restaurant tips and advice

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Email Lists can Work for Restaurant Promotions

Oct 16
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, Restaurant, restaurant tips and advice

More than likely, you’ve been asked to provide your email address for promotions through various online companies, and even brick and mortar stores that you frequent. These promotions can work for restaurants as well, but you have to make sure that you do it the right way.

Keep in mind that some people don’t like to sign away their email address to strangers. They are afraid of getting spammed and hacked, and you really can’t blame them. As great as technology is, it also comes with a lot of problems. Never tell someone that they have to sign up, as this can get a lot of people angry. Instead, have your employees point out the email signup book and let the customers know that you will be sending coupons and special offers through the address, and that is the only thing that you will be doing. Let them know that you aren’t going to sell the addresses to anyone else.

You can have a book at the front of the restaurant where people can sign up. You should also have a form or an email address on your website that people can use to sign up if they don’t want to sign up while they are at the restaurant.

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Cater an Event to Spread the Word about Your Restaurant

Oct 06
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, Restaurant, restaurant tips and advice

If you have a relatively new restaurant, you already know that it can be hard to get people to come through your doors. While you might have had a decent opening, the rush after the first few weeks might be slower than you had hoped. This certainly doesn’t mean that your eatery is doomed. It simply means that you need to spread the word to more people. You will want to find as many ways as possible to keep up the buzz about your restaurant.

Something that you might want to consider is doing a little bit of catering for a special event that is happening in your town. Even if your restaurant doesn’t normally do catering, you might want to consider it for a gallery showing or some similar event. It is also a good idea to offer a heavy discount to the event coordinator. In some instances, you may even want to cater the event free of charge.

Why would you want to do this? You have to look at this as an advertising opportunity rather than as a job. If the event is large, or if it has a number of influential people attending, you are going to be able to advertise directly to them in the best way possible – through your food. You don’t have to tempt them to come into your restaurant to try your food because they will be able to do it right at the event. If they like what you have to offer, you can be sure that they will come into the restaurant, they will tell their friends, and you will increase your business.

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Conventions Mean Big Business for Bars and Restaurants

Sep 28
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, Restaurant, restaurant tips and advice

If you are fortunate enough to be running a bar or restaurant in a medium to large sized city, you probably have conventions roll through occasionally. These conventions bring a large number of people into the city that are from out of town, and those people are going to need to eat and find nightly entertainment. Your bar or restaurant could do some great business if you start advertising to the convention goers early.

You will be able to find out when the convention is months in advance, and that is the time to start targeting the conventioneers. Contact the people who are hosting the convention and tell them that you want to offer special discounts and coupons for all of the attendees. See if you can send them the coupons to be placed in packets for the people attending. You can also ask to drop off stacks of coupons when the convention gets underway.

Another great way of letting the attendees know about your restaurant is to contact the hotels in the area and ask if you can place coupons in their rooms or at the front desk. If they have their own restaurant onsite, they might not be agreeable immediately, but it never hurts to ask.

Granted, the convention is only going to boost your business for a few days, while the convention is happening. However, if there are a number of conventions in your city, you will find that by promoting to convention goers, you can make extra money that will keep your eatery going during the slower times.

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Host a Karaoke Night to Boost Business in Your Bar

Sep 05
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, fun, restaurant tips and advice

They thought it was a fad. They thought it would die off. They thought wrong. Karaoke is here to stay, and that means that you might want to look into hosting a karaoke night at your bar. Even if you don’t happen to be a fan, there are plenty of people out there that love karaoke. You want to keep your customers happy, and you want to gain more customers, right? This can be a great way to do it.

You will find many different types of karaoke machines that you can buy for your bar, from simple little machines to large machines with PA systems. The one you choose will depend on the size of your bar and how often you think you might be using it. Make sure that you have a huge song selection for the machine. You want to be able to appeal to as many people as possible and the more songs available the better.

Rather than just buying a machine and placing it in the corner of your bar to gather dust, you need to make sure that you advertise your special karaoke night. Start your ads several weeks in advance. Make sure that you announce it on your website and blog and all of the different social networks. Tell everyone on your bar’s fan page to let their friends know. Perhaps you can coincide the night with an extended happy hour that goes until closing time, just to boost interest. (more…)

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Customers Make the Best Marketers for Your Bar and Restaurant

Sep 01
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, Restaurant, restaurant tips and advice

by Ethan Hein

Even if you have a million ideas for promoting your bar or restaurant, you might find that none of them work. That is just the nature of the game. There are so many variables when it comes to marketing that you can never be sure of what is going to work. However, one of the tried and true methods of boosting business and sales has always been word of mouth. You want to have people talking and saying great things about your restaurant or bar, and you want those people to be genuine. While your employees and you might say great things, when it comes from the mouth of one of your actual customers, it is going to hold more weight.

How can you get your customers to start talking about your establishment? You will find that many of them already do. If you want them to spread the word even further, you might want to consider offering them some benefits for preaching the gospel of your bar or restaurant. Here is a simple way that you can do that.

Print up some business cards with your establishment’s name, number and address on them. You will also want to add a space on the card where your customer can print his or her name. The card is also a coupon that offers a discount of 10 to 15 percent for anyone who brings it into your place. The discount can be for meals, drinks, or anything that you like.

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Fun Ideas for Your Child Centric Restaurant

Aug 29
Posted by Daniel in fun, Restaurant Furniture, restaurant tips and advice

If you are running a family friendly restaurant that focuses on children, then you will want to make sure that you have everything that a child centric restaurant should have. Here are a few fun ideas that you might want to incorporate into your restaurant.

What screams fun for kids? Games are an obvious choice. You can have many different types of games, from video games to skee ball. You will want to make sure that there are games for children of different ages, and it might be a good idea to throw in something that the adults are going to like as well.

Seating is something that you need to consider carefully. Remember that in a restaurant that is specifically for children, they are going to be running around. Make sure that you have enough space to allow for that. Restaurant booths will help to easily divide the space and will allow for more “running around” space. You will also need to make sure that you have seating that is right for both children and adults. Booster seats, for the younger kids to sit on, are a great idea and they are something that you do not want to overlook.

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