and the neighborhood to your establishment.

You could also get one of those two way menus for outside and people would be able to see what it is you serve prior to coming in.

Another way to go is to have drink specials and entertainment if your place is big enough. That would bring in a bigger crowd.

But remember you also have to market your place wisely. You have to be the only one with something. That's how a lot of restaurants succeed because they have created a dish or specialize in something, it's called the niche market.

You definitely have to know what consumer base you are looking to target and go out and get them.

IF you want I have some of my marketing books from my Businees Management class. I could send you some information to give you a better idea

Answer 10

The best way to generate traffic or to push demand other than word of mouth is to get a recommendation in the independent press. Get a PR or get a friend who works in PR to invite some journalists, do some special, something memorable... they need a story to tell. Today, more than the hardware or the good food, is the story involved that counts. If you manage to find some distinguished factor and you manage to communicate that difference, you'll get people to taste, feel and see. Otherwise you're in the market for the same share as your neighbor.

Answer 11

A website is the yellow pages ad of the 21st century. Contact the guy at the link below. The conversation is free, and you will get all kinds of great advice. He can produce the baddest website for you for a lot less than you think, and he can definitely help you get traffic to your restaurant. He has turned more lunch-hour hobbies into viable money-making business, including my own. And there's another guy's link down at the bottom too, who used to run a business at lunchtime, and within a year, he's got an entire office staff of 13 people, including group insurance and the whole nine yards. The guy at MHD turned me on to iPowerGRFX and I've been glad for it ever since.

I've provided a link to his site first, and my site second, just to show you what he did for me. You will also see my site in his portfolio.

Good luck!

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