How to market Indian Restaurant?

Marketing  Indian Restaurant is not as easy as one would think. Few days ago I spoke to one of my clients, for whom I did a website for his Indian Restaurant.  He told me that he has very little customer coming to his restaurant, and the problem might be that:  Its hard to get American customers because they think that all Indian food is spicy and they don’t like the taste or/and smell of it. And then Indian customers only come during weekend, because most of them cook at home the same food. So how do you market Indian Restaurant he asked? Here are some of my marketing advices:

1. Wednesday would be a culture night, maybe some Live Indian music, dancing, some kind of show. This would bring Indian families  to come to the restaurant and many people will come to see the little festival.

2.  Special Discount for the kids, many parents would like to go out but can’t afford to pay for the whole family but if they only have to pay for themselves and kids eat free they are  more likely to come to the restaurant.

3. Bring a Friend during weekday and get free lunch, anytime you bring a friend during a buffet 10am-2pm  you get a free lunch pass, use it anytime you want. That way new people will know about your restaurant, during buffet they can try different food.

4. One day would be a Student Night, students will get a special discount, they can bring friends from college so they can taste Indian food and write about on blogs, facebook, twitter

Those are my marketing ideas for Indian Restaurant do you have any to share with us?

Great Food vs Great Experience Which one is more important?

If you had to pick one when dining out, would you go to the restaurant that has great food or to the restaurant that has amazing interior design and great atmosphere. We all know that the most successful restaurants, bars, cafe have both great food and amazing atmosphere. But there are places that we just go because we love the food, or maybe we just fit in with the atmosphere and the people are great.  Few days ago my wife and I went to a great restaurant, the food was amazing and the price was great around $25 per/plate, but the experience was not so great. The place was boring and the atmosphere was dead, the inside was nothing special white walls and few decorative paintings, there was no mood in that restaurant it was more like a school cafeteria, and people seems like their don’t even want to be there.  Even thought the food was amazing we probably will never go there again. Did you ever been in a restaurant that was missing one or the other, food vs experience?

Benefits of free internet (wi-fi) in restaurants,bars,deli,cafe…

One of the best ways to get more customers into your restaurant, coffee shop, deli, cafe is to offer free internet access. Lets face it, the cost of free internet is very minimum compare to all the benefits you as a business owner will get. As you know more and more people meet at cafe, bars, restaurants for a business, and one of the important factor for them is to access the internet. If your place offers a free internet access they will more likely come to you. Once you get those customers they will come back because you offer them what they need and want, so you will benefit from returning customers. When I walk by a cafe, coffee shop or a deli and see a lot of empty seats it bothers me that by doing a simple thing as providing free internet access those seats could be fill by people buying coffee, bagels or a sandwich wile browsing the internet. And as we all know when we see a place full of people we are more likely to go and check it out as to a place with no people and empty seats, it brings negative vibe. So you as a business owner should invest in installing free internet access for your customers and in return they will bring you more business.

Student Discount = Free Social Media Buzz

You are a business owner, working seven days a week, sixteen hours a day. You heard about this thing call social media and that it can bring you a lot of business, but you have no time to create Twitter account or Facebook account. And then who has time to update that everyday. So how can a restaurant, deli, bar, cafe… owner get some buzz through social media. Its easy, You know that 85% of social media users are people between age of 18-30 years old, and most of them are college students. Give some discount to college students  20% off your order. Free Coffee with a purchase of bagel or sandwich. You know a free cup of coffee goes a long way, how about a free buzz all over the social media. Students will twit/text message to all their friends about this “student discount” cafe, bar, deli… Now you have student customers coming everyday and buzzing about your great place that offers them “Free Coffee” that cost you a 10 cents per cup, and look how much buzz/free advertisement you did  for your business, Now everybody is talking about that place with student discount. Good Job, let others work for you for a “cup of coffee”. You see you focus on what you good at, running your business and let others focus on what they good at free social media buzz.