If you’re like most restaurants, chances are you’re always on the hunt for a way to grow revenue with new and existing customers. Marketing to new customers seems easy. You can offer various promotions or coupons to get people in the proverbial door (or virtual door if you offer online ordering). Marketing to existing customers is all about bringing them back over and over again.
The good news, however, is that marketing to existing customers has never been easier. Thanks to online ordering tools you have a plethora of data available right at your fingertips that can help you make marketing decisions.
Determine What Your Goals Are
Your business goals will vary from week to week. One week you might want to push a certain meal that has ingredients that need to be rotated out. Another week you could plan to introduce a new dish and want to promote it and gauge interest.
Whatever you want to do, it’s important to know your goals and use those to determine what information is needed to make further decisions.
As an example, if you’re looking to promote a new dish, you’ll want to see if you can find people who have ordered meals with similar flavors or makeups. Online ordering software can provide that information.
Personalize The Customer Experience
One of the best things about knowing what people are ordering and how often they’re ordering is that you can easily customize their experience. Whether suggesting a new meal to order or reminding someone that it’s almost dinner time and you have their favorite dish ready for them, you can use someone’s past order history to drive future orders.
Similarly, if an individual orders dinner at the same time every day or even week and suddenly stops, you can send them a reminder email that you’re there.
Use Email Marketing
According to a recent study done by McKinsey & Company, email marketing is 40 times more effective than social media. When your customers place an order, you get their email address. That is worth its weight in gold.
Reach out to customers whose emails you have and regularly market to them This is a great way to drive sales on slow days (like Tuesdays) and remind customers that you’re open durings times when your hours or availability might vary.
Evaluate Your Email Marketing
Email marketing might initially prove to be a struggle, but by evaluating your data and using it to make future decisions you will see results. Remember, marketing is a marathon, not a spring.
Here are some important numbers to watch for each email you send:
- Open rate | the percentage of recipients actually opening your email
- Click rate | the percentage of recipients clicking whatever you have to offer in the email
- Order rate | the percentage of people placing orders
As you begin to evaluate these numbers you develop an understanding of what subject lines work, the types of offers that drive the most sales, and how people are engaging with the content you’re sending.
Data doesn’t have to be daunting. By slowly starting to study the data you have access to through your online ordering system you can begin to make decisions that will drive profits and keep customers happy.