If you’re a restaurant participating in Dine Out Vancouver, then you probably don’t have much to worry about.
But what about the people that aren’t officially part of Dine Out Vancouver, how can you take advantage and capitalize on the country’s hottest foodie festival so you don’t get left out in the dark.
Get Your 3 Course Menu Ready
If you haven’t taken the time yet, get together with your chef and decide on a 3 course meal menu. The menu should have 3 different choices of appetizers, 3 different mains and the option of 2 different desserts. Dine Out Vancouver works on the premise that you can offer a three course for either $18, $28 or $38 dollars. Usually with Dine Out Vancouver these meals are cheaper than what you normally would charge.
The official bookings for the event start on Jan 9th and people start eating at restaurants on Jan 20th. While you are probably incredibly busy finishing up the holiday season, you should think about how much money you’re going to lose in January if you don’t take some time to plan this out.
The restaurant festival goes from Jan 20th to Feb 5th for 2012.
January is a Terrible Month for the Restaurant Business
That’s 17 days of business. Let’s be conservative and say that if you don’t find a way to take advantage of Dine Out and you lose about $200 a day. Then after 17 days you lose about $3400 in sales. This is really really conservative. But that’s enough to pay for someone’s wage for the month and think of the additional tips your employees will get.
January is already a terrible month, can you afford to lose even more money?
What are the Next Steps?
1) Decide a 3 course meal ASAP with your executive chef.
2) Launch the menu even before Dine Out officially starts. And let people know that you have the 3 course meal beforehand. Because you’re not a member, you don’t have to abide by the same rules participating restaurants do. The only rule is that you can’t say you are a Dine Out Vancouver restaurant. The term is actually trade marked.
3) Put the announcement on your website and put the menu on there as well.
4) Tweet, Facebook, Blog, whatever it takes to spread the word about your 3 course meal as soon as possible. If you don’t have a large e-mail list or social media following then feel free to contact us at Eat Marketing.
5) Let them know that it also expires on Feb 5th. And if you find it’s a success you can do what some restaurants have done in the previous years and extend it a while longer.
6) My suggestion is to take reservations to make it easier for people during Dine Out Vancouver.
If your restaurant is new, then this is a great way to jump aboard all the momentum of Dine Out Vancouver. This is a great way to get exposure and when done right and when you promote it on social media, you’ll see the buzz going for sure.
If you’re looking for some great marketing ideas for your restaurant, then you can e-mail me at vincent@eatmarketing.com.
