Your customers have more options than ever when it comes to restaurants and bars this Valentine’s Day. This year, focusing on romantic events and smart digital marketing can help your bar stand out.
Here are some simple and fun ideas to help your customers think of you when celebrating their love.
1. Date Night Event
If you don’t already host a weekly date night, this Valentine’s Day could be the perfect time to start. This recurring event works perfectly for those slower Mondays and Tuesdays beyond the holiday as well, helping you liven up an otherwise quiet night at your bar.
You can offer something like a bottle of house red or white wine, two entrees, and one dessert for a fixed price. Roll out the romance with candles and live music. You can even help couples celebrate special anniversaries and other milestones by training your front-of-house staff to ask your customers if they are celebrating anything special.
You’ll want to promote this event, like all of your events, inside your restaurant with materials like flyers, posters, and table tents as well as online via your social media. You can also invite local foodies and influencers to experience your date night, offering them special discounts in exchange for a blog or social media post, which can increase your bar’s presence online and drive customers to your door.
2. Prix Fixe Menu
Prix fixe menus have a lot of advantages. First, offering fewer choices allows your guests to relax and enjoy the experience. Encourage your chef to get creative by designing a few courses that look great on the plate and taste great too.
On a busy night like Valentine’s Day, prix fixe menus can also increase the output and efficiency of your kitchen. With fewer options on the menu, your kitchen staff can do more prep and streamline their back-of-house processes.
Finally, a prix fixe menu can be more profitable. You won’t have to worry about ordering enough ingredients for all the dishes on your menu. Instead, by offering a smaller menu, you can focus your ordering, which can reduce the amount of stock and waste. You can even create a theme for your night. Consider colors, garnishes, and flavors that exude romance.
When designing your menu, don’t forget to provide a little something for everyone. Consider offering one meat-based entree, one with chicken or fish, and one vegetarian option.
If you want to create the perfect prix fixe menu but don’t know how to design it, services like MustHaveMenus can help. They offer professionally designed and eye-catching Valentine’s Day menu templates that are easy to customize, print, and post online, making it simple to launch your next menu.
3. Drink and Cocktail Promos
Valentine’s Day was made for toasting true love. Make it perfect by offering themed bar promotions. Of course, discounts on bottles of red and white wine could be perfect, as could discounts on bottles of champagne and prosecco.
For cocktails, try the prosecco and peach puree bellini for a perfect pink drink. The classic Cosmopolitan also lends itself well to Valentine's Day, along with the raspberry martini. You can garnish any of your drinks with strawberries cut in the shape of hearts to add a dash of color and fun.
For customers who don’t drink, consider including non-alcoholic beverages to your menu. Shirley Temples, strawberry lemonades, and ginger beer mocktails still give your customers something to toast with and give you something to add to their check, even if they don’t like alcohol.
4. Offer Extras
If you want to set yourself apart from the competition, consider offering extras. A bottle of champagne and branded flutes could be the perfect freebie. The flutes could be printed with your brand, logo, date, or anything else you might want to include.
Serve champagne in the flutes, then wrap them up and send them home with your customers. They’ll remember their special Valentine’s Day and your restaurant every time they use them.
Also, consider offering boxes of chocolates and flowers. You could offer a free rose or a small box of chocolates to each table, or you could offer bouquets and larger boxes that could be added to a customer’s bill. You could even partner with a local florist or confectionary, helping you split costs and increasing your advertising potential.
5. Photo Booth or Photographer
For another fun Valentine’s Day idea, rent a photo booth or bring in a professional photographer to capture the night for your customers.
Photo booths are easy to find and not terribly expensive. A local party supply store or even specific photo booth rental companies can deliver and set it up in your space, making it quick and painless.
Similarly, a professional photographer could also be hired for the night. They can bring all of the necessary equipment and set everything up for you. All you’ll have to do is provide the smiling customers.
Both photo booth companies and professional photographers can share photos with your guests via text message using an automated SMS system. All your guests have to do is provide their phone number, and they can get their photos instantly, allowing them to share your Valentine’s Day event on their social media.
Promote Love
Finally, as with all of your events, its success will be determined by your promotions. You could offer the best Valentine’s Day event this side of the Mississippi, but if your guests don’t know about it, then all of the time and money you spent planning will be for nothing.
Start marketing your Valentine’s Day promotions on your social media at least two weeks out. Consider dedicating at least one or two posts per week to your Valentine’s event, helping to create interest and build anticipation.
If you don’t fancy yourself a social media guru, you can find Valentine’s Day social media templates online. Not only are these templates easy to customize and share, they also come in a variety of styles to fit any brand.
Plan to Attend or Participate in Bar & Restaurant Expo, March 27-29, 2023
To learn about the latest trends, issues and hot topics, and to experience and taste the best products within the bar, restaurant and hospitality industry, plan to attend Bar & Restaurant Expo, March 27-29, 2023 in Las Vegas. Visit BarandRestaurantExpo.com.
To book your sponsorship or exhibit space at Bar & Restaurant Expo, contact:
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Tim Schultz (for companies H to Q) e: [email protected] p: (917) 258-8589
Fadi Alsayegh (for companies R to Z) e: [email protected] p: 917-258-5174
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