7 Tips to Properly Promote an Event at Your Restaurant

Written by Justine Nightingale
Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at 08:00am CST

Events are fun ways to bring more people into your restaurant on a regular basis.

Are you wondering about some new marketing tactics to bring more diners into your restaurant this year?

One of our favorite promotions is holding an event at your restaurant. This is a great way to bring in new customers as well as your most loyal ones. Events can bring in big crowds and expose many people to your menu.

In this article, we look at seven tips to properly promote an event at your restaurant.

#1: Choose the Right Events

Before you start promoting your events, you have to first know what types of events your target market is interested in.

You want to make sure your events are relevant and valuable to current and future customers. If not, no amount of promotion will draw them in.

One of your best tools is simply asking your diners what kinds of events would interest them. Find out what would bring them out to your restaurant.

Once you have a better idea of the types of events you should offer, you can start successfully promoting them.

#2: Offer a Staff Incentive

Many businesses overlook the marketing power of their employees. Yet, your staff is a powerful marketing tool.

To promote your event, offer your staff an incentive for tickets sold. Monetary incentives are always powerful.

Consider offering a cash prize to the staff member who sells the most tickets. By creating a contest to track tickets sold, you’ll encourage buy-in among your team members, and you’ll foster camaraderie as they all try to sell tickets.

Your employees can try to upsell diners by selling them a ticket, and your team can also sell to their own friends and family. It’s a win-win situation for you and your staff.

#3: Use Your Own Marketing Channels

You probably already have an arsenal of digital marketing channels, including your website, email marketing platform, and social media channels. Now it’s time to put them to use promoting your event. (tweet this)

Once you’ve decided on your events, you want to first start with your website. Create a section just for your events. You can even list all of them here for the year with dates, info, and tickets.

Next, you want to create events on Facebook so users can see them at a glance. You also want to post about your individual events often on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and more.

Don’t forget to create hashtags for your events. This will help people find your events, and it will also help you find photos to share when others post about your event.

Finally, you want to utilize your email marketing (think MailChimp, Constant Contact, and others) to share information about your event with members of your email list. Send them to a landing page on your website where they can purchase tickets.

Use all of your digital channels together to reach the most people to promote your event.

Consider events centered around one theme to draw diners in.

#4: Have a Ticket Giveaway

Another way to promote your event is to give away tickets. You can do this through social media and your email marketing.

Decide how many tickets you’ll give away to your event. Then, periodically, give them away on your social media platforms. This creates buzz for your events while also rewarding several people.

Those who don’t win the tickets will still want to attend and see what’s going on.

#5: Leverage Influencers

You can also promote your event by using local influencers. These are people in your area with a large social media following.

You may consider giving them some tickets to give away to your event. Or, you can give them some tickets in exchange for them promoting your event on their social platforms.

You’ll find that it’s good business to build relationships with local influencers. This might be food bloggers, event bloggers, or people whose audience mimics your target audience.

#6: Use Paid Ads

You can also use paid ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

With pay-per-click ads, you can target your exact audience and demographics. In addition, you can advertise (remarket) to people who visit your website.

Your paid ads can link directly to your landing page, where users can purchase a ticket.

#7: Make an Invitation Video

A unique way to promote your event is through video. You can use this in email, on your website, on social media, and in reels.

People are gobbling up videos on social media in record numbers, so it’s a great way to reach people in your area.

If you’re featuring specific dishes, a chef, a band, or something else that is enticing, make sure to feature it in the video. When creating your video, make it personal and friendly.

You can also feature footage from previous events to encourage more people to attend your event.

Finally, set up a television in your restaurant and play the video on a loop there as well. Along with the posters you have in your restaurant advertising the event, the videos are sure to attract people.

Final Thoughts

Now that you have some tips to properly promote an event at your restaurant, you’re ready to begin.

Events from live music to tastings, to parties, and more are a terrific way to reward your most loyal customers while also being a draw for new customers. Events are enticing and inviting ways to encourage people to try and come back to your restaurant. (tweet this)

What’s more, when you schedule multiple events during the year, you set your restaurant apart from the competition. You become a neighborhood staple, and you’ll soon find your restaurant is the one everyone is talking about.

So, what are you waiting for? Make a plan for events at your restaurant and create a strong strategy with some of the marketing tactics listed here. Promote your events well, then enjoy them and watch your revenues grow.

At Restaurant Engine, not only do we create great, responsive websites, but you can count on us to create a website that has the right features to showcase and promote your restaurant events. Let us help you make the perfect site that draws customers in, improves your conversion rate, and enables you to grow your business! Ready to take the plunge and create a new website? Get your free website consultation today!

Images:  Priscilla Du Preez and Jay Wennington on Unsplash

One response to “7 Tips to Properly Promote an Event at Your Restaurant”

1. Sherry Khan says:

   January 19, 2023 at 12:38 am

   Very informative blog post about event promotion at restaurant. Keep sharing the relevant information for our learning.

   Reply