Running effective restaurant promotions is one of the essential components that ensure your business stays lively. Whatever objective the right promotion can make huge differences in sales to attract new customers and even reward loyal ones. Through a comprehensive guide, creative restaurant promotion strategies will be discussed including leveraging food specials today, food deals today, and targeting customers searching for fast food specials today. We will also briefly discuss how Pays POS can help manage and optimize these promotions to streamline operations and drive sales
1 Leverage Local Events to Boost Restaurant Promotions and Food Specials Today
One of the best opportunities to promote your restaurant comes in the form of local events: concerts, sports games, or festivals. Since most people like to go out on game days or concert nights, you can expect many potential customers on these occasions. Specials today that reflect the timing of the event will bring in more people.
For example, take over the leadership in local events; when there is a local football game, you can make promotions by making wings and drinks cheap. You can partner with event organizers to offer exclusive deals to attendants like “Show your ticket and get 20% off.”
Why it works: It attracts big crowds, and some of these customers need to be fed. A promotion that coincides with a fast food special today’s offer will make your restaurant a convenient and attractive destination.
Pro Tip: Share your event-only deals today food on social media and local websites to capture eyes before the event. Collaborate with the event organizers or influencers in the local community for increased visibility.
2. Design promotional offers for restaurants alongside deals for food today to increase sales.
Creating daily food deals of today can pull in the shrewd value shop owner. These don’t have to be very sophisticated. For instance, the imposition of some form of discount on a menu item can do it. The principle that needs to be followed is that the deal must provide a sense of value. The customer must feel that he or she is getting more for their money.
An example of this is a themed daily special, “Burger Mondays” or “Taco Tuesdays,” featuring those items at discounted prices. These promotions can drive in new customers and send previous clients running back for more, especially when they are craving quick food specials today.
Why it works: Customers are always looking to save a buck on eats, and promotion savings play off that desire. You are creating urgency by buying food today, thereby consumers will find your restaurant today.
TIP: Promote those deals heavily on social media and in email blasts. Sending out emails at the beginning of the week to outline your daily specials means not only will you see more traffic for those meals, but your restaurant will be top of mind as well.
3. Take Holidays by Storm with Exclusive Promotions.
Restaurants can promote their food services during holidays. It is Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or the 4th of July when people are most eager to dine out with family and friends. Restaurant operators can capitalize on holidays because their businesses thrive with themes of holiday food available today.
For instance, you may offer prix fixes on Valentine’s Day and discounts on burgers, hot dogs, and drinks on Independence Day. It is more or less about getting into the party mood and trying something different for the event.
Why it works: People like to go out and celebrate the holidays; in this case, much of this business will be yours if marketed appropriately.
Pro Tip: Launch holiday promotions weeks in advance by promoting on email and social media. Count down to the holiday with good deals today and food and encourage reservations well in advance.
4. Loyalty perks and fast food today’s deals.
Loyalty programs prove to be the most effective way of retaining customers and encouraging repeat visits. Customers who feel appreciated come back. Special food deals today through a loyalty program will bring back customers over and over again.
For example, you can offer a punch card that allows a customer to get a free meal after he or she has visited a certain number of times. Alternatively, offer loyalty members fast food specials today; be it discounted prices on the menu items at specific hours or free appetizers in repeat visits.
Why does it work: Gratifying emotions makes customers return. Customers will dine at your restaurant over any alternative if there is a reason to do so in this instance, your loyalty programs.
Pro Tip: Use your POS system to track customer purchases and automatically reward them once they have hit a certain number of purchases. Pays POS can help make this process easier by tracking customer data and integrating it into the loyalty program making the experience both seamless for customers and staff.
5. Try Bundling and Fixed Price Offerings.
Offer bundled meals or fixed-price menus to attract more customers. This is very effective with families or groups dining together and desirous of having a variety of dishes shared. For example, a family meal deal with lots of appetizers, entrée, and desserts at one price will be quite attractive.
Another way to bring couples into the building is a “Dinner for Two” promotion, while fixed-price brunches may incent weekend diners. Not only do such promotions offer perceived value to customers, but they also tend to boost average order size.
Why it works: Bundled meals make it easy for the customer to make decisions about what to order and offer perceived value to the customer. It also permits you to upsell more items in one transaction.
Pro Tip: Sell these as limited-time food deals today to create urgency and force faster movement.
6. Buy in Bulk and Upsell with Fast Food Deals Today.
Large families are on the lookout for value. Bulk deals will be an effective means to attract such crowds. A platter fitting a family would appeal to a price-conscious customer who wanted more people to feed. In addition, you can also capitalize on upselling as in offering a discounted dessert or premium drinks when the customers opt for the bulk option.
For example, if you own a pizza parlor, you can combine a “family pizza night deal” for two large pizzas, breadsticks, and a 2-liter soda at a reasonable value. Alternatively, you can upsell items such as wings or desserts.
Why it works: Bulk meals are perceived to be great value meals and often bring in larger ticket sizes because the customer is likely to add extra to the order.
Pro Tip: Use your POS system to make upselling easier for your staff. Pays POS will automate upselling recommendations based on a customer’s order, and you can then persuade them to add extra items.
7. Do Big Launches & Grand Openings with Exclusive Food Deals Today.
You can debut a new menu item or, better yet, even reopen after renovating. This is perfect for something like running a promotion: Host a grand opening or re-opening with special food deals today that attract the curious, wanting-to-try-new-things sort of customer. Free samples of the new dish, discounted meals, or some special limited-time offer would be fantastic.
Why it works: Consumers are interested in something fresh. If a business launches a new item and offers an appropriate promotion, consumers will have a reason to visit a store and sample the new product, generating buzz and buzzword-of-mouth marketing.
Pro Tip: Limit the availability of this offer for a finite time only and push it on your social media channels as well as local advertising platforms.
8. Offer Takeout and Delivery Specials.
With takeout and delivery options rising, especially post-pandemic, offering the fast-food special today can reach a lot of those who are not walk-in customers. You can offer discounts for online orders or free delivery above a certain amount ordered through you. You can also set specific promotions for takeout, an incentive that encourages direct orders from your website instead of third-party platforms and cuts out commission fees.
Why it works: Many customers enjoy ordering takeout or getting delivered, so being promotional on such options can reach a larger market.
Pro Tip: Team up with third-party delivery providers like Door Dash or Uber Eats and give clients exclusive deals today in food while expanding your reach in delivery.
9. Step up the Marketing Effort on Promotions.
No matter how good your promotions are, they won’t work unless people know about them. The most critical component of running successful restaurant promotions is an increase in marketing efforts. Take your food deals to Instagram and Facebook today and run some paid ads to target that local crowd.
Furthermore, you should update your current customer list of discounts on food today or exclusive deals through email marketing. A second and direct channel for customer contact is SMS marketing.
Why this strategy works: Continued marketing often dictates that your promotion reaches the right people and may even induce foot traffic, particularly if you are marketing to a local crowd who is looking for today’s deals in food.
Pro Tip: Do this via a POS system like Pays POS. Track customer data and create personalized ads based on common customer segments according to the dining preferences and previous orders they made.
10. Third-Party Deliverers and Pop-Up Events.
This can broaden your reach to customers who may not have given you a shot if not for third-party delivery companies. You can offer special fast food deals today just for delivery customers to make your restaurant an option over the others.
Hosting pop-up events at your restaurant or one of its partner locations will also bring in new customers. Temporary pop-up events create hype and draw in people who would never otherwise set foot in your restaurant.
Why it works: Third-party delivery partnerships will allow your restaurant to expand its reach. Pop-up events are exciting and get people to try your restaurant while it is happening.
For more tips on improving your staff’s efficiency, check out our article How to Train Your Staff on a New POS System Effectively
How Pays POS Can Help Restaurants Run Promotions.
Running multiple promotions simultaneously can be cumbersome to track without the help of an integrated POS system. It not only enables you to track your sales data and loyalty programs but also lets you automatically apply discounts, thus keeping your promotional activities streamlined. You can even set up custom promotions that run automatically once certain predefined conditions are met, like getting free dessert with an order in bulk or discounted price for loyalty members.
The other ease with pays POS is tracking how effectively each promotion will work. Analyzing the sales data will help you understand those promotions that will work well for your restaurant and adjust them on the fly. Whether you are offering food specials today or running a long-term loyalty program, having the right point-of-sale system in place will ensure that your promotions run easily and efficiently.
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conclusion
Running great restaurant promotions can go a long way in growing sales and keeping customers coming back. Whether it be building daily deals, using local events, or offering loyalty benefits, promotions excite and give value to the customer.
All of these are available with the powerful Pays POS system: track customer data, automate deals and discounts, etc. Creative promotions, apart from effective marketing, make sure that restaurants attract new customers regularly and maintain loyal customers who keep on coming back, ensuring restaurants succeed for a long time.
