Every restaurant owner knows the sting of a slow Tuesday night. Empty tables, staff standing around, and the register barely ringing. Meanwhile, your food costs keep climbing and delivery apps are eating into your margins with every order.
Here’s the reality: 60% of restaurants are prioritizing sales performance in 2026, and well-designed restaurant promotions are becoming the go-to strategy for driving traffic and keeping customers coming back. The good news? You don’t need a massive marketing budget or a dedicated marketing team to run effective promotional offers.
In this guide, you’ll find 15 proven promotion ideas that work for restaurants, cafes, bakeries, food trucks, bars, and catering businesses of all sizes. We’ll cover everything from classic happy hour specials and loyalty programs to seasonal deals and limited-time offers—plus practical tips for executing them without spending a fortune. With digital menu tools, you can launch most of these promotions today and update them whenever you need to.
Let’s get your tables filled and your revenue growing.
Restaurant promotions are marketing tactics and special offers designed to attract new customers, encourage repeat visits, and increase sales during slow periods or for specific business goals. They’re your tools for standing out in a competitive market where every guest counts.
The purpose is simple: give customers a compelling reason to choose your restaurant over the dozens of other options in their neighborhood. Whether that’s a discount, a freebie, an exclusive experience, or added value, promotions create urgency and drive action.
Common types of restaurant promotions include:
These strategies work for every type of food business—from full-service restaurants and coffee shops to food trucks and catering operations. The key is choosing the right mix for your audience and executing them well.
The restaurant industry faces serious headwinds right now. Traffic growth sits at less than 1%, and consumer spending continues to pull back. In this environment, waiting for customers to walk through your door isn’t a strategy—it’s a recipe for declining sales.
Promotions give you a proactive way to generate revenue, fill empty seats during slow periods, and build the kind of customer loyalty that keeps your business healthy long-term. Here’s why they matter:
Getting someone to try your restaurant for the first time is the hardest part. A “20% off your first order” deal or a “free appetizer with any entrée” offer gives hesitant guests a low-risk reason to give you a shot. When you promote these deals through your online menu and social media, you reach new audiences actively searching for their next meal.
First-party data capture from promotions also lowers your customer acquisition costs compared to relying solely on third-party delivery apps.
Every restaurant has dead hours—Tuesday lunch, the 3-5 PM lull, early weeknights. These periods drain resources without generating revenue. Off-peak promotions like happy hour drink specials or “Taco Tuesday” deals turn those empty tables into paying customers.
The key is making sure guests know about these offers. Your digital presence—from your online menu to your social channels—should clearly communicate when and what you’re promoting.
Here’s a misconception worth busting: promotions don’t have to mean losing money. Value-focused bundles with tiered portions actually boost average order value while maintaining margins.
An “add a dessert for $3” prompt or a meal deal that saves $2 compared to ordering items separately increases what customers spend per visit. Digital ordering systems can automatically suggest these add-ons, making upselling effortless.
Repeat visit rate is the top metric smart operators track, and loyalty programs consistently outperform one-off discounts for driving retention. When you own your customer data—their contact info, order history, preferences—you can market directly to them with personalized offers.
This is why taking orders through your own system instead of third-party apps matters. You build relationships, not just transactions.
Your neighborhood probably has a dozen places serving similar food at similar prices. Creative promotions make you memorable. Value menus win share as consumers reject shrinkflation—customers want to feel like they’re getting a fair deal, and transparent promotions deliver that perception.
An online presence that showcases your current specials helps customers choose you over competitors who haven’t updated their menu in months.
Now for the practical part. These 15 promotion strategies have proven track records for driving sales, attracting guests, and building loyalty—without requiring a massive budget. Each includes implementation tips so you can launch quickly.
Focus on 2-3 that fit your business type and customer base, execute them well, and measure your results before adding more.
Happy hour remains one of the most effective promotions for bars, breweries, and restaurants with bar service. By offering discounted drinks and appetizers during slow afternoon or early evening hours (typically 3-6 PM), you attract after-work crowds and generate revenue during periods that would otherwise sit empty.
Off-peak promotions like these target the exact dayparts when comp sales typically decline.
Happy hour variations to consider:
Pro tip: Update your QR code menu to highlight happy hour timing and prices. Customers checking your menu online should see exactly what’s on special and when. With a digital menu, you can update happy hour offerings instantly without reprinting anything.
Loyalty programs transform one-time guests into regulars who choose you repeatedly. POS-connected loyalty tools boost repeat rates without big budgets, capturing customer data that powers all your future marketing.
Program types to consider:
Start simple. A punch card costs almost nothing to implement and gets customers returning. As your program grows, you can add digital tracking.
The key benefit: when customers order directly through your own online ordering system instead of third-party apps, you collect their contact information to build your loyalty program and send offers directly. That’s how you turn a first-time buyer into a loyal regular.
Seasonal LTOs drive frequency amid shifting consumer behaviors. People want to celebrate, and your restaurant can be their destination for every holiday and season throughout the year.
Seasonal calendar of opportunities:
Bakeries can generate substantial revenue from holiday pre-order promotions—Thanksgiving pies, Christmas cookies, Valentine’s treats. The key is promoting early and making ordering easy.
Execution tip: Seasonal menus need to go up fast and come down just as quickly. With a digital menu through Menubly, you can launch your holiday special today and remove it the day after the holiday—no reprinting costs or wasted paper menus.
LTOs outperform regular value meals for driving traffic without eroding your margins. They tap into scarcity psychology—customers are more likely to act when they know an offer won’t last.
Types of limited-time offers:
Creating urgency matters. Include clear end dates in your promotions, use phrases like “Only X available” or “This week only,” and update your messaging when items sell out.
Food trucks are natural LTO candidates—your daily changing menu creates built-in scarcity that keeps customers checking back. Mark items as “limited time” or “only X left” on your digital menu, and update to “sold out” the moment you run out. No awkward customer disappointments.
Events build community and give customers a reason to visit beyond just being hungry. With dine-in traffic declining, events that create experiences drive engagement and fill tables.
Event ideas by business type:
Events don’t need to be expensive. Trivia night costs you nothing but a staff member’s time to run it. Live music can be a local acoustic act playing for tips and exposure.
Promotion tip: Feature your upcoming events on your restaurant website and share the link across social media. Update event details instantly as plans change.
Transparent bundles lift check averages profitably by increasing perceived value. Customers feel like they’re getting a deal, and you increase the total amount they spend per visit.
Bundle examples by business type:
Pricing strategy: Bundle price should be 10-15% less than buying items separately, but higher than customers would normally spend. If your average ticket is $18 and you create a $24 bundle that “saves” $4, you’ve increased your order value by 33%.
With Menubly, you can add combo options and add-ons directly to your online menu. Customers can customize their bundle with size options, extra toppings, or side upgrades—each adding to your ticket.
Converting third-party delivery app customers to direct orderers via bounce-back offers reduces your acquisition costs and builds your customer database.
First-time offer types:
The key is collecting contact information so you can follow up. When guests order directly through your own online ordering system, you capture their email or phone number—perfect for sending a thank-you message with a return-visit offer.
Important: Don’t over-discount. Your goal is trial, not training customers to expect deals forever. A modest 15% off first order is enough to lower the barrier without devaluing your brand.
User-generated content amplifies your reach cost-free amid tight marketing budgets. Contests turn your customers into marketers, spreading awareness to their networks.
Contest ideas that work:
Best practices for running contests:
Add your social media links to your restaurant website and include a link to your online menu in your Instagram bio. When contest winners visit, they can order directly from your commission-free system.
Owned channels yield 20-25% open rates for promotional messages—far better than organic social media reach, which platforms increasingly throttle.
Campaign types to send:
Building your list matters. Collect emails at checkout, offer a small incentive for signups (10% off next visit), and add a signup option to your website.
Here’s why owning your customer data matters: when guests order through third-party apps, you never see their contact info. When they order directly through your own system, you build a marketing list you own—and can use to send promotions directly. This is how successful restaurants build sustainable marketing strategies.
Local collaborations expand reach without ad spend. Partnering with complementary businesses puts your restaurant in front of their customers, and vice versa.
Potential partners:
Collaboration ideas:
Execution tip: Start with one partner, test the relationship, measure results, then expand. Share your partner’s promotions on your website and they’ll do the same—an easy way to reach new audiences.
Word-of-mouth drives organic growth via guest profiles and referral tracking. People trust recommendations from friends more than any advertising, so incentivize the behavior.
Program structures that work:
Keep it simple—complex programs with confusing rules fail. One clear offer beats elaborate tier systems.
Tracking options:
When customers order through your own system, you can track who’s bringing in new business and reward your best advocates.
Reviews boost local SEO, often outperforming paid advertising for local discovery. When someone searches “best tacos near me,” Google prioritizes restaurants with strong review profiles.
Ethical ways to encourage reviews:
Important: Never incentivize specifically positive reviews—this violates platform policies and damages trust if discovered.
Timing matters:
Platform priority: Focus on Google reviews first (biggest local SEO impact), then Yelp and TripAdvisor based on your market. Include a link to your Google review page on your website—customers are one click away from sharing their experience.
Flash urgency moves inventory during sales slumps. When you need immediate traffic—an unexpectedly slow afternoon, excess inventory to move—a short-term deal creates action.
When to use flash sales:
Channel priority for speed:
Flash sales only work if you can update your menu instantly. With a digital menu, you can launch a “50% off all pizzas today only” deal in seconds—no printing, no waiting. When the sale ends, update it just as fast.
Warning: Don’t overuse flash sales. Too many “urgent” deals train customers to wait for discounts and devalue your regular pricing.
Community ties enhance loyalty in this value-driven era. Customers increasingly choose businesses that align with their values, and local community involvement builds genuine goodwill.
Charitable promotion types:
Examples:
Authenticity matters: Customers can sense when cause marketing is genuine versus performative. Choose causes you actually care about and maintain involvement over time. Feature your community involvement on your website—customers who share your values become loyal advocates.
36% of operators anticipate more takeout orders, making pre-order promotions a revenue stabilizer. Catering and advance orders provide predictable revenue and reduce waste.
Promotion types:
Seasonal opportunities:
Feature your catering menu and pre-order options on your online menu. Customers can browse packages, customize their order, and submit requests directly—no phone tag required. Menubly makes it easy to showcase catering offerings alongside your regular menu.
Having great promotion ideas means nothing if you can’t execute them affordably. 17% of operators cite cost control as a top priority, and promotions need to fit within tight margins.
The good news: the biggest execution costs—printing new menus, paying delivery app commissions, hiring marketing help—can all be avoided with the right tools and approach. Here’s how to run promotions efficiently:
Traditional menu updates are a nightmare for promotions. Paper menus cost hundreds of dollars to reprint. PDF menus require designer time and website updates. By the time your new promotion is live, the moment may have passed.
These delays mean missed opportunities. Want to run a flash sale tomorrow? Good luck getting menus printed overnight. Need to update your happy hour timing? That’s another reprint.
Digital menus change everything:
With Menubly, you can update your menu in minutes—add a special, change a price, or feature a limited-time offer. Your customers always see accurate, current information, and you never pay for reprinting. Updates are live immediately.
Running a flash sale? Update your menu now, remove it tonight. Launching a seasonal special? Add it the moment you decide. This flexibility is what makes promotions actually executable for small restaurants.
Omnichannel distribution optimizes real-time performance. A promotion that only exists on a paper menu in your restaurant won’t reach the customers scrolling their phones deciding where to eat.
Channels to use:
The QR code strategy that works: Generate one QR code for your menu that never changes. Update the menu content whenever you want—the QR code stays the same. Print it once for tables, windows, and receipts. Every promotion you add automatically appears when customers scan.
Menubly generates a shareable link and QR code for your menu. Post the link in your Instagram bio, print the QR code once for your tables, and update your promotions anytime—the link and code stay the same, but your content stays fresh.
Efficiency tip: Update once (on your digital menu), share everywhere.
Here’s a math problem every restaurant owner should understand: Delivery apps charge 15-30% commission per order. On a $30 order, you lose $4.50-$9.00 to the platform.
Now add a promotion: If you offer 10% off AND pay 20% commission, you’ve lost 30% of that order’s margin. That’s unsustainable.
Direct ordering changes the equation entirely. Customers order through your website or online menu—no intermediary takes a cut. Discount 10% on a direct order and you keep the other 90%.
First-party ordering cuts 15-30% in fees while letting you own customer data for future marketing.
Menubly’s built-in ordering system lets customers order directly from your digital menu with zero commission fees. Run a 15% off promotion and actually keep the other 85%—instead of splitting it with a delivery app.
Additional benefits of direct ordering:
Your promotions should drive profit to YOUR business, not to intermediaries. Every order through your own system is an order where you keep the margin.
Measuring repeat rate, AOV, and lifetime value shows which promotions actually drive ROI. Without tracking, you’re guessing—and guessing leads to wasted money on promotions that don’t work.
Key metrics to track:
Simple tracking methods:
Menubly’s order management dashboard shows you exactly what’s selling and when. See which promotions drive orders and use that data to plan future campaigns.
Not every promotion will be a winner. The restaurants that succeed are the ones that track, learn, and adjust. Kill what doesn’t work, double down on what does.
Unmanaged promotions can break operations—tracking capacity and redemption matters. Before launching your next campaign, make sure you’re not making these common errors:
1. Over-discounting
Running constant deep discounts trains customers to wait for deals instead of paying full price. A 50% off promotion might drive traffic today but devalues your brand long-term.
Instead: Focus on value-adds (free appetizer with entrée) rather than straight discounts.
2. Unclear terms and conditions
“Happy hour specials” without specified times, or “free dessert” without purchase minimums creates customer frustration and staff conflicts.
Instead: Update your menu to clearly display promotion terms, timing, and any restrictions.
3. Poor timing
Promoting during peak hours wastes margin—you’d have sold those seats anyway.
Instead: Target slow periods where promotions generate incremental revenue.
4. Not promoting your promotion
A great offer that nobody knows about doesn’t drive any traffic.
Instead: Share across every channel: menu, social media, email, in-store signage.
5. Running unsustainable offers
Promotions that lose money on every order aren’t building sales—they’re buying sales temporarily.
Instead: Calculate true promotion cost including food cost, labor, and margin impact.
6. Ignoring your margins
Not every item can be discounted profitably. A 20% discount on your lowest-margin dish is a recipe for losing money.
Instead: Promote high-margin items or use promotions to drive add-on sales.
7. Forgetting to track results
Running promotions without measurement means you can’t improve.
Instead: Track every campaign and compare results to make data-driven decisions.
8. Relying only on third-party platforms
Paying commission on discounted orders through delivery apps means you’re losing money twice.
Instead: Use your own channels—your digital menu, email list, and social media—to keep 100% of promotional sales.
Now that you understand the types of restaurant promotions that work and how to execute them affordably, you might have some specific questions. Below, we answer the most common questions restaurant owners ask about running promotions—from timing to getting started with limited resources.
Here are answers to the questions we hear most often from restaurant owners launching their first promotions:
Run restaurant promotions during slow periods—typically mid-week (Tuesday-Wednesday), mid-afternoon (2-5 PM), or early evening before the dinner rush. Avoid promoting during peak hours when you’d fill those seats anyway; discounting at capacity wastes margin.
For seasonal promotions, launch 1-2 weeks before the relevant holiday or season. Valentine’s Day promotions should start in late January. Summer patio specials should launch in May.
Most restaurants benefit from running 1-2 consistent weekly promotions (like “Taco Tuesday” or daily happy hour) plus 4-6 seasonal campaigns per year tied to holidays and local events.
Avoid running discounts constantly, which trains customers to wait for deals and devalues your regular menu. The key is consistency with recurring promotions and strategic timing for limited-time offers.
Promote your restaurant for free by:
Digital menu platforms like Menubly offer free 30-day trials so you can get your menu online without upfront investment.
Successful restaurant promotions have:
Track your results and iterate based on what works. A promotion that drives new customers who never return isn’t as valuable as one that builds repeat business.
While delivery apps provide reach, their 15-30% commission fees significantly cut into promotion margins. If you offer 20% off through a delivery app that takes 25% commission, you’re losing 45% on each order.
Consider using delivery apps for visibility and customer discovery, but drive customers to order directly through your own system for promotions, where you keep 100% of the sale. Commission-free ordering platforms let you run promotions profitably while still offering online ordering convenience.
Promote your offers through multiple channels:
A shareable online menu link makes it easy to direct customers from any channel to your current specials.
Food trucks benefit from promotions that leverage their mobility and daily variety:
A QR code linking to your digital menu means customers can browse without crowding your window—and you can update your daily specials in seconds as you prep. Check out our complete guide to food truck marketing for more strategies.
Promotions don’t have to be complicated, expensive, or time-consuming. The restaurants seeing real results are the ones that:
The execution matters as much as the idea. A mediocre promotion executed well beats a brilliant promotion that never launches.
Ready to run promotions that actually drive profit?
With Menubly, you can create a beautiful online menu in minutes, update it instantly whenever you launch a new promotion, take commission-free orders, and share your specials across every channel with a simple link or QR code.
Try Menubly free for 30 days—no credit card required. Create your menu, launch your first promotion, and see how easy it can be.
Your next promotion could be live in minutes. Let’s get started.
