The solution to increasing sales is straightforward: satisfying your customers’ wants and fulfilling their needs. But knowing how to do it is the hard part.
There are tons of marketing options and ideas out there that could help increase sales, but there’s no one solution that works for everyone. Some of these ideas can be done in-person while others are done virtually on the internet.
Increasing sales boils down to reaching new customers and influencing existing customers to spend more. So let’s see how you can do that and run your business in a way that will increase sales.
Secure a Social Media Presence
Reaching out to customers online and establishing connections with them online is just as important, if not more, as connecting with them in person. One major way to do this is through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You could also promote your restaurant on TikTok and YouTube if you want to create video content.
Convert social media users that visit your restaurant page, directly to leads by linking your website, reservations page, or online ordering page.
Create and Sell Branded Products
Selling a special item of your restaurant or something you’re known for as a branded product won’t just increase sales and attract more customers, it’s also an excellent way to build a secondary stream of revenue.
The same goes for merchandise like cups and branded t-shirts that can also act as free marketing when people wear them in public. For instance, if you’re running a cafe or a coffee shop, you can make bundles of your house-roasted beans and sell them. If you’re known for your burger patties, you can sell frozen packages of them. That way customers can buy your product and make burgers for less than $10.00 at home.
Work with Popular Delivery Apps
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, people have become more accustomed to the idea of online convenience. Why go to the restaurant, wait in line to get your food and drive back home when you can have someone deliver it to your doorstep?
That’s why it’s essential to partner up with food delivery apps like GrubHub, DoorDash, and other local delivery services popular in your area. This is extremely helpful for start-up restaurants that haven’t implemented a delivery system yet.
Create a Restaurant Newsletter
Establishing a good restaurant newsletter is a tried-and-true way of reaching new customers and attracting existing customers to increase sales.
In some ways, newsletters have proven to be more effective than social media platforms when it comes to ROI. A newsletter also gives you more control over the audience you reach.
Use SEO to Rank Your Website Higher
When customers go on the internet and search for what they want to eat using keywords in the Google search bar, they’ll most likely pick from the first few restaurants in the search results. Getting your restaurant to the top is done with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
While you can easily get your restaurants to the top of the results page using Google Ads, it’ll require an investment and it won’t attract any new customers once you stop advertising. Focus on organic traffic by creating content, using keywords, and optimizing your Google My Business listing instead.
Create a Mobile Restaurant App
Creating a mobile app for your restaurant goes side by side with creating a website. The only major difference is the convenience that an already installed app brings to your loyal customers. New customers that see you have a mobile app will also be more inclined to order food from you.
Include features that let your customers order food for delivery or pickup, book reservations, browse your menu, find your location on Google Maps, etc. Ideally you should also have online payment options.
Train Your Servers to Upsell
Providing restaurant staff and servers with on-the-job training and teaching them techniques like upselling and cross-selling should help you boost in-person restaurant sales significantly.
Upselling is when a server or waiter encourages customers to purchase a relatively more expensive food item than the one in question. While cross-selling influences customers to get add-ons and purchase complimentary items.
Increase the Quality and Speed of Service
Increasing sales doesn’t just have to be about building up your brand image and creating new ways to reach customers. In fact, optimizing your restaurant as much as you can is a surefire way to rake in more cash.
As you know, the more customers you serve, the more money you make. So, provide your staff with the knowledge and tools to improve the efficiency and speed of their service.
You can do this by implementing the latest technology, like a mobile point of sale device that can send order directly from where the order is placed to the kitchen.
