how to market a restaurant?

[Ray]

I am opening a new restaurant I just wanted to know what are some inexpensive marketing things I can do to make my restaurant famous. I do not have a big budget as of right now so I was thinking social media marketing and setting up a website.

[your great granpa]

Those things will help. It takes years to really get a new restaurant going. Invite a newspaper reviewer. Hand out flyers occasionally and send coupons inside inexpensive mail packets to the local market. You know an envelope full of coupons from local businesses.

[kemperk]

if you have not done market research and written a biz plan
and worked for another restaurant for 2-5 yrs, do not open one

what is your WOW Factor?

[Ananth04]

You can give the menu items for free to the goers(prospective customers). Make any unique item which would available in only your restaurant. Know your target customers. Accept the fact that every soul cannot become your customer. Your customers are limited to certain extent. Know them, Mentally analyse whom you are targeting much.
Tell your friends and ask them to tell their friends. Use different sites like linked in and other famous sites to promote your business.

[Robert]

There is a new website I ran into, and it gives consumers a platform to share their consumer experiences with friends. My understanding of the site is that it can be used as a search engine to view consumer experiences or you can build networks with your friends to share and recommend experiences in a word of mouth kinda way by allowing people to connect to you. You can tell your customers to go and tell about their experiences on that site. That can help!

[-]

No offense, but if you don't have a big budget, why are you opening a restaurant?

Restaurants are one of the worst businesses to own. Almost ALL of them fail. Literally, ALL of them. It takes years to make money and get a following. If you're going to be cash strapped from day one, what will you do a year from now when you still don't have customers?

[Bonjour2007]

Hi there, starting any business is complex and requires a lot of effort from the business owner, but the great thing is you're looking for and asking for marketing advice. This shows you're willing to learn ways to boost your business.

There are so many ways to market your business on a shoestring or a budget, and you can find many of them online by searching for : marketing on a shoestring.

The one main thing you MUST have is a website - if you don't have a site with information about your location, your food and your 'story', you're missing out on a big opportunity.

People like to do business with people they know, like and trust - if someone wants to read more about you, they can do that on your site - 24/7.

You Must Have
A Newsletter on
Your Website

If you encourage people to sign up on your website for your tips about new dishes, special events, coupons etc, then you'll have their email name. This is THE most important thing a website owner can do. It's a fantastic way you can go back to them once a week or so and keep in touch, let them know what's been happening in your restaurant, what's coming up, etc. Give them a reason to come into your restaurant.

Take photos of your customers, ask if you can put them on your Facebook business page, and when they see their photo, they'll tell their friends (which brings more visitors to your Facebook page, and possibly your website).

Then you write about your customers and photos in your newsletter, and they'll send your newsletter to their friends so they'll go see the photos on Facebook.

See how this can boost your customer base, and potentially bring more website visitors?

Come Up With
Unique Marketing Ideas

Think up something really unusual, a way to be different from all the other restaurants in town. Start a Loyalty Card and offer something different as the Bonus or gift.

Press
Releases

Create a Press Release every week about something interesting - news - about your restaurant - there are a ton of things which would be suitable.

That's just a few small things you could do for no cost - I hope it helps, and I wish you all the very best of luck for your new restaurant.