Pandemic-Compliant Guerilla Marketing Ideas for Your Restaurant

Pandemic-Compliant Guerilla Marketing Ideas for Your Restaurant Pandemic-Compliant Guerilla Marketing Ideas for Your Restaurant

Now’s not the time sit back and let people forget about your restaurant. Instead, you need to fight to stand out amongst the others and show your community that they can still have fun and enjoy a meal out once restrictions on restaurants are lifted. One way to do this is through guerilla marketing efforts. What’s guerilla marketing you ask? If it sounds like a wartime term, you’re not far off. Guerilla marketing is a term coined by author and marketer, Jay Levinson and is based on the element of surprise like guerilla tactics used on the battle field. If your restaurant is fighting to survive, it’s time to pull out the pen and paper and start thinking of creative ways you can promote your restaurant that will be truly unique and surprising to your customers while dealing with changes to accommodate post-pandemic ideology. Here are some pandemic-compliant guerilla marketing ideas for your restaurant to get the creative juices flowing.

Creative Booth Dividers

We have heard from many restaurant owners that they plan to add plexiglass partitions to their booths to add a barrier between people to make them feel more comfortable eating out at their restaurant. But, it doesn’t have to be a boring plexiglass barrier. Instead, why not commission a local artist to paint different selfie backdrops on the partitions that people can use to take photos with while waiting for their food or eating. Who doesn’t love a good food Instagram shot? You could also create different themes for the barriers along with different hashtags for people to use if they are posting their pics online. Can you say, “free advertising?” You could also use this as a platform to create contests for people to design their own or make them out of whiteboards and let people draw their own art backdrop when they come to the table. If you show your customers that you’re having fun with these changes, they’ll want to participate too and that’s exactly what you want.

Get Creative With PPE

Let’s face it, no one wants to be served by someone wearing a face mask and gloves. Not only does it remind you of what our world is currently going through, but it also takes away from the carefree mindset people want to have while enjoying a meal out with family or friends. So, how do you offset this to make sure your employees are safe, your customers are safe, and you’re not killing the mood with surgical masks in everyone’s face that reminds them of their last colonoscopy? It’s time to get creative again! If your staff is mandated to wear face masks, find ways to make them fun. You could decorate them with different types of lips to showcase each staff member’s personality. You could do theme nights where the staff will use the masks to look like certain characters like Disney for kid’s day, favorite sports teams, or crazy mask night where the staff creates wacky masks and the customers get to vote on their favorite one throughout the day. Or, let your customers participate and ask them to create wacky masks. Take pictures of the ones that are the wackiest and ask social media to vote on the best one each week. Not only will the customers fill like they are a part of something fun, bringing in social media will add even more publicity to your restaurant.

Are you going to install hand sanitizer stations throughout your restaurant? Have fun decorating them to go look less invasive and more fun. Using a blue sanitizer in a clear dispenser with fish stickers on the outside now looks like a fun fish tank. If you’re using a dispenser on a stand, you can add a custom stand like these to add a fun message and graphics to be more appealing than a plan stand.

Social Distancing Signage

If your restaurant is going to have new rules in place once you open your dining room back up, it’s important that your customers can easily read these. Creating signs to put up on the outside and inside of your restaurant will be important to have. Sidewalk chalk can be used to distance people while waiting outside. You could write fun riddles for them to solve or go more digital and place large QR codes on the sidewalk or parking lot that people can scan on their phones to access fun challenges that are related to your restaurant. Make it so that only one group can be at a QR square at a time and people can move through the different challenges as they wait. Adding signs to the inside of your restaurant will be important too. But, instead of just using paper signs, add the new rules to the backs on the staff’s shirts. Your staff is always moving and will catch your customers’ eyes more than a stationary sign. Try to make the rules more like fun reminders like, “We’ve Got Your Back, Over There, 6 Feet Away” or “No Touchy, Touchy”.  If your restaurant comes up with a fun catchphrase, put in on shirts for customers to buy too. People love fun shirts and again, free advertising!

We hope these pandemic-compliant guerilla marketing ideas for your restaurant have sparked your creativity and you’re ready to get started on your first fun pandemic-compliant promotion. If you’re thinking big and need funds to help make your idea a reality, we’re here to help. We are still open and ready to lend to restaurants that are fighting back with creativity and innovation. Let your local loan consultant know about your plans and get an offer to see how much you qualify for. We want to see your creativity come alive and can’t wait hear about your ideas.