Marketing a restaurant can be challenging. If you’re like many restaurant owners, you likely care more about serving great food than finding customers. For many restaurant owners, crafting attractive menu items serves as a key marketing strategy. The better your food, the more likely customers will return. They will also share their experiences with friends and leave positive reviews on sites like Yelp and Citysearch.

But often making great food simply isn’t enough. There is stiff competition in the restaurant industry, and you’re likely to need additional tools and strategies in order to stand out. Start by making your restaurant visible and accessible. Invest in an attractive sign that’s easy to see, easy to read, and communicates the essence of your restaurant concept. Use a sophisticated font if you’re catering to a fine dining crowd and a simple, friendly font if you serve basic comfort food.

Next, build a website that includes your hours, a current menu, and contact info, as well as a page describing who you are and why you make the kind of food you have chosen to make.

Invest in a basic Yellow Pages listing, and set up an answering machine or outgoing message communicating your hours and your restaurant concept, and allowing customers to make reservations. Add your listing to other sites and claim existing listings on sites like Yelp, Yahoo Local, Google Maps, and these 21 local search sites. Monitor your listings to make sure any bad reviews (or good reviews) don’t go unanswered or responded to.

Social media presence is another important element of restaurant marketing 101. Create a QR code and place it in your restaurant. Place links to your Facebook Page and Twitter profile. This will enable customers to like you on Facebook and follow you on Twitter. Give customers incentives to follow you or like you. These incentives can be as basic as menu information or strategic discounts, or as elaborate as a treasure hunt.

One Seattle fine dining restaurant celebrated their fiftieth anniversary by hiding menus and menu covers from their opening year in different locations around the city, and then providing clues on Twitter and Facebook as to the location of these menus. The first customers to find them dined for the prices listed on the fifty year-old menu. This campaign was wildly successful, and generated considerable media attention. Think of the ways you can integrate creative ideas into your marketing plan.

Keep current with your Twitter and Facebook presences. Provide interesting information, rather than just plugging your offerings. For example, if your restaurant specializes in local, seasonal food, post about what’s in season. How about local events, charities, sporting events, etc…? Also, news about your suppliers without always relating this information directly back to something you’re trying to sell. Customers are much more likely to pay attention to your social media postings if there’s something in it for them as well, such as useful or engaging information.

While putting out consistently good food will earn you valuable positive reviews on sites such as Yelp and Citysearch, your presence and involvement with these sites does not have to be limited to hanging back and waiting for customers to say great things about you. These sites usually have representatives in your area who will work with you to help you to make the most of the resources they provide, offering everything from basic advertising, to helping you flesh out your profile, providing as much useful information as possible.

Paid advertising can also be a valuable restaurant marketing tool, although it is essential to monitor your advertising expenses and make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. Working with a vendor who specializes in paid advertising options is a good idea if you want to venture down the paid road.

Coupons can help to bring neighbors into your restaurant, but make sure they have a good enough experience to also come back and pay full price. Print, radio, and television ads must be repeated often in order to be effective.

With all of these ideas the process of marketing your restaurant should involve creativity, synergy between different strategies and, most importantly, consistency and perseverance. It’s a never ending battle to get more business into your restaurant. Learn about the ways restaurant marketing can help your business by staying on top of trends in the industry.

Have a creative restaurant marketing 101 idea? Share with us, in the comments below!