Diwali being one of the biggest festivals in India brings several opportunities for restaurateurs to up their sales. In India, festivals are a huge deal; especially Diwali. It brings friends and families together; therefore it is a great time to come up with the best and unique restaurant marketing ideas. After all, food unites everyone!
According to a report, on average, Indians spend INR 250 billion on Diwali shopping, and a significant part of it is spent on food and beverage!
Restaurant Marketing Ideas For Diwali
Every Diwali restaurant owners go out of their way to market their restaurant because everyone understands how productive the Diwali season can be. Most restaurants serve special festive food, but how will yours stand out?
Read ahead to design that perfect marketing strategy essential for your restaurant this festive season.
1. Planning
You need proper planning for executing your restaurant marketing ideas. Planning also helps you decide a budget for your marketing campaign which makes it easier to abide by the set budget without going overboard. You need to ensure your marketing plan is in accordance with your restaurant’s theme.
Always remember, planning is all about teamwork; you can sit with your employees and ask them for their opinions. This would surely help you gather some good restaurant marketing ideas.
Here are some aspects you need to cover in the planning
- Menu: If you wish to come up with a special Diwali menu you need to plan this and decide all the special items at least a week or two prior Diwali.
- Decorations: Diwali is incomplete without decorations; therefore it should be one of the things you should include in your Diwali planning. Fairy lights are the most common decoration and can be easily put up in your restaurant. Apart from that, you can also go for decorations such as candles and diyas to light up your restaurant. Hire a professional decorator who would be able to suggest apt decoration to suit your interior.
- Marketing: You need to plan out how do you wish to market your restaurant during Diwali, the channels you wish to use for advertising be it online or offline. If you are hosting an event or running special offers, you need to promote it on social media beforehand to get spread the word.
- Offers: Plan out special Diwali offers that will set your restaurant apart from the competitors. Offer discounts and create special offers to attract more customers.
2. Creating An Effective Restaurant Marketing Plan
Your plan is ready, and you know what you will be doing to up the sales this festive season but, do the customers know about your plans?
It is vital to have a great marketing strategy in place to reach out to your existing as well as potential customers.
(i) Making Your Presence Felt Online
Online presence is essential if you wish to attract a massive crowd at your restaurant. During Diwali, people actively search online for places to eat at or order food from; therefore it is important to keep your website or various social media profiles updated. Keep your website updated about all events that you would be hosting and the special offers and deals to attract customers.
People in India are increasingly using smartphones; therefore make sure the website is optimized for all the devices and is also SEO friendly. For instance, when people search for ‘Diwali discount on food’ your restaurant website should appear in the first few results of Google search.
(ii) Utilizing Social Media- The Not So Secret Ingredient
With 250 million people actively using social media in India, it indeed is a great platform to market your restaurant during Diwali. You can make use of various social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, etc. to spread awareness about upcoming events. Be regular with your posts and start promoting at least a week or two before the event, the idea is to create a buzz amongst your followers. You can continuously update the promotions on your social media profiles as a reminder for your followers, but do not go overboard! Post every alternate day as it will not disturb your followers feed and they will be reminded of the event in a subtle manner. Also, make sure to post inviting and high-quality pictures that would entice people to visit your restaurant.
(iii) Running Digital Contests
Several restaurant owners run massive digital contest campaigns during Diwali which is a great way of engaging customers and having them interact with your brand. During this time you can run Diwali centric contests. For example, you can ask people to make a rangoli out of sweets and tag you in their picture, and you can reward the image with the highest number of likes with a discount voucher.
(iv) Running SMS And Email Campaigns
This is an excellent way of grabbing attention and inviting people to dine at your restaurant or order food online and works well since it doesn’t require much preparation. Ensure that you send these promotional SMS and emails at the right time, for instance, an hour before lunch or dinner to stay relevant in the minds of your customers. Remember to include a Call-to-Action such as ‘Book your table now,’ or ‘Order Now’ to make the most of this last minute restaurant marketing idea for Diwali.
3. Offer Diwali Special Meals
This Diwali you can highlight your chef’s culinary skills. Allow your chef to get creative during the festive season. During this time you can introduce two or more new food items exclusively for Diwali. You can make a special menu for the festive season that combines the menu favorites and chef’s specials.
You can also come up with combo deals during Diwali for large groups like office parties by bundling the prices. This is an excellent way of inviting large groups of people to choose your restaurant over others and make more profits.
4. Make A Diwali Promotion Video
Video marketing is immensely popular these days; therefore it is a great way of reaching out to more people. During Diwali people often search for recipes or additional information to prepare special treats. You can upload a video of your chef demonstrating how a particular dish can be made and better yet, you can invite people to your restaurant to enjoy that specific dish.
You can also upload videos from the previous year’s Diwali celebrations and give your customers a visual experience. You can come up with innovative and engaging videos and provide a link along with them for your website or social media profiles.
Share the video on YouTube, your website and on your social media profiles to increase the reach to more number of people.
5. Offer Something Unique
Every restaurant beautifully decorates their interiors and offers special festive food during Diwali, then what is it that you are doing differently? To set your restaurant apart from the rest, you need to offer something unique, something that will set you apart and would add an oomph factor.
You can host a live band at your restaurant every night, starting one week before Diwali. Another good strategy would be to organize a live kitchen, where people can interact with the chef and see how they are preparing various dishes.
Even a small thing like a karaoke night can make your restaurant the buzz of the town during the festive season.
Diwali is a great time to come up with innovative restaurant marketing ideas and increase the overall sales of the restaurant. The key here is to tap into the spirit of the season and give your customers something worthwhile. These five tips will make it easier for you to come up with a restaurant marketing idea and get your creative juices flowing this Diwali.
