Social networks initially played the role of showcases in charge of exposing the virtues of restaurants and allowing them to find customers. They have now changed, becoming spaces for direct and continuous interaction, rich in multiple possibilities for marketing for restaurants. One of the most effective tools they offer is the contest, with the following benefits:
- Find more subscribed customers quickly.
- Obtain the contact details of these customers for the various marketing actions.
- Obtain active customer participation in an activity directly related to the brand.
- Create a viral effect, as users share contests.
- Generate positive emotions towards the restaurant.
- Retain the customers- subscribers who will watch the following contests.
- And of course, encourage these customers to visit the restaurant frequently .
5 Marketing Tips For Restaurants When Presenting The Bill
To launch a contest on social media, it is important to define the following factors:
The price: It must be relevant to both the customer and the restaurant. The easiest way is to offer meals (lunches or dinners) allowing customers to discover gourmet products. For example, it would not be logical to offer a mobile phone or a tablet as a price, even if they have something to seduce.
Contest Duration: Set the contest start and end day and time so customers know how much time they have to enter. In this regard, a period of two weeks constitutes a relatively reasonable period to allow a satisfactory distribution of the competition.
Contest rules: They describe the steps to take to participate and the conditions .
Winner Selection System: You can reward customers who qualified with a specific action (eg those whose photo got the most likes) or hold a raffle. The main thing is that this information is transparent to everyone.
Method of awarding the prize: Indicate how the winner will be notified (in general, the results are announced publicly at the end of the contest) and how the prize will be awarded (the restaurant usually contacts the winner by private message).
One thing is certain, with contests on social networks, everyone wins!
- The customer enjoys a gastronomic experience.
- The restaurant consolidates its image, increases the number of its customers and, consequently, its sales.
Start thinking about what prizes you can offer and check out these examples to see how to run your social media contests:
Facebook contest
There are different ways to run contests on Facebook:
- Directly in publications. The idea is to encourage subscribers to take concrete action (like, share, comment) on the publication of the competition to participate. Here is an example of how to win a prize called “Win a dinner for two” in several steps: ask users to like the restaurant’s page (to increase its number of subscribers), share the post (to broaden the scope of the contest ) and / or, to finish, to leave a comment on a subject related to the competition (which makes it possible to group together in a single publication all the subscribers who participate).
- In forms. Facebook applications allow contests where users fill out forms indicating their data (e-mail address, phone number) to participate. It is an ideal way to communicate with them via newsletters, for example. The system is very simple, because the same application allows you to complete the form, publish it and carry out the draw to select the winner.
Contest with vote. Users upload their restaurant photos to a gallery on the page and everyone votes for their favorite photo.
Poll Contest: In this case, users answer a simple question about the restaurant (for example, “What is your favorite dessert?”) Or a poll with a multiple choice question (“In what year did the restaurant open? ”) to enter the prize draw.
Find customers on Instagram
Instagram is above all a network of photo publications. So the easiest and most logical contest is to share photos of the restaurant .
The dynamics are as follows:
The restaurant publishes an aesthetic image and invites users to participate by explaining the procedure:
1 – Leave a like on the profile of the restaurant.
2 – Upload a photo related to an aspect of the restaurant.
3 – Tag the photo with a hashtag specially created for the contest.
4 – The user whose photo gets the most likes wins the prize.
Post a photo by asking a question like “What’s the best sauce to go with our burgers?” “. Users should leave their response in the comments section of the photo. The winner is then drawn.
Post sharing contest. Post an aesthetic photo related to the contest, then hold a raffle among customer-subscribers who shared the photo in their own Instagram accounts.
Organize a monthly contest. Encourage subscribers to visit the restaurant each month and take, say, the most appetizing photo of your desserts. Then ask them to post it on their Instagram account, mentioning the restaurant’s account and above all, tagging it with a hashtag created especially for the contest, for example #Photodumois. In this way, each month customers have the opportunity to regularly win prizes, while the restaurant, for its part, increases its reservations.
Twitter contest
On Twitter, hashtags are what make it possible to find, share and classify content. Hashstags are therefore the main element to carry out marketing actions on this channel. Another feature of Twitter is that it does not apply image filtering algorithms (as it does on Facebook or Instagram), which allows posted tweets to be visible to all followers. Conclusion, the contests organized on this social network must be designed according to the different types of customers and contain a hashtag that promotes their distribution.
- The simplest and most effective contest, like on other social networks, is to invite users to tweet a photo of the restaurant , tag it with a special hashtag and then organize a raffle. In this case, you can also ask customers to follow the restaurant’s account and mention it in the tweet.
- Another possibility is to post a contest tweet inviting users to retweet it on their accounts and thus enter for a chance to win the prize.
- The best way to create a strong viral effect for a Twitter contest is to invite users to retweet the contest post and mention friends they would like to share the prize with, for example.
- Another good solution is to tweet a photo or video of the restaurant and ask users to reply to that tweet with a title or original name for the photo . The best answer wins the prize.
- Tweets are also an effective method of promoting competitions already organized on the restaurant’s website, for example. To do this, post a tweet with a photo from the contest and highlight the link to the contest page on the website.
Tip: By following your competitors on their social networks, you will be able to observe the actions they take, the type of contests they organize and in particular, the interactions of customers and the participation generated by the contests. You can find ideas there, adapt them to your own competitions, or even improve them.
Remember that it is very important to promote your contests on all networks and websites. It’s also essential that your restaurant’s social media pages include all the essentials for finding potential customers.
Also, since the main goal of all these actions is to increase your sales, add a reservations button on your Facebook page and website so that customers entering your contests can always easily and quickly reserve their table.
Now that you have all this information in hand, you probably want to organize contests on your restaurant’s social networks to find customers and consolidate your brand image. We hope this is the case, that your customers enjoy it, that they are delighted with the prices, and of course that your sales increase .
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