Diners are different from the average restaurant in that the space is generally more intimate and less formal. Diners are generally seat-yourself establishments that offer comfort foods like soup, sandwiches and other home-style meals. Marketing diners has become more challenging in recent years as big-box restaurants continue to become more competitive with pricing and expand their menus to include a range of exotic foods. For this reason, marketing ideas for your diner should focus on the unique ability to focus on the customer and not get lost among the corporate standards that govern many eating establishments.
Offer Free Dinner On Birthdays
Since you have the advantage of being local and small, you can offer patrons a more intimate dining experience. In that vein, offer a free birthday meal to patrons on their special day. Many restaurants will offer a free dessert, but you can go a step further and offer a more unique experience. Provide a complete meal off a special birthday menu. Keep a birthday box in the back and provide a funny birthday hat for the special person. If you want to go the extra mile, you can have the staff sing happy birthday to the birthday girl. Making your customers feel special with an entire meal will not only garner extra loyalty, but also get you some extra business because most birthday patrons will bring along family and friends.
Market "Family Diner" At Your Diner
Advertise and pass out fliers for a "Family Night" at your diner. Encourage people to take the night off from the home kitchen and come have a home-cooked meal in your diner. Customize the menu that day to have some dinner favorites, such as meatloaf, baked chicken or pasta. You can even put family games on the table for families to play while they are waiting. You could do a diner-wide trivia game for after dinner to encourage patrons to hang around and get some after-dinner treats, like dessert and coffee.
Theme Your Diner
Restaurant patrons enjoy a unique dining experience. After all, if they want something average, they can head over to the neighborhood bar and grill. However, if you want your diner to stand out, theme it in terms of decor, menu style and even menu items. For example, your diner could have a 1950s theme, complete with a jukebox, wait staff in '50s uniforms and decor that replicates diners of that era. You can even hold fun events at your diner to play up the theme, such as "Drive-In Fridays," where waitresses on skates serve Coke in a bottle and cheeseburgers and fries, while showing a movie on a projector screen.
Related posts
Dance the night away.Throw a birthday bash that rockets your guests back in time. Hosting a successful 50's party takes more than some golden oldies on the jukebox---though that will set the mood....
Use vinyl records as inspiration for your '50s theme party.A 1950s birthday party is an event that any age group can get into. Fifties-theme birthday parties are especially fun for those who were...
Grandma's 60th is an important day.Your grandma only turns 60 once. Throwing a birthday party for her can be a great way to show how much you appreciate every year that she has been a part of your...
Sharing a malt at a diner is a great 1950s date idea.Dating in the 1950s was fun, cheap and simple. It was expected that the boy asked the girl out, paid for the meal and dropped her off at her ho...
You don't have to spend a fortune to deck out your fifties party.Everyone loves a good theme party, but decorating to keep it consistent can break the bank if you're not car...
