The best thing about New Year is the festive spirit on every corner. People are in a celebratory mood as it is the last big holiday of the year. They spend a lot of money at this time of the year, and every restaurant should take advantage of this.
Of course, every restaurant around is thinking the same. However, most restaurants get stuck in the daily work grind, cooking the same menu, and performing the same tasks. New Year restaurant marketing campaigns allow you to shake things up, offer New Year specials, and entertain and interact with people on a more personal level.
Remember, people will come to your restaurant to have a good time. You do not necessarily need to organize something extraordinary. However, with simple New Year marketing campaigns, if prompted properly, you can generate just as many sales as more complicated and high-end promotions.
To help you stand out from the crowd and attract customers to your place, we prepared a New Year restaurant marketing guide. Read on and watch crowds coming in at your place on this year’s New Year.
Introduce a New Year special menu
A special holiday menu is a must, but it does not have to be complicated. You may have introduced some special items on the menu as part of your Christmas restaurant promotion. Nevertheless, New Year is the perfect time to give your menu a little makeover. Create a limited-time New Year special menu. The choice always depends on your restaurant’s type. So, make sure to stick to your concept. You can include various cuisines, New Year specials like lattes, and your restaurant special. Offering a few new items is enough to create excitement.
Have a look at how High Rock Café offers a special menu for New Year’s Eve. This entire menu is customized for the New Year. This will make people excited for the night and make them visit the restaurant.
Similarly, you can introduce a New Year special menu for your place. The New Year menu should be decided at least a few weeks in advance so that you have enough time to prepare it and spread the word about it. You can use menu templates from PosterMyWall to create visually appealing designs for your New Year’s special menu.
Restaurants are typically house-full at New Year’s, making it an excellent opportunity to serve people your best food. However, keep in mind to stock up your inventory for your new items so that you don’t run out of ingredients.
Host a New Year Eve’s [arty
People are looking for a fun time and great food. And nothing gets people to your place like a good New Year party. Give them a reason to come to your restaurant by hosting a perfect New Year’s Eve party.
Dallas BBQ shows exactly how to host a New Year’s Party. The best part about it is that they don’t make people stand out in the cold and wait till midnight. Whether you are a couple with kids or a big group of friends, they have their place open for all ages. Moreover, the BBQ dinner buffet makes sure to make it a perfect New Year party.
Just like that, you can have lots of customers by organizing a New Year party. Your party does not need to be on a grand level. Invite local music bands to come and perform live music. Make sure to have some arrangements for the kids, such as a food contest. It does not take much effort and financial resources to let people have a fun time with great food at your place.
Invite a famous personality to your restaurant
To get customers coming in, you need to build excitement. Inviting a famous chef to your personality is one of the best ways to do so.
Look how Beauty & Essex located at The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, invited Chris Santos, as a celebrity chef on a New Year’s Eve. With a special prix fixe menu put together by her, the restaurant sets a great example of how to invite a famous chef to your place. Learning from this, you can invite a famous chef to your restaurant too.
Finding and getting a famous chef into your restaurant used to be a difficult task. It was almost like hiring a celebrity, making it impossible for 99% of the restaurants. However, today, it is much easier to invite famous chefs to your place.
Thanks to social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. They allow professional chefs to have an enormous online following. This offers a great opportunity for restaurants to invite popular online chefs on New Year’s Eve. Find an online chef in your locality. Invite them to be a guest chef on New Year’s Eve. In return, you can offer them a percentage of your sales.
This will make people excited to come to your restaurant. Once people get to know about it, they will be eager to visit your place and enjoy delicious food made by their favorite celebrity chef.
Offer New Year’s specials
It is all about giving people something they cannot refuse to take. So why don’t you offer people exactly what they want? And the best way to do this is by capitalizing on New Year promotion restaurant deals.
Throughout this season, a lot of people are busy traveling, working, and attending parties. They do not have time or interest to prepare their own food most of the time. This is when your New Year specials swoop in to save the day.
Wendy’s capitalized on New Year specials perfectly. To celebrate National Bacon Day (December 30th), Wendy’s offered a free breakfast Baconator on New Year’s Eve. You just had to make one more purchase using the Wendy’s app during the breakfast hours, and your free breakfast discount was automatically applied. Although National Bacon Day was a day before, Wendy’s waited for New Year’s Eve to offer the special deal and take advantage of it to the fullest.
Likewise, you can offer a special deal to attract customers to your restaurant. You can offer a to-go dinner on New Year‘s Eve at a special price; do a “2-for-1” deal, or just add a free set of gingerbread as a compliment. You can also introduce special deals throughout the holiday season. It is a great opportunity to warm anticipation a bit with a different deal each day.
Do not forget to promote!
All your New Year restaurant marketing campaigns will be in vain if people do not know about them. Thus, make sure to promote everything so that people can know about your efforts. There are so many ways to get the word out. Below are a few ways that can help you promote your restaurant on New Year rightly so:
Use social media
Social media is the best way to make any announcement. Posting regularly on your social media platforms is the main key. Below are a few more ways you can utilize each social media platform for your New Year promotions.
Creating an event page is the best way to start your New Year promotions on Facebook. Create a New Year’s Eve Facebook event and let your followers know your plans for the night. Ask them to invite their friends and family to the Facebook event to expand your reach. You may also use Facebook Live to give people a little insight into how your place will be on New Year’s Eve.
Instagram stories work great to keep people updated about your New Year plans. You may also ask for suggestions through Instagram. Post photos of various restaurant New Year decorations and ask people to select their favorite. You can also ask about their favorite holiday decoration pieces or color schemes. Almost every family has that one person who would insist on cooking up at home. Use Instagram to address some of the unpleasant elements of home cooking. A sink full of dishes or photos of a burnt turkey with a snappy caption may help you bring families in.
TikTok
You have to be a trending hunter if you want good results from your TikTok promotions. Look for New Year trends and try to follow them. Do not forget to use New Year hashtags on whatever you post. Working with influencers can also help you promote better. They are more familiar with the platform and have expertise and their own audiences. Work with them and ask them to promote your New Year event.
Sometimes, posting is not enough, and you may have to go beyond. Interact with people who comment on your posts or share them on their accounts. Acknowledge your followers who spend time on your social media profiles and make sure to engage with them.
You can learn more about social media marketing for restaurants and bars here.
Give out Flyers and Posters
As we said, to make your New Year campaigns work, you need to tell people about whatever your restaurant has to offer. Use flyers to showcase your New Year specials or posters to let people know about your different holiday hours.
The best part; you can post them on social media, but you can also distribute them physically at your restaurant or around your area. You can use restaurant flyer templates from PosterMyWall to create attractive New Year flyers.
Use a Digital Signage
A digital outdoor signage is a direct invitation into your restaurant. You can utilize them to promote customer favorites and your New Year specials or to simply write an on-brand message. Digital signage is one of the simplest New Year restaurant promotion ideas to execute. If you don’t know how to design digital signage, you can use restaurant digital signage templates from PosterMyWall.
Make the most of the New Year Holidays!
New Year is a great time to increase your profit. However, you need to work out effective New Year restaurant marketing campaigns. With the help of the guide above, there is no way you miss out on the opportunity. Don’t be afraid to try out new ideas as well. They can help you stand out from your competitors. Click here to learn more about how to market your restaurant this holiday season. Nevertheless, bring on the festive spirit to your place and help people enjoy New Year’s Eve.
