In a market as competitive as the restaurant business, the winner is whoever knows how to attract customers and keep them coming back. Running promotions is one of the most effective ways to do that. After all, who can resist a discount or a special deal?
However, although it may seem simple, creating promotions for restaurants takes a lot of planning and strategy. Without that, you may end up falling short of the expected results and even losing money. So don't miss our complete guide below!
In it you'll see a step-by-step guide to designing creative offers and winning new customers, and you'll also find a list of ideas to apply in your business. Keep reading to learn more.
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Why run promotions at your restaurant?
Promotions are a fundamental part of a restaurant's sales strategy. They're an effective way to attract new customers, retain existing ones and increase revenue.
In a market where competition is fierce, special offers help create a sense of urgency in customers, encouraging them to visit your establishment.
Beyond that, they can serve as something new, offering fresh experiences and keeping your restaurant always interesting to your audience.
Finally, promotions can also make the business more efficient and profitable. That's because they're a way to move inventory and boost consumption of the menu items that give the establishment a better return.
Leia também: 9 ways to increase your restaurant's average ticket
What are the main types of promotion?
There are several ways to run promotions at your restaurant, including:
- Discounts and Special Offers: Offering lower prices on certain dishes and drinks for a period of time.
- Seasonal Promotions: They're seasonal, valid for a season of the year, commemorative dates and holidays, for example.
- Special Events: They're one-off or recurring campaigns aimed at attracting customers, such as themed nights, wine tastings, Happy Hours, among others.
- Loyalty Programs: They're a way to reward loyal customers with discounts, freebies, or points that can be exchanged for a meal or other benefits.
Each one can serve a different objective and, when combined, they boost your restaurant's results. Below, check out the step-by-step guide to running promotions!
Leia também: The 4 Ps of marketing: what they are and how to apply them in your restaurant
Step-by-step guide to creating promotions for restaurants
It's not enough to offer just any discount and expect excellent results. This is a fairly common mistake that can end up hurting the business.
Promotions should be seen as a continuous process of planning, execution, performance analysis and refinement. This way, you can identify which campaigns are most effective and can replicate them.
Check out the step-by-step guide below for running promotions at your restaurant!
Define objectives and goals
The main objective of a promotion is to increase sales and, consequently, revenue. But there are other possibilities, such as:
- Attracting a different audience than usual
- Launching a new menu item
- Moving inventory and avoiding losses
- Positioning yourself in the market and strengthening the brand
Defining your objective is the first step to creating an effective promotion. That way you can tailor the offer and direct your efforts, acting strategically.
Know your audience
Knowing your audience's profile and consumption habits is essential to creating truly attractive promotions.
You can analyze your sales reports to identify which products are most popular among your customers and think up cross-sell or upsell promotions with those items.
You can also create offers targeted at couples, families, friends or coworkers, for example.
Choose the type of promotion
Next, it's time to design the promotion! Choose which type best suits your objective and audience profile. Also determine how long the promotion will run and other conditions.
Then, also take into account the costs involved in order to reach a price that is both attractive to the customer and profitable for your business. There's no point running a promotion to attract customers and losing money, right?
Set a budget and resources
After defining what the promotion will be, list everything needed to put it into practice and draw up a budget. For example: promotional materials, extra service staff, supplies, special attractions, etc.
This step is important for figuring out the costs involved and then analyzing whether it's really worth creating a promotional campaign of this kind.
Promote it
With everything set, it's time to promote it! Your marketing makes all the difference and can be decisive for the success of your promotion.
The format will depend on the type of promotion you chose. But you can think about social media posts, flyers and banners, WhatsApp messages to customers, posters and signs at the entrance of the establishment, among others.
Treine sua equipe
Maintaining the quality of the products and the service is something you must watch out for when running promotions at your restaurant.
That's why you should train your team to make sure they're well informed about the promotion's terms and prepared to handle an increase in customer flow.
Track the results
Use tools to track the promotion's performance and make adjustments as needed. That way, you ensure better results and can reach the objective you set at the very beginning.
Having a platform like EPOC makes this kind of monitoring easier, since it lets you run detailed sales analyses quickly and easily.
Evaluate the performance
At the end of the promotion, evaluate the performance by looking at metrics such as the increase in sales and revenue, best-selling items, number of new customers, feedback received, among others.
This final analysis helps you understand whether you managed to reach your objective and whether the promotion was in fact effective.
Identify what worked and what didn't
The last step is to identify what worked and what didn't in your promotion.
Based on the performance evaluation done earlier, you can generate insights that will be valuable for refining your strategies and designing new promotions. That way, your results will get better and better.
9 promotion ideas for restaurants
Now that you know the process for creating promotions for restaurants, check out some creative ideas below and start putting the step-by-step guide into practice!
- tasting menu
O tasting menu is great for attracting new customers, since it lets them try several different dishes in a single visit.
Offering a discount on special dates, like Valentine's Day, can be an even bigger incentive for your customers to choose this experience
- Combos for groups or families
If this is your audience's profile, it's worth creating promotional combos for groups or families.
You can combine the most popular menu items with another that's more profitable, or with an item that's close to its expiration date. That way, your sales become more strategic and more advantageous for your business.
- Themed day of the week
This type of promotion works very well because it sets you apart. The novelty catches people's attention and helps drive traffic to the restaurant on days that are traditionally slower.
Use your creativity to promote a special day of the week. It could be a Mexican Tuesday, a romantic Wednesday, a Thursday happy hour or another theme that suits your customers' profile and your business concept.
- “Bring a friend” promotion
To expand your customer base, there's nothing better than encouraging your current ones to bring a friend. Give a discount or offer a double item — drinks, appetizers, desserts — to anyone who brings company on their next visit.
- Menu of the day
How about charging less for the menu of the day? This is a way to influence customers' decisions and boost sales of the most profitable dishes.
Beyond that, this strategy can also make inventory management easier, since you can plan a menu for each day of the week in advance and have greater control over supplies coming in and going out.
- Birthday offers
Birthday celebrations are great for increasing your revenue.
That's why you should create attractive special deals for birthday guests. For example: discounts, double items, a free first drink, a complimentary birthday cake, or the birthday guest doesn't pay when bringing X people.
And it's worth noting: assess your business's consumption profile and concept to design the most suitable promotion.
- Discount for new customers
Offer a special discount to customers who aren't registered in your system yet. This is a way to build loyalty with those who already know your restaurant, strengthen the relationship and gather information to design future promotions.
- Partnerships with local companies
Reach out to the companies around your restaurant and propose a partnership, offering discounts to their employees. Another idea is to create a Loyalty program just for the company.
This is a very common promotion at self-service restaurants, but it can also work for à la carte restaurants, attracting executives looking for a place for business lunches or dinners.
- Influencer coupons
Do some research to find social media influencers who can promote your restaurant, offering a discount coupon to their followers. This is a very good promotion for expanding your reach and strengthening your brand in the market.
Get to know EPOC and boost your sales
With the tips and ideas we've brought you in this guide to promotions for restaurants, you're ready to create your offers and increase your sales.
As we've seen, planning is essential to reaching your objectives, and that's why it's important to count on a platform like EPOC, with complete solutions for your business: POS, ERP, Analytics, digital menu and much more.
With it you have reliable data about your restaurant's sales and your customers' profile, and you can run analyses very easily. That way, you can design more effective promotions and increase your profitability.
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