The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating effect on many businesses, particularly restaurants. As people stay home more often, and there are so many other options to get food delivered to their door, your restaurant marketing strategies must work even harder to get customers through your doors.
Any marketing you create has to motivate them enough to stop scrolling their phone, get off the couch, put on some outside clothes and get them into the car to drive to your place…. all while passing many of your competitors. Your marketing needs to stand out and make them want to take action.
February is approaching, and it’s the season of romance; it often inspires dining out. Rather than confining Valentine’s Day marketing to just one day, a bounceback campaign allows you to promote the holiday all month long – and drives sales in March.
This offers customers more time and flexibility to visit your restaurant and take advantage of special events, offers, or gifts. Plus, you capitalize on slipstream marketing by extending the promotion over multiple weeks instead of just one and focusing on a theme that many people are already thinking about. This proven marketing tactic gives all your customers in February a reason to return in March.
Leveraging A Winner
Most of you have seen our No Peeking or “Red envelope” campaign. What started out as a December/Christmas campaign given out to existing customers in December to bounce customers back in January is so successful our clients asked to do it more than once a year. Some have done it with “Christmas In July” or as an “Easter Egg Hunt.” One creative restaurant put prizes in neckties they purchased at the thrift store, hung them all from their ceiling, and every Dad in June got to pick a tie to collect their prize to redeem in July.
Using a proving campaign multiple times a year leverages your marketing. If it was a winner once, it would be a winner with a twist. It’s even more effective when you match it to a theme already on everyone’s mind – that’s the value of slipstream marketing. Just like cyclists who slipstream – it reduces your effort and gets faster results.
If you think using the same marketing campaign will not intrigue your customers, or they will not respond because it’s not “original,” know that you will get bored of your marketing much sooner than any of them. You spend all day and night thinking about your business, your customers do not, and anything you do to create excitement for them will produce results.
How To Create Restaurant Marketing That WORKS
Creating marketing that encourages a quick response and influences your target audience to take a specific, measurable action needs some particular components. We’ll share the marketing checklist we use for every piece of marketing we create. If you refer to it each time you launch a marketing campaign, you can improve your results and increase sales.
This type of marketing is called direct-response marketing or emotional-response. It is effective because it lets you track the customer’s response to the offer and measure the campaign’s success in real time. It requires a SPECIFIC response from the customer.
We’ll use our Valentine’s No Peeking Campaign to demonstrate the six fundamental principles in action and give you some direction on how to use them in your own marketing. It is an excellent example because we have used it for hundreds of clients in various formats, and it has been proven to work repeatedly.
This is targeted at existing customers who have just spent money in your restaurant; it is given to them at the end of the transaction to bring back in March. These are “bounceback offers” designed to bounce customers back in your door for another visit sooner than they would have on their own.
1. A Powerful Headline Grabs Them By The Eyeballs
Headlines will make or break your marketing, and it needs to answer your customers’ questions “what’s in it for me?”. What you offer has to be interesting enough and have enough value for your reader to take action. For the February No Peeking, for example, the headline is “The Italian Bistro’s $10,000 Valentine’s Giveaway!”
The reader knows that “what’s in it for me?” is the possibility of winning something. The headline grabs their attention, making them want to read further – so they don’t miss their chance at $10,000.
Here are some important points to remember when designing your marketing:
- Use a compelling headline at the TOP of the marketing in a large, bold font, bright color.
- Your logo and business name are NOT a headline.
- It’s only goal is to attract attention and compel the audience to read more.
- Focuses on benefits, not features. A feature is what something is, it answers WHAT, and a benefit is WHY it will make their life better.
2. Tell Them Why You Are Doing This
After you catch their attention with your headline, now is the time to tell them WHY you are offering it to them. Tell a story that will engage the audience and compel them to keep reading. It provides an answer to “why are you giving me this?” It doesn’t have to be a strong reason, just a reason.
This copy is intended to create a relatable connection with your audience; it shows that you understand them and their life. Be empathetic. If your marketing is offering to solve a problem, talk about how you understand their lives and what is happening around them.
Our example is simple: “At The Italian Bistro, we want to share the love in February – the month of romance.” It’s fun and connects with the holiday they are all aware of. When you can tie it into a personal story, an early date with your partner, receiving Valentine’s in grade school, or your first unrequited love… it makes it all the more readable and memorable.
- Write like you would talk and sound like a friend (not a salesperson.)
- Start sentences with “and” ‘s. Use jargon and words the audience might use.
- Don’t worry about proper grammar, and don’t use stiff, formal elevated language.
- Use personal stories to connect.
3. Tug On Their Heartstrings (after all, it’s Valentines!)
The best marketing triggers an emotional connection with customers and encourages them to take action. Various emotions can be targeted, including love, happiness, joy, surprise, anger, humor, fear, and sadness.
Our Valentines No Peeking triggers the emotion of CURIOSITY and FUN. Once the customer has one in their hands, curiosity gets the better of them. They want to open it to find out what they’ve won, but they must wait to bring it back in March. Most people love the suspense while waiting to see what they’ve won. The whole experience of thinking you might have the big winner is positive, especially when you win (and everyone who plays your version wins).
People logically know that odds are they won’t be the big winner, there’s always that ‘but what if… which means they’ll be sure to visit your business just to open the envelope and see! It’s the same emotions that the lottery industry plays upon so successfully.
4. An Irresistible Offer Makes Them Act
When creating a compelling offer, you must consider what the potential customer wants or what problem you can solve. Not every customer will respond to every offer. New customers are skeptical; they’ll require a stronger and bigger offer. Customers who already know and love you will need smaller offers, perhaps more creative and unique ones.
A great offer creates a powerful reason to respond or act; it also provides value to the customer. I should be so irresistible that the audience says, “Why WOULDN’T I do this?”
In our example, the offer is a variety of prizes on the back. It adds up to create the $10,000 giveaway amount. There is usually one big prize and various medium and smaller options. Each prize is something that the reader will be excited to win – and what makes it irresistible is that EVERYONE will win something. If you bring the envelope back in to open it, you are guaranteed to win. Each envelope holds a winner. No one loses. Who can resist!
5. A Call To Action Tells Them HOW To Act
Call to action is important because it tells potential customers what you want them to do next. This is often what is missing in the marketing we see.
People need clear direction and to be sure of the specific action you want them to take. “Come in and see us again” isn’t a call to action; it’s too vague. Your directions must be clear and direct so there’s no confusion about what you want them to do.
In our example, you read, “Come back to Business Name March 1st through March 31st. Bring this UNOPENED envelope to claim one of the GREAT Secret Prizes Below!”
There is no question about what they must do to get their prize.
6. Your Expiry Date Creates Urgency
Every call to action needs an expiry date. An Expiry Date creates a sense of urgency and encourages people to take action now. If they don’t act now, they’ll miss out on your offer. It also provides a finite end to the promotion, which means it is easy to measure.
As your expiry date approaches, you can utilize all the other marketing media available to you – email, text, and social media posts to REMIND people that they need to bring their envelope back in to see what they’ve won. If no one has won the “big prize,” continue to use that as a tease…after all, it might be in the envelope they are holding on to. You can also use this to highlight winners, giving you great content to share.
After the expiry date, you count the number of promotions redeemed, how much they generated in sales, and compare it to how much the marketing and offers cost you. That gives you your return on investment, and you can make data-driven decisions about whether it was worth it and worth repeating.
Never be guessing or assuming the results of your marketing.
Michael Thibault
Known as “The Done For You Marketing Guy for Restaurants.” International Speaker on Restaurant Marketing. Published contributing author of 4 Marketing Books. Industry expert on Google Searches and Review Sites. Recovering Independent Restaurant Owner and Caterer of over 21 years. And, all-around good guy.