1 – Coupons at Events
Marketing your restaurant at events is underrated! Gather some of your team members, dress in uniform, and get out to your local festivals. Print out small flyers that include two types of coupons. The first coupon should be “too good to be true” that is only valid for that evening (after the event). The purpose of this is to get someone to your restaurant by offering something incredible they can’t turn down. The second coupon on the flyer should be a coupon that expires in 30 days. The benefit of this is for the people that can’t make it that day, they still have time to use a discount at your restaurant. This coupon needs to be not as valuable as the first one, but still enticing. Here’s an example…. The first coupon (valid only one evening)… BOGO Entree. Second coupon (valid for the next 30 days)… Free Dessert.
2 – Coupons Through Social Media
Distributing coupons and vouchers through social media may seem like a given… but still, not many restaurants are doing it. And if they are, they’re not doing it very effectively. Here’s how we recommend to do it… Use the Facebook Offers feature so you can redeem each coupon (preventing use abuse). You can run these offers as an ad to potential customers that live within a 10-20 mile radius from your restaurant. This has worked great for our clients!
3 – Coupons Through Facebook Messenger and Email
This may be the newest way to go about coupons and probably the most effective to date. There is a myriad of ways to go about using Facebook Messenger for distributing coupons – all of which involve connecting automated messaging software to your Facebook Page. I know what you’re thinking… “that sounds too high-tech for me” or “I don’t know how to do that crap.” – All this doesn’t matter. To be transparent, this is one of the core services we offer here at Sharpen Marketing. Here’s how it works: First you have to get people to Message your page. There are several ways to do so… 1. Create a scannable Messenger Code that customers can scan using their Messenger app on their phone. 2. An ad on Facebook that triggers a conversation when clicked. 3. A slide-in or pop-up on your website. Once users interact with any of these things, your Facebook Page will automatically send them a message with the coupon. The coupon is trackable so you can prevent people from abusing it AND you can track every dollar earned by your campaign. Last we checked, you can’t do that with magazine, mail, billboards, or any other type of campaign. Email can also complement this method by hitting their email inbox in addition to their Facebook Messenger Inbox. Send us a message if you’re interested in getting more info about this method.
4 – Coupons Through Apps
If your restaurant has an app and it is worth anything, it will allow you to create promotions or coupons through it. A lot of times, they’ll have loyalty programs built in or offer freebies here and there. Just like with Facebook Messenger, the likelihood of them reading your notification and using the coupon is much higher than other forms of distribution. If you don’t have an app, we recommend using the Facebook Messenger Marketing method.
5 – Coupons Through Delivery Orders
Attaching coupons to your delivery orders is very under-utilized. They ordered your food to be delivered… they’re able to eat your delicious food in the comfort of their own home. That’s great. But what are you doing to get them back into your restaurant? Or getting them to make another delivery order? Use the packaging your delivery driver (or Uber Eats driver) is carrying as a sales tool so you can bring them in again and again. PRO TIP: Try changing up your offer once or twice per month so people don’t get tired of seeing the same thing over and over.
6 – Coupons Through Pick-up/Take-Out Orders
Just like our last point about deliveries, give your customers more reasons to come back to you a second and third time when they come to pick up their takeout orders. Make sure your offer is enticing. Also consider the fact that if you deliver and they are picking up a takeout order, they may not know you offer delivery… So why not make the offer only valid for delivery orders? This will help spread the word that you do deliver and they’ll be incentivized to order delivery while they’re at it!
We hope you found these coupon use ideas valuable for your restaurant. Have questions or need help? Tap the big Message Us button and we’ll be happy to chat.
