6 Valentine's Day Promotion Ideas for Your Restaurant

6 Valentine's Day Promotion Ideas for Your Restaurant

Marketing

Marketing

January 23, 2025

January 23, 2025

valentines-day-promotional-ideas-for-restaurants-plate-flowers-hearts-freepik
valentines-day-promotional-ideas-for-restaurants-plate-flowers-hearts-freepik

As the day of love and romance approaches, restaurants and bars have an opportunity to boost their seasonal sales. 

To do so, you need to prepare your restaurant for Valentine’s Day and create some promotional campaigns to drive bookings and footfall. 

Research suggests 85% of adults, aged 18 and up, are likely to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Of those celebrating, nearly 74% “plan to dine at or order takeout/delivery from restaurants.”

Read on to discover marketing and promotional ideas for your restaurant ahead of Valentine’s Day. From pre-event marketing tactics to day-of strategies and post-event retention techniques, we'll cover everything you need to make your restaurant’s Valentine's Day offering irresistible to guests.

Pre-Valentine's Day promotional and marketing strategies

Valentine’s Day is all about the preparations leading up to the special day. Couples will often buy gifts for their loved ones up to a week before V-day. 

As a restaurant, you should take the time to prepare your venue for couples. 

The following are promotional ideas to prepare your guests before February 14th.

  1. Early bird reservations and incentives

Start by deciding if you’ll do something special for those who make an early booking. This could be anything from a free beverage to a free or discounted dessert.

Here are a few ideas:

  • Fixed-price menu special offer: Those who make a reservation before February 7th can get 20% off their menu choice. Or a bonus in their menu.

  • Limited-time offers: Create a sense of urgency with time-sensitive deals. For example, "Book before January 31st and receive a complimentary dessert with your meal."

  • Couple's packages: Design all-inclusive packages that bundle meals, drinks, and extras at an attractive price point. Give your packages exciting or dreamy names to entice bookings. For example, a "romantic getaway" package could include a multi-course dinner, paired wines, and dessert. If your dining concept is located in a hotel, the package could include a hotel room for the night.

  • Loyalty rewards: If you have a restaurant loyalty program, consider offering double or triple points for Valentine's Day bookings for loyalty program members. This not only incentivizes early reservations but also strengthens customer loyalty.

  1. Promote online events and bookings

If you’re running a special event for Valentine’s Day, make sure to highlight it on your reservation widget

You should also promote the event ahead of time via marketing channels such as social media, email, SMS, or WhatsApp messaging.

If you’re using a restaurant reservation management system, like Servme, you can collect online bookings via Facebook and Instagram, and other platforms like Zomato, Tripadvisor, among others. 

Restaurants in Saudi Arabia can get bookings via The Chefz and webook, whereas tea-time concepts in the UK and Ireland use Afternoon Tea. All of these are available through Servme. 

  1. Minimize cancellations with deposits

Often people get excited and make reservations only to forget about them.

Research shows 20% of diners don’t show up for a reservation they made. The reasons for no-show guests vary. However, 45% of guests say they don’t cancel because they can’t find information about canceling their booking. 

On the other hand, concepts that collect reservation deposits are more likely to see fewer cancellations and no-shows.

  1. Offer a limited-time Valentine’s Day menu

Valentine’s Day is all about big plans, gifts, roses, a day for people to celebrate their loved one. This involves looking for places that have something special to offer.

Often a Valentine’s Day menu is the way to go. This doesn’t have to be extra fancy, although a fancy design will get you on your guests’ radar.

Here are a few ideas to boost your restaurant’s sales.

  • Romance-time cuisine: Develop dishes featuring ingredients known for their romantic properties, such as oysters, chocolate, or figs.

  • Heart-shaped delights: Transform classic dishes into heart-shaped versions, from pizzas to ravioli to desserts.

  • Love potion cocktails: Craft unique, visually striking cocktails with romantic names, colors, and presentations.

  • Couple platters: Create elaborate dishes or menus for two, encouraging a more intimate dining experience.

  • Valentine's Day tasting menu: This is a great idea for boutique eateries and wineries. Offer a special multi-course menu that takes diners on a culinary journey of love-inspired flavors.

  1. Boost bookings with marketing 

Your Valentine’s Day promotion can’t go without some marketing juice. This means promoting your special day, event, menu, and offerings via social media, email, and other platforms.

  • Email marketing for restaurants: Use your email software, or reservation software like Servme, to send a Valentine’s Day email blast. If you already send a monthly newsletter, this could be a special Valentine’s Day email campaign to increase reservations ahead of the big day.
    If you’re a Servme user, you can choose to send your V-Day blast using auto-tags to segment guests based on previous dining experience.

  • SMS marketing: If email is not what your guests prefer, then you can use SMS marketing for your restaurant and send out an SMS blast to guests. Make sure you include a reservation link so guests can make a booking. 

  • Social media marketing: Use the platform popular among your guests to run a Valentine’s Day ad campaign to drive bookings. Guests can proceed to make a booking via the platform or via the phone. Make sure you use eye-catching visuals to engage guests online and prompt them to make a booking. You can also use user-generated content (from previous events or occasions) to act as social proof.     

  • Use online reservation platforms: Aside from Facebook and Instagram, there are several booking channels you can use, such as Reserve with Google, Tripadvisor, Michelin Guide, among others. 

  1. Surprise guests with giveaways  

Spice up your marketing by combining several restaurant marketing ideas ahead of V-Day.

Offer a special giveaway to two surprise couples. If you manage multiple restaurants, you can offer a special surprise to one couple in each venue. 

Prepare for the big day 

The above ideas are all to prepare your restaurant and your guests for the big day. 

Here are a few more ideas to create that memorable, loving dining experience for your guests.

  • Creating a romantic ambiance involves transforming the restaurant into a haven of love with elements. This includes dimmed lighting, elegant table settings, romantic music, subtle scents, and tasteful decorations.

  • Providing exceptional customer service requires training staff to handle the special event, including personalized service, being attentive, and impeccable timing.

  • Handling high volume means efficiently streamlining various restaurant operations. This means managing reservations and waitlists, hiring extra staff if needed, conducting pre-service briefings, efficiently managing table turnover, among others. It also covers effective and speedy communication with the kitchen.

Post-Valentine's Day guest retention strategies

The special day is over and guests are leaving with a smile on their faces. But your work as a restaurant owner or manager isn’t done just yet.

Make sure you make the most of your Valentine’s Day experience with the following post-dining tips.

  • Use automated guest surveys 

If you’re using guest experience management software, like Servme, you can send automated guest surveys after you close checks. 

This allows you to collect information about guests’ dining experience, get reviews on areas like speed of service, value for food, ambiance, among others. 

  • Monitor online reviews and respond promptly

Whether you have an in-house social media team or if you do it yourself, keep an eye on guest reviews and comments. 

What are guests saying about their Valentine’s Day dining experience at your restaurant? If you’re getting positive reviews, take screenshots and share them on social media. 

  • Create a guest tag or segment for Valentine’s Day diners for future campaigns

Use a reservation and CRM system to collect guest information and add ‘Valentine’s Day’ guest tags. This will help you engage and contact people ahead of next year’s Valentine’s Day.

Repeat guests drive higher revenues and profits for business. So, make sure you don’t miss out on an opportunity to increase guest loyalty for your restaurant. 

  • Share UGC on social media

Reshare posts from your guests on social media to your account’s stories, take screenshots for future use, and more. 

User-generated content (UGC) acts as social proof and can drive future foot traffic and reservations.

  • Prepare for your next dining event

With Valentine’s Day over, take a look at your calendar to see what’s next. 

If you’re in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, you’ll likely be preparing your restaurant for Ramadan

If not, then you may have other special dining events in the works. Keep guests on their toes and create more limited-time or seasonal menus. This is a great revenue management strategy for restaurants

Set your calendar for Valentine’s Day 

By now, you have a plan and various Valentine’s Day promotional ideas for your restaurant. 

Now, all you have to do is align your staff and put your plan into action. Because, tick tock. The clock is ticking. The days are flying by and you want to make this Valentine’s Day a dining success!

By the way, you can try Servme to manage online reservations, waitlists, email, SMS, and WhatsApp blasts, those guest tags in your CRM and more. 

Book a quick demo to try it now.

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Posted by:

Nada Sobhi

Marketing