An Effective Groupon Marketing Plan For Restaurants

In the world of restaurant deal marketing, having a Groupon marketing plan is one of the best ways to target consumers who have a variety of options, thanks to digital marketing. However, it is natural to wonder if these Groupons make the most business sense. When it comes to restaurant Groupon promotions, not every restaurant ends up faring well.

This is because the majority of restaurants are focused on their day to day operations when they should be taking a long term approach. Any successful restaurant marketing campaign takes on both a holistic viewpoint and a short term perspective, combining them to come up with restaurant deals that work in the present and over the long haul.

Groupon Marketing Plan

Groupon for restaurants provides an excellent platform, allowing restaurants to reach over 30 million users. Those who use Groupon tend to be younger, have disposable income to spare and will return to places where they’ve had good dining experiences in the past. While Groupon can help to advertise your business, it can also attract deal seekers and hurt a brand’s image.

A good promotional deal attracts new customers that a restaurant was unable to reach in the past and turns them into loyal customers who will return over and over again, leading to an increase in revenue.

The following seven steps will help your business establish a successful restaurant Groupon: 

1. Establish Campaign Goal

Before beginning a digital marketing plan, it is important to know exactly what you’d like to accomplish. Knowing your goal helps to drive your strategies for maximizing revenues. Are you looking to tap into a new market or simply expand your old one? Is your restaurant marketing campaign focused on brand awareness?

Or perhaps you are looking to capitalize on a certain time of year. No matter what your goal is, having a clear objective in mind during the early going allows you to tailor your marketing strategies accordingly.

2. Determine Your Target Market

Once you’ve established a goal, the next part of your restaurant marketing campaign that needs to be established is what consumer you are targeting. Some restaurants may decide that they wish to maintain their current customer base, while others may feel that their most crucial need is attracting fresh faces.

The goal of the campaign and the consumers you are trying to target are the two bedrock principles that must be set in stone before you begin. Your restaurant needs to be able to identify the race, age, gender and financial station of the customers that they are trying to attract.

3. Choose Deal Channel

Deciding how you will reach these customers and accomplish your goals is the next step that needs to be taken. While Groupon is a large site that lets you reach millions of people, there a variety of other sites which are incredibly useful and should not be ignored when starting your campaign.

Some restaurants give their patrons the opportunity to like them on Facebook and offer deals that way. Others may choose to use sites like Savoured and Travelzoo. Depending on the consumers you are trying to reach and the segment you are aiming for, different sites may serve different purposes.

4. What Deal Will Be Offered?

This aspect must be carefully considered. A digital marketing campaign is great, but not if it ends up bankrupting the restaurant in the process and attracting the wrong kind of customers, thus tarnishing their brand. The deal that you offer will depend almost entirely on the goal you are trying to achieve.

The average guest check, food cost percentage, operational cost percentage, return rate of customers and the number of tables at the restaurant are all factors that weigh into the deal that you will be able to offer.

 5. Select Upsell Strategy

If your restaurant does not having a strategy in place for upselling, then you will need to establish one. The strategy of upselling is pivotal, as it allows restaurants to increase the average guest check and their overall level of profitability. The servers are a key part of this process.

Employees must be trained in the art of upselling and be offered rewards that will provide them with incentive them to do so. Promotions can also be offered within the restaurant to entice diners to make additional purchases.

6. Repeat Consumers

When you are starting your restaurant Groupon promotion, are you doing so with the intention of creating a new base of customers? When you draw repeat customers, you can increase revenue and positive word of mouth. Being able to engage with these customers is crucial.

E-mail marketing campaigns, social media advertising and an engaging website are all keys to enticing a customer to make return visits to your establishment. Unless your plan drives engagement with the customers, you will not be able to achieve your goal.

 7. Develop an Integrated Digital Plan

In order to reach your digital marketing goals, all parts of your plan must work together in perfect sync. When every aspect of your digital plan, including your website, social media presence, e-mail marketing, and promotional tools are working together, this increases the chances that your restaurant Groupon promotion will go as planned.

Each part of your digital strategy needs to work in concert. If even one aspect is not handled properly, it can cause an unfortunate domino effect. Attracting new customers is all about making sure that every member of the team is pulling in the same direction.

Now your turn:

Have you run a groupon deals for your business? Let us know how well it worked or if it did not, what did not work?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below.