You have a great loyalty program set up, but no one is using it… so what’s the point? A lot of money is already riding in your investment, but there’s no payoff. What’s missing?
Maybe it’s a sign to stop putting your restaurant loyalty program on the backburner and start pushing it through marketing campaigns!
The key to success is standing out, and one of the ways to do this is through a successful marketing campaign for your restaurant loyalty program. In this article, we’ll walk you through the best practices for creating successful marketing campaigns for your restaurant loyalty program.
Key Components of a Successful Restaurant Marketing Campaign
When you look into crowded restaurants and wonder how they can be so full of customers, you’re sure to find a marketing campaign working quietly behind the scenes. The best campaigns are the ones that are out of sight but never out of mind. Here are four proven strategies to promote your loyalty programs:
Gamification (make loyalty programs fun!)
Brands, from cafes to restaurants, see a 47% rise in engagement and a 22% rise in brand loyalty due to using gamified strategies. These could be multi-step challenges or games of chance like Spin the Wheel.
When customers are given the chance to win something or achieve value through games, you don’t even have to sell them anything, they’ll buy it willingly.
How it works: Let’s say you want your customers to spend more at your store. The problem is that increasing prices may do the opposite and push loyal customers away. However, if you implement SimpleLoyalty’s Spin and Win campaign, customers will naturally spend more because they get something out of it, too!
All you need to do is set the minimum spending criteria, what rewards customers can get after spending them, and let the game work its magic.
Why it works: Who doesn’t like playing games? It’s a win-win scenario! More fun and engagement for customers lead to increased participation, which means higher retention rates and, ultimately, stronger brand loyalty for restaurants.
Personalization (being specific makes your customers feel appreciated)
Customizability is key. Restaurants that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue than average businesses.
The first step is getting to know your customers, using previous data to know what rewards make them happy. When you do, you can make a marketing campaign tailored to their preferences.
How it works: Your customers get spam all the time. So how do you get their attention? Well, through SimpleLoyalty’s SMS marketing, we can personalize each message and tailor it to each customer’s name and needs.
Why it works: Understanding the market allows you to target promising customer segments that suit your strengths and budget. When someone makes a random announcement in a crowd, no one bats an eye, but when they start getting specific and calling out your interests, suddenly you’re hooked. The same rules apply!
Clear Call to Action (CTA)
After customers interact with your loyalty program, they need to know what to do next! That’s why in the restaurant business, always leaving customers with a call to action is a must.
Whether on your landing page, the checkout counter, or whatever else your customers happen to encounter, a CTA turns customer attention into valuable action.
How it works: If customers leave your restaurant or your store page without doing anything after, then something is wrong. By having reminders from your staff, or through SimpleLoyalty’s Acquisition Pages and SMS Marketing, old customers will be more eager to come back, and new customers will be more attracted to try your restaurant.
Why it works: A clear and compelling CTA guides customers toward your desired result, whether it’s making a purchase, enrolling in your loyalty program, or spreading good word of mouth. You can’t expect customers to do what you want if you don’t remind them what to do!
Sustainability (keep profits consistent and your restaurant afloat!)
To make sure your investment isn’t going to waste, your campaign have to be profitable. It’s a no-brainer! But for every successful loyalty program, there are a dozen running at high costs with low returns on investment.
This could be the result of many things, from a poor understanding of customers to low-quality engagement. What’s important is to always keep sustainable profits in mind. Remember, this is a long-term investment! You’re not looking for people who spend a lot in one day, you’re looking for people who’ll keep coming back tomorrow, next week, and all the weeks after.
How it works: You can’t leave campaigns running without regularly checking your profit margins! Because SimpleLoyalty’s marketing campaigns are customizable, you can change settings on the fly according to your preferred expenses. And thanks to our accurate data collection, you’re making sure that you’re getting what you want out of customers.
Why it works: By getting an accurate profile of what your customers value, giving them a compelling hook through games, and then finishing off with a homerun CTA, you’re making sure you don’t blow the marketing budget for pennies!
SimpleLoyalty’s Marketing Campaigns
Acquisition Pages
What it is: Through this campaign, you can send an automated message to customers that’ll bring them to a custom page of your choosing. This is where you can offer customers a bonus meal or snack on their next visit, or when they sign up for your program.
By having a clear call to action on your acquisition page, you’re not just giving away free promos, you’re getting new customers in return!
Impact: Everyone likes freebies! In this case, while customers get the satisfaction of free food or discounts, you get an increased number of sign-ups. And that means new customers. The stats don’t lie; broadcasting offers amounts to a high conversion rate! You don’t have to look too far, SimpleLoyalty once helped a cafe acquire 411 new customers, earning RM23,737 from a modest budget of RM1.46 per customer.
Spin & Win
What it is: This one is all about fun! First, you set the minimum amount of how much customers should spend before they get a reward. Then, you can customize how many rewards they can get, and the chances to get them.
Like all the marks of a successful marketing campaign, this gamified strategy motivates customers to outspend themselves in order to win a rare prize.
Impact: Spin the Wheel games are a surefire way to engage customers for higher spending. People are hardwired to keep trying for a chance at winning big, which means you get more profit at a marginal cost. You don’t have to take our word for it; it’s a modern trend that even big chains like Burger King are employing.
Google Reviews
What it is: Ask anyone who’s unsure what to eat for dinner; reviews are important! They’re like your popularity meter. So, if you want to be the cool kid in town, you can motivate customers to leave reviews in exchange for a prize.
This checks all the boxes of a successful marketing campaign. Not only do customers get a direct call to action for leaving reviews, but each review adds to your restaurant’s reputation, making it more profitable in the long run.
Impact: Not only can you build trust and restaurant visibility to newcomers, but you’re also able to track and reward returning customers who drop a review, getting you two customer segments for the price of one campaign. The reviews don’t even have to be glowing with praise, they’re already helping traffic either way.
Point Multiplier
What it is: Not all days are created equal; every restaurant faces the dread of slow days and off-peak seasons, but there are ways around this! By creating a timed multiplier on certain days, customers will naturally come to your doors to get that juicy bonus, saving for rewards and redemptions.
With limited time before the multiplier expires, there’s a sense of urgency for customers to drop by, increasing demand and, eventually, leading to full tables.
Impact: We know that slow days can be frustrating. Nothing feels as disappointing as empty seats at rush hour. That’s why our point multipliers serve to solve that problem by attracting customers on off-peak times. This motivates people to visit on days they don’t usually do in exchange for redemption points. No need to wait for a miracle!
The Impact of SimpleLoyalty’s Marketing Campaigns on Restaurants
These aren’t just theories; let’s look at real cases where SimpleLoyalty’s marketing campaigns helped restaurants thrive:
Using Gamification to Improve Customer Engagement
A Chinese restaurant once came to us with a problem. They wanted to make a lucky draw campaign to engage customers but were unsure how to do it.
Challenge: Effectively collect submissions to determine the grand prize winner. Usually, customers had to write down their contact info on receipts and put it in a ballot box. That’s when winners would be manually decided on social media.
Solution: We suggested using our Spin and Win campaign. It’s not only trackable, but also more fun for everyone joining the giveaway. By digitizing everything, all data was recorded on the dashboard, making it easy to play and convenient to track. Restaurant employees can be relieved knowing they don’t have to count manually!
Result: After the campaign, over RM26K redemptions were made from returning customers. And that’s in addition to the RM25K sales from customers increasing their average spending. Spin and Win not only created a reason for customers to engage with the restaurant during the campaign, but it also encouraged them to return long after it’s over.
Utilizing Point Multiplier to Multiply Visits on Off-Peak Days
Another story has a hotpot restaurant having particular trouble on Tuesdays, when their sales fell to the week’s lowest.
Challenge: Increase sales on Tuesdays to make up for the loss.
Solution: We proposed double point multipliers every Tuesday, calling it “Members Day.” The restaurant promoted this campaign through SMS and social media, making customers aware and consistently engaged.
Result: Visits on Tuesday rose 9% over the years, with annual sales growing by 4%. This proves that customers can change their spending habits when presented with attractive incentives. Point Multiplier may be the answer to your troubles if you want to drive sustainable growth.
Takeaways
Whether you’re launching a loyalty program for the first time or already have an existing one in progress, effectively promoting your program is pivotal to its success.
To recap, the key components of a successful marketing campaign are gamification, personalization, a clear call to action, and profit sustainability. And based on those essential pillars, SimpleLoyalty provides four marketing campaigns, which are Acquisition Pages, Spin & Win, Google Reviews, and Point Multiplier.
Once you know what you’re missing and have learned the strategies above, you can be sure to get the surge of loyal customers you’ve been waiting for.
What’s the hold up? It’s time to revitalize your customer base with SimpleLoyalty!
