Promotions are a smart way to engage customers and highlight things your brand has to offer. Whether you own a full-fledged eatery or have been planning to launch a new branch of your pizzeria in a new location, appropriate promotions could get your business the desired spotlight.
When almost everyone uses some or the other marketing campaign for promoting their business, why do you think some restaurants get more attention than others? Well, the secret lies in the promotional strategy. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the best promotional ideas that can open channels for increasing the sales and profit of your business.
Before delving into promotional ideas, let’s understand how to prepare before the launch.
Things You Need Before Rolling Out Restaurant Promotions
1. Knowledge of your customer base
A restaurant’s business graph is based on its customers’ satisfaction levels. Hence, knowing your customers well is indispensable for catching their attention and convincing them to purchase from your restaurant.
No promotion can be successful unless you identify and analyse your customers' needs. Whether you wish to retain your existing customers or attract a new audience, you will need to understand your customer base.
2. In-depth understanding of your business challenges
Before jumping into business promos, it is important to check for any challenges brewing. Access to your restaurant’s POS (Point of Sales) system can help you take a closer look at data to understand discrepancies and underlying issues that need attention. Once you learn of the challenges, it will become easier to plan befitting promotional strategies.
3. Transparency in margins
Before designing promotions, it would be a good idea to know the margins of the items listed on your menu. While every item may have a different margin, it would be best to promote those with high profit margins. For instance, your bar could offer a snackable savoury item as a freebie with a newly launched cocktail that you wish to promote.
Knowing the margins well can help you design discount offers and prepare your inventory accordingly.
Tips on How to Drive Sales with Promotions
Here are ways you can take advantage of promotions to attract more customers to your restaurant.
Offer a loyalty program
One of the best ways to connect with your customers and establish a long-lasting relationship is to include a loyalty rewards program. Such a plan could be designed easily and works well as it encourages repeat business with discounts and offers for your loyal customers.
Loyalty programs can increase customer engagement as they not only eat at your eatery but simultaneously purchase more to earn rewards, thereby investing more in your brand. This can push sales as customers are likely to spend more to reach reward edges. Feeling rewarded for their loyalty can encourage them to choose you over your competitors.
Network with third-party apps
Connecting with third-party apps can give your brand greater exposure. You can use such platforms to run in-app adverts, offer discounts on big orders and extend benefits such as a free online delivery to new customers associated with your brand. Digital solution companies like OrderEm can help you launch your delivery service app.
Offer personalized discounts based on customers’ preferences
While adding to your customer base is great for your business, promoting to existing customers can cost you comparatively less. That’s because you might already have information about your existing customers’ purchase history, depicting their buying habits and preferences. So, you can personalise discounts and promos based on their past orders.
Get a prominent appearance on Google Business Listing
If your restaurant name pops up on customers’ first Google search that especially when hunger pangs strike them, sales chances go up. However, if they cannot check the service timings of your restaurant, you may lose a customer. With a Google My Business listing, you can not just flash all the necessary information to your customers but also catch their attention with perky promo ideas.
Provide a percentage discount
A simple form of promotion, the percentage discount works well for most customers. Moreover, whether you run a fine-dining restaurant or a coffee shop, giving away a percentage discount can be a lucrative strategy to attract customers during off-peak hours. Such promos can be useful in clearing excess inventory as well.
Make sure you run ads that catch attention. With an appropriate content management system, you should be able to create catchy promotional taglines.
Offer a BOGO deal
BOGO deals can be a show stealer for customers. It refers to the buy one, get one free deals that most fast-food restaurants like to give away. Such compelling deals can be used to attract more sales. Remember to create BOGO deals that automatically prompt customers to another item on discount.
BOGO deals can be promoted across a range of online platforms, including your custom website, mobile app and across other social media platforms.
Run a contest
Getting customers to participate in fun challenges launched by your brand can help build a connection and also create a ground for your promotions. You can design easy-going challenges and offer prizes that most customers are capable of winning. For instance, finishing a jumbo bowl of Sundae ice cream in under a minute.
Realistic challenges will attract more customers, thus enabling a chance to promote other items from your restaurant’s menu.
Use festive seasons to your advantage
Festivals, special events and occasions can be a huge foundation for new business. There has been an increasing trend of dining out. Restaurants can use these opportunities to run promotions to attract target diners. However, you must be aware that other restaurants are also trying to impress customers on such special days. Make sure your promo ideas reflect simplicity yet appear out of the box.
Check for occasions and festivals that resonate most with your local customers before launching promotional offers. You can also collaborate with local suppliers to add to the scale and impact of your deals.
You can offer a special menu for adults, kids or even pets based on their preferences to enable a space that shows thoughtfulness and allows customers to connect emotionally with your restaurant. Curated menus and freebies can become a sustainable source of promotion.
Create a sense of urgency
What if your favourite restaurant announces a steal deal, suggesting customers grab the last batch of brownies and cookies? Customers often jump to such offers, thinking they would miss out on something special.
Running a limited menu item can play well for promoting your business. You can tag them with additional offers in the long run.
Use technology to give your promotions an alluring makeover
Automated promos can make it convenient and time-saving for restaurants. AI and other tools use customer data to send relevant promos. This could include special offers on birthdays and anniversaries, customised menu suggestions, etc.
If you are seeking to handle your email campaigns, social media posts and responses to customer reviews, automation can come to the rescue.
From order management to managing wait times and sending customised promotional notifications, technology can be employed to promote your brand among customers. Automation can encourage greater customer engagement and repeat business, fostering loyalty.
Concluding Thoughts
Regardless of your business goals, restaurant promos can help you reach out to a wider audience. Some amount of research and strategic planning can help you ideate promotional ideas that drive sales.
If you are looking for a platform to launch rewarding promos, OrderEm can help with its dynamic digital solutions for the online and mobile market. Whether you want to create BOGO offers across online ordering platforms or use the technology to cross-sell through promos, OrderEm has a score of features worth exploring.