Are you wondering whether Restaurant promotions are really worth it or why restaurant giveaways are so popular? Moreover, can restaurant promotional ideas help you build a profitable business? If these questions intrigue you, we have all the answers for you.  

You can have the best food at the best prices with the best service, but that doesn’t matter if nobody knows your restaurant even exists.

Thus, restaurant promotions are a great way to engage customers and highlight all your restaurant’s unique menu items. This activity promises several advantages for your business to increase sales. 

Some of the most common restaurant promotional ideas include offering customers coupons, discounts, and giveaways. But did you know that there are many more creative tools to help promote your restaurant? 

In this article, you will find some unique restaurant promotional ideas and tips to help you grow your business. These include custom promotional products, branding swag, and quality logos. Let’s take a look at them. 

Benefits Of Hosting A Restaurant Contest

The food business is a competitive market, and it is important to gain more visibility to attract new business. That’s why thinking out-of-the-box ideas can help your business grow. 

One of the simplest and most profitable marketing ideas for the restaurant business is hosting restaurant giveaways. Not sure how to do it? We are here to help you.

People are always looking for exciting things to do, and contests bring them that spirit and more people through the door.

When a contest is organized, people get curious to know about the contest. This draws their attention to your social media page, website, and restaurant. 

Moreover, if you add a noble cause to the contest, it gets more meaningful, and customer engagement increases.

You can also multiply this attention by making it mandatory for participants to share your post to reach a bigger audience quickly. 

Such attention does not just allow customers to apply for the contest; it also allows the non-participants to get to know your restaurant’s unique food items they may be interested in trying. 

Yes, you must pick and announce a contest winner and provide a prize. However, remember that this activity will be a small price to pay for the bigger audience that you will reach. 

Thus the benefits of hosting a restaurant contest come with multiple benefits. 

1. More visibility: Whether you have just opened a restaurant or you have been there for a while, business visibility is the most important to boost your business. By increasing traffic to your social media pages and website through restaurant contests, you become more visible to the public, who will become interested in dining at your restaurant.
2. Attract new customers: When people get curious about the contest and enter it, they will check out your social media and website, introducing them to your menu. Here you can engage them with mouth-watering pictures and attractive descriptions of your delicious food that encourage them to place an order.
3. Builds Community: When a contest is run effectively, it builds a strong following. People might not know about a brand or a business. However, having heard about it from family and friends would draw more attention to your business.
4. Increases sales: Once your restaurant gets the necessary attention, it is normal to see sales growth as people come to try your food.  

Why Run A Restaurant Giveaway?

Restaurant giveaways are a great way to engage customer attention that your business can benefit from. But before introducing your giveaway, think about what you want to achieve with its help. 

The main goal for any business is to get more customers, but there can be various other reasons for restaurants to post giveaways. Some of the reasons could be to gain more reviews, boost sales, generate leads, or increase brand awareness.

Besides, each time someone participates in a restaurant giveaway, you collect their details and remarket to them.

This is a way of turning a contest entry into a customer. Therefore, before you launch a giveaway, have clear goals to target your interest so that you structure the contest around your goals.

How Do Restaurant Giveaways Work?

If you are planning a restaurant giveaway, it is good to know how it works. By introducing a restaurant giveaway, you enable people to win a prize.

They are subsequently asked to complete an action, usually to submit their contact details, to win a prize. Find out how this would help your business.

• You can run giveaways (contests) casually by offering your Instagram or Facebook followers a chance to win if they comment, like a post, or use a hashtag. This process ends with you giving a prize to the winner. It is a great strategy for increasing social media engagement and an effective way to increase the value of following you.
• Restaurant giveaways can also be run using a third-party giveaway tool to host your contest page. This option allows you to get customers’ email addresses and tap into valuable things like referral links, social share incentives, prompt popups, and more.

6 Instagram/Facebook Contest Ideas

Social media has become the key to success for all kinds of businesses. So, if you haven’t been focusing on social media, it is time to do so. Let’s check out 5 Instagram contest ideas that can increase your audience.

1. Tag A Friend To Win a Free Meal For Two

One of the most basic contests to draw attention to your restaurant is asking customers to tag a friend on a post of your restaurant featuring a delicious picture of your food.

This contest would allow only two people to dine at your restaurant for free. A random selection process can do the selection process.

2. Guess The Menu Item And Get It For Free

Post a picture of a dish from your menu and ask your followers to guess the name of the main ingredient.

This contest is a great way to introduce a new menu in your restaurant. Choose a winner from the correct answers.

3. Tell The Name Of Your Favorite Dish And Win A Chance To Learn It From Our Chef

Food lovers also like to pick up their aprons when making their favorite dishes. So, you can create a successful contest by asking your followers to name their favorite dish.

Select a winner and welcome them to your kitchen for a free cooking class.

4. Win A Free Romantic Meal By Telling Why You Love Your Better Half

Date nights are always special for all age groups. They can turn into a more fun experience when they are free.

So, you can create content by providing a free romantic meal for two by posting about this contest on Instagram. Select the best answer from the comments section and choose a winner.

5. Share A Picture Of Yourself Enjoying A Meal You Had At Our Restaurant To Avail Special Discounts

A great idea to promote your restaurant is to show customers enjoying a meal. Nothing can become more real than this.

So, ask your followers to post a picture of themselves while enjoying a meal at your restaurant. Select a winner and offer them a good discount on their next meal.

6. Caption The Photo And Get A Gift Card Worth $50

Everybody likes to have fun. So, why not capitalize on humor with this contest? Post a funny behind-the-scenes photo from your restaurant and invite people to caption it in the most amusing way possible. Reward the most captivating response with a gift card worth $50.

7. Host Food Photography Contest Using Your Restaurant Hashtag

Social media users love to use hashtags. So, make the most of it by creating a contest around it. Create a hashtag for your restaurant.

This can be a special menu item or food in general. Ask your diners to take a photo of their meal and post it on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag.

The one who gets the maximum likes on their participating photo wins! You can award the winner with a free cooking class, a discount on their next meal, or a free meal for one.

How To Pick And Design A Good Restaurant Branding Swag? 

The above-mentioned restaurant promotions are a great way to grab customer attention. But there are more ways to promote your brand that make a lasting impact. One of the easiest ways to promote your restaurant is by using restaurant branding swags.

Wondering what’s that is? You surely know and have seen it, but allow me to explain how it works. Branding swag is any promotional product that features the company logo or name.

It is a form of offline advertising. Instead of using regular radio or billboard ads, you have people wearing your brand logo in different forms that put your brand name on public notice and stir a conversation.

Branding swag ideas include accessories, stationery, bags, clothes, kits, gifts, water bottles, etc. 

Regarding restaurant branding swag, you can select any of these methods to emboss your brand log. For this purpose, you can use the help of GS-JJ.com to do this work for you effortlessly and perfectly.

GSJJ provides high-quality branding swags at highly competitive prices and promises on-time delivery. It has been affiliated with one of the largest promotional gifts and merchandise manufacturers for over 20 years.

GSJJ product lines include lapel pins, medals, lanyards, challenge coins ornaments, key chains, silicon bands, embroidered patches, magnets, stickers, and more that can be customized.

The designing process at GSJJ is efficient. You can select from a collection of well-designed templates, elements, and fonts.

The Online Design System makes it easy to create your one-in-a-kind custom pins, coins, patches, and more from the comfort of your home or office. 

Let’s look at some of these branding swags that can be used for your restaurant.

Restaurant Custom Promotional Products Recommendation

GSJJ’s branding swags are a great restaurant advertising idea. You can customize your brand swag most conveniently and attractively. 

Some of the GSJJ branding swag items include challenge coins bottle opener, restaurant-themed custom Lanyards, restaurant-themed custom Enamel Pin, and restaurant-themed custom die-cut stickers.

GSJJ requires no minimum quantity limitation for your order. They also offer you a direct factory at a low price and free design and shipping service. Let’s check out some of their products. 

1. Custom Challenge Coins Bottle Opener

Custom challenge coin bottle openers are perfect for anyone looking for something unique. Challenge coins are metal coins made of iron, brass, or zinc that come in different shapes and sizes.

You can prepare challenge coins for any purpose or special personal occasion. At GSJJ, you can create custom challenge coins in three easy steps. 

You must send your ideas or inspiration, receive a 2D rendering for approval, and purchase your coins.  

2. Restaurant-Themed Custom Lanyards

GSJJ’s custom Lanyard is a high-quality and exquisitely detailed product with a free design selection and fast turnaround. GSJJ specializes in making custom 3-D silicone-printed polyester lanyards made of non-toxic PVC.

The molded 3-D PVC-printed Lanyard is used to carry your ID badges, keys, cellphones, wallet, water bottles, and other personal items.

You can customize your Lanyard in a few clicks by uploading your logos, changing the lettering, choosing the colors, and you’re done.

3. Restaurant-Themed Custom Enamel Pin

Enamel pins are a great way to promote your restaurant brand. You can give them to your employees in the front and backhand. They look attractive and are a great advertising tool for your restaurant’s name. 

If this product fascinates you, you can also order a custom enamel pin from GSJJ. All you have to do is share your idea with them or choose from their design options.

GSJJ guarantees the fastest turnaround time for most orders and ensures full refunds in case of quality problems.

4. Restaurant-Themed Custom Die-Cut Stickers

Stickers are the most fun way to promote your restaurant and spread the word. It allures every age group and looks attractive. Moreover, stickers can be used on almost every surface.

So, you can use them for packaging your orders, have them on your restaurant coasters, stick them on counter menus, or hand them to customers for sticking on their gadgets or accessories.

At GSJJ, you can customize your restaurant-themed die-cut stickers. They are custom-shaped stickers that can be cut to your desired shape.

Die-cut stickers are suitable for both simple and complex designs. They are available in both glossy and matte finishes.

Conclusion

The key to a successful business is setting up good and unique promotional ideas that put your brand’s name in the limelight.

Thus, investing in such ideas is a must. Try the tips and tricks mentioned above to boost your sales and have a brighter future. 

Frequently Answered Questions (FAQs)