Running a restaurant means wearing many different hats, as anyone who’s in the business knows. Maybe you never thought of yourself as a marketer, but it’s an important part of the job. Drumming up business lets you do what you do best: connect hungry diners with delicious foods.

Unsure about how to promote your restaurant successfully? You’re not alone. Many catering and restaurant managers struggle with it too. After all, there’s so much you can do, from managing social media to revamping menus, networking, and beyond. How do you decide what to do first?

These seven restaurant promotion ideas are the perfect place to start. Let’s dig in.

1. Get your website on customers’ radars

A great place to start is by updating your website. It’s the first thing customers see when they search for your restaurant. It’s like the “curb appeal” of your restaurant’s online presence, so it should make a good impression. It needs to be well-designed, easy to navigate, and mobile-friendly. Include important information, such as your menu and pricing, pictures of your food, services offered, and contact details.

That’s only the first step. The bigger challenge is making sure people find it. How will your website stand out from the hundreds of other caterer websites? Search engine optimization (SEO) can help. SEO helps your page rank higher on search sites like Google and Bing, so when customers search for specific keywords, your site will appear.

Keywords are the bread and butter of SEO. For example, if your restaurant specializes in vegan foods and you’re based in Denver, your main keyword could be “plant-based caterer in Denver.” Weaving it into website copy and blog posts would (hopefully) make you one of the top search results for the keyword.

You can learn about SEO more in-depth using free online resources. Understanding how to promote a restaurant or catering business with it takes time, but it’s worth it.

2. Make your mark on social media

Social media is more beginner-friendly than SEO. It’s also a lot more interactive. It lets you reach a wide audience and engage with potential customers online. Many restaurants successfully use social media to drive business, and you can too. The trick is creating great content.

Show your delicious food to the world

If you want customers to order from you, give them a (virtual) taste of what you offer. Try sharing mouth-watering photos of your dishes to open their appetite and get them acquainted with the menu.

Open up the kitchen

You could also give customers a peek into the kitchen. It’s not something diners see every day, so sharing photos (and videos!) of where the magic happens could make them feel more connected (and loyal) to your restaurant.

Invest in social media advertising

Posting quality content is one of the best restaurant promotion ideas, but it can take time to yield results. If you want to speed things up, consider adding paid targeted ads to your social media marketing plan. It allows you to reach people based on their demographics, interests, and location.

3. Make online reviews work for you

Customers might find your restaurant through your website or social media. But they’ll likely look for reviews before deciding to order. Having a high rating on sites like Yelp and Google brings you more business, while bad reviews and unprofessional behavior drive customers away.

You can build your trust online by encouraging happy diners to share their experience. A sticker on to-go boxes and a polite note in the invoice is a good way to remind them. Then you wait. Once the positive feedback comes in, post it on your website and social media.

4. Partner with local businesses and event planners

We’ve gone over how to promote your restaurant business online, but you can (and should) foster leads in person, too. Business catering is booming, and now is the time to get in on it.

Start by reaching out to office managers, admins, assistants, and employee experience managers. They’re the ones in charge of feeding the workplace. Are they happy with their current caterer? If not, what are they missing?

Knowing the answers to those questions helps you craft a winning pitch. For instance, you could highlight your staff’s training in safe food handling to office managers struggling with allergen-free orders.

Yes, nurturing these relationships is hard work, but the payoff is big. Because two-thirds of companies have a $14 per-head lunch budget, a typical catering order rakes in hundreds of dollars in revenue. Now imagine fulfilling those orders several times a week for multiple organizations. Brushing up on those networking skills is well worth it.

5. Build connections with your regulars

Social media is a fine way to stay in touch with your happy customers, but you can go even further — and reap more rewards — with email marketing. It lets you reach out to buyers directly without having to rely on a sometimes fickle social media algorithm.

The first step is building your list. Offer up rewards to incentivize diners to sign up. For example, you could reward mailing list subscribers with free appetizers or desserts with their next order.

Once that’s done, start sending newsletters. Craft click-worthy subject lines, make the emails visually appealing, and include strong calls to action. Besides keeping customers in the loop, email marketing generates the highest return on investment (ROI). For every dollar spent, companies make $36 back on average.

6. Plan seasonal menu options

Another great idea on how to promote your restaurant or catering business is to offer limited-time seasonal dishes. Announce these special offerings in your newsletter and time them with popular holidays to boost sales even more.

For example, you could offer salads and soups throughout January, since a lot of people commit to eating healthy at the start of the year. Or you could serve ham or turkey with comforting sides (or be daring with unique Thanksgiving dishes) in November, to cater to Worskgiving events.

Plan seasonal offerings months in advance so you have enough time to craft announcement posts for social media and email marketing campaigns.

7. Partner with reputable third-party marketplaces like ezCater

All these restaurant promotion ideas are worth the investment, but you may not see results for a while. After all, SEO and newsletters need time to work their magic. While you wait, partnering with ezCater is a smart business move.

Joining the Marketplace puts your brand in front of food buyers looking for catering near you. Unlike with social media ads, for example, you don’t need to convince them of all the perks of business catering. They understand how important it is to feed their work teams, which is why they typically spend $375 or more per order through ezCater.

Reaching these customers is easier when your business pops up on their search results. If food buyers like your menu, they can place a large order with just a few clicks. Then, you can focus on preparing delicious meals and getting them delivered — even if you don’t have an in-house fleet of drivers.

Take your restaurant to new heights

When orders slow down and the go-go-go pace of running a restaurant cools a little, try investing extra time and resources into marketing. There is so much you can do — from optimizing your website to launching social media campaigns, networking with potential customers, and so much more. With enough work, you will likely see a boost in sales. 

Want to feed even more hungry diners right away? Learn more about how ezCater can help you grow your catering business hassle-free.