As bulan puasa approaches, now’s a good time to prepare your restaurant for the fasting month with effective Ramadhan promotion ideas.
While the holy month of Ramadhan is a time for spiritual reflection and fasting among Muslims, our waktu berbuka puasa is a highlight for Malaysians. During Iftar, family and friends will break their fast at sunset with savoury meals.
These buka puasa feasts present an unmissable opportunity for your restaurant to increase sales. Here are eight practical Ramadhan promotion ideas for your F&B business to achieve your revenue goals.
1. Offer innovative Ramadhan menus and buffets
You can incorporate popular buka puasa dishes like these into a special Ramadhan menu or buffet:
- Ayam Percik
- Bubur Lambuk
- Murtabak
- Roti Jala
- Ikan Bakar
- Kuey Teow Basah
- Kuih-muih
- And many other dishes!
To stand out from the competition, how about putting your own spin on these classic favourites? Foodies appreciate a creative twist on familiar meals, especially when they turn out delicious!
For inspiration, check out the popular F&B business, QuackTeow. It has been delighting customers’ palates with a unique take on halal Kuey Teow Basah and Char Kuey Teow. QuackTeow’s Kuey Teow dish is fried with duck eggs.
Special servings like this distinguish your Ramadhan menu from other restaurants that are serving similar food.
Simple tips for innovating your buka puasa dishes:
- Experiment with new ingredients.
- Change your cooking method.
- Take the best parts of two classic dishes and combine them.
How to know if your innovative dishes work
If your restaurant uses a point-of-sale (POS) system that keeps track of inventory, then you can find out if your new dishes are selling well!
C’mon… creating new dishes can be good for your restaurant. You can always remove the food from your menu if it’s not selling, so the risk is low.
Remember the classic saying, “Belum cuba, belum tahu” (If you have never tried, you will never know)?
Who knows, you might just introduce the next great Malaysian dish like Mervin Chin’s Asam Fish Tacos, the signature dish at his restaurant in Petaling Jaya!
2. Enable early pre-booking and reservations
It’s convenient for customers to plan their buka puasa in advance. Diners prefer to make restaurant reservations early, especially when they are breaking fast with a large group of family and friends. This ensures they can secure a table at their preferred time.
Early reservations can also help your staff manage table availability and restaurant resources more efficiently. This reduces customer wait times and ensures that your restaurant can provide a high level of service and food quality.
3. Offer delivery and takeaway
Your potential customers could be busy with work and family matters during the fasting month. In the spirit of Ramadhan, you can give diners a helping hand by making meal planning easier for them.
Become a Beep merchant today! This allows customers to have meals delivered to their doorstep or pick up their orders after work. You can earn extra revenue as diners enjoy your buka puasa dishes in the comfort of their homes.
4. Provide discounts and deals
As Ramadhan is a time for charity, you should consider providing discounts and promotions at your restaurant.
One successful promotional strategy is the offering of complimentary kurma (dates) to diners. Muslims have a long-standing tradition of presenting each other with dates during Ramadhan. After a day of fasting, dates are typically consumed to break the fast since they provide an immediate boost of energy and nutrients.
By offering dates to guests, your restaurant shows an understanding of Muslim culture.
There are many more practical Ramadhan promotion ideas like this:
Get customers to come back: Guests can enjoy cashback, birthday deals, and other promos while breaking fast at your restaurant. You can also send automated SMSes to remind them of these offers.
Since 2019, one of our merchants, Karnivor Malaya, has grown their customers by sending out automated SMSes. They even use QR Order & Pay to save on staff costs and increase efficiency!
Charity: You can donate parts of your revenue to families who need financial help. This proves that your restaurant cares about the community.
5. Cater food for community events during Ramadhan
Here’s another Ramadhan promotion idea that helps attract new customers to your restaurant. Providing catering services for Ramadhan-related community events and contributing to charity can help establish a positive reputation for your business within the local community.
Serving food during these events is an effective way to impress and retain regular clients. By doing so, you can increase the chances that diners will become regulars at your eatery.
6. Set up a booth at Ramadhan bazaars
Malaysians simply love visiting Ramadhan bazaars! The variety of food being sold at these bazaars is abundant and delicious!
By setting up a booth at the bazaars, where hundreds of thousands of people would be shopping, your restaurant can increase its exposure to potential customers.
7. Use social media platforms
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok will help your restaurant reach a wider audience. Your restaurant can use these platforms to:
- Promote Ramadhan menus
- Share buka puasa discounts and deals
- Respond to customers’ queries and feedback quickly
This will build up the relationship between your restaurant and customers. You can find more social media content ideas for restaurants and cafes in our guide here.
8. Collaborate with halal food influencers
During Ramadhan, halal food bloggers and influencers can help your restaurant connect with a wider audience. Popular influencers like @halalfoodie have 560,000 followers on Instagram! So a positive review of your restaurant from them can generate huge publicity for your business.
Influencers can convince their followers to visit your restaurant by sharing images and videos of your Ramadhan dishes, as well as your most recent buka puasa promotions.
How to find good food influencers for your restaurant:
The ideal collaborators for your restaurant should be halal food influencers with a large following, high engagement rates (e.g. the number of likes, shares, and website visitors), and located not far away from your restaurant.
- Google search: Use phrases like “halal food influencer [your location]” or “restaurant influencer [your location]”.
- Social media hashtags: To discover food influencers you can connect with on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, browse hashtags like #RamadhanPromoIn[your location] and #BestBukaPuasaFoodin[your location].
Once you have found the influencers you wish to work with, contact them via email or a social media direct message.
Set clear expectations regarding the collaboration. Discuss the Ramadhan-related content the influencer will create, the timeline for delivery, and other details that are relevant to the partnership.
Level up your F&B business with StoreHub!
To succeed in the fast-changing F&B industry, where your restaurant experiences seasonal events like Ramadhan and Raya together with challenges like worker shortages, your business must be adaptable.
The StoreHub point-of-sale system can increase the versatility of your restaurant. Our cloud-based platform includes features that boost efficiency, so the system can help your business adapt and meet different customer needs.
You can find out how our POS system will improve your business in less than a minute! Just check out the video below:
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