Give to get

Business is not what it should be. We need new customers. Even more important, we need our existing customers to come more often. How do we encourage them to come? Tasty food at a decent price is all very well but it’s not enough to get more customers through your door. So you give them something: a discount, a free bottle of wine, a plastic toy for the kids …You give to get. You give your customers an incentive and you get more business from them. Great! We’re getting the hang of this marketing thing! Now let’s take a moment to consider an idea that could be just a bit smarter again.

They should give too

You have given them an incentive to come to your restaurant and you have got some business out of it. But you might be missing a trick. Why not get your customers to give you something in exchange for your incentive? Three reasons:
(1) You get a useful benefit;
(2)  Customers value the deal not the discount;
(3) You keep your profit margins up.

Useful benefit

To qualify for your offer, your customers should do something for you. How about Early Bird, or Two for One Tuesdays? All restaurants have peak time. To get the offer customers come off peak so you can keep your peak times free for full paying customers. Invite a friend offers are a good way of getting new customers to your restaurant.

Most important, make sure customers agree to further marketing from you from you before you give them an offer. You can’t market to them unless you know who they are. So, if a customer wants an offer he has to give you his contact details in exchange. A well run loyalty programme makes this easy for you.  If you don’t have one, get one.

Value the deal, not the discount

Deals are better than discounts. It’s a good thing if customers think about what they need to do to get your offer. It means they don’t expect to get a discount every time and for no reason. This is your consolation if you hate discounts because they devalue your product. Give to get keeps the value where it was.

Protect your profit margins

Discounts can kill your margins. If you have margins of 20% then a 10% discount removes most of your profit. But you can get your profit back again by setting a minimum amount to spend. Set the minimum above your average value – customers will target that amount and spend a bit more than is necessary to go over the threshold. They are happy to get a deal and you’re happy to get a bigger purchase.  A well run online ordering system will help you set the appropriate amount and ensure it is met every time.

Make sure you have a give to get marketing system

Ensuring you get full value out of all your offers and campaigns is a major task. If you need advice on how to do this, please send me a note via “Ask Barry”.