Database Marketing For Restaurants 101
Database Marketing For Restaurants 101
Do you collect your customer information? If not you could be missing out on some fantastic cheap and easy marketing.
Why you should be collecting your customer information?
When you have personal information of your customers you can tailor personal marketing messages to them. The cheapest and easiest way to increase your sales is by targeting your customers with personal marketing messages. This is often overlooked as a marketing strategy in hospitality businesses. To target your customers you need a database. So this type of marketing is referred to as database marketing. In this post I’ll share how to start building your database so you can use database marketing for restaurants in your business.
What customer information should you collect?
- Basics are essential – name, contact details (phone, email, address)
- Sales information is important – what they buy, when, how
- Also useful are more personal details – birthday, family profile (single, no. children), hobbies or likes
How you can collect your customer information?
There are a number of ways to collect customer information, but the most effective way is to incentivise the customer with a special deal, freebie, or competition. Let anyone signing up know exactly what their information will be used for to make sure you adhere to relevant Privacy laws.
- Business card drops – Draw a free lunch once a month from the pool of business cards.
- Newsletter sign up – have a simple sign up sheet at your register or flyer that you put in with your bill that offers special deals via the newsletter.
- Social media – have signs that encourage customers to like or follow your facebook, twitter or instagram accounts. Let them know you’ll be posting special deals exclusive to your social media followers.
- Loyalty programs – get customers to register their details to receive a card. Print it with “10th coffee FREE”.
What can you do with your customer information?
Collecting your customer’s information provides them with value, but also you get something valuable out of it too. Database marketing for restaurants is based on marketing to your existing customers. This is cheaper and easier than finding new ones. And better customer relationships means increased loyalty and less price sensitivity. All fostering more sales and higher profits for you.
Use this information to send out targeted special deals like the folllowing;
- On what may be a traditionally slow night at your restaurant you could offer “family dining” where kids menu items are half price, or soft drinks are free.
- Send out a birthday card to customers during their birthday month offering them a free dessert or glass of wine.
- Send out emails to all the business card entries about getting their corporate lunch catering done with you.
If you have any other ideas of ways you capture or use customer information in your business we’d love to hear about it.
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