The High Sierra Dining Club has been publishing an annual 2 for 1 dining directory for Northern Nevada and Lake Tahoe restaurants since 1988. We offer free advertising for restaurants looking to attract more business and sell the memberships in the club to people who like to eat out. It is our intention to please both the restaurant owners and the High Sierra Dining Club members. The High Sierra Dining Club goal is to bridge the gap between curiosity and trial. Then, it is up to the individual restaurants to turn that trial into frequency. Hopefully, that frequency turns into word of mouth advertising and even more trial, frequency, etc..

I know advertising sales well because I've owned Pro-Motion Coupons since 1990 and sell advertising to restaurants of all kinds. I know that restaurant owners have tight margins, long hours, and everyone wants to put their hand in your pocket, me included. And, by the way, I am also very interested in "selling" you advertising, should you be interested enough to consider my coupon mailings. Please check out Pro-Motion Coupons Advertising Info page.

High Sierra Dining Club is a very simple, yet powerful tool for exposure and trial. You don't have to advertise it, I do. I only make money from the membership base that I serve, not from the restaurants. My obligation is to make both of you happy. We do that by setting clear terms and conditions of use, as well as, explicit offers that you choose. We offer many useful suggestions to customize the 2 for 1 entree offer, but the decision of what to offer is always your choice. Many restaurants choose to limit one thing or another.

Depending on how you choose to participate, you can encourage more usage by using fewer restrictions. A "no limit" value on the entree value, no time restrictions and by allowing unlimited visits you expose your restaurant greater use from our members. This may be exactly what you want if you never fill your capacity, even on your busiest days or nights. However, established restaurants recognize the need to maintain and keep happy their current customer base and maximize their profits. Be careful allowing Friday and Saturday night use of the membership if you are already doing well on these days and are at or near capacity. Every discounted meal you serve should never get in the way of a full price customer.

The hard part is getting over the fear that you will be overwhelmed with 2 for 1 diners. The reality is probably that you will wish we could bring you even more business, as many of our restaurants listed could tell you. Many of the restaurants we have have been with us for several years. Some restaurants have chosen to embrace and encourage higher usage after realizing that they can gain a distinct advantage over other listed restaurants by being more time flexible and by offering unlimited entree value and even unlimited visits. Make sure that whichever way you decide to go, you do so with the commitment to make our members dining experience every bit as good as any customer that you would serve.

You can also scale back the dollar value limit, scale back the available hours or days you make the offer available and make sure that your "out of pocket" expense is covered, if only partially. The comments I receive from our member base are telling: If they already like the restaurant, they will go even though the offer is limited. Within lies the dilemma, who do I want to attract? If you want new customers, better offers work better. If you only want people who already like your restaurant or already know they want to try it out, a very weak offer will do the trick. But, remember that your overall response can be much less with a weaker offer. Comments I've heard people say when they see a restaurant they've eaten in before that have a limit of say, $8 max value and their menu prices average over $15 - $24 an entree, usually go like his: "That's a crock...". Sure, you can hope they come in, and yes we'll let you run that offer, but consider the message you are sending and the offer you are extending and the reflection that offer has on your restaurant. Some restaurants want you to know they have more expensive entrees and boast a $25 limit, thus backing up their image as a high end restaurant. This has the effect of enticing our members with greater value and greater savings, thus boosting their exposure and standing relative to the other restaurants. That's smart marketing! They can accomplish relative positioning at the top end and encourage greater usage. If the restaurant is in a casino, giving away food to get people gambling has long been used to make money on their chance of gambling afterwards. You may not be a casino owner, but hopefully, you're aware that even casinos are upping the anti and adding even more high end restaurants as profit centers in their own right. And, they are quietly promoting them to their guests with comps and discounts, just for choosing to stay or gamble at their establishment. Casino marketing is complex and fascinating and many people put their heads together to improve on their marketing efforts. Smaller independent restaurant owners usually don't get the same input or advise unless they pay consultants. The High Sierra Dining Club does not pretend to do any of this for you outside of our own marketing and advertising. We do hold ourselves up to be not only reputable, honest and straight forward, but as advocates for you the restaurant owners. We are here to promote you, oour area, and the value of our restaurants to our community as a whole.

I encourage you to consider targeting the average user or about 80 - 90% of our user base, the good customer, not the cheap skate. By structuring your offer to those who you really want, and not just trying to eliminate those that you don't want (which are a very small percentage anyway), you put your business in the best light with the assumption and impression that you really do want to earn their business.