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Best Marketing Solution to Survive Coronavirus for Restaurants

Published April 21st, 2020 by Birthdays 4 Business

GOOD NEWS - YOUR RESTAURANT’S MARKETING SOLUTION TO COVID-19 CHALLENGING TIMES!

As we know, the coronavirus has caused all of us to rethink how we conduct business, but the good news is that there is hope for a brighter future! We’re offering solutions to help your restaurant survive and thrive RIGHT NOW and keep your business growing thereafter. First, let’s look at the four reasons why consumers buy from a restaurant.

FOOD – BEVERAGE - SERVICE – ATMOSPHERE

COVID-19 has restricted consumers from purchasing for atmosphere reasons, but they can still enjoy your food w/ limited beverage and service via pickup. So why aren’t more people doing this? Simply put, it isn’t because they don’t like what you have to offer any more. It’s simply because it’s different than what they’re used to or in the habit of doing.

WE ARE ALL CREATURES OF HABIT.

When customers think of carryout, drive-up, or delivery, certain businesses come to mind, but probably not yours unless that’s been your normal business model. They usually think of you when they are thinking of all their other choices to dine-in somewhere, which is a huge number of options in itself during “good times.”

HOW DO YOU CHANGE CUSTOMER HABITS?

First of all, let’s talk about what doesn’t work. It’s not effective to only post on Facebook or your front sign to say you’re now doing curbside or carryout and hope enough people see it and respond. This method of marketing dramatically limits growth to maximize sales even in prosperous times, much less during a pandemic that’s forced all of us to change our way of thinking.

THE GOOD NEWS: WE HAVE A SOLUTION!

We call it “Marketing with a Heart”. If you reach out to customers in a very personalized and directly targeted way – with an incentive for them to order by carryout, curbside, or delivery as well as dine-in when available – you can start a new top-of-mind awareness when they think of ordering food. Then, follow up with them to keep them coming back until it becomes a new habit or re-establishing their previous habit of visiting you. You’re just offering other options in how they receive their food. It’s that simple but powerful! You’re diversifying their current “perception” of who you are and reaching out to them vs counting on them to think of visiting you on their own.

Sure, if they wanted to buy from you for atmosphere only, you might not get those sales, but if you do it right, you can get new customers you didn’t have by offering carryout, delivery, or drive-up. You could actually make more after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted for dine-in because you will have reached a whole new market in addition to previous customer types.

INTRODUCING OUR NEW COVID-19 REBOUND ‘WE MISS YOU’ MAILERS.

We have designed a special COVID-19 Rebound marketing method we call “We Miss You.” It’s a special direct mail piece that looks like this example. This template design would be customized and personalized for your particular restaurant.

WHY THIS STRATEGY WORKS.

Everyone is missing each other right now – you miss your customers, and they miss you. Reuniting you with your patrons re-establishes your relationship via carryout, curbside, delivery, drive-up or dine-in. They will appreciate it for two important reasons: you’re showing that you care while reassuring them that they can still have the wonderful food they’ve been enjoying via a new buying habit. We can help you with the ideal wording, suggested offers, and restrictions to help you maximize your profits. We can also give you some ideas for your overall restaurant strategy.

HOW DO YOU GET THE MAILER RESPONDENTS TO KEEP COMING BACK?

First, serve them great food!  From a marketing perspective, we can add a simple text and/or wi-fi opt-in message for them to sign-up for future updates and offers. This way we can automatically keep in touch with them for you. For example, we can automatically send them another “We Miss You” digital message if they haven’t been back for a certain period of time. We can also keep them updated with any changes and incentives you desire. It’s amazing!

KEEP MOMENTUM GOING AND GROW BUSINESS AMONG FUTURE NEW AND LOST CUSTOMERS.

Proven data shows that there’s one non-seasonal time of year when most consumers spend extra money with all types of restaurants even if times are tough: birthdays. No matter if it’s dine-in, carryout, curbside, drive-up or delivery, this is when rewarding your customers’ loyalty means the most to them. Never take their business for granted. It’s a perfect time to get brand new customers to try your place for the first time and coax lost customers to return. You can also select and reach out to get most every new regular prospect in your neighborhood you desire.

Birthdays are also a great time to replace lost customers due to them moving away from you (statistically 17%) or become deceased. It’s a great time when you can actually track your return on investment for a change. Birthdays are a holiday that supersedes all others for extra restaurant sales, comparable to a Christmas that is spread out all year long. It’s a time that you can count on to have a steady flow of new business every month, even during the COVID-19 pandemic and generate up to 400% return on any investment every 30 days. Birthdays are a business slam-dunk, and this is why Birthdays 4 Business was born back in 2004. You can achieve ALL of these additional benefits with us besides just utilizing birthday marketing as a promotion for existing customer sign-ups. It makes a huge difference!

See Mailer Examples Here


WHY BIRTHDAYS 4 BUSINESS IS RECESSION-PROOF (862,000 GENERATED IN SALES FROM JUST ONE RESTAURANT).

Back in 2008 when the stock market crashed and many restaurants were closing, our Birthdays 4 Business Birthday mailers helped keep many restaurants solvent while many others were closing One Casual/Fine Dining 30 table restaurant in particular called Jerry’s Old Town Inn generated $862,000 in extra sales from our Birthday mailers’ first visit alone. This was generated from OUR birthday data base, which includes Birthdays from New Movers into the area. Most of their responses were “non-regulars” which verifies the sales were mostly “additional” spending they would not have had “without” the mailers. As an additional profit value, the restaurant had the opportunity to turn many of these New Faces into New Regulars. The “Regulars” that received the mailer were rewarded for their patronage all year long. Consumers LOVE receiving tangible birthday cards and gifts! If you send different ones out to different birthday prospects each month, your business will continue to thrive incrementally.

PROVEN BIRTHDAY MAILERS ARE PROFITABLE FOR CARRYOUT, CURBSIDE, DRIVE-UP & DELIVERY AS WELL AS DINE-IN.

Wingstop, a nationally branded chain, has been using our birthday mailers for over a year now, with most their responses being for carryout. They have welcomed hundreds of new customers from our Birthdays 4 Business mailers. Boss’ Pizza and Chicken has three locations: one serving dine-in and two serving carryout or delivery only. The owner originally wanted to try and grow their dine-in business and restricted the birthday mailer offers to dine-in only, yielding a modest response. Later, once they lifted the dine-in only restriction to include birthday offers for carryout or delivery, their response rate increased dramatically. Rafael’s is another predominately dine-in restaurant that has been using our Birthday mailers for carry-out during the CORVID-19 pandemic, and it’s been a key strategy in helping them stay solvent. Get this! One Mexican Restaurant in Florida reported record Margarita sales during COVID-19 with curbside service.

BIRTHDAYS 4 BUSINESS MAILERS AUTOMATICALLY CREATE PROMOTIONAL FOLLOW-UP MARKETING LISTS.

Every mailer has an attached data card to obtain email, direct mail, and texting guest lists to keep in touch with customers for updates and events like anniversaries, holidays, reminders, and promotions. We can do all of this for you automatically. Having a pre-existing customer list has been a lifesaver for many restaurants during COVID-19 to help promote updates, changes, and offers to boost extra sales and keep personalized relationships alive during this time.

FOR A LIMITED TIME – SPECIAL COVID-19 PROMOTION

We are offering FREE “We Miss You” Mailers for the FIRST 50 RESTAURANT participants. This is a “SECRET WEAPON” against COVID-19 to help our restaurant partners SURVIVE and PROSPER during these challenging times. 

JUST CLICK ON THE CONTACT US LINK AND COMPLETE THE FORM.
WE WILL GET BACK TO YOU RIGHT AWAY WITH MORE DETAILS!

CONTACT US


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