Restaurant Promotion Ideas for January

January is a very slow month in terms of revenue for the hospitality industry. Most business will slow down spending in January as schools reopen and parents will concentrate on their school going kids. People will also reduce spending after the holidays. Some places might give their staff a few days leave to rejuvenate after the busy holiday season. So January is not the best time for the restaurant industry. But you have still have overheads to pay, you still need to get people into your restaurant to cover your fixed cost. Below are some restaurant promotion ideas that you could try to fill up this slow month.

 Hospitality Industry Specials

January is also the National Thank You month and the Be Kind to your Servers month. You can capitalize on this. Give out discounts and special offers to people in the hospitality industry. As mentioned above some companies will be giving their staffs a break. So of course these staffs will look for a place to unwind. Work with your local inns or tour companies to create a special package just for the people in the hospitality industry. My former General Manager of the hotel where I used to work did just this. He created a package just for the people in the industry for the month of January, that’s how he managed to fill up the hotel rooms when the other hotels were empty.

Hold Events

If you have a large parking space, why don’t hold some events like vintage vehicles or a flea market where the local community can showcase their pride and joy or products. Large shopping centers in Malaysia are doing just that. They loan out their space to the locals to sell their wares once or twice a week. People also drop in to these supermarkets to do their shopping too after they go through the local market. Even if you don’t have a large car park, you can showcase some local artist. Put up on the wall their paintings with a price tags. Cause these artist might have their followers or even their Facebook page, which is free advertisement for your restaurant and also help to decorate your outlet. That’s what we call “killing 2 birds with one stone.”

Appreciation Dinner.

Choose a day and invite alĺ your regulars for dinner to thank them for their support. This is also a great avenue to showcase some of your new dishes for the new ala carte for 2015. You can even create a recipe book to give out to the ladies. In my Restaurant Promotion Idea #18 – Publish and Give out Recipe Books , I mentioned about the benifits of having your very own recipe. To visit the article. please Click Here 

Hold Little Tournaments.

‘If you running a bar or pub, do little tournaments to bring in the crowd. Visit my post in Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 5:- Do LittleTournaments, on the steps I took to organise a Dart Competition. You can also do Cooking competition, where the winning dish will be featured in the new ala carte. To know more, please click here Restauran Promo Ideas #25- Hometown Celebrity Chef

.January might be a slow month for some. But if you carefully observe there might be an opportunity to capitalize on it. I leave you with a quote from this famous person.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

 Restaurant Promo Ideas # 24 :- Chef’s Night Buffet

One promotional activity that some restaurants as well as hotels prefer to carry out is to have Guest Chefs. Should they possess the budget, they will get a Celebrity Chef to prepare some dishes. Most of time hiring a Celebrity might not bring you the profit you desire after taking out the chef’s expenses as well as their perks. However its a good advertising and marketing hook in order to let
people know that you are around. Nevertheless, you also need to ensure that your kitchen prepares food as good as that which was made by the Celebrity Chef or else you will only end up being busy when the he is around. Another alternative would be to create certain theme and obtain Chefs from that region to prepare. When I was attached to a beautiful resort in a little village on the East Coast of Malaysia known as Cherating. Each year for a month in September we used to bring Chefs from our sister property in Thailand to do a month long Thai Promotion. We did some fruit carving as well as Thai food cooking classes for our guests. We even hired a Tuk tuk to shuttle guests from town to our resort. It was really fun. Read more here Click Here



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Restaurant Promotion Idea #28 – Twelve Days of Christmas Promotional Ideas

On the last day of the 12 days Christmas Specials, why don’t you thank your customers for a great year and also build rapport for future business. Homemade gifts are great as it shows the customer how valuable they are as you have taken a lot of thought into preparing the gifts. Here are some gift ideas that you can try Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 27 – Year End Holiday Gift for your Customers Christmas can be a big profit driver if you do it right and the results of building holiday revenue can spill over far into the new year if you do a great job of impressing existing and new customers of how great your restaurant is and how much they will want to come back again soon.   Click here for more 

12 Promotion Ideas for the 12 days of Christmas

Instead of doing just a one day Christmas Promotion, why don’t you do 12 days of Christmas Promotion Activity which will stretch until the Feast of Epiphany. The more days you do a promotion, the more revenue you will receive for your restaurant. To make it more fun, work around the 12 Days of Christmas Lyrics. Here are 12 days of creative promotional ideas that I’ve found along the way.

On the first day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Gift Cards

Give out Gift cards with future discounts or free gifts to all customers visiting your restaurant on the first day of Christmas. You can give out discounts, free gifts even services from other companies like a manicure, car wash vouchers. The list is endless. Print out different gift card vouchers, put in a nice Christmas Theme Envelope, place it at your cashier counter. So when they pay the bill they can draw their lucky gift card.  

On the second day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Two Turtle Doves

Couple Night Out

On the second day of Christmas have a couple’s night out. Parents need a much needed rest after all the Christmas planning for their family’s Christmas event. A day when parents can relax and enjoy a nice lunch or dinner date without the children. Create a romantic candlelight Christmas Theme Dinner for two. If you are near to a daycare centre, workout a package where the daycare centre can take care of their kids while they dine. Create a menu without the turkey or other Christmas dishes, because some people get really bored with all the Christmas dishes year in year out.  

On the third day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Three French Hens

Buy Three pay only for Two

Do a promotion where three people dine and only pay for two special.  

On the fourth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Five Golden Rings

Acts of Kindness

The holiday season is an especially good time to kick off a Community Service initiative for your organization. Choose a day in the week to do some community service with your staff and maybe some of your regulars or suppliers. Work together to visit old folks homes, orphanage and many more places that you can spread love. It will be a fun gathering for every one and also lift everyone’s hearts. Try to get this event in the local newspaper. Even your suppliers can get some marketing leverage when the media gets hold of this story. It’s a real Win – Win situation for all. A few days before Christmas hold a Gift Collection Booth in your Restaurant with names of Kids from the local orphanage and what they would like for Christmas. Your customers can pick a kid buy the present, wrap it up and deposit at the booth. On the Community Service Day you can go and give out the presents with the person who bought it if they want to follow.  

On the fifth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Five Golden Rings

Christmas Thank You Parties

December and Christmas is the ideal season for companies to host year end thank you parties for their staff. Large companies do it at function rooms or restaurants. Holiday parties are not only reserved for large companies, even small companies these days try to reward their employees with a holiday party. To save on costs these companies do it in their offices, here is where you come in. Create a catering menu that you can do and that is easily transported. Create flyers and give out to the companies in your vicinity. This year the fifth day of Christmas falls on a Saturday, create special packages that small companies can reserve a corner of your restaurant to do a small thank you party for their staff (if you have the space).  

On the sixth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Six Geese a Laying

50% Discount

As we are half way through our 12 days of Christmas, give out 50% discounts on selected items in your restaurant. A discount always attracts people.  

On the seventh day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Seven Swans a Swimming

Before the Party Buffet Dinner

The seventh day of Christmas falls on New Year Eve. There will be New Year Celebrations in most bars and disco. You can capitalize on this by offering a before the part Buffet Dinner. You can use words like “Charge up your batteries before the party starts”, “Make sure you’re on full tank before you party”  

 On the eighth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Eight Maids a Milking

New Year’s Day Brunch

The Eight Day of Christmas falls on New Year’s Day, a day when most people wake up late due to heavy partying or just want to wake up late on the first day of the year. Hold a New Year’s Day Brunch. Print flyers early and distribute around, so as your customers can plan ahead. Search the net for different brunch menus which others are doing. Mix and match to suit your clientele and location.

On the ninth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Nine Ladies Dancing

Ladies Night Out

Have a special ladies night where all ladies pay half price or get a free cocktail when they dine at your restaurant.  

On the tenth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Ten Lords a Leaping

Men’s Night Out

This is for the men. Have a beer specials for men only with a special discounted price. Maybe add some dart boards or even a foosball table. If there’s live matches on, show it on a big screen.  

On the eleventh day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Eleven Pipers Piping

Yahooo the Kids are in School

Check your calendar. Most schools will start during the first week of January. Most parents will be relieved as they had to endure a whole month of their kids and is happy that school starts. Have a special buffet for parents, especially if you are near to a school. Parents can drop by for lunch after they drop off their kids.  

On the twelfth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: 12 Drummers Drumming

 Year End Gifts

Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 27 – Year End Holiday Gift for your Customers

With the closing of the year, a lot of business will be looking for appreciation gifts for their customers and regulars. Searching the web, you will find a number of organizations offering to create some sort of year end gifts with your logo on it. For small business owners who are scrambling to meet year-end commitments and running the day to day operations, finding just the right gift for your customers can be overwhelming. But you can still give out memorable year end or thank you gifts. One way is to make it your self. Search the web for ideas, there are various ideas that you and your staff can create by yourselves. Below are some of the ideas. I have done two of it myself and the rest I plan to implement it soon. Please Click Here    



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Inexpensive, Tasteful and Easy Halloween Decoration for your Restaurant

Where to find easy DIY Halloween Decorating Ideas for your restaurant or bar.

In my Halloween Promotion Idea Article a year ago, "Restaurant Promotion Idea #15 - Halloween Specials". I pointed out that there are a plenty of Halloween Home decorating tips in the World Wide Web that you could use in your restaurant or pub. These days my favourite site for searching decorations is Pinterest.  Merely go to their search bar and type your search keywords and press enter. What’s great is that Pinterest only displays the featured picture therefore its easy for you to skim through. Click on the picture you desire and navigate to the website.
For me I save most of the interesting web page in Pockets, so as I can go through it later. Below are some sites of which I have found really interesting and I am going to make use of some of their ideas cause they are simple to do as well as inexpensive.  

26 DIY Ideas How to Make Scary Halloween Decorations With Trash Bags

As the title suggest this website has 26 ideas on how to use trash bags to create scary Halloween Decorations. For my bar I will be using the picture on the below
 
 Please click here to go to the website to know more 26 DIY Ideas How to Make Scary Halloween Decorations With Trash Bags  

Ten Epic DIY Halloween Decorations Sure To Make Guests Freak 

This website has 10 different scary and freaky decorations. As my bar Halloween theme this year is a horror theme, I will be going for the No.5 The girl from the Ring movie. There’s also an in detail instructions on how to prepare the deco.
 
 See more at: Ten Epic DIY Halloween Decorations Sure To Make Guests Freak   

5 Easy DIY Halloween Decorations for your Dorm Room

Here I am going to use No 5. Glow in the dark eyes.
 The website to visit is  5 Easy DIY Halloween Decorations for your Dorm Room  

Grimm Monster Mud Reaper

A great set by step website on how to create a life size Grimm Reaper with step by step pictures to guide you through.
 
 To get the instructions just visit Grimm Monster Mud Reaper  

DIY: Scary Well from the Movie "The Ring"

I am thinking of doing this for my entrance.
 
 Click here to know more DIY: Scary Well from the Movie "The Ring"   With these simple ideas, I hope you have an awesome and scary Halloween. I know I will.!!!!

Happy Decorating!!!

Restaurant Promotion Ideas:- HalloweenTheme Party

Halloween like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day is another festival that is currently being commerlized by businesses especially those related to Food and Beverage. Instead of doing it on the Halloween day like most establishments, we held our ipromotion for a week and on the Halloween’s Day we made it really grand. As with most of my promotions in this blog, below is a simple account on how we organised our Halloween Week. Hope if it will be of some help for your establishment.

Halloween Cocktails
 First of all we needed to have cocktails. A word of advise when creating cocktails for promotions, avoid using heavy juices, cream or milk. Reason being these heavy juices will make your customers full, therefore they will avoid ordering another one. Also don't make too strong, as customers will be too drunk to order another. You can search the World Wide Web for cocktail ideas. What I normally do when searching for ideas for a promotions is to go to any site even ones that talks about how to organise Hallooween parties at home. Some of the ideas can be used or modified to suit your establishment. A great site that I happen to come across is www.endlesssimmer.com. Just click here to view it www.endlesssimmer.com.There's one interesting cocktail called the Brain Hemmorage. You don't even have to purchase expensive garnishes, you can create some with simple things around. Just buy cookie cutter shaped like a ghost or skeleton. Cut thin slices of honeydew melon or other fruit that doesn't break easily that is white or cream in colour. Use the cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Create dark red cocktails and float a ghostly garnish on top of it. The www.endlesssimmer.com website have a granish that is created from lychee, black olives and some red food colouring to make eye balls. Its really gross and simple to do.

Halloween Decorations There is alot of Hallooween decorations for home websites that you can use. Just choose your theme. You don't have to do the normally ghostly house, just do something different. As our Pub had a Pirate Theme, we chose the Theme from the Flying Dutchman of the Pirates of the Carribean Series. The entrance was shaped like a scene from a ghostly pirate cave. Staff was dressed in Ghostly Pirate Costumes. We even played ghostly piped organ music. Just think what's your theme is and search the web. You can even go a step furtherby offering a discount to anyone that comes dressed as the theme. Try this website for some ideas http://tlc.howstuffworks.com.

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Halloween Games
To add more fun to your promotion just add some fun games. Listed below are sites where you can find some interesting pub games to try. If you have an adult pub (what I mean is if your clientele are mainly adults not families), then add some games for couples to make it fun. We had a couple game where we tied a large sausage in the middle and hung it up. Each couple had to start eating at each end. the couple that finished the sausage is the winner. Another was the toilet seat toss. We put a road cone on the dance floor measured the distance and gave three toilet seat for the guest to throw into the cone. the winner is the one with the highest number of toilet seats around the cone. Or you can also watch sme game show like a gameshow using household items “A Minute to Win It”. You can search the show on YouTube. I found it to be really interesting and simple to organise.

Halloween Flyers I my last post Free Restaurant Templates, I found a website that has a great Halloween poster. The website is called http://www.menutemplates.org. They have a eent menu templates that you can redesign to suit your promotion. You can also add anyone that comes dressed as in a Halloween Costume will get drinks at a special price.

Theme Parties are fun to do. It also will create a buzz on the social networks when guest post their pictures or write something in their blog on the fun they had in your place. Do drop by often for more Restaurant Promo Ideas.