The Best New Year Promotion Ideas for Restaurants to Excite Customers

Bid 2024 farewell by showing customers how much you appreciate their patronage with exclusive menu specials, discounts, promotions, and grand events.

Implement these New Year promotion ideas for restaurants to end the year with a bang and increase client loyalty for the next year. 

12 Profitable New Year Promotion Ideas for Restaurants

Take advantage of these New Year’s restaurant ideas to attract more attention to your restaurant and persuade clients to return next year: 

1. Create an exclusive New Year restaurant menu

Any successful New Year’s celebration starts with good food. 64% of Americans spend at least $50 on New Year’s food and drinks.

And while for some, this can be a day like any other where they can just order a pizza, others will want to enjoy more traditional New Year’s food like roast, mashed potatoes, and of course, cake.

Add a limited edition New Year’s menu category that will entice people to order these once-a-year delicacies.

For more winter menu ideas that could complement your New Year’s menu, check out our full guide.

Don’t waste time and money trying to find a place to print out your exclusive New Year’s menu. Instead, use the free online menu editor from GloriaFood to create an online menu that you can update as many times as you want, at no added cost.  

 2. Organize a New Year’s party

If you’re going to keep your restaurant open on New Year’s, you might as well throw an unforgettable party that will have all the neighborhood talking.

Whether you organize a fancy black tie event or an understated casual evening for friends and families, prepare for the influx of people by making it a reservation-only party.

That way, guests are guaranteed to find a spot to ring in the New Year, while you will know exactly how many people to expect and how many staff members you’ll need.

Additionally, encourage customers to choose their New Year meal when making a reservation by enabling food pre-orders.

Here are a couple New Year’s eve restaurant events you can organize: 

• Trivia night with questions related to the year that has just passed; 

• Music night where you invite local band to play; 

• 90’s theme party with a dance ring; 

• Costume party; 

• Champagne tasting. 

Read more: 15 Restaurant Event Ideas to Get Customers Through the Door 

3. Add irresistible end-of-year sales to the menu

If you’re looking for no-brainer New Year promotion ideas for restaurants, discounts and special offers should be at the top of the list.

Celebrate the end of the year by showing your gratitude to customers who have been with you all year long. How? By adding a 15% discount to the cart for clients who have ordered at least 5 times in the past.

But don’t forget about new customers either. Start the new year on the right foot with a bunch of new clients by offering a free dessert to everyone who orders for the first time.

You can set up these New Year restaurant offers and more using our handy promotion templates. Check out this video tutorial to learn more:

Read more: Quick Winter Restaurant Promotions That Will Heat Up Sales

4. Offer New Year meal delivery

32% of Americans plan to order delivery or pickup for New Year’s. Why shouldn’t those people be able to enjoy the same delicious meal as your dine-in customers?

Make your New Year menu specials available for people who want to celebrate at home but still get a restaurant-quality meal.

If you don’t typically offer delivery, don’t worry. You can install a free online ordering system on your website in less than 10 minutes and start accepting orders by tonight. Here’s how:

5. Provide happy hour deals on New Year-themed drinks

You only celebrate New Year’s once (a year). Mark the special occasion with an all-day happy hour featuring massive discounts on your drink specials.

Brainstorm an alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks menu featuring classic winter flavors, such as:

• Cranberry-apple sangria
• Gingerbread martini
• White Russian
• Apple pie bourbon shots
• Eggnog chai latte
• Hot caramel apple cider
• Vegan peppermint hot chocolate
• Alcohol-free amaretto sour
• Apple and rhubarb cooler
• Mulled tea

6. Hire live entertainment

If you’re going to organize a New Year’s party at your restaurant, consider hiring live musicians, a local band, or even a dancing troupe that will entertain your guests for the evening.

This is a good opportunity to forge connections with local performers who might be willing to give you a discount for the sake of mutual promotion. Plus, you will show customers that you are interested in supporting local talent, thus boosting your community outreach efforts.

7. Decorate your restaurant for picture-perfect moments

Who doesn’t want to snap a photo in front of a nicely decorated tree, festive entrance, or holiday-themed centerpiece?

Decorate your restaurant for the holidays, including the tables, so when customers take photos of their food, they have a festive backdrop. That will increase the chances of them sharing the photo on social media, which is free publicity for you.

Check out these New Year decoration ideas for restaurant that will invite user-generated content: 

• Decorate a photo corner and prove festive props to encourage customers to take pictures; 

• Display your Instagram handle and even reward people who tag you in their photos with a free hot chocolate. 

Read more: How to Encourage & Employ User-Generated Content for Restaurants 

8. Organize a contest or tombola

Good food? Check. Live entertainment? Check. What’s missing from a successful New Year’s party? A fun surprise that will delight customers.

Engage guests by organizing a tombola or a contest where everyone has to write down a New Year’s resolution and place it in a bowl.

Read more: 20 Restaurant Contest Ideas That Will Delight Your Customers 

You can draw winners at random and as a reward, give them a discount coupon code that they can use at your restaurant in January.

Here’s how easy it is to create personalized restaurant coupon codes using our promotions engine:

9. Organize a 1st of January brunch

New Year promotion ideas for restaurants seep into the next year as well. Open on the first of January for people who have had a long boozy night and want to get back on their feet with a delicious brunch.

10. Promote your New Year festivities on your website and social media

Finally, marketing is what will dictate the success of the New Year restaurant promotion ideas you decide to implement.

Tease your customers with sneak peeks of your New Year menu on social media, post about your end-of-year party on your website, and ramp up excitement for your holiday celebrations.

11. Branch out with restaurant catering

If you don’t want to stay open during the New Year, but you would still like to take advantage of the celebration to make money, consider expanding your business with catering. 

Some people don’t want to have a New Year celebration at a restaurant, they want to gather a large group of people and party at one of their homes. But they will still need food. Because the gathering is large, they will have a hard time ordering the night of the party. 

This is where restaurant catering comes in, you can make money by preparing food in advance for these celebrations. With the GloriaFood online ordering system, you can easily set up a menu for catering and make it easy for people to order. 

Don’t forget to advertise the new type of service on your website and social media to get people to place orders. 

Read more:  How to Significantly Increase Sales with a Restaurant Catering Business

12. Start the New Year with a focus on your community

Don’t limit yourself to New Year’s Eve restaurant ideas, extend the celebration to the first days of the year. A great way to get more loyal customers is to get more involved in the community. Here are a couple of tips: 

• Organize an event in the first days of the new year where you cook dishes with ingredients from local producers and showcase their provenience; 

• Collaborate with non-profit organizations to find ways to help the community and invite your clients to partake. 

That’s a Wrap

As the year comes to a close, use these last few weeks as an opportunity to prepare for your New Year’s celebration. Invite customers to bring their friends and family and celebrate with you for an evening of delicious food and merriment.

We hope these New Year promotion ideas for restaurants can find their place in your end-of-year marketing strategy.