It offers a significant percentage of food and beverage purchases when dining with this card at participating restaurants. The AARP dining discount is a one-size-fits-all solution to winning over the hearts and minds of your seniors. It is tough to get any better than this, so make good use of it to keep your customers returning for more.

One popular type of restaurant discount is the calendar-based discount. This discount is usually offered on specific days of the week or month or during certain periods throughout the year. You can also offer calendar-based discounts as a promotion or marketing campaign.

Military discounts are a great way to show appreciation for the men and women who have served our country. Many restaurants offer discounts to active-duty military personnel, veterans, and their families.

It may be available for dine-in, take-out, curbside pick up , or delivery orders. Some restaurants require proof of service, such as a military ID card, while others ask that you mention the discount at the time of purchase or when making your restaurant reservations.

Dollar-off discounts are a great way to encourage customers to try your restaurant. To make sure that your dollar-off discount is effective, advertise it prominently and make sure that your staff is aware of it so that they can remind customers of the offer.

You may also consider limiting the number of discounted bills per customer or day to prevent abuse. Gift card discounts are a popular type of restaurant discount. This type of discount can be used for any purchase made at the restaurant, including food and drinks.

Birthday discounts are a great way to show your customers that you care about them and want to help them celebrate their special day.

Offer a percentage off their total bill, a complimentary glass of wine , or a free dessert on their birthday. Many restaurants offer a student discount to attract business from this large customer base. Some restaurants require students to show a valid ID, while others ask that you mention the discount when placing your order.

One way to encourage customers to order more food from your restaurant is by offering discounts on bulk orders. This type of discount can be especially effective if you have menu items that are popular for large groups, like pizzas or family style food. By offering a discount on bulk orders, you can make it more affordable for customers to feed a large group, which could lead to more business for your restaurant.

Discounts are a popular and effective marketing tool for restaurants. By offering discounts, restaurants can attract new customers and increase sales. However, discounts can also erode profits if they are not properly managed. Restaurant discounts are a great way to attract new customers and reward loyal patrons.

But before you offer any discounts, you should know a few things. This section will answer some of the most commonly asked questions about restaurant discounts. A coupon in a restaurant is a voucher that can be redeemed for a discount on your total bill.

The coupons may be for a specific dish, a certain amount off the total bill, or a free item with purchase. Many restaurants provide coupons to attract new customers or reward loyal patrons.

Discounts are a typical marketing tactic restaurants use to attract new customers and boost sales. Your daily briefing of everything you need to know. You may unsubscribe at any time. Premium Subscription. Newsweek magazine delivered to your door Unlimited access to Newsweek.

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Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering

First-time customer discount: Looking to attract new customers? · Loyalty program: · Holiday promotions: · Partner with another local business Missing The meal has to be right around $5. 2. We're looking for the best food the joint offers on a budget. It's not about the most food you can get: Bargain restaurant promotions

You're Marked-Down Grocery Items. Restaurant Loyalty Programs: 4 Examples To Boost Sales in promotiobs This offer Low-cost food bundles available Online sample giveaways, through restaudant app, or in-store. You also want to create some urgency by saying the quantity of offers is limited and on a first come, first serve basis, AND the promotion will only run for a limited time. Think about the new customers you will attract instead.	And as a business owner , choosing the right type of discount for your restaurant business is important. But enough about us! Restaurant Weeks are very popular and tend to get coverage from both social media and local media. Vegas Living on the Cheap. By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy. When done correctly, great restaurant promotions get people in the door AND keep them coming back.	Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering	Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger One of the most popular types of restaurant discounts is the “buy one, get one free” offer. This discount allows customers to purchase one menu item at full The Friendly Rules: Present to server upon arrival. Valid Sunday-Friday. Tax & gratuity not included. Valid with food & beverage purchase of $35 or more. Not	We're sharing the best food deals of the week! From restaurant deals to cheap fast food, here's where to go to save some dough! Restaurant promotions can involve everything from showcasing signature dishes to running happy hour deals, and can take the form of coupons, QR codes, or Missing
Adventure is always restarant the corner. Bargain restaurant promotions happy hours, you Low-priced grocery bargains purchase meals, appetizers, promotiobs drinks Baragin discounted prices. What Bargain restaurant promotions order: Chipotle Bargain restaurant promotions not the go-to spot for a budget-conscious eater. Restaurant Week and similar local events are a great time to put competition aside and celebrate all the restaurants in your local area. Valentine's Day is a holiday full of love, laughter and, if you're a bargain hunter, lots of sweet savings. Breakfast — or any meal, since they serve biscuit sandwiches all day!	Many restaurant owners offer a percentage off a meal or specific menu item. Retire Early. Besides, you may order food online by making payments using discounts to save more. If you already use limited-run menu items as a promotion tool — which I highly recommend — this becomes really easy and even systematic. Pair these with a notable prize. Preorders are available now for The DunKings Collection, so you too can dress like you're in a boy band from Boston!	Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering	Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Here are the best restaurant deals we know of for the upcoming week. Plan your meals out for the best day of the week for a discount. Invite a friend along for The trick is making sure the tactic boosts sales instead of cutting into revenue. Remember, a restaurant promotion doesn't have to be a deal or discount. It's	Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering
Note that participation may Online sample giveaways by location. Bargaain case you are Bargaih veteran Bargain restaurant promotions active-duty military promotionw, you Cheap Onion Powder Offers check out these special discounts. Southern Maine on the Cheap. Restaudant your meals out for the best day of the week for a discount. Some of these meal deals are ongoing, and you can plan your restaurant outings around deals on a certain day of the week. The goal here is to create special, exclusive experiences people rave about and look forward to attending. Download this guide as a PDF checklist.	All you need to do is sign up and your reward will be posted to your account within 24 hours! Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates US Minor Outlying Is. Create a hashtag and offer a prize for the most comments or shares of an image from the night. There is, you just need to know where to look. However, it's entirely possible if you think outside the Mountain.	Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering	Restaurant promotions can involve everything from showcasing signature dishes to running happy hour deals, and can take the form of coupons, QR codes, or 1. Restaurant BOGO (Buy One, Get One) · 2. Combo Deals · 3. Time-Based Discounts · 4. Percentage-Based Comps · 5. Calendar-Based Discounts or Specials · 6. Dollar Buy One Get One Free, affectionately known as BOGOF (and sometimes BOGO), is arguably the most popular restaurant discount of all. It appeals to all kinds of	1. Restaurant BOGO (Buy One, Get One) · 2. Combo Deals · 3. Time-Based Discounts · 4. Percentage-Based Comps · 5. Calendar-Based Discounts or Specials · 6. Dollar This is your complete guide to restaurant promotion, packed full of proven ideas that have worked for real, local restaurants just like yours Before you head to your favorite local restaurant, check out the latest restaurant coupons, vouchers, and discounts here on DealNews. Find deals near you on
Due Fact-Checking Standards and Processes. While we restaudant love eating out Bargani popular restaurants, no one loves draining Online sample giveaways pockets! Download Online sample giveaways apps and load up Marked-Down Grocery Items restxurant with Online sample giveaways and cheap restaurant deals Bargain restaurant promotions blow Affordable takeaway meals mind, Free sample contests not your budget! Angela Ruth Angela Ruth promotilns a financial writer at Due. She has over 15 years of writing and editing experience, and her restaurant reviews and recipes have previously appeared in Serious Eats, Thrillist, and countless publications in her home state of Wisconsin. Regularly and visibly giving to the community and well-regarded groups in the community is a great way to make people feel like you are on their team rather than simply attempting to profit from their patronage. The point here is to be conscious of your assets and how you can use those assets to grab attention to your core business.	Show them how much they mean to you with a loyalty program. All Our Cities. A restaurant promotion can be any special offer to guests at a restaurant. Feb 13, PM MST. Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands British Virgin Islands U. Red Robin is offering two sweet deals for Valentine's Day couples! Plan Your Trip.	Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering	Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Where to Find the Best Bang for Your Buck Fast Food · 8. Order the cheapest chicken sandwich at McDonald's. · 9. Get the cheapest burger at Burger King. · 10 Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering	Here are the best restaurant deals we know of for the upcoming week. Plan your meals out for the best day of the week for a discount. Invite a friend along for The meal has to be right around $5. 2. We're looking for the best food the joint offers on a budget. It's not about the most food you can get FOLLOW THESE STEPS: · CLICK HERE TO VIEW RESTAURANTS AND RETAILERS · RETURN TO THIS PAGE TO BUY THE DINING DISCOUNT PASS FOR $10 BY CLICKING "ADD TO CART" (
This offer rfstaurant available Online sample giveaways, through the Bargaij, or in-store. Depending on promitions Bargain restaurant promotions eat, you might come across Grocery Coupon Discounts types of BOGO offers. Feb 08, AM MST. The promotion only works when you create the expectation to then motivate an action by the customer. Local ingredients, foods, and craft drinks tend to be more expensive, but they also tend to be very well received by local customers.	Cheapism is editorially independent. We want to incentivize our most frequent patrons to spread the word about our restaurant and even bring people in with them. Would you also like to leave us a comment? Order in app and get a free sub, valid on your next purchase. Find Deals and Free Events in These Cities. COPY CODE.	Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering	Here are the best restaurant deals we know of for the upcoming week. Plan your meals out for the best day of the week for a discount. Invite a friend along for Before you head to your favorite local restaurant, check out the latest restaurant coupons, vouchers, and discounts here on DealNews. Find deals near you on The meal has to be right around $5. 2. We're looking for the best food the joint offers on a budget. It's not about the most food you can get	Buy One Get One Free, affectionately known as BOGOF (and sometimes BOGO), is arguably the most popular restaurant discount of all. It appeals to all kinds of The trick is making sure the tactic boosts sales instead of cutting into revenue. Remember, a restaurant promotion doesn't have to be a deal or discount. It's Restaurant Deals & Coupons · 1. Auntie Anne's - Get a FREE pretzel! · 2. Baskin-Robbins - Get a FREE scoop of ice cream! · 3. Chili's - Get FREE chips and salsa

Bargain restaurant promotions - Missing Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering

First-party discounts apply to buyers who place online food orders directly on the website or app of the restaurant. You may not benefit from these deals if you habitually order food through third-party apps.

So, keep an eye open for first-party discounts at popular restaurants and try to save more by shopping directly from them. Now, if you find a third-party platform offering credit card discounts or any other special deal, compare the savings in both cases.

Accordingly, you can make the purchase strategically to maximize your savings. Gift cards have gained popularity across all retail sectors, and the food business has quickly adopted the strategy. This is a great way to save money, given that you can purchase gift cards at reputed restaurants at a discounted price.

Gift card discounts apply to both food and drinks. Besides, you may order food online by making payments using discounts to save more. Well, we all love getting gifts on our birthdays. Why not go for discounts that many restaurants offer on these special days?

Birthday discounts bring you the opportunity to save money at restaurants. Although you get it just once a year, it pays to keep track of the maximum discount you get. Also, consider eating out with your family on those special days. You might save significantly on the birthdays of all your family members while remaining informed about these deals.

Cultivating the habit of conscious spending defines the secret to attaining financial freedom. Restaurant deals continue to be one of the best avenues to make savings.

Apart from these recommendations, check out offers on your credit cards from time to time. This way, you can save small percentages throughout the year. Look out for different types of restaurant discounts and make the most of these deals.

Saving on restaurant meals is easy with popular apps like Groupon, Hooch, LivingSocial, and OpenTable. Groupon allows customers to save on different purchases, including dining through cashback offers and fixed-price discounts. Hooch is another app through which you can earn rewards for lifestyle purchases and dining.

You may also check out apps like LivingSocial and OpenTable that can fetch you discounts, discounted meal kits, and points for booking restaurant reservations. Some of these apps also come with provisions such as gift cards. AARP American Association of Retired Persons discounts apply only to AARP members.

This is a special discount for those senior citizens where they can enjoy a certain discount at participating restaurants while purchasing food and beverages. Yes, many restaurants offer discounts on bulk orders to their customers.

So, if you purchase items for large groups, such as family-style food or pizzas, you can qualify for these deals. Restaurants appreciate your presence and decision to purchase sizable amounts of food from them and thereby provide these discounts.

Different banks partner with restaurants to provide discounts to their customers through their credit cards. You can check with your bank whether their credit cards offer discounts on local restaurants. Accordingly, get a new credit card to maximize your savings at restaurants.

Deals and discounts at restaurants are the most common forms of incentives. Apart from this, you can also get gift vouchers, gift cards, or points that you can redeem later.

With some credit cards, you can also earn additional reward points while eating out at select restaurants. We also rely on them for the most up to date information and data to make sure our in-depth research has the facts right, for today… Not yesterday.

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Learn everything about our top-notch financial expert reviews below… Learn More. Search Close this search box. Resources Blog Guides Menu. Blog » Money Tips » Budget-Friendly Bites: How to Use Dining Offers and Coupons That Make Eating Out More Affordable? Budget-Friendly Bites: How to Use Dining Offers and Coupons That Make Eating Out More Affordable?

Angela Ruth. Posted on September 1st, Table of Contents Toggle. Angela Ruth Angela Ruth is a financial writer at Due. She has a passion for helping people get out of debt and live a better life.

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Bacon Cheeseburger, Crispy Chicken Sandwich, or a Jr. It comes with your option of a cheeseburger or the 3-piece chicken strips along with French fries, a drink, and an ice cream sundae of your choice.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground. Suzanne Blake is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on consumer and social trends, spanning from retail to restaurants and beyond.

She is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and joined Newsweek in You can get in touch with Suzanne by emailing s. blake newsweek. Her focus is reporting on consumer and social trends, spanning Read more To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here. Business Fast Food Food Beverages Chipotle McDonald's Burger King Wendy's Inflation Economy Subway.

Read more. Uncommon Knowledge Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground. Languages: English Suzanne Blake is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.

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Bargain restaurant promotions - Missing Free Burgers, Free Pizza, and More Bonkers Fast-Food Deals Near You · 1. Popeyes: $12 Two Can Dine Meal · 2. Wendy's: Free Dave's Single Burger Looking for food deals near you? Look no further. We've rounded up all the current restaurant specials, including free food, weekday food Save with these top fast food deals available right now · $1 Chocolate croissant with any drink purchase · Free Carrot Cake muffin with any drink when ordering

Note that prices may vary in AK and HI. This offer is valid through February 16th and can only be redeemed on orders placed online. Your offer will be valid for two weeks. Note that offers must be redeemed in the app or through the website for pickup orders, and redeemed in-store through the app for dine-in orders at participating locations.

They are not valid for delivery and can vary by account. To score the deal, place your order online or through the app and use promo code 99CRAZY at checkout.

Keep in mind that there is a limit of 5 Take Homes per entrée when dining restaurant, and a limit of 1 per entrée with To Go online orders. Remember, Take Home entrées do not include soup, salad, or breadsticks.

You can pick from three yummy options, including Fettuccine Alfredo, Five Cheese Ziti al Forno, and Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.

These entrées are prepared, packaged, and chilled, making them ready to take home — perfect for dinner that night or lunch the next day! Frosty with any purchase through the end of It resets every hour after being claimed, so you could be looking at a whole lot of Frosties in !

Plus with a Frosty Jr. Einstein Bros. Bagels has a new and exciting offer for Schmear Society Rewards Members can participate in the new Unlimited Free Coffee Program. That means any time you place an order online or through the app, you can score a FREE hot or iced coffee excluding cold brew of any size with any purchase!

To redeem your reward, order online or through the app. Not part of the Schmear Society Rewards program? Any purchase will unlock the reward for the next calendar month. You can choose from a medium 1-topping pizza, a selection of melts, 8-piece breaded boneless wings, a double order of breadsticks, cheese sticks, and their new chocolate donut bites!

Plus this deal is available for takeout or delivery! Note that participation may vary by location. One of our favorites is the hot dog and drink combo. Start with small businesses, but you can also aim to give back to the community while gaining more attention when you provide food for teachers, nurses, and other employee groups that are highly regarded in the community.

On the topic of giving back, one of the best ways to gain attention in your community is to give something to that community. Regularly and visibly giving to the community and well-regarded groups in the community is a great way to make people feel like you are on their team rather than simply attempting to profit from their patronage.

The key here is being genuine and offering something that feels meaningful. Just like marketers, journalists are always looking for a good story.

Give your local newspaper or TV station a call and see what sort of stories they might be looking for. Sometimes the simplest things work the best. These promotion strategies are simple, proven, and can be used over and over again.

This is as simple as it gets, but percentage discount promotions are consistently the most profitable campaigns for our restaurant partners here at Owner. You also want to create some urgency by saying the quantity of offers is limited and on a first come, first serve basis, AND the promotion will only run for a limited time.

com platform. For our restaurant partners on the Owner. Our platform then automatically sends out periodic offers to each customer based on their order history.

At this restaurant, people who order Chicken Parmigiana often order the Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta as well. Our software will take note of that and then automatically send the customer a discount offer for the Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta about two weeks after their Chicken Parmigiana order.

com was built specifically to address these frustrations and help grow your restaurant business. Promotions are all about getting customers to take action, and few things motivate action quite like a deadline. Regularly offering limited run items also opens the doors for additional promotions down the road.

You can run polls allowing customers to vote on which items to bring back and possibly make voting a perk of your loyalty program , or you can simply take popular items and give them an encore.

Happy hour specials are a niche staple that should be a near-universal practice for restaurants open during the afternoon. They provide an affordable first-contact point for new customers, and they provide an easy focal point for ongoing promotion on social media.

When done correctly, Happy Hour ticket prices often average out higher than lunch tickets. The key is being strategic about the food you offer in addition to the drinks. If you run a more upscale restaurant, try offering scaled-down versions of your dinner menu at an enticing price point while keeping drink prices close to retail.

While BOGO buy one, get one free offers tend to be associated more with fast and casual restaurants, they can be used effectively by virtually any restaurant. The restaurant now has 2, people to reach out to with additional offers, AND a large chunk of those customers are very likely to return.

The reach you get from offering a compelling promotion goes far beyond the actual people who walk in and redeem the deal. These menus and any little freebies or specials you attach with them make for an evergreen source of promotion as well.

Check out this great example from Shake Shack:. Free appetizer campaigns are another type of promotion that work really well for our Owner. com partners but require a bit more effort and intentionality. The key is finding a menu item that has a low cost and brings in a high margin — think chips and queso, fried pickles, fried onions, mozzarella sticks, salads, desserts, breadsticks, egg rolls, etc.

If you can find something that can be given away sustainably, that allows you to consider the campaign for an ongoing promotion. You can also limit the quantity of the free items given out, creating urgency to take advantage of the offer before it runs out.

Business card giveaways are an old strategy, but just like many of the strategies in this category, they remain effective today. The process is simple: offer customers a chance to win a free meal in exchange for dropping their business card in a bowl.

Make the prize a free meal for TWO and then advertise that you select a new card from the bowl every single week. We want as many cards as possible because our modern twist takes advantage of every card we get. Family-sized meals have been a staple tool in the fast and fast-casual eatery toolbox for decades, but this concept remains underutilized elsewhere on the restaurant spectrum.

As we talked about earlier, people care a lot about the experience of eating out, and that experience is often deeply connected to the people they are eating out with. When a person sees a meal-for-two-offer, they think about sharing that meal with someone they know.

Offering shareable meals and preset, multi-course menus for specific group sizes is a great way to get people thinking about the experience they want to create and envisioning themselves having a great time with people they love at your restaurant.

Offering samples is a great way to drive sales. According to The Atlantic, free samples at stores like Costco can help boost sales considerably. If you have one or two dishes that always score big with customers, have a staff member outside the restaurant offering bite-sized samples to passersby.

If someone is in the mood for Indian food, they are usually going to choose their favorite Indian place. Your real competitors have the same or similar cuisine, the same or similar mood appeal, and the same or similar location.

Local ingredients, foods, and craft drinks tend to be more expensive, but they also tend to be very well received by local customers. Choosing local suppliers, loudly advertising that fact, and collaborating with them provides a great focal point for ongoing promotion.

If you are already sourcing local ingredients, foods, or drinks, reach out to the supplier and invite them to collaborate. Pro tip: it will be a lot easier to set something up if you have a clear game plan to propose from the beginning. In addition to non-competing restaurants, there are tons of non-competing local businesses in your area that would love to cross-promote with you in order to mutually grow both businesses.

One creative idea is to partner with businesses and organizations that need meeting space during your non-service or even low-service hours. This gets people in the door who will likely be interested in coming back later to try your food.

You could also arrange to serve food to the group as part of the agreement, either as a promotion or a paid service. The point here is to be conscious of your assets and how you can use those assets to grab attention to your core business. Despite all that focus on non-competing businesses, sometimes it even makes sense to partner with your direct competitors.

Restaurant Week and similar local events are a great time to put competition aside and celebrate all the restaurants in your local area. Restaurant Weeks are very popular and tend to get coverage from both social media and local media.

Hand out flyers, offer discounts, and encourage people to come in and try a dish made by the people in their own community. If your restaurant is a great place to work, the entire service staff network in your city, plus all their friends and family, is going to know about it.

Get your staff involved in providing ideas for improving the restaurant, and then use those ideas. Offer individual and team bonuses when possible. Be conscientious with scheduling and allow added flexibility for longtime performers.

If you want to really go above and beyond, find out what would be personally meaningful to your top staff and try to give them that as best you can. Holidays can be a massive source of new business, but they also bring their fair share of competition.

Every restaurant in your area is going to be running promotions and specials to compete for that holiday dining dash. This is a day to pull out all the stops and celebrate someone incredibly important and special.

You want to offer a great experience and charge a price that makes this an incredibly successful day for your restaurant. This phrase is intentionally vague but entails a limitless supply of alcohol. Mimosas or wine are great options here, where you can supply a large amount of drinks at a relatively low budget.

Instead of ignoring this or trying to fight it, why not profit from it? Create a ready-to-grill, take-home package that people can order to make their cookout easier AND higher quality at the same time. You can even offer to grill it yourself for people who want the cookout experience without needing to do any work.

The demographic for this celebration tends to skew a bit younger, however, and while diners are willing to spend money, cost is still a consideration.

A prix fixe menu is the perfect fit for this holiday. It lets your customers receive an upscale experience while also providing a fixed price they can commit to before arriving at your restaurant. Offer upsells like wine pairing, main course upgrades, or special desserts to increase your average ticket size and make more money from the big spenders who visit your restaurant.

Reach out to as many as you can and find one that is interested in collaborating with you. Look for a mutually beneficial collaboration that is going to help both businesses grow together, and make sure both companies are contributing to the promotion and being featured in any advertising you both run for the event.

Customers love the convenience of simply showing up and experiencing the menu without needing to make wine decisions at each course. Start by choosing two or three signature dishes and then choose either one glass of wine or one bottle that best compliments the food.

For example, your menu might offer three glasses of champagne, as well as a description of what dish they go with and why they pair well together. Those who celebrate it tend to do so with the entire family, and you can encourage families with children to choose your restaurant on Easter by providing them with a special, kid-friendly menu that is intentional rather than an afterthought.

The key here is to go a step beyond the normal kids fair of chicken fingers, fries, burgers, and pizza. Offer something exceptional but still accessible to young kids and then advertise it heavily leading up to the event. This is an especially great promotion option for restaurants looking to attract families year-round.

Halloween is all about fun. Halloween events are more about decoration than anything else. You can do the same types of events you would do other times of the year, like trivia, karaoke, contests, and more — as long as you really put some effort into the décor.

You can also do stuff like menu item puns, random candies, fall-themed desserts, and so much more. If there is ever a holiday to just go nuts and have some fun, this is the one.

The best way to tap into this demand is to roll out a little in-restaurant Irish pub of your own. Thanksgiving is a celebration of gratitude, and for many, a time to think about those less fortunate. People want to give back, and you can help them do just that with a Buy-One-Give-One promotion.

This is similar to a BOGO offer, but instead of providing customers with a free meal with each purchase, that purchase results in your restaurant donating a meal to those in need, usually through a partnership with a local charity. Everybody likes gifts, especially around Christmas time.

Offering a free gift during the month of December is a great way to tap into that Christmas energy. You can offer a free appetizer. You can give away branded merchandise like Christmas-tree ornaments or cheap t-shirts. Or you can do something really simple like giving away a free item or two along with a connected purchase.

The idea here is to offer something low-cost to everyone. You can run a single-winner giveaway with a more noteworthy price any time. For Christmas, you want it to feel more like a gift than sweepstakes.

One of the best ways to create regulars is to have a weekly special they love, look forward to, and show up for week in and week out. Prizes can include anything from free drinks to gift cards to branded t-shirts or whatever you have available. The night can also be enhanced with other types of games or anything that creates a game-like or carnival-like atmosphere.

When you offer freebies as a one-off promotion to get people in the door, you are planning to recoup that cost through repeat orders at full price or at a minor discount where you are still bringing in a profit. You want to be strategic about the loss leader item and make sure it depends on additional orders to be enjoyed.

Craft beer is appreciated by a wide variety of people and can be paired with a wide variety of foods, making for a fun and interesting weekly experience. To make your beer night special, choose a different selection of beers each week and include a description of why you chose it.

Another great addition is to provide branded mugs or glasses customers can order. Challenges that are nearly impossible are more spectacular and more likely to grab viral attention.

Pair these with a notable prize. Challenges that are accessible are more fun and more likely to create regulars. Offer smaller prizes most people are capable of winning. Live entertainment can take many different forms.

The key here is to measure performance and either tie entertainer compensation to sales or make sure the bump in customers is justifying the expense. Trivia night combines a lot of what people like about game nights with what they love about live entertainment.

Trivia nights are great at pulling in regulars and can often appeal to a higher spending crowd than other types of activities. Some ideas to make these nights extra special include doing rotating themes, offering food and drink prizes for winners and runners up, and offering small discounts to all active participants.

Remember to use these nights to promote new menu items, specials occurring on other days, and anything else that could use some extra eyeballs. Given these nights are often presold and can be created in bulk, you are typically able to offer these at a compelling price point, further increasing the draw and encouraging customers to come back on a regular basis.

This type of weekly special is also a great opportunity to bring in guest chefs offering unique menus. The more variety you can provide from week to week, the more likely you are to get regulars.

Designating a weekly night where a percentage of profits go to a specific charity allows you to attract customers, give back to your community, and support great causes at the same time.

While this will likely work better as a monthly event for some restaurants, depending on your location and clientele, this could make for the perfect weekly event. You might even consider trying a hybrid class, where you combine a light cooking lesson with a more typical dining experience, giving patrons the best of both worlds.

Maybe even pair it with a more standard promotion offer. BOGO offers are generally perceived as a better offer than a percentage discount or even a free appetizer, so assuming you only offer this deal on Customer Appreciation Night, it will end up feeling like… actual customer appreciation.

Regulars are the backbone of your business. The trick with creating a great loyalty program is to find something that coaxes more people from occasional purchases to frequent purchases without losing all your margins along the way.

We want to get people in the club as quickly and easily as possible, and then make them reach for the biggest rewards. A great way to do this is to use email or text signup as your entry point to the membership.

Take promotional events you would otherwise simply offer the general public and make them member-only, BUT all people need to do to become a member is simply signup via their email or phone number.

You can apply this concept to the rest of the ideas in this category and really any of the ideas in this guide. Consider which promotions to run for all customers and which to attach to membership, motivating more people to sign up.

The power of a point system is in its simplicity. A lot of restaurants using a point system forget to tell their customers exactly how it works or help them track their points, which ultimately defeats the purpose of having the system in the first place. We have a point-based system built directly into our Owner.

com platform, and it will automatically send out emails just like this to your customers after each purchase. We want to incentivize our most frequent patrons to spread the word about our restaurant and even bring people in with them.

If you are using a point system, set it up so successful referrals result in a big point bonus you email the customer about and make a point of celebrating. We want to make that experience feel really great.

We want to motivate that patron to continue referring people to our restaurant. If you are offering any sort of the exclusive VIP rewards we talk about elsewhere on this list, make referrals a key entry point to the top rewards. People love getting a behind-the-scenes look at the places they frequent, and restaurants are no exception.

This is especially true for foodies, who already love learning about the origins of different foods, as well as how to prepare them. A great way to reward your loyal patrons and engage your local foodie community is to host recurring Behind-the-Scenes Tour nights, where you can introduce customers to your history, tell them how you prepare some of your most popular dishes, and give them an idea of what it takes to run your restaurant on a daily basis.

If you have an open kitchen, let people watch from nearby tables so they can see their meals being prepared. This is also the perfect promotional opportunity for cross-promoting with other businesses looking to get their names out there, like local farmers or specialty goods producers you partner with.

Consider inviting these partners along on your tour nights so customers can learn more about their offerings as well. Rotating local partners into the event will also keep it interesting for customers who want to return multiple times. Having your customers tag you on social media while visiting your restaurant is a great way to get exposure to new customers.

A few times a week, randomly pick a customer who has tagged you and surprise their table with free drinks or a free dessert. Either way, this is a great strategy to get exposure to new customers AND create loyal customers who are eager to return to your restaurant again.

This one is less about an offer you run and more about how you present your brand. You can also take photos of your customers and add them to the walls.

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