You may have heard about restaurants that have a huge queue waiting outside before they even start their first day of operations. On their first day, how could this be possible? We narrowed down some ways to get people to hear about your restaurant before they’ve even tasted the food.
Then, we consider what you could do to get these customers to come and actually try it out! Read more to find out.
1) Open with a Bang With the hype of a grand opening, many people will be intrigued and interested in exploring a new eating place to expand their foodie options here in Singapore. Provide a reason for your customers to want to come visit. The easiest way to get people to try some of your food is to give them free samples. A media tasting or taste testing luncheon where you invite family, friends, and key opinion leaders to your restaurant. You could try hosting a launch promotion too, first week only, or till whatever duration you deem fit. Be it a one for one, or free tester dishes for the first n number of customers – there are so many variations that could help attract some attention for people to start trying your food.
2) Social Media Advertising In this day and age, social media is one of the most effective ways to get word about your restaurant out. As your food would be the main focus of your restaurant, take photos that make your food look so delicious that people can’t wait to try it. With Instagram’s grid interface, try interesting ways of putting your posts together so that people will be intrigued to find out more on your page, and hopefully translates to finding out more in person! With Facebook, there are a lot of options with the reviews and posts that may come in, but do keep in mind your target audience and create content that appeal to them. Why not ask your friends and family to share your posts too! Word of mouth is definitely effective for this too.
Here are some tips for your ad:
Highlight unique and interesting dishes on your menu
Showcase the layout of your restaurant (i.e. ambiance and decor)
Feature behind-the-scenes preparations leading up to the opening
Leverage paid promotions to spread the word
3) Utilise Facebook Pages, Burpple, and Google Reviews A common way many Singaporeans find restaurants or places to eat is through Google or other food review apps like Burpple. With tons of recommendations based on type of food or location, many people find new places to try out based on what is said online. We recommend that you create a profile on these sites and facilitate discussion and acknowledge reviews of your customers to generate more hype and content for people looking out for a place to eat.
So these are our tips to help you attract more customers to your newly opened restaurant. Although food may be the biggest part of customer retention, you’ve got to find a way to get those customers to you first! Good luck!