• Restaurant Marketing

5 Restaurant Holiday Marketing Strategies in 2020 & 2021

by: Allen Graves
3 min read

There’s little doubt that the 2020 – 2021 Holiday season will look a bit different than the rest. Indeed, Americans’ expectations when they eat out have changed in what seems like a blink of an eye. So, as restaurants begin to re-open, it becomes even more essential than ever to keep patrons safe while welcoming the New Year with a healthy revenue boost. In fact, according to Upserve, restaurants could see up to a 306% increase in sales for the holidays.

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1. Construct the experience your guests expect.

Currently, until there is a vaccine, guests expect to see patrons and staff wearing masks. Consequently, not enforcing mask-wearing is an easy way to decrease your reviews and add to guest discomforts. Placing signs throughout the restaurant that ask patrons to wear masks is an easy way to make most customers feel comfortable. Of course, employees who wear masks can also add to a relaxed dining experience for patrons.

restaurant Christmas marketing ideas

Besides wearing masks, the following implementations can also increase the perception of safety for guests. Thankfully, you can announce these implementations through email campaigns, social media, and even pamphlets alongside menus.

  • Provide daily temperature checks for employees.
  • Strict handwashing policies.
  • Strong sanitation procedures.
  • Create a seating arrangement that adheres to social distancing guidelines.
  • Make barriers.
  • Add tape to floors as distancing guidelines.
  • Provide hand sanitizer to guests.
  • Promote pick up and delivery services.
  • Accept reservations in advance to eliminate overcrowding.

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2. Make a special holiday drink and food menu.

When creating your menu this year, family packages for pick-up could be a great idea. 60% of U.S. consumers order delivery or takeout once a week. Yes, family pick-up packages can not only increase your sales; they can increase your revenue per sale. Maybe, you can create special drink and food menu options for each holiday ahead of time. Not surprisingly, 60% of restaurant operators say that offering delivery has generated incremental sales.

 

3. Produce a seasonal marketing plan for each holiday.

Everyone loves a festive restaurant! Each holiday should have a different theme to wow guests and make them feel more at home.

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4. Strategically reach customers with Bloom Intelligence.

You could have the best restaurant holiday decorations, specials, and safety plans, but it doesn’t increase your revenue if no one knows about them. Many Bloom Intelligence Customers turn to these top three campaign ideas to increase their revenue for the holidays:

  • “Welcome” emails

It’s not humanly possible for you to personally welcome each guest that walks through your doors. But with Bloom Intelligence, you can. Every customer you receive will get your email thanking them for visiting. You can also include upcoming holiday specials in your email to boost your revenue. Best of all? It’s automated.

  • Churn emails

It’s even more challenging to keep up with each guest at risk of not coming back to your location again. That’s why Bloom Intelligence created a proprietary algorithm to track customers who are at risk of churning. Once a guest is high-risk, they will receive an automated email with a reason for them to come back.

  • Review emails

Don’t you wish that you could reach unhappy customers before they turn into a negative review? Bloom Intelligence allows you to cipher positive reviews from guests into review sites. You can also automate outreach to negative reviewers to make things right for them. 

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You can add a section about your restaurant’s upcoming holiday plans in all of your email campaigns.

According to Fast Casual, 92% of restaurant traffic is now off-premise. It’s crucial to reach out to customers from their homes to let them know about holiday specials.

This year will be different, but that doesn’t necessarily have to mean a decrease in sales. It merely means that restaurant owners must find ways to reach their customers from their homes while finding innovative ways to keep them safe and happy.

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Restaurant Marketing FAQs

What is Restaurant Marketing?

Restaurant marketing is the process of getting people to visit your restaurants. Restaurant marketing creates loyalty, provides data to research, analytics, and allows restaurants to gain a better understanding of their ideal customer profile. It utilizes all customer channels: guest WiFi, website, social, rating sites, mobile apps, email, text, and advertising.

Learn More About Restaurant Marketing Here

What is WiFi Marketing?

WiFi marketing is a marketing technique that uses guest WiFi to collect & clean customer data such as names, emails, phone numbers, customer behavior, and demographics. This data is used to personalize marketing campaigns to increase customer loyalty, build online reviews, and save at-risk customers. The performance of every campaign can be tracked down to the tangible ROI of a customer walking back in your door.

Learn More About WiFi Marketing Here

What is Restaurant Reputation Management?

Restaurant reputation management is the process for restaurants to manage customer feedback and creating systems to improve customer experiences, passively build positive online reviews, and save at-risk customers. It is a very important aspect of running a successful restaurant business.

Learn More About Restaurant Reputation Management Here

How Does Bloom Identify and Bring Back Lost Customers?

Bloom Intelligence uses machine learning to identify at-risk customers. When one is recognized, the system will send them a message with an incentive to get them to return and re-establish their visit pattern. Bloom users are seeing up to 37% of churning customers return.

Learn More About Saving At-Risk Customers Here

SAVE TIME, INCREASE CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUES, CREATE NEW CUSTOMERS

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“Bloom Intelligence really is a step ahead in terms of marketing software and metrics. Their product is reliable, fast and innovative and has helped the company I work for really grow.”

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“Working with Bloom Intelligence has been amazing. They assist you every step of the way and work with you hand in hand to make sure you are optimizing your advertising potential. We are excited to use this tool to help learn more about our customers so that we can personally engage with them and understand our strengths/weaknesses.”

Ariel Ramirez

“In these challenging times, it has been a pleasure working with Bloom Intelligence to help facilitate our service offering to our clients. They were extremely responsive and provided support to mitigate risk and minimize revenue loss. Great partner!”

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“We’re extremely pleased with the wealth of customer data that we’re able to gather, at a very attractive price.  In addition, we’re able to communicate our new product promotions by using  the landing page as a digital billboard.  A “no-brainer” for anyone working with limited Marketing $$.”

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