| Once you open your restaurant's doors. You will | | | | Place a jar next to your cash register announcing |
| need to get customers to come inside. | | | | "Weekly drawing - Leave your business card." |
| Unfortunately, you cannot simply build it and | | | | Then, each month, draw a business card and |
| believe that they will come. There are some | | | | announce the winner in your local newspaper. This |
| things that you will need to do in order to get | | | | will help to promote both of your businesses. |
| customers to come into your restaurant. | | | | Make sure to keep all of the business cards as |
| Know Who Your Customers Are | | | | part of your customer database. |
| Make a list of the businesses in your area by | | | | Sponsor A Sports Team |
| category. This should guide you to what other | | | | Sponsor one of your local sports' teams. Hang |
| meals and deals you should offer. | | | | their picture up in your restaurant. People love to |
| Public Relations | | | | visit businesses that support local interest groups |
| Contact local newspapers and magazines to let | | | | like this. |
| them know about your new restaurant. Ask | | | | Create An Online Presence |
| them to write a review and offer them | | | | Make sure that you are collecting email addresses. |
| complimentary food for doing so. A good review | | | | This will allow you to reach a lot of clients for |
| can literally explode your business. | | | | free and with great ease. You should also create |
| Word Of Mouth Advertising | | | | a Twitter account for your restaurant. This is |
| A very effective way to attract new customers | | | | another free, easy to use, advertising tool. Just |
| is by word-of-mouth. So, make sure that your | | | | tell your customers what your Twitter ID is and |
| restaurant is one that you would want to | | | | get them to join. Then take a few minutes to tell |
| recommend to a friend. If you find any | | | | them about specials, offers, events and anything |
| weaknesses, make sure to work on those. | | | | else that will help draw them into your restaurant. |
| Run A Coupon Campaign | | | | Give Your Customers A Reason To Return |
| Consider running a coupon campaign. There are | | | | You need to give your customers a reason to |
| numerous ways of doing this: mailings, coupon | | | | come back. By giving them incentives for being a |
| books or simply handing them out are just a few | | | | returning customer, they will be willing to drive a |
| of the numerous ways to distribute these | | | | few miles out of their way to come to your |
| coupons. | | | | restaurant. It's OK to start off small by offering a |
| Have A 2-For-1 Promotion | | | | free baseball cap or water bottle to them after |
| Offer a 2-for-the-price-of-1 promotion. Another | | | | their third meal but by the time they reach their |
| option is to offer a free dessert or appetizer. | | | | tenth meal you should be offering them |
| Collect Business Cards | | | | something like a free $20 meal. |