Strategic Experiences For Restaurant Websites or Mobile App – Part 3 – Promotions

Promotions are crucial to drive clients to your online site, and keep them there. If you aren’t sure how your incentive plans should work, or who they should be catered to, we are going to discuss the best options for you and your restaurants.

Pick your target audience wisely

Determining which promotions are best for a brand depends on the opportunities that are uncovered in the data. Using this data effectively can pay off just like mass marketing can lead to a lot of lost leads. For example, a restaurant sent out a mass email on opening night, with an offer for kids. Unfortunately, the email distribution included a lot of young diners, without families. That email open rate was at 20%, lower than the typical rate of 32%. Not only did the email campaign not work, because it was irrelevant and users were annoyed, the restaurant saw a high percentage of opt-out of all emails, So remember a bad email campaign can actually hurt you in the long run.

To better target the right demographic, the marketing team can add a question to the initial enrollment questionnaire. For instance, in the case above a simple question like “Do you have kids in your family?” would have added a key data point for the restaurant. However, an even better question is, “How likely are you to eat out with your kids?” This then gives you a clear indicator of whether a promotion relating to kids would work at all. A well-thought collection of date enables better email segmentation. In cases where there is clear segmentation, the email open rate can be as high as 42%, Targeting based on what guests do versus what guests say allows 

Leverage your website for promotions and offers

You already have an online presence, use it to make it one of your best marketing tools. You can start with designing a really engaging and tasteful layout for your daily or weekly deals. Make sure to keep this updated with sale offers and deals. If you do have a coupon code section, also be sure to keep this current otherwise your clients are sure to leave your site to look elsewhere.  Be creative. Go beyond the holidays and offer discounts or special promotions for unusual reasons. Einstein’s birthday? National tomato month? That’s $10 off!

Remember, your promotions can be spread throughout your site. Make valuable use of your “Thank You” page by including an offer for their next visit, or by letting them sign up for notification of new sales and discounts in the future. Also, have a link to your coupon or current promotion right on the landing page. Better yet, automatically fill in the “coupon code” at checkout if possible. Use a pop-up window to remind visitors to sign up or make the last offer before they leave your site. A quick video of promotion can also be fun and engaging. A smart Restaurant is a great tool that uses technology to determine when someone’s about to leave your site.

Your best salespeople are right in front of you

Get your team excited! Your team is your best representative to promote you. So I repeat, get them excited! Sales associates and managers are on the front line of stores every day. They understand your product in and out and are trained experts. They are the ones communicating with customers and are essentially a brand ambassador for the loyalty program. It is important for these workers to be excited about the program so they can are naturally motivated to enroll prospects by their genuine enthusiasm when talking about the value and benefits of your product or services. 

Team challenges are a fun way for your employees to get involved and excited about the program is to implement a challenge where they receive prizes based on how many customers they get to enroll. In a case study, a month-long contest of this nature led to an enrollment increase of 244%.

Now that you have a few new tricks in your bag, go out and smart-promote the heck out of your product and service!