Putting up deals for your restaurant comes with a number of prescribed benefits. You can boost in real-time foot traffic, fill up slow hours, and bring in new customers that haven’t tried your food before. However, you need to be strategic with your marketing plan to offer more than just a nice discount. 

In this guide, we’ll go over online marketing techniques across multiple channels so you can put your best foot forward. Learn the best tips to promote your restaurant deals wisely

1. Create a Landing Page

A landing page is a clear destination for all relevant details about your restaurant’s upcoming offers. Make it clear, concise, and mobile-optimized for more conversions. The less difficult it is to access your promos, the easier it is for the customer to make a quick choice. Here are some key points for creating a landing page:

  • Clearly communicate your offer 
  • Use HD photos of your dishes 
  • Add easy ways to book, call, reserve, or get directions 

Here’s what to always add:

  • A strong, specific, and distinct headline 
  • Clear date, time, and location details 
  • Reservation or a Book a Table button
  • Call-to-action (“Reserve now!”)

Pro tip: Make sure your landing page is skimmable at first glance. Don’t overcrowd it with too much text or too many elements, it should be simple to navigate. Add bold buttons to guide the customer’s attention to reserving a slot. 

2. Post Consistently on Social Media

If you’re posting haphazardly and at random times, it’s not going to do much. One post doesn’t ensure that you’ll stay top of the mind for your online audience. To make sure you’re memorable, post consistently on Instagram and Facebook. You can make Reels, interactive stories, or put up static visuals announcing your upcoming deals. Here’s a rough structure to follow:

  • Build curiosity 7-10 days before the deal goes live 
  • Reveal what the deal actually is 5 days before 
  • 2-3 days before, highlight bestsellers and menu specials 
  • On launch day, create urgency and post reminders 
  • During the deal, share customer testimonials

If you have no prior experience with designing posts or flyers, worry not. You can use an AI flyer maker tool to get fully-generated, ready-made, and customizable drafts within minutes. With so many AI tools in the market, you have a quick head-start on any design-related task. 

3. Use Email Marketing to Your Advantage

Your existing customers are one of your largest and most varied databases that’s readily available for accessing. They already know what your food tastes like, it’s time to catch their attention. Email marketing makes sending out promotions direct, personal, and timely. If you send strategic and structured emails, you can drive more sales from your campaign. 

Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

  • Send at the right time (before peak meal times)
  • Use location-based geo-targeting (segment list by area and proximity)
  • Make the CTA easy to access
  • Reward repeat customers by giving out small perks 
  • Add a visual-focused element (HD pictures of meals)

Pro tip: Make sure your last email is short and urgent. It should sound like a reminder rather than an invite. It should focus on one clear message and a headline with a direct link to reserve tables. 

4. Run Geo-Targeted Ads (Paid)

Paid ads contribute to driving sales significantly. Organic reach is great for awareness, but you should be able to reach people through a proximity-focused method to guarantee foot traffic. Focus on being precise when running paid ads by:

  • Search ads to capture customers’ intent (what you offer, where you’re located)
  • Social media ads for getting discovered (target users within a certain radius)
  • Retarget warm audiences (customers that visited your page but didn’t take action)
  • Use high-quality visuals or best-performing Reels for paid ads
  • Show the offer immediately 
  • Keep text copy short, direct, and scannable

Even if you don’t have a big-budget ad spend, these tips are guaranteed to re-target warm leads and bring back repeat customers. 

5. Design Stunning Promo Visuals

People like to see before they decide when it comes to food. To make your upcoming deals even more enticing, design stunning promotional visuals to match the taste. Here are some tips to keep your design structured and appetising:

  • Lead with your food (high-quality well-lit pictures of meals)
  • Make the offer unmissable with bold and easy-to-read text
  • Add few and precise elements to avoid overcrowding your design 
  • Add urgent context to increase the deals’ appeal 

If you can make someone imagine the taste with design alone, consider your job well done. However, with so many marketing facets to tend to, designing can be time-consuming and tedious. That’s where restaurant flyer templates step in to cut down design time in half. With these, you can instantly edit, customize, resize, and instantly publish to many social media platforms.