9 Local Store Marketing Ideas for Restaurants to Attract a Loyal Crowd

Clients are the main pillars of your restaurant’s success. Especially the loyal ones who patronize your business and recommend you to their friends. Often, returning clients usually live in your area and visit your restaurant because it is convenient. If you want to get customers to pick your business over your competition, we’ve prepared a variety of useful local store marketing ideas for restaurants you must try.

Why Local Store Marketing for Restaurants is Important

As a restaurant owner, you know promoting your business is a must if you want to become a relevant name in the industry. Here are the benefits you will enjoy if you incorporate local store marketing into your promotional strategy:

• Increase brand awareness: by trying out local store marketing ideas for restaurants, you make people in your area aware of your delicious food and exact location;
• Build community engagement: by constantly targeting the local crowd, you get people to interact with your restaurant both online and offline;
• Get more loyal customers: the end goal of local store marketing is to persuade as many people as possible to return to your restaurant, time and time again;
• Create partnership opportunities: you not only get to create a relationship with your customers but with other businesses that provide access to new audiences.

9 Local Store Marketing Ideas for Restaurants

Use these easy-to-implement tips if you want to see a significant improvement in your number of clients and sales, both short-term and long-term.

1. Become a master of local SEO for restaurants

Mastering SEO techniques for restaurants will ensure you increase your visibility, and attract new clients to your restaurant. However, focusing on local SEO will help you get new and return clients that live in your area. Follow these tips:

• Get a sales and locally SEO-optimized website: your restaurant’s website must be full of locally relevant keywords and correct information about your place such as address, location, and menu. Use our restaurant website builder to generate a fully optimized website in under 10 minutes, without effort;

• Claim your Google Business Profile: and fill in all the information like a link to the website and working hours so people can easily find you online;
• Get listed in directories: make sure you have a profile on Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other directories where people may search for a restaurant in your area.

Consider working with an SEO expert partner that can help you create a strategy that’s tailored to your restaurant and goals. Read more: How to Market Your Restaurant Locally and Attract People in the Neighborhood

2. Use social media to target the local audience

One of the best local store marketing ideas for restaurants is to take advantage of social media. Your customers are already there, you just have to reach them and convince them to visit you. Here is what you must do:

• Be consistent: you can’t post a photo today and then forget about the account for a week. You must post constantly, at least once a day, to entice people with mouth-watering food photography;
• Use local hashtags: when you create a post, you should have two main things in the caption (a convincing Call to Action and relevant hashtags). Add hashtags that include your location and other relevant items in your area, such as places of interest, monuments, and the type of food you serve;
• Advertise with geo-targeting: paid ads may make your marketing budget higher, but it is worth it because they help you reach your target audience. You can advertise with ads including attractive promotions to people in walking distance.

Read more: How to Attract More Customers to Your Restaurant Using Social Media

3. Collaborate with local influencers

Countless restaurants had their sales skyrocket after an influencer promoted them. Food influencers have the advantage that they already have a community that trusts them. If you can get them to recommend you, their fans can become your clients. Here are a few tips for working with influencers:

• Find small, local influencers: the whole point of local store marketing ideas for restaurants is to attract people in your area. Therefore, it makes sense to look for an influencer that is also active only in your area. Moreover, the smaller they are, the less you will have to pay;
• Focus on food influencers: influencers that work in other niches such as beauty or games may not have the audience you seek. Food influencers are clearly followed by people interested in food, so they are your answer.

Read more: Restaurant Influencer Marketing Guide: How to Do It and Why

4. Try local search advertising

You are probably on the lookout for local store marketing ideas for restaurants that are free. But, if you are at the start, it is better to invest more in advertising until you start to rank high organically. By creating some local campaigns for paid ads, your restaurant will be shown first in the results, above your competition. You can tempt people with promotions or attractive menu items on a variety of platforms:

• Google search
• Google Maps
• YouTube

5. Set up a loyalty program

Most local store marketing ideas for restaurants will focus on getting people into your restaurant for the first time. But once you have them, you must do all you can to keep them. On top of an amazing customer experience and delicious food, you can persuade people to come back with loyalty programs. For example, the online ordering system from GloriaFood has an embedded Promotions module that can be set up to work as a loyalty program. Once people reach a certain number of orders, you can reward them with discounts and promos. Find out more from this video:

6. Distribute flyers around your location

While almost all promotional work is done online in this day and age, you must not forget the traditional ways. One of the most efficient local marketing ideas for restaurants is distributing flyers in your area. To persuade customers to order and increase your online sales, we recommend you use the online ordering flyer provided by our online ordering system. It includes 5% off their first order, so people are incentivized to take the big step. You can share your flyer:

• In front of your restaurant, especially if there is a lot of foot traffic
• In busy areas around your restaurant such as markets
• In other stores if you partner up with the business
• At local hotels and B&Bs

7. Organize events for the local community

Some local store marketing ideas for restaurants don’t have immediate results, but they pay out in the long run. One of them is to engage with your local community by organizing or participating in events. Here are some ideas you can try:

• Offer samplings: choose the busiest hour of foot traffic outside of your restaurant and tempt people with small samples of your food. Even if they don’t come in to eat then, they will remember the gesture and seek you out;
• Host charitable events: show your community you care by offering your place for charity. Hosting a fundraiser or donating to shelters are great options;
• Sponsor local sports teams: having your name on banners or t-shirts at sports events will signal to your community that you are involved and trustworthy;
• Host local singers: offer singers who are just starting a platform to show their talent. They get to promote themselves while you have entertainment for guests.

Read more: Top 8 Restaurant Fundraising Techniques to Support Your Community

8. Attract locals with promotions

People may know about your restaurant, either by walking by or following you on social media, but they have not yet become your clients. To persuade them to take the step from bystander to client, you can tempt them with promotions. Highlighting your use of sustainable packaging in these promotions can also attract eco-conscious customers who value environmentally friendly practices.

With GloriaFood, setting up a promotion is both easy and fast. You just need a few seconds to add an attractive promotion to the top of your menu. Here are a few deals you can implement:

• 5% off total
• Buy one, get one free
• 30% off any dessert
• Free item on orders over $60

Watch this video for step-by-step instructions:

9. Encourage and promote positive reviews

Did you know that 92% of consumers read restaurant reviews? Even if a customer lives three steps away from your restaurant, they will search online for reviews before visiting you. Potential customers trust other people’s opinions. Therefore, if you want more clients, you need to get the existing ones to leave positive reviews. Here is what you can do to encourage reviews:

• Have servers politely ask for reviews: at the end of the meal, train servers to nudge clients to leave a positive review if they enjoyed the experience;
• Link to review platforms on your website: make it easy for clients to leave a review by adding a direct link to the platforms you are on;
• Offer an incentive for reviews: you can promise a free dessert or a free drink for every positive review to persuade people to make the effort;
• Ask people on social media: let your followers know how important reviews are for you and you would appreciate if they took the time to write one;
• Promote your positive reviews on social media: ask for permission first and then add the positive reviews on your profile to show potential clients you are a trustworthy business.

Read more: The Importance of Online Reviews for Restaurants & How to Get More

Final Words

If you use the local store marketing ideas for restaurants mentioned above, you will notice a considerable increase in the number of new and returning clients. Remember this is not a one-and-done deal, you must constantly make the effort to become a part of your local community and attract them to your restaurant.