Running a restaurant is a laborious business and making profits consistently cant be a tough nut to crack. Couple this with unfortunate events around the world like the COVID-19 Pandemic and the lockdowns that succeeded, it can be difficult for the restaurants to turn a profit.
In times like these, the restaurants have to find an alternative channel to drive their revenue. To combat this, they have to think of out-of-the-box solutions or look to the tried and trusted methods to generate different revenue streams.
Before coming up with a restaurant promotion idea to boost your sales, there are some things to check off that would help identify whether an advertisement would work out for that restaurant or not.
The first thing would be to look at the demographic of the people coming into your restaurant. Knowing the age and category of people coming into your restaurant will help you in crafting a promotion targeting the specific niche of customers.
The next thing would be to look at your menu and the sales data. There are a lot of insights gained from going through the sales data. It allows you to understand which items are selling and which are not. With this, we can craft promos that will turn attention towards the dishes that are not flying off the shelves as some of their counterparts.
When you're brainstorming an advertisement don't think just about the revenue that can come from it but think about the long-term aspect. The attention a promotion gets can sometimes outlast the revenue it drives in and generate a set of valuable customers.
The final thing would be to look at what's working in the restaurant industry as a whole. It will set a benchmark upon which you can build upon ideas and execute them smoothly.
Now that we've set up a few basic guidelines upon which we are going to establish our promotions let us take a look at the different kinds that can drive sales.
One of the first things to do when crafting a promo for your restaurant is to analyze the sales details. Often customers overlook some dishes on the menu and go for the bestsellers. To boost customers to try out different items we can offer a special discount on an item that is not doing well or club them with another dish to create a combo that people might order.
In a restaurant, we all have items that have higher margins than some of the others. By analyzing the sales, you can build an offer around dishes that command higher margins. Offering a standalone discount or Clubbing them with a dish that has a low margin might be the sensible way to go and cushion the revenue impact from offering discounts.
If you have a space reserved for hosting an event, you can take advantage and host people for a standup show, debate, or concert. It will help drive additional traffic into your restaurant and clubbing the ticket cost with a free starter will incentive them to frequent your restaurant more often in the future. If you don't have a space for hosting, you could club events happening near your restaurant. Offering them a discount if they show proof that they attended the event is a nice place to start when crafting promos.
Influencers can make or break the reputation of a restaurant with their subtle reviews. With the rise of social media and the power influencers hold, business owners are overly conscious of them and will do anything to make them feel accommodated. Tying up with an influence might be a good way for you to drive traffic and boost sales.
One of the oldest ways for customer retention is to offer them a restaurant loyalty rewards program. Offering them a way to get rewards for repeatedly dining in our restaurant is a simple way to entice customers to order more to accumulate points. If the loyalty rewards program is eating into your margins, you can try setting an expiry date to create that sense of urgency.
Crafting special offers around national or regional holidays is another way to drive traffic and boost sales. Creating special dishes that are available for a limited time frame every year pushes people to go out and try that dish. This sense of urgency can be good for business and crafting restaurant promotions around it is a good strategy.
All restaurants have days when there's not a lot of footfall. Usually, days in the middle of the week are when the footfall becomes low. To combat it, we can strategize and think of multiple offers to incentivize restaurant-goers to chalk up and have a meal outside during the weekdays.
Whenever you are launching a new outlet or launching something new in your restaurant you must give some offers to the early bird customers. Making the customer feel special will create a loyal set of customers for the future. When you are launching a new item in your restaurant you can try offering it at a lower price for customers to try it out. It offers them a chance to try out the dish and if they like it, they will return for more in the future.
With the advent of social media, business owners are crafting promotions that are increasingly skewed towards social media. With more people using social media on day-to-day basis promotions posted there end up generating a reasonable ROI in the long run. Pictures of the restaurant's ambiance, food when consistently shared online will drive up traffic in the long run.
Collecting the contact details of customers might be a tedious task. Especially when opening a new establishment you might find it hard to collect all details. One of the promos that you can run to receive a bunch of contact information for marketing is by using the "Fish Bowl Technique." You place a round bowl to collect business cards from customers visiting your restaurant to offer one of the lucky people a chance to have a free meal at the restaurant. It entices more people to throw their business cards in the bowl and try their luck. With this trove of information, you can market your items better.
Another promo to keep in mind is to try to go viral by marketing or by creating a unique dish that's only available at your restaurant. For example, offering customers the chance to have a "Gold Leaf Dosa" is something uncommon. Dishes like these will leave a lasting impact on your customer's minds and they tend to frequent your restaurant in the long run.
Conducting special food challenges like 'Finish this dish in 1 hour' or so is another way to drive attention and traffic towards your restaurant. It gives customers the chance to try out the dish and if they finish under the time they get the food for free and restaurant memorabilia like a branded t-shirt. Trying to balance it by keeping a limited number of spots every day will drag out the promo and keep the customers returning daily to witness it.
, DiNAMIC
15th March 2021