How To Increase Restaurant Sales Without Advertising

By Fahad Arafin -- Sunday, 03 Mar, 2024
how-to-increase-restaurant-sales-without-advertising

Restaurant business is the most trending business. It is considered to be a highly competitive business industry. Like the other businesses, the bottom line of the restaurant business is big sales and high profits. For increasing restaurant sales, different restaurant owners use different strategies. 

Most of the restaurant owners think that advertising is the only way to boost restaurant sales. But  it is not the only way to boost your restaurant sales. There are many other ways to increase restaurant sales without expensive advertisements. In this article, we will discuss in brief on how to increase your restaurant sales without advertising.

What Is The Average Restaurant Revenue

The food business or restaurant industry is not like other industries. It is a highly competitive industry. Without proper knowledge and business plan, a restaurant business can never be successful. In the restaurant industry, it is very difficult to hit the average revenue that matches the restaurant industry standards. 

Whether you run a restaurant already or you are new in the restaurant industry, you have to keep regular tracking of your restaurant business revenue. You should check the  progression of your business month to month or year to year. 

In a restaurant, revenue is often referred to the amount of money a restaurant makes. Revenue varies according to the types of restaurant, sizes, food menus, location, service models ,etc.

Here is the short way of calculating a restaurant revenue:

Assume, you  run a simple fast food restaurant and the name of your restaurant is Burger Bites. In your restaurant, your main items are burgers and cold drinks. 

Where each burger price is $30 and cold drinks price is $10. Now suppose in an individual day, you sell 200 burgers and 150 cold drinks.

So the total revenue for burger on the individual day is : 

200 burgers*$30 = $6000. 

On the others hand , the revenue for cold drinks is : 

150 cold drinks *$10 = $1500.

So the total revenue for your restaurant on that individual day is : 

$6000 + $1500 = $7500. 

This is how we can calculate the total revenue of a restaurant. This calculation will be much more complicated when you have many complex menus and you will calculate revenue for month or yearly. In the end if you want to stick to the restaurant business, you have to know the ways to increase restaurant revenue.

How To Increase Restaurant Sales Without Advertising: 15 Effective Ways

Every restaurant owner is always looking for how to increase sales in a restaurant with less investment. They invest lots of money to advertise their restaurant. But most of them don't know that there are many other effective ways to increase restaurant sales. 

Here, we provide 15 effective ways to increase restaurant sales without advertising. 

01. Provide High Quality Food To Impress Customers

There is no doubt that the best way to impress and get your customers coming back to your restaurants is to provide high quality food. Restaurant is a place where customers visit to eat delicious food. 

So if your foods are not appealing enough to attract customers, they never visit your restaurant after the first time. No amount of restaurant or sales marketing would get them back to your restaurants. Definitely you have to follow all the food safety rules and regulations to provide high quality food services. 

02. Effective Upselling Strategies Implementation

A restaurant owner may use the sales strategy known as "upselling" to convince the customer to buy an upgraded or more effective version of a product or service that they are either thinking about or have already made the decision to buy. 

Upselling is the practice of proposing extra features, upgrades, or higher-tier alternatives that give greater value or benefits in an effort to maximize revenue per client. It is very popular in e-commerce, retail, hospitality, and many other industries to boost sales and revenue. 

To effectively upsell, one must be aware of the demands and preferences of the customers. So your restaurant staff must be aware of the strategy of upsell.Additionally, you need to teach your servers which star meals to recommend when there's a chance to upsell. 

03. Online Ordering System

Online ordering system is considered one of the best ways to boost sales in a restaurant. The appearance of online ordering is increasing day by day. As most of the food companies are offering and providing online order systems, it is very challenging to survive in the competitive market. 

If you want to stand out from the rest of your competitors, you have to offer fast services with simpler processes. Nowadays, customers are very willing to spend plenty of money when they get a variety of food menus that can be ordered at the single click of a button. So, you have to integrate a strong online ordering system to increase your restaurant sales. 

04. Effective Interior Design and Table Organization

Effective interior design and table organization is something that you can never ignore in the food business sectors. It is a very strong strategy to attract more customers towards your restaurants. When your restaurant is nicely decorated and all the tables are organized in a systematic way, then the customers feel comfortable to sit and eat. 

It helps regular customers to come back again and again. Moreover it also helps to attract new customers. So as a restaurant owner, you can use this technique to increase your restaurant sales.    

05. Ensure Instant Table Reservation System

It is very annoying for the customers, when they visit any restaurant and they have to wait for a table. So you can enrich your customers' experience with instant table reservation systems. 

Table reservation system is the smart way to make a strong communication between the customers and restaurants. You can set a central hub of communication so that you can easily get to know the details of reservation. It helps to ensure streamliner your restaurant services. This is also a very popular restaurant marketing strategy for your restaurant business which helps to increase your sales and profits.

06. Offers Combo Deals

Offering different types of combo deals is a great way to increase your restaurant promotion and sales. Combo deals are something that looks cheaper towards your customers but actually the scenario is different. When you offer combo deals, a person who is planning to spend $20 but at the end they may spend $40 for a combo deal because it looks cheaper.

07. Reasonable Menu Pricing

Another crucial idea of increasing the restaurant sales without the advertising is to make reasonable menu pricing. It works like a miracle. Making your restaurant menus reasonable doesn't mean that your food items are less or more expensive. 

You just have to adjust the menu price according to the market values. People always love to get the best food with reasonable menu pricing. So you will have to set a perfect menu price by maintaining food quality to increase the restaurant sales. It will help to reduce cost in your restaurant business. 

08. Hosting Events and Entertainment 

Hosting different types of events and entertainment is also a very great way of increasing your restaurant sales. When you arrange any kinds of events and entertainment, it will  bring your awareness and increase customers. 

For example, you may host live music shows, different types of food or beverage tasting events, cooking competition, fun events, etc. It will help your customers to relax their mind and  body along with the great food. Many big restaurants are now using this strategy to grow their customers' presence and increase their sales.

09. Rewards Regular Customers with Special Offers

When you have regular restaurant customers, you have  to show your positive appearance towards them. For example, you may reward your regular customers with special offers. It will create a positive impact towards your restaurant. As a result they will frequently visit your restaurant along with new guests.

If you can do this in a proper way, it will increase your restaurant sales. You can use different types of strategy to reward your regular customers. Like you may note down their birth date, and can send special offers and gifts on their birthdays. Moreover, you may offer a high amount of discount on any special occasions. This is how you can keep your regular customers who visit your restaurant regularly.

10. Create Takeout Bundles and Delivery Options

In today's era, people do not want to visit crowded or busy restaurants to eat food. They prefer online ordering, take out or food delivery services. By taking out or online ordering, one can easily enjoy their food in their selected place with a relaxing mood. 

As a restaurant marketing strategy, you can create takeout bundles and delivery options. But you have to create a hassle free takeout and order system. And most importantly, you have to make sure that your delivery system is unique and very fast. It helps a lot to make a good impact on your restaurant. Which leads to huge sales in your restaurants. So, you have to know how to increase food delivery sales and takeout bundles. 

11. Use SEO as a Organic Promotion

As we know, it is very tough to survive in the restaurant or food business industry. Every restaurant owner's main target is to make more profits. For these, you have to reach out to new customers regularly. The effective way to reach new customers is through marketing. Most of the marketing needs lots of money to do that leads to  spending too much resources. 

But with the help of search engine optimization(SEO), you can achieve your target. It is a long term technique to promote your restaurant with the help of organic searches. For these you have to optimize your restaurant website and connect with your customers through the keyword targeted content marketing.

12. Use Different Types Of Social Media

 If you are looking for the best restaurant marketing ideas then social media is a huge platform to do restaurant marketing. Now people spend lots of time on social media. In the digital age, it is mandatory to have a  social media presence is important for the success of any restaurant or other businesses. 

Social media and  web optimization not only  about being visible but also a great platform to connect with your targeted audience. You can promote your restaurant marking with the help of this social media activity. 

13. Do Offline Marketing

Offline marketing is the oldest marketing strategy. But it is considered one of the strong restaurant marketing strategies. You can do offline marketing for your restaurant with the help of your friends, family, relatives, co-workers, etc. As a part of offline restaurant marketing, you can visit the different crowded locations and tell them about your restaurant and give them an invitation to visit your restaurant. It is the best idea to increase sales in a restaurant and revenue.   

14. Provide Direct Ordering Link On Social Media

As social media is a strong platform for restaurant marketing, you can increase your social media effectiveness by adding some extra strategy. For example, you can use social media to make orders from your restaurant. It is a very easy task. You can add a direct link of the online ordering system in your social media posts and bios. This strategy reduces the complexity of placing online orders.

15. Make Your Staff Attractive

An effective way to increase your restaurant sales is to make your staff attractive. When you have very attractive staff including the manager, cashier or server, they create a positive impact on customers. For that reason, customers more frequently visit your restaurants which leads to increased restaurant sales. As a result the total revenue of your restaurant will increase. You have to train your staff properly, to make them attractive. It is an important tip to increase restaurant sales.

Pros And Cons Of The Restaurant Business

As we know that every business is challenging. Restaurant business is not out of these. This business can be highly profitable if it can be managed properly. Like other businesses, the restaurant business has some advantages or disadvantages. Here we will talk about the pros and cons of the restaurant businesses. 

Pros:

  • Highly Profitable Business.
  • Easy To Learn The Business.
  • Simple Business Model.
  • You Are The Boss.
  • Create Local Connection With Peoples.
  • Everyday Is Different.
  • Daily Physical Activity.
  • Extreme Demandable Business.
  • Rewarding Work.

Cons:

  • High Employee Turnover.
  • Lack Of Motivation.
  • Difficult To Find The Right Supplier.
  • Very Busy Working Space.
  • Large Amount Of Operating Cost.

Why Do Restaurants Use Coupons?

We can see that most of the restaurants use coupons. In a restaurant, coupons are being used as a marketing or promotional campaigns. The key objective of coupons is boosting restaurant sales. If you are looking for what helps to improve the sales of the restaurant and how to boost restaurant sales then discount coupons are the best solution. 

Cupons is a very powerful restaurant marketing. It helps to bring existing customers along with attracting new customers. Customers are always looking for getting some offers and discounts. So offering coupons can create a positive impact on new customers. It encourages them to visit furthermore. 

When you are going to create a coupon for your restaurant, you have to target your audience. Before targeting your audience, you have to know the audience and their preferences. When you can properly know your customers preferences, you can easily reach your expected customers. 

You have to make great coupons that seem appealing to your ideal customers. And you have to make sure that your coupons might be different from regular dinner or lunch. You may use different strategies while creating coupons for your restaurant, For example, you may offer a group discount if you want to attract the young professionals. For adult couples, you may arrange for romantic candle light dinners. And finally for the family, you may offer kid- friendly meals.

Frequently Asked Question(FAQ)

How do you serve customers in a restaurant?

When any customers visit a restaurant, the staff main responsibility is to welcome the customers and make the arrangement where they want to sit. Staff should make sure that customers are comfortable. After that, a restaurant server should serve the menu and give the details information about the menus. When the guest chooses the menus, the server should note down the orders and send it to the kitchen. Finally when the meal is ready, restaurant staff should serve the food, maintaining proper hygiene and courtesy.   

What is restaurant customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is a term where the guest is pleased with the food and services. It is very important for any restaurant business. Customer satisfaction is the combination of food quality, taste, hygiene, restaurant climate, service, etc. It should be followed strictly. When any customers are not satisfied with the services, they will never visit the restaurant again. 

How are restaurants profitable?

Restaurant profitable is a most common and valuable word to the people who are involved in the restaurant business. A restaurant is only then profitable when the sale is greater than investment. To make your restaurant profitable you have to ensure that you have strong restaurant management and are providing good food and excellent customer services. 

Final Thought 

Anyone can start a restaurant business but it is much harder to survive in the restaurant industry. Most of the restaurant falls after one year of starting. Main reason for falling is that the restaurant owners can not make enough profit. If any restaurant owner wants to get their expected profits, they have to boost customers and increase restaurant sales. This article has enough information on how to increase restaurant sales without advertising so choose the best strategies and increase your restaurant sales.