Successful Thanksgiving Restaurant Promotions & Marketing Ideas for 2024

On Thanksgiving Day 2024, it’s time to make your restaurant noticed by tapping into some creative Thanksgiving restaurant promotions. Below, we provide you with concrete examples of Thanksgiving promotion ideas that will help you drive sales and get more people talking about your restaurant.

Picture this: the whole family gathered around a delicious turkey, feasting on creamy mashed potatoes and decadent pumpkin pie. Does that need to happen at home? Not necessarily!

Some Americans may prefer to have Thanksgiving at home. However, others will undoubtedly search for what restaurants serve at Thanksgiving dinner. They might want to see where they’re going to enjoy a bite of their favorite Thanksgiving food this holiday season or where they’re going to order from. That is your chance to make sure your restaurant becomes their new favorite spot in town!

Not everyone wants to spend long hours in the kitchen to feel the holiday spirit. Whether customers want to dine out or order in, restaurant owners should prepare with Thanksgiving restaurant promotions ahead of time.

Unique Restaurant Ideas for Thanksgiving 2024

Make your restaurant stand out from the competition by implementing the following Thanksgiving marketing ideas: 

Create Thanksgiving restaurant specials

Have a classic Thanksgiving menu and include dishes like a roasted turkey, mashed potatoes with white wine gravy, and some vegetables if you are looking for a nostalgic vibe.

You can get creative with restaurant specials ideas that are on the healthy side, such as green beans or fitness-friendly versions like broccoli or Brussels sprouts.

Sweet potato-cauliflower casseroles will remind many people of mom’s cooking. Finally, finish off with a timeless dessert like pumpkin pecan pie.

Thanksgiving brunch menu ideas

Dinner or lunch is not the only option for a festive Thanksgiving. Since some restaurants open late for this holiday, they could make a compromise and focus on a thematic brunch. The Thanksgiving brunch menu could include a frittata served with cranberry sauce, sweet potato quiche, or pumpkin muffins and coffee. Don’t forget to feature Thanksgiving brunch items like waffles, pies, and mini bagels.

It’s not just the food that matters for customers to have a happy Thanksgiving Day. It would be best if you designed your Thanksgiving brunch recipes to cater to the needs of all your clients.

If you want to stand out, come up with unique Thanksgiving Day specials to satisfy even the pickiest of customers. Customize your Thanksgiving restaurant menu to make everyone feel at home. From a traditional meal that reminds customers of home, to a modern feast that friends can share, to a Chinese-inspired Thanksgiving menu.

If you want to save money on printing new menus for each holiday, start using the free online menu editor from GloriaFood that allows you to make as many changes as you want, at no charge: 

 People will also most likely search for a “Thanksgiving buffet near me,” so make sure you offer a Thanksgiving buffet menu as well.

First, you could offer a special Thanksgiving, fixed-price menu, including 3-4 courses and dessert, with different portion sizes and prices for adults and children. You could even organize a thematic dinner event, complete with music and entertainment options. The second option is to create a unique holiday menu annex next to your regular dishes.

Read more: How & Why to Create a Prix Fixe Menu for Your Restaurant + Useful Tips 

Here are some Thanksgiving buffet ideas for your restaurant:

• Turkey casserole
• Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows
• Southern-style green beans
• Pumpkin spice mug cake

Take Thanksgiving restaurant reservations

Since there aren’t many restaurants open on Thanksgiving, it’s not a bad idea to take Thanksgiving restaurant reservations, even if this is not how you regularly operate. This way, you avoid putting extra pressure on your staff in the kitchen.

The most crucial concept to remember is to use multiple channels (website, social media, print, TV ads) to reach your target audience and let them know. Patrons switch effortlessly between these, and your offer should be everywhere if you hope to get noticed.

If you spread the word about your Thanksgiving restaurant promotions in advance, expect the place to be fully booked. Since you don’t want to disappoint your customers by not having a table for them when they arrive on Thanksgiving Day, recommend them to reserve a table.

That way, you’ll know how many people to expect, and they’ll know their table will be ready for them when they arrive. To make it even easier for both of you, you can have them select their choice of menu when they make the reservation. GloriaFood offers an easy-to-install widget for restaurant reservations that will save you time and energy.

Be open all day long

If you don’t expect heavy traffic, you could take the opposite approach. Invest in a little paid Thanksgiving advertising online for those people who wait until the last moment to google for what restaurants serve Thanksgiving dinner or “Thanksgiving restaurant open near me.”

Also, posting something along the lines of “We’re Open on Thanksgiving!” as a subtitle on your restaurant’s homepage can go a long way.

If your establishment is near office buildings, brainstorm some Thanksgiving restaurant lunch special ideas. You could also offer thematic lunch boxes for takeout and delivery; some people are still working and might want to order a Thanksgiving lunch at the office.

Read more: 10 Restaurant Lunch Ideas You Must Try to Attract More Clients 

Friendsgiving is a new concept, invented mostly for Millennials who are less attached to traditional values. For these clients, you could create group menus for 4-6-8 people.

Serve Thanksgiving-themed food like apple French toast casserole or cranberry kale salad with candied pecans and feta, topped off with fall-themed beverages like a to-die-for maple pecan latte. Be sure to offer something on the house as well, to make customers feel welcomed and special.

Besides, leftover lunch is a Thanksgiving tradition. Why not create a menu section with such dishes for nostalgic clients?

This may sound like a no-brainer, but since most establishments are closed on Thanksgiving, it’s essential not only to be open during the day but to cater to early or delayed customers as well. People will be looking for restaurants open late on Thanksgiving, and that’s your time to shine. Let everyone know you’ll be open on your website and social media accounts.

Non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner ideas

If your restaurant is fresh and fusion, you need to get creative. Use the “something old, something new” approach. Serve popular Thanksgiving food but with a twist. For example: 

• Serve pulled turkey sandwiches with roasted carrots; 

• Replace more substantial salads with a healthy quinoa alternative; 

• Make it more festive with a lava cake garnished with baked pumpkin; 

• Make baked sweet potatoes with rosemary and cover them in gravy or serve them next to roasted turkey with herbs. 

Another way to capitalize on the occasion is catering. Create a few menu versions, including classic, fancy, modern, vegetarian, and gluten-free, to ensure that every potential client’s needs are satisfied.

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

Serve Thanksgiving-themed drinks

From starting the day off just right with a Thanksgiving-infused cup of coffee…

Maple pecan pie latte

… to ending the day in style sipping on a delicious cocktail…

Apple butter Old Fashioned

… your guests will appreciate your commitment to making drinks as important as food this Thanksgiving.

If you own a bar, check out there Thanksgiving bar promotions you could implement:

• Halloween-colored shots (orange, black, purple)
• Bloody Mary happy hour
• To-go spooky cocktails for delivery

Read more: Restaurant Drink Menu Ideas to Increase Your Beverage Sales 

Create a kid friendly Thanksgiving menu 

Children don’t have all their taste buds fully formed, so they may not appreciate the traditional Thanksgiving food yet. Make both parents and children happy by adapting some of your menu items to their liking, such as: 

• Turkey nuggets; 
• Animal-shaped potatoes; 
• Pumpkin muffins; 
• Hot chocolate. 

Read more: How to Attract Families to Your Restaurant: Kid-Friendly Restaurant Ideas 

Offer Thanksgiving Restaurant Deals & Promotions

There is a wide range of food and beverage promotions ideas you can come up with this Thanksgiving – all you have to do is get a little creative. You can’t go wrong with classic Thanksgiving food deals like a complimentary dessert to everyone who orders the full menu or 50% off their second drink. However, try to stand out in the crowd with unique offers and Thanksgiving restaurant promotions.

Related: 15 Unique Restaurant Promotion Ideas that Will Increase Loyalty in 2020

For instance, you can ramp up the excitement with a week-long promotion before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving spirit week ideas include encouraging people to #sharethegratitude and bring a friend to your restaurant.

What do they get? A free drink of their choice each. Great advertising for you and quality bonding time for them. Try to tease a sample Thanksgiving menu on social media before you release it too.

Watch the video below to learn how to set up a plethora of restaurant promotions:

Create special Thanksgiving restaurant promotions for delivery 

People may try to cook a great meal for their family and friends at home, but accidents may happen. The turkey may not get defrosted in time, or the dessert may be forgotten. 

As it is too late for them to cook another dish, the only solution is for them to order in. Therefore, you can increase your sales on Thanksgiving by adding a 10% off deal for every Thanksgiving themed dish that will solve their food problem with the bonus of a great offer. 

You can customize the Thanksgiving message for the promotion with any celebratory message you like, such as “You gather the family, we bring the food!”. 

Give back to those in need

If there’s one holiday a year that inspires us to be the best version of ourselves, that is Thanksgiving. Take this opportunity to give back to the less fortunate: 

• Donate a percentage of your Thanksgiving proceeds to a charity of your choice; 

• Go for a more hands-on approach and get your staff to volunteer at a soup kitchen; 

• Involve your customers as well by offering them a complimentary item on the menu if they donate. 

Organize a giveaway

Giveaways are some of the best Thanksgiving restaurant promotions to take advantage of since there are so many possibilities. You can offer prizes like a full Thanksgiving meal, a goodies basket, or a discount voucher.

Check out these Thanksgiving contest ideas: 

• Select your winners at random; 

• Create polls with user-generated content and let your followers decide who the winner will be. 

User-generated content gets people talking and helps you promote your brand as well. Some Thanksgiving giveaway ideas can be having people submit a Thanksgiving picture, a recipe, a story of what they’re thankful for, or anything else that people can vote on and share on their social media.

Your Thanksgiving restaurant promotion messages should be distributed in a persuasive and convergent manner, both online and offline. The easiest way to grab your customers’ attention and generate organic traffic is to use your social media channels. Here are some Thanksgiving content ideas to share with the world:

• what kind of delicious food you have prepared
• mouth-watering photos
• special prices

Specific Thanksgiving descriptive words will breathe life into your posts. Browse these Thanksgiving adjectives for ideas.

Create promo codes to get more clients after Thanksgiving 

If you want your restaurant to be successful long-term, you need to convince every client to return. An easy way to do this is to come up with Thanksgiving promo code ideas that will persuade people to order from your business again. 

For example, you can add a flyer to every online order on Thanksgiving that allows clients to place a new order with 10% off. The great news is you can easily do so using our restaurant coupon code and flyer generator: 

 

Thanksgiving Restaurant Marketing Ideas

If you are looking for more celebratory advertisement ideas, consider offering Thanksgiving promotional items, such as a small dessert for each order. Get more inspiration: 

Share the inspiration

If you’re looking for Thanksgiving blog post ideas, look no further! Be helpful and post some recipes you intend to use for your dishes. This is a bit of reverse psychology. Best-case scenario: Customers will feel lazy and decide to order the food or come to the restaurant. Worst-case scenario: They share the recipe on social media or talk about it with their friends. Either way, you get good publicity.

Throw a Thanksgiving party

If you organize a party, create the poster and flyers at least two weeks ahead and boost them on social media. It also helps to partner with other local businesses like medical clinics, barbershops, or gyms to help you distribute flyers for the event.

Remember in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. when Underdog got away from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? On the off-chance something like that happens in real life, wouldn’t you want your customers to see it broadcasted during your Parade-Watch Thanksgiving Party?

Check out these Thanksgiving event names and ideas: 

• Put a twist on Thanksgiving by turning it into Friendsgiving; 

• One of the more fun Thanksgiving party ideas is to organize Singlesgiving. We don’t suggest taking a page from How I Met Your Mother, though, and making it Slapsgiving; 

• Fall-themed trivia quiz; 

• Football viewing party. 

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

Write a mouth-watering menu

When you think about what restaurants serve at Thanksgiving dinner, you need to be as descriptive as possible since this is a festive occasion. Clients are more likely to buy a menu or a seat at your event if the food list sounds impressive. Don’t spare any adjectives regarding the food and think about adding a wine pairing to some dishes.

Read more: 3 Secret Menu Writing Tips: The BEST Food Descriptions that Make You Hungry 

Spread the word

Social media should be at the top of your list of Thanksgiving restaurant marketing ideas. Since you need time to promote your brand and Thanksgiving offers before Thanksgiving Day, we recommend planning your strategy a month in advance.

To get your Thanksgiving restaurant promotions to as many people as possible, use the omnichannel approach. Hang signs outside the restaurant, hand flyers, reach out to people via email and be active on all your social media platforms. The latter is the best place for your Thanksgiving marketing campaign ideas. Here are some creative Thanksgiving social media ideas:

• use hashtags
• launch challenges with prizes
• promote your Thanksgiving events and promotions
• encourage people to share photos from your events

If you’re looking for some ideas on how to promote your restaurant on Instagram, check out our article on Restaurant Instagram Marketing Ideas That Will Help You Increase Sales.

Create your own Thanksgiving message or hashtag

Creating a hashtag that’s Thanksgiving-inspired and unique for your brand is a great way to get people to remember you. You can also take it one step further and come up with a Thanksgiving message for promotion across all your social media platforms.

With all this Thanksgiving promotional talk, you might assume your only goal is to make a huge sale. However, the best Thanksgiving promotion ideas are not trying to sell anything. Instead, they focus on emotion. Come up with inspirational Thanksgiving post ideas for your social media channels consisting of quotes on Thanksgiving and gratitude and featuring a delicious picture of food.

Here are a few great Thanksgiving promotion slogans you can draw inspiration from when you come up with Thanksgiving social media post ideas: 

• Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it is important when you need it.” – Franz Grillparzer
• “Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.”– Nigel Hamilton
• “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” – W.T. Purkiser
• “Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have.”– Catherine Pulsifer
• “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”– Charles Dickens
• “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie
• “Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.” – Johnny Carson
• “I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it.” – Robert Brault
• “Thanksgiving is America’s favorite holiday because it’s a time when we put aside our cares, much as the struggling Pilgrims did nearly four centuries ago, and eat a gut-busting meal without worrying about the ‘out years.’” – David Ignatius

Read more: How to Write Catchy Restaurant Slogans (Effective Tips +Examples) 

Combine Thanksgiving Restaurant Promotions with Decorations

It’s a good idea for every holiday to dress up the place accordingly to help people get in the mood.

Use pumpkins

You can upcycle your Halloween decorations along the Thanksgiving lines and turn the scene into something warm and inspiring. Replace the carved pumpkin with a new one to give that autumn feeling, even if you turn it into a bottle cooler.

Fall colors

Use bright, golden colors to mimic fall’s garment. Use these for table cloths, napkins, or other items like candles.

Intricate centerpieces

Create a maize centerpiece to reconnect with the original meaning of Thanksgiving. You can choose yellow, orange, and red flowers to preserve the autumnal vibe if you prefer flowers.

Display the Horn of Plenty

This is a modern-day interpretation of an old idea about abundance. The cornucopia, as it is also called, makes the place look fuller and more luxurious.

Use themed napkins

A simple and easy way to dress up any table is to add more intricate napkins. You can buy them from the supermarket, or have them made to order, displaying the menu.

Bring nature inside

Create an enchanted space in your restaurant by bringing in leaves, fruits, and other natural items. Depending on the available area, it can be anything between a full wooden log or just a few pine cones.

Get in on the post-Thanksgiving hype

Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday promotions season, which means you can take advantage of the hype around Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.

Don’t just focus on Thanksgiving restaurant promotions. Throw a party to celebrate your small business, offer gift cards to online shoppers who dine at your restaurant, or partner up with brands.

Read more: Restaurant Holiday Marketing & Planning: How to Get Ready for the End of 2024 

Conclusion

While tradition is to be expected, many customers are open to trying new things as long as they can still feel the Thanksgiving spirit. Don’t be afraid to experiment when it comes to creating unique Thanksgiving restaurant promotions. Remember to come up with creative Thanksgiving ideas for clients who want to stay in but still have a good time too.