If your local market is typical, you've probably noticed the number of eating establishments in your area increasing at a faster rate than the number of people available to frequent them. As an independent operator, chances are you don't just have more competition, but in particular, more competition from chain operators who are very focused on capturing market share and have the marketing budgets to get lots of attention.

While the chains can be serious competitors, independents have definite advantages. You'll learn strategies and tactics to take advantage of your independent status and ways to effectively market and promote your restaurant without resorting to the traditional means of expensive and often ineffective mass media advertising.

Our objective in this section is to bring to light many approaches and ideas for you to consider in the area of increasing customer counts and sales volume through creative and "low cost" marketing and promotional activities.

As you know, marketing a restaurant is not an exact science. What works for one restaurant, may not work for another. But what we do know is that doing nothing fails 100% of the time.

A key component of successful restaurant marketing is to keep trying. Constantly experimenting with inexpensive ways of attracting attention and creating interest in your restaurant will eventually lead to positive results. We'll give you a wide variety of proven ways to enhance your marketing skills and create more customers.