Why You Must Run Current Restaurant Promotions + Examples

Sometimes, potential customers need a little extra motivation to press the order button. An easy way to tempt them to buy your food is to add one or more restaurant promotions that they won’t be able to resist.

If you choose to make current restaurant promotions a constant part of your marketing strategy, you will notice an improvement in a variety of areas, such as profit margin and client retention.

Read on to find out the expected and unexpected ways current restaurant deals can benefit your business:

How current restaurant promotions can help your business

Current restaurant promotions are known for attracting new clients. After all, if people have to choose between two restaurants, they will usually pick the one that has a better deal. But adding offers to your restaurant menu will help achieve so much more:

1. Fill your tables

Did you notice your restaurant often has slow periods when it feels like you are losing money because the restaurant is mostly empty? Then start using current restaurant promotions that are only available for in-location customers.

Don’t forget to also use a table reservation system on your website to make it easy for customers to book a spot without unnecessary steps.

If you use the free table reservation system from GloriaFood, you can also enable people to pre-order their food online, at the time of their booking. This way, you can provide a faster service and increase table turnover.

2. Increase the number of online orders

You can always sell more food by implementing deals that only work for online customers. You can even go a step further and encourage online payment with 5% off the whole menu offer.

To ensure you are getting the most results with as little investment as possible, you can also add conditions to the promo. For example, you can make the offer available only once per client or only for specific hours when you don't get a large amount of online orders.

3. Get more loyal customers

Attracting new customers is just the first step to running a successful restaurant. To keep your establishment profitable for a long time, you must tempt people to return.

A great way to get more loyal customers is to set up a loyalty program with promotions. For example:

• Offer 50% off the next order for clients who placed 5 orders at your restaurant;
• Offer a free dessert for people who spend a cumulated amount of $100.

4. Rank higher in Google searches

A lot of people find new restaurants by searching on Google. They will usually search for keywords such as type of cuisine and location, for example, "Asian food Upper New York". But they also use keywords related to promotions like "2 for 1 restaurants near me”.

If you want your restaurant to appear on the first page for these types of searches, all you have to do is add promotions to your menu and also promote them in your website's content.

Read more The best keywords for restaurants to increase their visibility online

5. Increase average order value

Current restaurant promotions can help you persuade customers to order more if you add a minimum order value. It is not profitable to offer big promotions such as free delivery or a free item for small orders because you end up losing money.

Instead, a minimum order value of $60 or more will allow you to give people a deal while not affecting your profit margin.

6. Sell more of your high-profit menu items

A good restaurant menu should include a lot of high-profit items to ensure you cover all your business’s costs and are also enjoying financial gain. But what if clients order mostly low-profit dishes?

With current restaurant promotions, you can tempt customers to order more of your high-profit items. For example, let’s say you have a pizza that gets overlooked. You can add a 2+1 free deal to increase the sales for it.

7. Improve restaurant reputation

Having a spotless reputation is a must in the food industry. The more good reviews you have, the higher the chance potential customers will choose your restaurant. The opposite is also true as negative reviews are hard to ignore.

By adding current restaurant promotions to your menu, you create a better customer experience. You offer the same delicious food with a great deal that clients will appreciate, and they may even recommend online.

Restaurant deal ideas you must try

If you would like to add current restaurant promotions but need a bit of inspiration, here are some ideas you can try:

Thursday restaurant offers

For most restaurants, Thursday is not a very profitable day because people wait for the weekend to go out for food. You can increase your orders by adding promotions only available on this day, such as free delivery.

2-for-1 restaurant deals

For this type of offer, choose only high-profit menu items so you don't end up giving away money.

Friday takeout deals

If you notice your takeout sales go down on Fridays because most people prefer to go out, attract people to your restaurant by offering Free delivery or a Free dessert for online orders.

15% on selected items during Happy Hours

Happy Hours is the period when you sell less during the day, usually 4-6 p.m., between lunch and dinner. Give people a discount for selected items, such as the pizza menu, to get them to order more.

5% discount on combo meal

A customer may have only planned to buy a main dish, but if they see an offer where they get a discount when they add a dessert, they will be tempted to treat themselves.

To learn how to easily set up combo deals using our promotions module, check out the video tutorial below.

Read more: 10 food promotion templates to boost online restaurant sales

Final words

If you want to get more new and loyal customers, increase average order value, and grow your profit, you must run current restaurant promotions.

Save time and effort by using the Promotions Module from GloriaFood which not only makes the setting up process a breeze but also allows you to monitor the promotions’ results.