Christmas Marketing Ideas for Restaurants: Festive Promotion Ideas
It’s finally that time of the year again which means we have some great Christmas marketing ideas for restaurants!
Christmas is a time for joyous festivities and enjoying time with your loved ones. There’s certainly no doubt that it is one of the most anticipated festivals of the year. All you have to do is walk out of your house and you’re sure to see a colorful array of decorations all over the neighborhood.
Christmas can be a hugely profitable time for businesses, especially restaurants. People are looking for amazing places where they can hang out with their family and have a good time.
This is also the perfect time to make your mark as a restaurant and cement your place in your community. However, you’re only going to be able to do this if you know how to use this festive time to your advantage.
So how do you stand out among the countless restaurants that are vying for people’s attention?
In case you’re stuck, and you just can’t seem to come up with any restaurant marketing ideas, you’re in the right place. We’re here to give you our top 7 Christmas marketing ideas for restaurants that will make your business flourish:
1. Events can be used to add a unique touch to your customer’s experience
2. Beautiful decor can help your restaurant attract more customers
3. People love holiday-themed menu items
4. Design your social media pages to reflect a Christmas theme
5. Send out Christmas cards (with a discount coupon) to some of your loyal customers
6. Start a 12 Days of Christmas Countdown, and make it as creative as possible
7. Use Bloc to bring customers to you
1. Events can be used to add a unique touch to your customer’s experience
One of the best ways to welcome the holiday spirit to your restaurant is by hosting some spectacular holiday-themed events.
Events can be a great marketing tool to draw customers in. Restaurants are a place where people go to relax, eat good food, and most importantly, have a good time.
A unique event gives your customers a memorable experience, and it’s sure to attract more people.
So how do you plan a Christmas-themed event? You need to plan events that cater to your target audience.
You know your customers better than anyone, so you’ll probably be able to come up with a few ideas on your own.
For example, busy cities have a lot of younger working-class people who would want to go out and have a fun time. A karaoke event is perfect because it gives them a place to let loose and have fun. To make it Christmassy, plan a karaoke with carols.
You could even host a fun competition where you give away prizes to the top three contestants. Live bands are always a good way to liven up the atmosphere. Mix it up and look up some other event ideas. Then add your own twist to them and you’ll have some amazing events lined up.
2. Beautiful decor can help your restaurant attract more customers
You might not think that decor can be an effective Christmas marketing tool, but if you use it well, your restaurant will definitely benefit from it.
However, regular decor won’t really do the trick. Instead, you want to decorate your restaurant in a way that fits the unique theme of your restaurant.
Let’s say your restaurant is a cozy place where families and groups of friends come to relax. When you decorate your restaurant, you’ll need to stick to this theme and keep the essence of the restaurant intact.
Warm Christmas wreaths that have more of a natural look to them are a great way to go. Or maybe you could add a few Christmas lanterns to brighten everything up?
If you want to keep your restaurant cozy, it’s a good idea to look up Christmas decorations that are less flashy.
Remember that decor should be used to enhance the theme of your restaurant, not completely change it.
3. People love holiday-themed menu items
Good food is key to an enjoyable restaurant experience, and if that food is holiday-themed, that makes it even better.
Holiday themed menu items are effective Christmas marketing ideas for restaurants.
All of us have our own homemade recipes that are close to our hearts. Making a menu that helps to captivate this feeling will enhance the experience of your customers.
People love having food that reminds them of their own Christmas celebrations.
You could have a few desserts that are reminiscent of classic gingerbread cookies. Think back to your childhood memories and choose five Christmas dishes that were memorable to you, and these could inspire your own dishes.
And be sure to use social media to promote your dishes. You could even put up a poll asking your followers what their favorite dishes are, which could give you a clear idea of what your customers are looking for. Use this valuable information and plan accordingly.
4. Design your social media pages to reflect a Christmas theme
Most successful social media accounts have content that is both up to date and eye catching.
Put yourself in the spot of one of your consumers. They scroll through a lot of posts a day and if the content isn’t catchy, they won’t notice it. But there are a few ways you can make your content stand out.
First, you need to work with the algorithm. No matter which forms of social media you use, there’s always an algorithm in place. If you learn how to work with this algorithm the next step of the process is to make holiday posters that show your customers that your restaurant has many events lined up for Christmas.
A stagnant social media account isn’t good for marketing, so you’ll have to keep posting about the various offers at your restaurant.
Finally, get your audience involved in your account. Remember that the ultimate goal of any restaurant’s social media account is to make people come to your place.
In order to do this, you need to get fans that are interested in your account. Start a few giveaways and ask your followers to share a Christmas moment that was special to them.
Christmas is one of those holidays that help us connect with others and being able to form a personal connection with your customers is one of the best aspects of being a restaurant owner.
5. Send out Christmas cards (with a discount coupon) to some of your loyal customers
Christmas cards are an amazing way to spread the Christmas spirit around. They are a way to share our love with relatives that we might not be able to meet.
A Christmas card is a great way to show appreciation to some of those customers who have enjoyed your restaurant in the past. A small card might not seem like a big deal, but it is a lovely gift to give.
These cards are a great way to spread the joy of Christmas to others, and if you add a discount coupon, it will make a thoughtful gift. Christmas is all about gift-giving and celebrating, and a beautiful card will help to show your customers that you appreciate them.
6. Start a 12 Days of Christmas Countdown, and make it as creative as possible
This song is incredibly popular around Christmas time, so why not turn it into a fun event?
There are a lot of businesses that use this particular marketing strategy, so you’ll have to switch it up and make it unique.
Events that have a countdown are great at drumming up excitement for the big day to come, and this event is no different. So, make a schedule that has most of the best events at the end. This way your customer base will stay entertained all the way through the 12 days.
Your social media is a great platform that you can use to display this countdown. You could also have a different theme each day.
One of the days your theme could be mistletoe, and you could decorate the entire restaurant using mistletoes. You could also have a special offer targeted at couples.
Then, on another day, your theme could be Santa Claus, and you can arrange an event that is kid friendly. In this manner you can mix it up and create whatever theme you want. The only limit is your imagination.
7. Use Bloc to bring customers to you
We hope all these have inspired you to come up with Christmas marketing ideas for your restaurant. But you’ll still need to put in a lot of hard work if you want to see these ideas succeed.
The fact of the matter is that marketing ideas have a chance of failing, and you need to be persistent if you want them to succeed. You’ll have to come up with a number of strategies to implement your ideas, and you’ll also need to make sure that they work.
What if we told you there was a way to take all the guesswork out of the equation?
Bloc is an app that gives incentives to its customers when they visit places that are part of our network.
All you have to do is sign up, give us a few basic details about your restaurant, and we’ll do the rest. The way our app works is that we reward our users every time they use our app to find a venue.
Bloc essentially provides incentives for customers that use your service. Our app suggests restaurants to our customers based on their location, which means you’ll have locals coming to your restaurant.
We are so confident in our services that we offer a pay per result model, so you don’t have to pay anything extra.
Some final thoughts
Marketing ideas are tough to create, and when you need to come up with Christmas marketing ideas for restaurants, it’s a way more challenging task so remember to cut yourself some slack.
This is because there’s a lot of competition in this field around Christmas time. One of the most important things to remember is to not be afraid to step out of the box and be unique.
Try new ideas and have some brainstorming sessions to figure out some holiday events. However, regardless of your ideas, the most important criterion is that your marketing ideas should ensure that your customers have a good time.
If you’re a restaurant owner that’s looking for a surefire way to attract customers to your restaurant, you’ll want to consider checking out Bloc.
Our blog page has a number of useful posts that will help you get better marketing ideas, so feel free to look at our selection.
We also offer a free trial that will let you test out our services without paying a penny. So, what are you waiting for? Check it out and we’ll give you our guarantee that your business will benefit from it.