If you own your own restaurant or eatery, you know it's not always easy to rake in the dough, let alone start up or maintain what's already established. To have a successful and prominent restaurant it takes a lot of research and patience to get ahead. Selling the food you provide at your restaurant means selling your restaurant itself! Not literally of course, but through promotions.

Restaurant promotions can without a doubt ease in a fresh business or gain an already established business some great exposure and new customers. Daily, weekly or monthly promotions are fantastic ways to gain extra customers, but to also, and more importantly, show your customers that you care. And obviously, keeping your customers happy is essential, after all, they're the reason you have a restaurant to begin with.

Opting to have daily, weekly or monthly promotions for your restaurant is a wise decision. Your customers will appreciate your promotion offers and so will your business, as acting on such outgoing opportunities will result in higher sales.

Depending on your restaurant's ambiance and menu, you can consider the following types of promotional offers to better position your business against competition:

The Lovely "Happy Hour"

Of course, Happy Hour, something the working class is all too familiar with. Yet, familiarity here is completely embraced, and dare I say it, looked forward to. For hard working individuals, happy hour is a convenient and inexpensive way to relax, or even let loose for a bit after work at a favorite restaurant and/or pub.

Here, as an owner, you can obviously offer drink specials and even opt to sell half off appetizer deals, provide some sort of free snack or offer a miniature buffet consisting of finger foods that are cheap to provide to entice more traffic in and out of your establishment. This might seem like a simple and all too easy gesture to mix with drink specials, but it works. Customers truly appreciate this.

Live Entertainment and Open Mic Nights

Music is a great way to draw in a crowd. Again, the type of music you will book will vary. If you have a local pub or family restaurant a local band would be just fine. But, if you have a more up scale restaurant, consider booking a pianist or jazz trio to liven things up, yet maintain classic ambiance as well.

Specifically, focus scheduling live music on your more busy nights, so you'll know a crowd will be certain. This keeps the band upbeat –since they'll definitely receive gig payment-, but also ensures that your booking a live group doesn't go to waste.

Live music is one thing, but why not consider letting your customers and their friends provide the entertainment, at no expense to your business wallet, through an occasional 'Open Mic Night.' This is a fun way to draw in all types of people to your restaurant. By leaving the mic open, you can have varied entertainment such as acoustic guitar players, comedians, poets and so on. For nights like these, consider mid-week evenings that are more tame, as to perk sales and customer traffic.

Give Away Freebees

Everyone enjoys free things, obviously. So, why not, as an owner, incorporate giving your customers something useful on their next visit to your establishment. All you need to include on the freebee is your restaurant name, logo or slogan.

By the simple and economical addition of a few promotional items –which could range from bulk style printed t-shirts, to key chains or even beer mugs- you can easily pass them out to fellow customers; it's certain they'll take them. By doing this promotional action you will ensure those customers return, but will inevitably also draw in new customers just by spreading your restaurant name, logo or slogan out in public.

If you want to get you restaurant some extra business, consider utilizing the above restaurant promotions. The results from doing so will yield positive results, so what's to lose? It's just some food for thought.