Is your restaurant new in town and hoping to make a splash amongst the already established bigwigs? Is your restaurant a mainstay and wishing to make itself known again after the influx of upstarts and wannabes? What you need is a means to get the word out about your restaurant, and what you need is a great marketing scheme.

Welcome to the 21st century. While you were struggling with a bucket of glue for your posters yesterday, you have more options today. There are computers, text messages, and billboards, all competing for your potential customers' attention. There will also be the good old word of mouth, so the key to marketing your restaurant is to use all these to your advantage.

Here are a few marketing tips to get you started:

• What is your specialty? Are you an Italian restaurant serving the best tiramisu in town? Are you a German deli with to-die-for sausages? Are you Chinese takeout with dimsum good enough to satisfy Genghis Khan? Play it up and mention it: people have to remember something about your restaurant besides its name, and they have to have a reason to go there.

• Make friends of your customers. Be friendly to everyone who comes in. Interact with your customers. Talk to them. Ask them if they're enjoying the food. Not only will you get valuable suggestions, you'll make friends, and they will keep coming back if you're serving them a smile along with the food.

• Keep those customers! Use the power of the Internet mailing list. Ask for their email addresses and add them to an e-group, where you can send updates about your restaurant. If you have time, make a website for your restaurant. Remember: word of mouth and technology, on their own, won't serve you much purpose, but put them together, and you'll have your fame spreading like wildfire.

• Have specials and combos. Yes, they seem to sound like something out of a fast-food nightmare, but you have to remember that times are tough, and people want to save money - not only that, they don't have time to think what meat will go with what wine, and what fish will go with what salad. Lay it out for them beforehand - and be public about it. Let everyone know that you're ready to offer the best food and the best service!

Whether you're serving burgers or lambrusco, remember that people want to save and enjoy their meal. If you give them both, then you'll have the whole town trooping to your restaurant in no time.