How to Have a Full Restaurant on Valentine’s Day

Now that you know how to create a romantic atmosphere for Valentine’s all you need is the customers.

The following tips are a great place to start if you want to save money on large scale advertising and still reach enough clients to ensure a fully booked evening.  These tips will work on any given occasion, but some of them I would advise to use mainly before big holidays or for special occasions once in a while. Just as you don’t pay attention to all year long “special prices” neither will your customers after a while.

Ok. Now for the tips:

• Use your staff as walking adverts. Let your employees know that their friends can have a special discount if they book a place in advance for a romantic couple’s dinner.
• Use online coupon sites to advertise your restaurant using a discount to anyone that books a table from those sites. Local sites like explorechicago.org will usually let you list your event, location and other news about your restaurant.
• Using Google Places to add your business in Google maps is another great idea. You can add pictures of your venue and even add a coupon or a news flash that will appear next to your listing. And the best thing is that it’s free. Just make sure the pictures you use are of good quality.
• Have an early bird special. Create a special menu with lower prices for people that decide to come in early. Print some flyers and hand them around local colleges and other places where young people and students hang out. They usually will take advantage of such discounts as they try to minimize their expenses. An early bird special will also allow you to maximize your profits as you can cater to more diners in one evening.
• Create a short video of your restaurant and your staff making sure to show off your restaurant furniture and décor and upload it on YouTube. Then ask your staff and family members to forward the video to their friends. Use the description of the video to promote your Valentine’s Day specials.
• Go social. Use the social networks to promote your restaurant and your special deals. If you aren’t familiar with Facebook and other social sites ask one of your employees or your family members to assist you. Using social media to advertise your venue with both free and paid advertising can be very effective and inexpensive.

Regardless of the ways you choose to promote your business, remember that although it might not cost you much it is still time consuming so make sure to have your entire information ready in advance. Create your photos, videos and text in beforehand so that once you start your promotion it will go faster