Ideas To Promote Your Restaurant With Restaurant Advertising Signs

How to attract more customers to your restaurant

Did you know that you could increase your footfall and profit, by tweaking just a few simple things about your menu and your marketing?

How you display your restaurant advertising signs could make or break your business.

This guide will clue you in on how to promote a restaurant, and the most effective restaurant promotion ideas. Get tried-and-tested insights into how to attract more customers to your restaurant, as well as what they want once they're inside.

Outdoor restaurant promotion ideas

Firstly, when restaurant marketing, use outdoor signs for restaurants, such as outdoor leaflet holders, pavement signs and illuminated displays. These will attract passersby, and prompt them to take a look.

If your outdoor restaurant signs are tempting enough, they might even enter your venue then, or plan to return later.

Make immediate entry irresistible by using your restaurant advertising posters to promote trending dishes and offer special discounts.

Buy menu display stands

An outdoor menu display makes people much more likely to impulsively enter, as they are able to make an assessment more easily without the pressure of entering the venue first. There are assorted ways to create a professional and attractive outdoor menu display. On dry days, pubs, bars and restaurants can write their offers and menus on A-board chalkboards, which provide a rustic and homely effect.

For shaded streets and dark nights, an LED outdoor menu display can be used, or we stock LED menu covers for inside dimly-lit restaurants and bars. LED menu covers, frames, and stands help make your menu more visible and easy to read, while also creating a more luxurious atmosphere.

Introduce outdoor restaurant dining

Al fresco dining can have a great influence on passersby, who will instantly get a feel for the atmosphere. They're likely to be exposed to pleasant sensory cues, such as the sounds and smells of cooking, as well as seeing other diners enjoying themselves.

Various studies explore the relationship between sensory cues and impulsive food buying, finding that these cues can inspire hunger, desire and positive emotions in people [1].

Printed restaurant and café barriers are a great way to increase brand awareness outdoors. Outdoor dining has a casual, festive feel that is particularly loved by 25-34 year olds. One study found that 43% of diners in this age bracket said they "spent more money on alcohol when dining outdoors" [2]. Another survey found that up to 79 percent of diners would increase their time spent there if table service was al fresco [3].

Branded wooden planter boxes are perfect for enhancing the al fresco ambience of cafes and restaurants, while displaying your business branding. You can fill them with real plants, stand plant pots in them, or use easy-to-maintain faux hedging.

Indoor signs for restaurants

Another key aspect to look at is your indoor restaurant signage. This is most direct way to communicate with your existing guests.

Display leaflets with your menu or tabletop signs, and make sure your printed graphics are consistent with online advertising efforts.

Chalk menu boards are extremely popular, as they're easy to update and add an attractive rustic aesthetic.

While it's now essential to connect with customers online, plenty of people still prefer to engage with printed materials. Don't misjudge the power of printed matter to persuade and be shared. If a patron particularly enjoys their dining experience, they may pick up a leaflet or menu to pass on to a friend, so make these readily available in leaflet holders.

Generate some creative restaurant promotion ideas. Loyalty schemes are incredibly popular, but less common in hospitality, so this is a quick way to stand out against the competition. 'Happy hour' offers, such as buy-one-get-one-free, are an evergreen option for boosting footfall in bars and restaurants during otherwise-quiet hours. Ensure these are advertised heavily on both social media and outdoor signs to get a broader reach of new customers.

Bear in mind the importance of aligning your online and offline marketing, particularly if you're in a busy area or tourist destination. You will want to be the first to grab the attention of visitors in these areas who are likely to want to plan their meals ahead of time. Incorporate QR codes for added efficiency in your multi-channel strategy.

Buy A frame restaurant outdoor signs

If you're in a town centre or busy high street, it's likely that there is a lot of competition all vying for potential custom.

Therefore, your restaurant outdoor signs must draw people in effectively.

A 2002 study investigated what information people search for when selecting a restaurant. It found that highlighting prices in advertisements is a crucial marketing tool for restaurants, as price is often the key deciding factor between two appealing choices. [4].

'To encourage impulse buying, an effective point of sale advertising should include an 'emotional appeal' - Miao and Mattila (2013) [5]

Sell the self-care appeal of food

One study outlined how impulse buying in restaurant is largely controlled by the concept of indulgence as soothing. The study found that restaurant guests were more likely to impulse buy food when it was put forward as a self-indulgent treat, which would help them to feel better [5].

They suggest that this is because people impulse buy food as a 'mood-booster', as they are more able to justify indulging in a treat (i.e. 'I deserve it' or 'I need it to feel better') than succumbing to greed.

Make sure your restaurant signage has some emotional appeal to guests, so that it speaks to their desire for indulgence and self-soothing behaviours.

This will be more likely to inspire positive feelings than if it simply encourages them to 'yield to temptation', which could cause guilt instead (Miao and Mattila, p. 463).

Food impulse buying is a self-care behaviour - focus on this in your restaurant marketing ideas!

For tips on how to write and display your menus, check out our menu presentation guide.

Ideas to promote your restaurant with user-generated content (UGC) and word of mouth (WOM)

A highly-effective and low-cost method of advertising is to encourage word of mouth (WOM) and user-generated content (UGC), which is basically any relevant content that is shared by consumers online.

Introduce loyalty schemes, competitions and rewards, such as 'get a discount when you recommend a friend/leave feedback/review us online'. Print offers on your receipts as well as on posters, flyers and business cards to display at bars, bathrooms, tabletops and entrances.

Suggestion boxes for restaurants

Photo competitions are a fantastic way to get customers engaging with your brand online and creating UGC which will inform and impress other potential new customers. Competitions are also a great way to gather useful data on your target market.

Create a unique 'hashtag' that your visitors can mark their text and images with on Instagram or Twitter. This means that anyone who searches for that hashtag will be automatically shown a bunch of unique UGC that relates to your brand.

Creative restaurant promotion ideas

Attend pop up events and food festivals

Attend pop up dining events and local food festivals, as well as offering outside catering, in order to get your business known. Use the restaurant marketing opportunity to its full extent, offering leaflets, business cards, displaying your restaurant branding on a banner or event flag, and offering free samples.

Give visitors a memorable in-person experience, as well as making sure they have something to take away with them, too.

Create unique experiences

One way to stand out in customer's minds is to include a novelty experience, unique dish or photo opportunity. A selfie booth, or arcade games section is a great choice if you have an extra bar or long table waits.

This is also the easiest way to convert new customers into brand ambassadors for your business, as an 'Instagrammable' backdrop or selfie area will make visitors want to share the images they capture.

Capitalise on seasonal events

Capitalise on all manner of seasonal events - any excuse for a promotion! Customers love novelty, like themed dishes during St Patricks Day or Halloween.

Seasonal events are also a time to utilise emotions. For example, a romantic, high-end restaurant should be promoting themselves as a great Valentine's Day destination, just as family-friendly venues should promote deals near Mother's Day, Father's Day and graduation.

Offer freebies

Sometimes the smallest things stand out and help customers to remember you.

Offer free appetisers on arrival and unexpected gifts at payment. Ideas include complementary sweets and hand wipes or a fridge magnet with your company logo and contact details. Dessert refill areas are another easy way to get remembered. Kids love easy access to sweets and ice cream!

Advertise your green practices

Customers are more likely to return when a restaurant advertises their green practices. When restaurants use a menu to promote green policies, they see a high return on investment without direct advertising [6].

Therefore, make sure you use all potential marketing methods to publicise any green practices, in order to persuade guests to return.[7].

If you're looking for a product guide to help you with displays for your bar or pub, check out our guide on how to increase bar sales.

References

1. Choi, J., ‘Consumer impulse buying of food at festivals and events: Understanding the role of sensory cues’ (Unpublished doctorate thesis), 2016, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

2. Smith, Daniel P., ‘An Inside Look at Outdoor Dining’, https://www.fsrmagazine.com/inside-look-outdoor-dining [accessed 14 July 2020].

3. Pike, Steven, ‘10 Tips for Successful Al Fresco Dining’ (19 June 2016), https://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Article/2016/06/20/10-tips-for-successful-al-fresco-dining [accessed 14 July 2020].

4. Marta Pedraja Iglesias and Ma Jesus Yagüe Guillén, ‘Searching for information when selecting a restaurant’, Food Service Technology, Vol1:1 (2012), pp. 35-45.

5. Li Miao and A.S. Mattila, ‘Impulse Buying in Restaurant Food Consumption’, Journal of Foodservice Business Research, Vol. 16 (2013), pp. 448–467.

6. Audrey L. Szuchnicki, ‘Examining the Influence of Restaurant Green Practices on Customer Return Intention’, UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones, 155 (2009), https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/155 [accessed February 2020].

7. Booi-Chen Tan & Peik-Foong Yeap, ‘What Drives Green Restaurant Patronage Intention?’, International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 7, No.2 (Jan 2012), pp. 215-223.