9 Best Restaurant Promotion Ideas to Increase Bookings

To stand out in hospitality, you need more than good food and service. It requires creative and smart promotions that connect with your target audience. 

Promotions help you show what makes your restaurant special. They could be a unique menu item, optional add-ons, a great dining experience, or values like sustainability.

Promotions help you build better relationships with your customers by offering added value and encouraging repeat visits. In this guide, we’ll show you nine powerful promotion ideas you can use to get more bookings in your venue.

What makes a good restaurant promotion?

Here are some key elements that define a great restaurant promotion:

• Providing value: The core of a successful promotion is the value it provides to your diners. This doesn’t always mean discounts, it could mean improve the dining experience. For example, you might receive a free entrée with every main course for a limited time period.
  
  
• Personalisation using booking data: Personalised promotions resonate with customers because they are tailored to their needs and preferences. With a table management system like ResDiary, you can record customer booking data to determine the most effective promotions to offer them.
  
  
• Urgency: Urgency is a powerful driver of customer action, as limited-time offers encourage quick decisions. For example, "10% off this weekend only" or "exclusive bookings for our tasting menu for two weeks" prompt diners to act fast. 
  
  

9 restaurant promotion ideas to get more customers in your restaurant

Here are nine creative and effective ideas to inspire your next promotion and keep your tables full:

1. Special events

Hosting special events is a proven way to generate excitement and attract diners to your restaurant. Events like themed dinners, live music nights, and wine tastings can create special experiences.
These events help your venue stand out from the competition. They also give you a chance to showcase what makes you special, which can help to encourage people to return.

Need some help managing your next special event?

ResDiary’s event management software makes organising and promoting special events a breeze.

With ResDiary’s event management features, you can create dedicated booking forms for events, easily track reservations, and manage guest lists in real time. Your entire team can access all the information they need to run a successful event within the ResDiary system.

To ensure you create an event your diners will love, you can turn to ResDiary’s customer relationship management (CRM) integrations. Systems like Acteol and TalkBox allow you to learn even more about your customers by creating detailed profiles.

Then, you can understand the type of events that will appeal to your customer base. If you have a lot of vegan diners, create a plant-based tasting menu. If you are drawing in a lot of families, you could host an all-ages pizza night.

2. Deals and discounts

One of the first things that comes to mind when we think of promotions is deals and discounts. These promotions offer exceptional value that can drive more visitors to your restaurant. Promotions can help your restaurant maintain consistent traffic and maintain profitability, particularly during slower seasons or weekdays.

Some popular types of deals to consider implementing in your restaurant are:

• Happy hour: Special pricing on drinks and small plates can encourage customers to visit during traditionally quieter hours.
  
  
• Family night: Discounted family meals or a free meal for kids can draw larger groups to your venue and create a family-friendly reputation.
  
  
• Lunch combos: Bundled pricing for a meal and drink can attract office workers looking for quick, affordable options.

Deals and discounts are especially effective during known slower times, such as winter months or midweek evenings.

Restaurant owners can boost revenue when they need it most by tailoring promotions to these periods. For example, a discounted three-course menu during the middle of winter could encourage customers to visit your venue.

When implementing deals in your venue, ResDiary can offer plenty of value to your restaurant. ResDiary promotions allows you to create your own deals and discounts and market to your own database through CRM integrations.

This is a much more preferable option compared to using dedicated deal sites with large commission fees. ResDiary allows you to customise your own deals and effectively target them to your own customer database, while keeping the profits in your pocket.

3. Make personalised offers

Generic promotions may attract some customers. However, personalised offers create a feeling of exclusivity and relevance.

For example, giving a free glass of wine to a customer who often orders wine can help build a bond with your relationship. Sending birthday discounts to loyal customers can also strengthen this connection.

Data is your most valuable resource for crafting effective personalised offers. ResDiary allows you to collect detailed insights into customer preferences through booking data. 

This data helps you find patterns you can use for deals and discounts. You can see customers' favourite dishes, their preferred dining times, and the special occasions they celebrate at your venue. 

You can then offer highly personalised promotions to them. Communicating these promotions to your customers is easy with ResDiary’s branded emails or integrations like Silverstreet.

Some ideas for effective targeted promotions are:

• Offering discounts for customers to return to your venue on their birthday or anniversary.
• Creating set menus based on the dining preferences of a number of different diners.
• Offering wine pairing promotions to wine-loving customers.

4. Limited-time menus 

Limited-time menus are powerful restaurant promotion tools that combine exclusivity with urgency. They compel diners to act quickly. 

Knowing that a special menu is available for a limited time creates the psychological reaction known commonly as FOMO (fear of missing out). This feeling encourages immediate bookings.

For a perfect limited-time menu, use seasonal ingredients to keep your menu fresh and interesting.

They’re also the perfect opportunity to let your chefs run wild and create the set menu of their dreams.
ResDiary is the perfect system for promoting your special menus. With ResDiary’s promotions feature, you can easily communicate about your new menus with customers. You can also accept pre-orders to make big nights run more smoothly.

Here are a few special menu ideas to consider:

• Seasonal menu items made with locally sourced produce, such as spring asparagus or autumn squash.
• Curate menus that celebrate the holiday spirit for occasions like Valentine’s Day, Christmas, or the Lunar New Year.
• Partner with a local chef or supplier to create a menu offering a unique experience, such as a wine-pairing dinner.

ResDiary also allows you to add special widgets to your website for your promotions. This can give them pride of place on your website, incentivising extra bookings and attracting more diners.

5. Reward your VIPs

Giving special promotions to VIP customers is a great way to reward their loyalty. Creating promotions ensures that VIPs feel highly valued in your restaurant and continue to keep visiting.

To create promotions based around your VIPs, you’ll first need to identify them. ResDiary’s integrations with EPOS systems makes it easy to identify high-value customers. 

Looking at POS reports as well as your booking data can allow you to easily discover customers who are frequently spending significant amounts of money in your venue.

ResDiary’s marketing tools and promotions feature allow you to create exclusive offers that strengthen relationships with your most loyal diners. Examples include:

• Offering perks like a free dessert on their next booking.
• Hosting special dining events just for VIPs. To show they are valued, offer wine pairings, or chef’s table experiences.
• Offering discounts for VIPs to return to your venue on a special occasion.

You can target these promotions for quieter periods when you need to fill more tables. This can also help to reinforce that your venue is an excellent place to visit outside of the usual time periods.

6. Platform-specific promotions

Using platform-specific promotions lets restaurants tailor their strategies for different audiences. This enhances your ability to target specific demographics.

For instance, social media audiences are drawn to visually appealing, shareable content. A platform-specific promotion for a site like Instagram could be an attractive image with the caption:  “Share this post for a chance to get 10% off your next meal.” 

For highly effective social media promotions, use ResDiary’s Meta integration. This integration enables customers to enjoy a seamless booking journey on your Instagram and Facebook profiles, with the ability to place bookings directly.

Want to explore promotions on even more channels? You can use ResDiary’s channel management feature. This feature helps you run promotions through a number of different channels.

You can compare promotion performance between various channels using this unified tool. It’s the perfect way to successfully run platform-specific promotions.

7. Vouchers and gift cards

Vouchers and gift cards can be powerful forms of promotion.

If a customer loves your restaurant, they might want to share your venue with a loved one through these purchases. This allows you to attract customers who have yet to visit your restaurant.

These new customers usually bring along friends or family, increasing your foot traffic and potential earnings. The presence of friends and family means that more money will be spent than the value of the voucher. These visits provide an opportunity to impress guests, turning one-time visitors into loyal customers.

Vouchers also provide immediate cash flow, allowing your restaurant to receive funds upfront, before customers redeem their vouchers. 

Not sure where to start when it comes to implementing vouchers in your restaurant? ResDiary has you covered with our simple approach to vouchers.

Available through our integration with Stripe, vouchers can easily be created, sold and promoted on your website, social media and more. These vouchers can be wholly digital or come in the form of physical gift cards.

It’s a simple but effective restaurant promotion your customers will love. 

8. Charity events

When you partner with a charity or organise a fundraiser, your restaurant gets the opportunity to support a worthy cause. This can attract more customers as your business fosters community engagement. You’ll show socially-conscious customers that your business aligns with their values.

You might also be able to achieve coverage from local media outlets, increasing the public profile of your business. Hosting events such as donation nights, special charity dinners, or silent auctions can create memorable experiences for attendees while showcasing your restaurant’s values.

Participating in charity events can also have an impact on your staff. You can increase their engagement with your business, as they’ll be happy to work for a restaurant that gives back to the community.

These efforts show your community that your restaurant is more than just a business—it's a vital part of your local area. Through effective promotion on your website and social media, you can increase visibility for your business and raise money more effectively.

9. Sustainable menus

Introducing sustainable menus presents tremendous promotion opportunities for your restaurant. Consumers in the United Kingdom and Australia increasingly choose to buy from brands that prioritise sustainability. 

A sustainable menu demonstrates your restaurant’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact. It’s a moral choice and a smart business move. 

Some permanent steps you can take to a more sustainable menu are:

• Partnering with local farmers and suppliers to reduce your carbon footprint while supporting your community.
• Creating dishes with in-season produce to ensure freshness and reduce environmental impact.
• Implementing strategies to use ingredients more efficiently, such as repurposing potentially wasted produce into new dishes.

You can showcase these steps through social media posts or with a dedicated page on your website. It’s a powerful way to show how you are working towards becoming a more eco-friendly business.

For shorter promotional campaigns, consider initiatives like a zero-waste menu. While this might be difficult to implement over longer periods, it can be a valuable short-term experiment with great promotional opportunities. 

These menus are another way you could also land some local media coverage and get customers talking on social media.

Promote your restaurant more effectively with ResDiary

ResDiary offers a range of tools to help promote your restaurant. ResDiary’s promotions feature is designed to help spread the word about special offerings in your venue, whether through marketing communications or customised widgets.

ResDiary and our integrations make it far easier for your business to seamlessly manage special events, limited-time offers and personalised promotions. We have the tools you need for everything from a wine tasting night to offering gift cards.

Plus, our integrations with Meta and Reserve with Google make it simple to capitalise on customers discovering your business in a range of different ways.

Discover how ResDiary can enhance your marketing efforts and help you fill more seats.

Book a demo today.