7 ideas
to gain new clients for your restaurant

Using social media in the marketing of a restaurant comes down to one simple principle: to make our Fans meet in real life, on the other side of the counter. How to do it? How to promote a restaurant on Facebook? Today I would like to invite you to 7 tips on how to use Facebook to promote a restaurant effectively.

1. Prepare an item on the menu, only for the Fans.

Each of us likes feeling exceptional, that is why it is worth to favour people who are with us not only offline, yet also online. And what if someone only follows us on Facebook? It’s even better, he/she will have extra motivation to finally visit our spot! “Secret passwords” posted on Facebook which you have to give when placing the order to get a discount or a bonus for the meal work similarly.

2. How to promote a restaurant? Get engaged locally.

An art festival, a concert, an auction, workshops? If you don’t have time to organise such meetings by yourself, nothing stands in the way for you to become a partner of such events as part of a cooperation barter. What can you do? Provide a place at your premise, prepare a snack for the participants or open the event page and contact interested people there. Ask for your logo to be placed in advertising materials, and the name of the fan page to be tagged in posts published by the Organiser. Examples can be multiplied as the premises undertake various events actively.

3. Reward for the activity: the fan of the month, check-ins.

Use the native functions Facebook gives you: the possibility to promote the offer for the people near your business (it works well when promoting lunch offers and other time-limited offers) and check-in option. How to do it? When it comes to the offers: prepare the offer on a discount and a graphic design of 1200 x 628px dimension and the Facebook creator will guide you through a really easy process of adding a promotion. In the case of check-ins, you should determine the promotion rules yourself (it is important to have it placed at the premise and on the webpage, online). Easy solutions work the best, that is why a check-in shown on a mobile phone by the Guest to the staff should be enough.

4. Surprise your fans, think out of the box.

To do it, you need to be in constant touch with them: answer the comments and messages, listen to their requests, and above all, take the critics to heart (constructive naturally!). Fulfil the wishes, mitigate conflicts and appreciate engagement whenever possible. This trick was interestingly used by Boulangerie, who visited one of the Customers at work with coffee which she asked for on the fanpage. The situation took place in December so the action was extended for Christmas period and was based on ordering some tidbits for a dear one “with a special delivery”.

5. Invite your fans to play, appreciate their creativity.

Names of the meals on your new menu, the main theme of the seasonal decoration, the colour of the staff’s outfits are not easy decisions to make, requiring lots of creativity too. And as the saying goes: every few heads of fans are better than one of the owner! Invite your followers to co-create your business, let them get involved and appreciate their effort! In what way? Check how the Green Monkey café managed that – the only thing they could have done better was to award all the participants with a small discount for a tasty coffee!

 6. Prepare a competition and make sure it’s consistent with Facebook rules!

Competitions are probably what Facebook users like best – lots of research show that such actions are the main reason that the fans decide to follow a profile of a given brand. You should only remember for it to be legal! So all the competitions in which the participants must share/like/tag a friend are out, you cannot also choose the winner randomly! Remember to prepare the rules of a competition! And what an idea for a competition may be like? I highly recommend a post from Sztuczki (Tricks) fan page where they encouraged their Guests to show how they spend their time at the restaurant in the photos!

7. Plan spontaneous actions in advance ?

“Last minute” actions will work well and (although unfortunately, not everyone uses it) will encourage new users to like your page – finally it is the only place where they can find out about the newest promotions. Boulangerie dealt with the matter interestingly with an action „the early bird catches the worm!”. You shall remember to prepare well for such a promotion and inform about its completion in due time.

Seven ways of how to promote a restaurant do not exhaust the subject definitely, yet I suppose that they are a good start, worth to be tested. Let me know if you use them and definitely watch us on Facebook so as not to miss another portion of inspiration!