Looking for a new restaurant promotions, ways to reach customers, and create buzz around your restaurant? Of course you are! And who doesn’t love the chance to win free things? Your loyal regulars and new faces alike will love taking part in these restaurant contests. They’re easy to run, effective, and offer a great way for your restaurant to boost business. Let’s get started!
Social Media Contests for Restaurant Promotions
Social Media Contests
You already know that your restaurant’s social media is the place to be when it comes to marketing. Promoting contests is no exception! In fact, while your social media accounts are a great way to let customers know about contests that your restaurant is hosting in-house, it’s also a great way to host the contests themselves.
Consider having a drawing for a gift card that followers can enter by following or liking your page, sharing your post, and tagging friends in the comments. This will help boost followers and traffic to your social media page, which means that your future posts will get more interactions and will attract more customers to your restaurant, making this a great restaurant marketing strategy. You can deliver the prize via e-gift card, or by having the customer come to your restaurant to pick up. You can even ask if it’s okay to share a photo of them with the prize to your social media!
Prize Drawings
Social Media Contests
The alternative to social media restaurant promotions are drawings that are more traditional, where guests enter their name to win while in your restaurant. We love to make sure that nobody misses these contests and prize drawings by holding entrance slips in a large fishbowl or other transparent container that’s easily viewable. Hosting drawings on a regular schedule will keep people coming back to enter again. The excitement of the chance to win is a sure way to drive up restaurant sales!
Prize Bundles
Looking for some clever prize ideas for your restaurant contests that go beyond gift cards and coupons? We’re always a fan of partnering with other local businesses to create prize bundles! If there’s a local theatre nearby, consider working together to create a dinner-and-a-show prize package for guests at both locations to enter to win. Partnering with other businesses is always a great idea for restaurant promotions. This is because it has the potential to reach new customers that may not have tried your restaurant in the past.
Restaurant Merchandise
Another great option for giveaway and contest prizes is restaurant merchandise! Anything that has your restaurant’s name on it will do double duty as a contest prize as well as advertising when customers wear or carry the merch out-and-about!
Surprise Contests for Restaurant Promotions
Finally, surprise contests are a super fun way to spice things up. One idea that we love is to offer a discount or free service to your 30th check of the day. Adding in some fun restaurant marketing techniques and unexpected restaurant contests will delight customers. It also adds excitement to the day for winners and non-winners alike. We hope that these tips were helpful to you as you work on planning your next restaurant contest.
