Get Ready To Start Holiday Promotions For Your Restaurant

Halloween is exactly one week away! That means a couple of important things. Firstly, it’s a good idea to hand out some free sugary treats to the patrons of your restaurant over the next week. Secondly, it’s practically mandatory that you get ready to launch your holiday promotions the day after Halloween!

Get yourself heard on the radio.

As far as the world of business is concerned, the holiday shopping season practically begins once the calendar turns to November. As Aida Behmen-Milicevic explains on POSSector.com, it’s important to begin advertising your holiday offers early and continue them straight through until Christmas. She cites radio commercials about your restaurant’s offers as a great advertising method.

“You will ensure that every table in your restaurant (will) be booked in advance, and you will be well prepared for (the) holiday season,” writes Behmen-Milicevic, “You can expect that traffic will increase during November and December, because many of the guests will come to try your specialties and check the atmosphere in your restaurant before…Christmas or New Year’s Eve.”

Get yourself seen online.

While radio commercials are tried and true methods of advertising, it’s hard to argue that videos aren’t among the most appealing ways to connect to large audiences. With the help of social media, a video about your restaurant’s holiday specials will do a lot to tantalize taste buds and fill seats.

“Video marketing is becoming increasingly popular,” Behmen-Milicevic points out, “So many people are looking for recipes and additional information to prepare traditional holiday dishes…Let your chef demonstrate the preparation of dishes from holiday offers. People like to know what you will cook for them. Be sure to include the links to online booking for Christmas or New Year’s Eve in your promotional video.”

Get your gift cards ready.

It should come as a surprise to no one that gift cards are incredibly popular during the holiday shopping season. And there are few business types that experience higher gift card sales than restaurants. You’d be hard pressed to find an individual who doesn’t appreciate a delicious meal…especially when that meal is free!

Be sure to highlight the fact that your restaurant sells gift cards in all of its promotional material. And, as Lorri Mealey advises on TheBalanceSMB.com, make sure that you have plenty of gift cards on hand to sell throughout the holiday season. This is will be especially important to satisfy last-minute shoppers.

“Since a large number of cards are bought on Christmas Eve…it may be worth paying a staff person to be at the restaurant, just to sell gift cards,” suggests Mealey, “We did this at our restaurant (giving the staff person who volunteered a bonus for working Christmas Eve) and always make several hundred dollars, without serving any food or drink.”

At Canadian POS, we know that gift cards offer restaurants the perfect solutions for business growth. Contact us today to learn more about how our electronic gift cards can help you to encourage repeat business, attract new customers and boost sales all year long. Please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.