5 Free Ways to Drive Restaurant Sales

With the economy down businesses need to work harder to drive sales with less. The good news is that there are a number of free services that can help you promote your restaurant.

1. Facebook Fan Pages
When done right, Facebook can be a great way to promote your business. Facebook has over 350 million users, 50% of whom log in every day. The key is to continue to provide value to your fans - offer your fans special discounts and offers and let them be the first to know about what is new. You can even post photos and videos to keep your loyal customers engaged.

Creating a Facebook fan page is easy, but it isn't enough. Once you have a fan page be sure to regularly update it with valuable information. Encourage your patrons to join the fan page for special offers, or to see their photos. You can also message your fans when you have big news (you don't want to do this too often).

When used correctly Facebook can be a great tool to build relationships with customers and drive incremental sales.

2. MobileCoupons.com
MobileCoupons.com is a new service that allows businesses to create and promote coupons that can be redeemed through print, online, text message or by showing the coupon on a mobile phone. Mobile coupons are projected to grow 10x next year and have higher redemption rates vs. paper coupons.

Coupons can be created in under 5 minutes with barcodes or unique coupon codes and can be changed at any time. Coupons can be created to run for low demand time periods and can be changed at any time. This can be a great way to increase your exposure with consumers that don't typically cut coupons.

MobileCoupons.com also includes social networking features and coupons are optimized for Search Engines like Google. It is completely free to create a coupon (in the future they will charge for premium and featured placements) and there are absolutely no costs. Set up your coupon today here.

3. Taste-Casting
Tastecasting is currently operating in about 25 cities across the US and can be a great way to build awareness or promote new menu items.

Tastecasting is a group of socially networked and social media savvy people that restaurants invite to attend a complimentary tasting. In return, the tastecasting team broadcasts to the network of friends and followers using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Wordress, Blogs, Flickr and more. They take pictures and videos and share their experiences.

Hosting a tastecasting team can be a great way to gain exposure for your establishment or promote a new item. It is free to host a tastecasting team (you can contact them on the website) - and you have the opportunity to share your story and establish relationships with key influencers in your local foodie community.

4. Google Local
Google local is an easy way to promote your restaurant online and improve search engine rankings. You can easily set up your own Google local profile in just a few minutes. By creating a profile on Google local your business is more likely to show up in local search results.

Google local will also help you track your online search effectiveness. They will show you the # of impressions that your site has had as well as actions taken (direction requests, hours, etc).

More people are using the internet to search for just about everything, and a Google Local listing will help you show up when they are searching for you.

5. Twitter
There is a lot of buzz about twitter these days, and it seems like everyone is joining (even Oprah joined this year!). Twitter is expected to continue to grow, and it can be a great free tool to promote your business.

Use twitter to share offers and deals or news and photos from your establishment. You can also build relationships with people in your area who might be interested in your restaurant.

For example if you follow people who live in your city, and you see tweets where people are deciding where to get drinks that night, or what restaurant to go to, you can suggest yourself and let them know about any special items or offers that you have.

Twitter can be a great way to supplement your marketing efforts and it is free to create an account.

Source: Foodservice.com