Want to know how to better promote your online ordering and increase online sales? Check out our article of 25 tips that will be sure to give you a boost!
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1. Right click on the first image and click Save Image As.
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3. Print as an A4 page.
4. Repeat for the second page.
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1. Contact your local council for advertising space in their newsletter or website.
A great way to attract local customers to your business, is by reaching out to the council in which your venue is located, and purchase advertising space in their newsletter or on their website.
Additionally, by introducing yourself and offering discounts to community leaders such as police officers, or fire fighters you can naturally create a sense of community linked to your business.
2. Create an “Order Online” button on your website which links to your online menu.
By creating an “Order Online” button, you better assist your customers in easily accessing your menu, so that they won’t need to spend more than 10 seconds on your website to find what they are looking for.
The key is to place this button within the top header as that serves as the focal point on your website. You can decide whether you want it top-left, top-right or top-centre.
3. Create a blog for your restaurant.
Want to fascinate potential customers? Stay in touch with existing customers? Create a website or social media page that acts as a blog for your restaurant. You can post about the activities your restaurant is partaking in, any new menu items or specials of the day / week.
Sharing this blog across to your customers will harbour a greater line of communication that will help to promote your business.
4. Advertise QR code posters in your store and add it in your hardcopy menus.
QR codes in recent years have become a normal part of the customer experience. These simple and easy tools serve as a shortcut for customers to buy food and drinks from your menu.
Place QR codes that link to your online ordering on your front shop window, cash register, as an advertisement on your menus to make your menu incredibly accessible.
If you would like to have your own QR poster designed for your venue, please reach out to our team and we will be happy to assist. Or you can search online for a FREE QR code generator such as QR Code Monkey.
5. Create more traditional, physical advertisements.
Besides online promotion, more traditional, physical advertisement methods are always effective at promoting a venue to the public. These include things like posters, window displays, sizeable outdoors signs, bus stops as well brochures spread across your venue’s local area.
6. Place promotional flyers in your takeaway boxes.
Putting promotional flyers into your takeaway boxes encourages customers to repeat their business with you – now having a physical reminder in their home to purchase from your venue again.
An amazing idea that some restaurants do (as seen above) is implement a loyalty program, allowing customers to gain rewards from repeat business, like a free burger after buying 5 previously.
7. Mention your restaurant’s use of online ordering on your receipts and include social handles.
On your POS system, add the info for your online ordering into the text of each customer receipt.
Additionally, by having a Call-To-Action (CTA) such as, “Tag us and share on social media at #[Venue hashtag]!” your venue will be able to grow more awareness for your online ordering amongst your followers, as well as their followers! When customers look at their receipt, they will see this CTA some will tag and share. Then, when you are tagged by your customers in a post or story, you then can repost it on your profile for maximum impact.
8. Provide coupons or discounts for online ordering.
Promotional tools like online coupons and discounts tend to successfully increase sales. The OrderUp platform allows venues to create their own unique discount codes in the back-end console (See article on how to set these up here).
After setting these up, share them on your social media and mailing lists to maximise its effect.
If you would like to set up coupons that exclusively apply to customers who log in (providing you with their customer details), you can do so through the OrderUp back-end (See article here).
9. Promote your venue's business profile on LinkedIn.
Promoting your venue on LinkedIn may open up opportunities for venue that were not originally viable!
The site is a significantly useful platform for partnering with other people and organisations that will aim to boost both parties’ sales and public brand awareness.
10. Create posts and stories for your restaurant’s Instagram account and link online ordering menu in the bio.
Utilising Instagram is essential for the success of a restaurant in today’s day and age as it provides businesses with multiple visual capabilities, making your venue’s foods and drink look attractive to customers eyes.
A fantastic way to advertise your limited offers (e.g., discounts for a specific holiday), is by posting Instagram stories on your page, which only last for 24 hours.
Check out this Instagram Video here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqKNcNjAOeg/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
11. Create a “Call to Action” button on Facebook and utilise Facebook Business features.
A “Call-to-Action” button (CTA) is an essential function within Facebook Business, allowing your customers to be linked directly to your menu while viewing your Facebook page. Your button can say CTAs such as “Book Now” “Order Here” etc. It’s up to your venue. If you would like to learn how to set this up for your venue, please refer the first section of this article.
Further, as you can see in the example above, our client has posted an engaging promotional post in order to draw attention to customers who may follow the page or those who are viewing it for the first time. This assists in boosting online sales and so we recommend posting about 3 times a week or more in order to get the most out of this form of advertising.
Lastly, Facebook allows you to utilise ads that will be promoted to users on their feed even if they don’t follow your page! Purchase these for more exposure, effectively expanding your customer base.
12. Utilise mailing lists (like Mailchimp)
Utilise the customer data stored in the OU console (see how to export this data here) to send promotional emails to all known email addresses.
Also, make sure to reach out to the contacts on your mailing list when you first started the business.
When reaching out to these customers, think about sending through exclusive coupon codes as well as updating them about your promotional news.
Consider signing up to Mailchimp a superb tool for managing mailing lists and creating email marketing campaigns, automating what you would have had to do manually.
13. Utilise Google My Business and Google Food Ordering
Google My Business organise your business details and this sets your venue out from your competitors.
Google Food Ordering is what we handle for our customers. It allows for the online ordering aspect. To learn more about Google Food Ordering please refer to our article on it here.
How to Add a Menu on Your Google My Business Page
Step 1 – Go to the Google My Business website and login to your restaurant’s account.
Step 2 – On the left-hand side of the page, you’ll see an ‘Info’ and a ‘Menu’ tab. For now, click on the ‘Info’ tab which will open a panel of editable fields.
14. Create “THANK YOU CARDS”.
Another guaranteed way to build a stronger sense of customer loyalty is to display your appreciation for your customers’ patronage with a handwritten “Thank You” card.
Simply put these cards in every takeout packaging or write up the message directly onto the bag itself.
15. Create locally targeted ads
Going back to Facebook, Facebook advertising has an extensive set of features, meaning that because it allows for a more significant customer reach. You are able to create an ad that includes your online ordering and customise it to specific locations, demographics, as well as profiles. Once you upload your mailing lists your adverts can then be displayed to your existing customers along with people that are more likely to be potential customers.
16. Implement SMS messaging.
With SMS marketing, you are able to market to and communicate with your customers instantly! Send them updates about exclusive deals to increase your online sales.
See how to utilise SMS messaging to customers through our platform here.
You also always have the ability to message your customers using stored phone numbers in the OrderUp console customer data.
Further if you would like to know how to bulk send SMS messages, visit - ClickSend.com
17. Record On-hold Phone Messages.
You may have customers who are accustomed to ordering their takeaway via calling the restaurant. In order to inform them about your online ordering service, record “On-Hold Phone Messages” these messages play while the customer is on hold with your venue’s staff and is a great way to notify them of your updated ordering system. This then teaches them not to call your restaurant if they would like to order but instead to utilise online ordering.
18. Urge your customers to share their dining experiences on social media.
One of the best marketing tactics that has stood the test of time is word-of-mouth promotion. Encourage your customers to share photos of your venue’s food, while tagging you. This will create that social buzz effect, bringing in new customers and online orders with essentially no cost of marketing!
19. Suggest to your customers to leave a Google Review.
A great way to improve your reputation online (which will increase online sales), is by suggesting to your customers to leave you a positive Google Review.
NOTE: You should keep an eye on your reviews regularly so that you can respond accordingly to your customers.
20. Hire a food influencer to blog their experience at your venue.
Want to above and beyond? Hiring a food influencer who has a social media presence to come to your venue, review it and share it with their followers will significantly expand your exposure and it will give your venue an improved reputation!
The way to go about this is by searching up food influencers that are close enough to your venue and reaching out to them via social media or their business email.
21. Create a Tik-Tok account for your restaurant.
One of the most recent successful tools for the promotion of a business is by creating a Tik-Tok account. There are millions of users using Tik-Tok today, and by uploading engaging content which provides viewers with an insight into elements of your venue, you will see a significant up-turn in new customers and online sales. These elements can include:
- The preparation of your venue’s food
- The ease of your online ordering process
- The finished product
Further, Tik-Tok’s algorithms will quickly expose your content to audiences, through the “For You” (Explore) page, who may have never previously heard of your venue.
22. Offer discounts to businesses in the local area to foster customer loyalty.
If your venue is placed in a common building with other businesses, why not offer discounts to them to foster customer loyalty? By utilising our room service functionality you can treat each shop front / business as a "room", they will be able to order from a different menu which only applies to them (along with that special discount), ensuring that they return for repeat business.
You can create Coupons Codes in your backend console.
23. Hire out a venue to celebrate an anniversary of your business.
Got a higher budget for your marketing department? Why not go all out and hire out a venue to celebrate an anniversary of your business (e.g. 1 year since opening).
You can invite influencers, loyal customers, and people who work for and with the business to make it a celebration that will be the talk of the town for weeks to come!
24. Train staff to mention online ordering system to customers as they are making an order.
This easy method of promoting your business adds a personal touch. Simply train your staff to inform customers of your online ordering as they are taking their order.
25. Offer your restaurant to be part of a TV commercial or a show as a set.
Have a venue you are proud to show off? Offer up your restaurant as a set for a TV commercial or show, in order to get massive amounts of exposure which will be sure to boost your online sales!