With the increasing competition in the UAE restaurant space, restaurant marketing has become integral to a restaurant’s success. Both online and offline restaurant marketing have their benefits. Even though many customers are still attracted to the restaurant with the offline marketing strategies they provide, but due to the shifting customer trends towards delivery, offline marketing strategies have to be re-formulated. Offline restaurant marketing not only helps you target a broad audience, regardless of their demography but it also allows you to reach a large number of people on the go. Therefore, offline marketing for restaurants is quite essential!
How To Master Offline Restaurant Marketing
Are you launching a new menu item or opening up a new outlet? Whatever the situation be, you need to stay focused and plan out a good restaurant marketing strategy.
Offline marketing is a result of several trials and errors. Hence, it is safe to say that offline marketing is a good way of promoting your restaurant business.
These points would help you understand why offline marketing for restaurants is still relevant to your restaurant business.
- Increase your reach: It is true that most people are present online but what about the older generation? There are almost 6.29 million people aged 25-54 years in UAE, the people above 35 years of age are usually not so tech-savvy and often rely on offline mediums like newspapers, magazines, etc. for information. A restaurant business caters to everyone, young or old, tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy. By just advertising online you are limiting your reach and opportunities.
- Offline restaurant marketing encourages word-of-mouth: Word-of-mouth marketing can never go out of style. It is an effective way of reaching out to people and its free! If people come across appealing banners and posters, they usually talk about it with friends and family. This automatically increases your customer base as people would prefer you over anyone else since someone recommended them your name.
- Strengthen your brand’s identity: If you are opening up a new outlet, your first aim should be attracting the local crowd through posters and display banners. Make people nearby aware of your restaurant business as they are the ones who would end up interacting the most with your brand and would help pull more crowd.
- Less competitive: As mentioned earlier, online marketing platforms are crowded and it is easy to lose your identity in that crowd. This makes offline restaurant marketing a brilliant way of reaching out to your potential customers and also a direct route to source out the information. Offline marketing also lets you reserve a particular location and your competitors cannot advertise in the same spot without permission.
After learning the advantages of advertising offline you would surely like to know the mediums you can use to reach out to your potential customers.
Here are some great offline marketing ideas for restaurants and the mediums you can use to advertise your brand.
1. Print Media Marketing
Print media marketing is a well-known form of marketing and the most widely used as well. Print mediums offer a brand experience to your customers which cannot be replicated online, and also they are very engaging.
There are several print mediums available, such as –
(i) Newspaper
Advertising in the newspaper is the oldest form of print marketing and gives you several options to choose from. You can advertise in a local, regional, or national newspaper. It all depends on your budget and the audience you wish to target.
If you have just started your restaurant business, we will suggest you place your advertisement in a local newspaper. This would help attract the local crowd to your restaurant as the chances of them visiting your restaurant are more.
You can buy different ad spaces and also, choose from the type of ad (only text, picture ad, classified, etc.) you wish to publish.
(ii) Magazines
Magazines are content-specific and a good way of reaching out to your desired customers. Like newspapers, you get an option of placing your ad in a magazine that publishes weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Based on your budget you can also choose to advertise in a local or a national magazine.
The average cost of advertising through magazines can be AED 3,000 to AED 12,000 monthly.
(iv) Billboards And Posters
An attractive billboard or a poster can help attract more customers. They work best when placed on a busy street or locality as it enables you to reach out to the customers on the move.
Advertising through billboards and posters can be a little expensive depending on where you wish to promote your ad. But, they are a great source of offline marketing for restaurants.
Putting up billboards or posters on a busy street, mall, etc. can cost you an average of AED 150,000 per month up to AED 600,000.
If placed strategically they will surely help you reach out to more customers as placement is a primary key to ensuring the success of the advertisement.
(v) Taxi And Bus Advertisement
Taxi and bus advertisements are prevalent forms of restaurant marketing in the UAE. The cost of the advertisement depends on the number of taxis or buses used to advertise, if the vehicle is fully covered and if the vehicle transits between a busy route.
This form of advertisement is loved in the UAE because they help you reach more people as the vehicle is mobile and keeps roaming around the entire city.
(vi) Pamphlets
Advertising through pamphlets is very common in the UAE. You can hand out the brochures to the people directly, or you can team up with a newspaper company to distribute the pamphlets for you.
In UAE it is vital to get permits to distribute these advertisement pamphlets. According to Dubai’s Department of Economic Development(DED), it is necessary to have the consumer protection logo on the flyers or the pamphlets. On average, the cost of printing the pamphlets can range from AED 6,000 to AED 20,000, depending on the number of flyers or pamphlets being printed.
2. Advertising On The Television Or Radio
Advertising through television or the radio is also an effective way of reaching out to your customers. You can promote your restaurant on a local or a national scale, depending on your requirements. If you have recently started a restaurant business you can advertise on a local television or radio network. This would help attract customers from nearby locations.
Advertising on the television or radio can approximate cost you AED 30,000 to AED 100,000 per month depending on the number of shoots.
Almost every household has a television or a radio; therefore, it is an excellent way of advertisement to reach out to more people. You are serving the ad for everyone, which helps in increasing your reach and expands the customer base.
When advertising through an offline medium, you should take care of the placement of your ad. Correct placement can help boom your business and make people notice your advertisement, the display or the text that you use for the advertisement should be eye-catchy.
Offline marketing ideas for restaurants is all about meticulously placing your advertisement to reach the maximum number of people possible. In a highly dynamic restaurant business, your advertisement strategies determine your restaurant’s success. It is essential to reach out to as many people as possible to make your brand known and offline restaurant marketing certainly helps with that.
