The Caterer - January 2007 - Local Community Restaurant Marketing

I have been running my restaurant for a year now and I am keen to get more involved within my local community. What benefits will it bring my business and how should I go about it?

Guy Holmes, Captivate Restaurants

Getting the loyalty of the local community is essential to the profitability of all restaurants especially those that aren’t on a busy road. Most restaurants are busy at the weekends but the restaurants that are busy early on in the week have a good reputation in the local community. Building relationships with your customers is essential – talk to them, find out what they like and dislike, get to know them! Here are four ways to boost awareness and reputation in your local community.

Support local charities – Offer a prize of a dinner at your restaurant for a local charity / school fundraising events. Some charities will contact the local press to publicise the event the your restaurant but in some cases it would be best to send a press release yourself to all local publications. Not only will such a scheme get your restaurants’ name and message across to a large number of people for the cost price of a meal but it will also create goodwill in the local community.

Discounts to local organisations – Offer discounts to the staff of local hospitals, members of the fire and police services. In most cases they will be more than happy to put up posters in the staff rooms to advertise the offer.

The business community – Build relationships with local businesses. Visit local business personally to drop off menus and other promotional literature. Get talking to the staff and offer them some kind of freebie or discount.

Local Sports Teams – Offer a prize of a meal or a bottle of wine or a discount to the man of the match for local sports or for the winner of golf, tennis, squash etc tournaments. The sports club that you target will help promote the prize and your restaurant to their members.