I find forums are the best place to brainstorm! My cousin owns a local restaurant-burgers, wings, chicken, salads, fries & shakes. Sorts themed. Family friendly. I'm great with ideas for marketing internet business cause I've done it enough, but local business are a bit harder for me. The currently have bike night and wing night and have customer appreciation cards and will probably go with kids eat for $0.99 night on Mondays-any other ideas? My main ideas focus on students-game night specials, graduation catering, fliers at schools, etc Can you ladies come up with any other ideas-we're looking for lower cost ideas, no billboards or anything...
Does your area have a weekly "shopper" type paper where people run free or cheap classified ads? Our area has one delivered to every person in the county. Restaurants use it for ads all the time. I think their rates are better than other publications, too. Another thought is a radio ad.
I'll ask her if her area has those papers, she's (almost exactly) 100 miles from me so I'm not sure, but it's a great idea! and I've already told her to check into radio ads, esp if there is a local AM station.
What comes to my mind is something like groupon where you get $20 of food for $10. We have tried new places because of offers like that. Or, the valpak coupons that come in the mail. Other popular things around here are places that offer a free "whatever" (with adult purchase) for good grades, filling out a book report form, reading 3 books, etc. Also, allowing local groups to have fundraisers. On a certain night, patrons tell the cashier that they are there for a certain group, and the group gets 10% of sales. It makes them more appealing to residents and brings in more patrons. I will try to think of more, but those are the local things I have seen that seem successful.
They did valpak very recently-I suggest groupon. Ooo how about a summer reading program-that'd be cool! I already suggested report card based rewards for students. I'll have to suggest fundraising though I'm not exactly sure how that would work.
I can only tell you how it ran the last time I saw it done here. The organization requesting the fundraising advertised what day to go in. At the cash register, whenever someone mentioned that they were there for the fundraiser (or name of the organization), the cashier would write down the patron's total on a spreadsheet. I know it helped to boost sales for that day, because I for one only went because of the fundraiser and the line was long. Not only does it bring in customers, it introduces new people to the food (I only tried the local place because it was a fundraiser, but have been back several times since). It also makes the community feel as though the restaraunt cares about the community which can boost sales. You can check it out here: http://www.mamashawaiianbbq.com/page/percentage-days
I"m not sure if its too late but how about advertizing in the local high school year books? find out if any charities need prizes..... give out gift certificates (a kind word about the resturant goes a long way).......... for example my daughters went to a prom put on by a cancer survivor (and syblings) organization called candlelighters........ my daughter won a pirze of free roller rink admition.......... it was fun for her to win, didn't cost the rink anything....... see if you can put coupon cards up at the local colleges maybe a local flyer.... ours is called The Cactus clipper (coupons for local business) free order of wings or small milk shakes when (name of local baseball or other team) wins Friday's game..... senior days, teacher days, hat night
Sponsor a fund raiser for the graduating class. They need money for caps and gowns and the ceremony. I have seen it done a couple ways. 1. Pick a specific night and donate a portion of the proceeds to the school. Lots of families will come in and you can let them know about your catering service. 2. Do something like a wing eating contest and invite teachers and administrators to participate. The kids love seeing their teachers and principals doing goofy stuff. Again lots of families showing up to spread the word. Good Luck
That one made me giggle! I imagined some of my former teachers with wing sauce smeared all over their faces! LOL I think it's a great idea!
