5 Ways To Increase Holiday Revenue Starting TODAY

Yes! Holiday season is finally here!

It is one of the best times of the year for restaurants: holiday dining, big groups, catering, events, gift cards, and (up here in the north) a serious need for warm bellies.

But here’s the real opportunity. Do not just chase holiday revenue in the moment. Use the extra traffic to grow your guest database and set yourself up for the rest of the year.

Most restaurants miss this. Not you. Not this year.

Here are five rock-solid tactics to help you grow revenue during and beyond the holiday season without needing extra budget.

I get asked all the time: “Rev, what should I be measuring?”

The answer: everything. If it is worth doing, it is worth tracking and improving.

But if you need one North Star marketing metric, it is CRM growth.

How many guests are you adding to your database? What percentage of them are you collecting a name, email address, or phone number from?

With an email address, you can invite a guest to join your rewards program, make another reservation, order again, give feedback, or follow you on social. Without it, you are invisible the second they walk out the door.

Use the business of the holiday season to capture guest contact info. That way you can market to them in the post-holiday lull. You can do this through online orders, reservations, loyalty signups, and plenty of other touch points.

If you need suggestions on how to collect more emails, hit me up.

The holidays mean more dining and more searching. People are actively typing “office catering near me,” “where to eat,” “holiday dinner reservations,” and more.

If you absolutely need to be at the top, buy Google Search Ads. They are effective, affordable, and scalable.

But if you want more organic clicks without more budget:

This will help you during the holidays, but it is foundational work and it works best as an always-on practice. A tool like Marqii makes it simple.

Most restaurants either ignore gift cards or only push them on Black Friday. Mistake.

Gift cards should be an always-on initiative. People give them every single day of the year.

One of my clients in Atlanta sold nearly $15K in 30 days last year by starting early, keeping the promo alive, and incentivizing his team members.

Want to 5x your gift card sales? Ask Kathleen Wood for her gift card playbook. Do it now.

Here is the secret to selling more catering. Market it to your current guests more often.

That’s it. No really.

If you only send one email about catering, or post about it one time on social media, or hang it in your restaurant in one place, you should expect minimal returns since you did minimal effort.

If you are constantly promoting through multiple emails, multiple social posts, multiple four-walls touch points, and it is easy to order, you will get more catering orders.

One of the easiest ways to boost your marketing is to tap into food holidays.

I have direct confirmation from both the TikTok for Restaurants team and the Meta Creators team: when restaurants make food holidays a core pillar of their content marketing program, the platforms give that content a natural algorithm boost. That is not a guess or a theory. That is insider knowledge straight from the source.

This does not mean you need to run a discount every time. But if nachos are your signature, go big on National Nacho Day. If nachos are just another dish on your menu, just create content highlighting them. Your post will still get seen by more people simply because it is relevant.

At Handcraft Burgers and Brew , and with all my clients, we use food holidays as a way to stay top of mind. If we do not have something else to promote that day, we create content around the holiday.

Use my Ultimate Food Holiday Foodie Calendar and Guide to easily find the most relevant food holidays for your business. You can even add it directly to your Google Calendar so you never miss an opportunity.

There are plenty in October, November, and December. Pick the ones that make sense for your menu and run with them.

Truthfully, these are not just holiday tactics. They are always-on marketing strategies. But right now, you can use this framework to both boost holiday revenue and grow your CRM for long-term retention.

Start now. Do not wait. The earlier you move, the bigger the results.

Got questions? Ideas? Hit me up.

Do you need help with any of this? Email me at [email protected]

—Rev Ciancio

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