Black Friday- the annual sales frenzy is back this November.
Do you know an average American spends over $335 between Thanksgiving, Black Friday & Cyber Monday? Black Friday is an exceptional time for restaurants to make profits. Since the day is all about crazy discounts and deals, restaurants can too position themselves and give-away ecstatic deals to woo patrons. The shopping frenzy simply means big business for your restaurant, only if you plan it well!
Restaurant owners can leverage social media like anything this holiday season. If not already, you should get your website, social media accounts, and start building your online presence. The holiday season of 2020 is different. Most of the people will be shopping online, and if you’re not there while they are scrolling their feed, you’re missing out big time.
First things first, in order to make the deals work you need to create content that has the potential to go viral or at least garner a few hundred likes and comments.
Remember Turkish chef Nusrat-Et’s ‘Salt Bae’ video? The video hit over 2 million views in 48 hours alone. Bring the ‘WOW’ factor and let social media do its magic for you. Set a food vibe that shines in your posts.
Make your signature food images go viral by adding a little pun to them. Anything that attracts the attention of your community has a good chance of getting conversions. Think about most popular Black Friday memes, or Gifs that your customers can resonate with, and while you are able to catch their attention, remind them to utilize the Black Friday Deal while ordering from your restaurant.
Regardless of the content, you decide to publish, make sure you accommodate each with relevant Black Friday hashtags to widen the reach of the post. You can use hashtags like
#Blackfriday,
#Blackfridaysales,
#Blackfridayoffers,
#Blackridaydeals,
#Blackfridayweekend,
#Blackfriday2020 (or the relevant year),
#BlackfridayUSA (or the relevant country where you operate),
#Blackfridayshopping,
#Blackfridayspecials
So what are the different categories of deals that you can explore to create your own version of Black Friday Deals? Here are some examples
Restaurateurs can run a mystery campaign on their social media accounts and websites. Give personalized food items or drinks to each patron. Something on the lines of ‘Spend $25 or more & get a mystery drink-free’. Now the gift can be anything, perhaps an Apple Cider Mojito, Mimosas, or Thanksgiving Turkey cakes maybe?
One of the best ways to encourage patrons to order food with you is by offering vibrant hourly deals. Hourly deals can help you reach out to several bases at once. With changing deals every hour, your customers might also come back.
Vary discount rates every hour and repeat the same for the next day and the day after that to encourage repeat visits over the weekend.
Offer a little something extra on top of the exclusive deal to your loyal customers. Adding a small holiday gift like a free muffin hamper, dessert, or hot chocolate to customers making the second purchase in the same week can boost sales and repeat orders over the week.
For new customers, you can offer high reward points for signing up for a loyalty program, an additional 100 for referring family and friends who end up ordering from the restaurant website. Every 100 points can get them a step closer to getting a free meal on a Black Friday. The first 10 loyalty reward program members to reach 1000 reward points can claim a free meal for 2 on a Black Friday. The only catch is that for this system to work, you’ll have to start promoting it at least 2 weeks in advance.
Want to make your online ordering system profitable during Black Friday? Encourage your customers to spend a set amount of money by incentivizing their purchase. So if a customer spends a minimum of $50 on your restaurant website, prompt them to add another main course at half the price, or maybe you can offer a dessert for just $5 on all orders above $50.
Restaurants can boost off-premise sales by extending their lush offerings till Cyber Monday. Whether consumers are searching for your restaurant on social media or Google, continue to lure them with bonuses and special offers for curbside, takeout, or delivery.
Planning a perfect Black Friday promotion can take time. Make your presence on social media and get a website of your own. Today, the market has solutions that can set you up with a customized website in no time. Good food and an attractive social media presence can certainly pay off big time.
