Using Online Restaurant Coupons – Audio Expert Interview

http://www.runningrestaurants.com/articles/20080311

RunningRestaurants.com talks with Nathan Gilder from Restaurant Revolution about using online restaurant coupons as part of the marketing and promotion strategy. The conversation also ended up covering a number of other valuable marketing topics.

In the call we hit on:

• Nathan’s “CSER” system
• Why “BOGO” is dead
• What a “clever coupon” is
• How to think about and do email list building
• Why tracking results is key
• Calculating return on investment
• Lifetime value mentality
• New way vs. the old way
• Challenges of “same-ness”
• Relationship building through email
• Secret method to having a wildly successful Tuesday night
• Why “hyper-responsive” customers are so important

Mobile marketing drives guest traffic for special promotions

(April  21, 2008) As restaurant chains increase their efforts to target 18- to 34-year-olds, they’re quickly finding the best place to reach them is where they spend much of their time: on the phone.

The latest chains to launch mobile or interactive campaigns are Buffalo Wild Wings, which launched “Wild Messages” to promote its long-running Wing Tuesdays, and McDonald’s restaurants in Utah and parts of Nevada and Wyoming, which offer mobile coupons for free iced coffee.

In the past, such chains as Hardee’s, Denny’s, McDonald’s, Starbucks Coffee, Krystal, Wienerschnitzel and Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern used mobile coupons and text messages to make special offers available through cell phones.

Two studies released in March support efforts by marketers to reach consumers through interactive initiatives. A Nielsen Co. study reported that 51 percent of mobile-phone subscribers who saw a mobile ad during the last 30 days responded to it. A report by the PeopleMetrics market-research firm said that brands with strong customer engagement have loyal, repeat customers who promote the brand to others.

That’s the goal of the 500-unit Buffalo Wild Wings, which is using “Wild Messages” to encourage customers to invite friends to the restaurant through customized phone messages.

The chain’s website contains a section where customers submit the names of their friends and their phone numbers and e-mail addresses. They choose a time for dinner and pick one of three characters—space alien, “worldly” Frenchman and blonde twins—who send a customized invitation either by voice mail or e-mail.

Full Story http://www.nrn.com/landingPage.aspx?menu_id=1416&coll_id=554&id=353090

Coupon savvy shoppers feasting at casual restaurants

Here’s the surest sign that casual dining is in the dregs: Coupons are flying.

For consumers, it might seem like edible gold. Five dollars off here. Two-for-ones there.

Restaurant coupons are arriving like early Christmas presents in newspapers, mailboxes and on doorknobs. In many regions recently, coupons have been doled out by Ruby Tuesday, Bennigan’s, IHOP and Smokey Bones. So has a T.G.I. Friday’s gift card bonus.

Value combo meals are hot, too. Chili’s is promoting $10.99 Baby Back Bonus — ribs, salad, fries and dessert. Applebee’s is pitching combo lunches starting at $5.99.

“This is one of the worst scenarios that I’ve seen in the 14 years I’ve covered the industry,” says Lynn Collier, analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets. “Consumers are the winners — we’ll only see more of this.”

This is not supposed to be the time of year for coupons in the $70 billion casual-dining industry. Business should be picking up as the holidays get closer. Not this year. Blame the housing crisis, higher gasoline prices and the uncertain economy.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/ENT08/103110011/1041

Growth concepts pick up the pace

“The people who won’t weather the storm are those who cut labor and quality,” he says. “That will separate the real players from the pretenders.”

So will a strong marketing effort, according to Linda Duke, chief executive of Duke Marketing, based in San Rafael, Calif.

About 43 percent of fast-casual executives do not conduct customer-satisfaction surveys, according to the 2007 Fast Casual State of the Industry Report from Fast Casual magazine. Twenty percent conduct them annually, 7.5 percent do them monthly and weekly and 5 percent conduct them quarterly.

Those numbers surprise Duke.

“One of the things I was totally blown away by is that the area that needs the biggest help is marketing,” she says.

Some restaurant managers do a good job of marketing to the communities around their stores, Duke says, but many others are lagging in this area.

“They’re really not doing a lot of communication,” she says. “There’s a big opportunity to improve.”

Duke sees a shake-up coming in the segment, with weaker brands falling by the wayside. For those chains that market effectively, she says, “your brand will stand out.”

Local store marketing, including direct mail and community involvement, is the best way to sustain the viability of a concept, says David Wolfgram, chief executive of San Francisco-based Forklift Brands.

See http://www.nrn.com/article.aspx?id=346566

Operators find that e-mail can be an effective medium for building consumer loyalty.

Building relationships with consumers requires more than providing attentive service when guests are dining. Bonding means keeping up a conversation with guests and using incentives, special offers or educational information (such as brief food or wine tutorials) to let them know they are valued. Many operators find that e-mail is the best medium for forging such bonds.Although some recipients may consider an e-mail offer to be intrusive, many of those who feel connected to a restaurant brand welcome the contact and opt to receive future communications. That’s how a brand such as Morton’s, The Steakhouse, amasses a database of more than 250,000 consumers to whom the company sends a monthly e-mail newsletter

See Full Story by Derek Gale  http://www.rimag.com/archives/2007/10a/business-email.asp

Chain Email Marketing is Killing Independents .

http://www.suntimes.com/business/587637,CST-FIN-rest04.article

Chains, with their e-mail advertising, are taking customers away from the independents, said Durand, president of Chicago Originals. He noted that those operated by Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and Levy Restaurants are also threats to the smaller businesses.

Web Site Mistakes That Restaurants Make

If your restaurant is not using email to communicate with customers, then you are missing out on a big opportunity to promote your business and build a loyal customer base. At minimum, you should have a form on your site for customers to sign up for a newsletter or event information. Follow up with regular, timely emails to your list. This is perhaps where many restaurants stumble, yet this is precisely where the most opportunity exists. Contacting your customers on a regular basis with information that they have requested is one of the smartest marketing moves that you can make.

See http://www.restaurantreport.com/departments/biz_mysterydiner.html

Email Marketing – How to Build a Bigger Customer Database

Customers’ e-mail addresses are as good as gold in today’s digital marketing age, and fondue chain The Melting Pot has hit the jackpot. The Tampa, Fla.-based brand’s “Club Fondue” e-mail database boasts more than 500,000 names; since the program’s inception two years ago, both restaurant guest counts and sales have increased.

The secret to building such a rich marketing resource is in offering customers real value for signing up, says Kendra Sartor, vice president of brand development at The Melting Pot. Club Fondue members earn a free chocolate fondue dessert when they join and another annually on their birthdays. Additionally, they receive advance notice of special events and are allowed to make reservations before non-members for special occasions such as Valentine’s Day, when tables are a hot ticket.

Beyond boosting guest loyalty and repeat visits, having the comprehensive diner database creates an even greater opportunity for The Melting Pot: the chance to get direct feedback from its best customers and use their input to craft a better, more consumer-focused brand. That was the idea last May, when the chain launched what it hopes will become an annual e-mail survey to find out how customers use and perceive the restaurants. The project garnered an impressive 28% response rate–thanks to an offer for a free chocolate fondue–which was enough to drive some key changes in the company’s business strategy.

“It really helped us define what the guest wants. We don’t own this brand; our customers own this brand,” Sartor says. “If my marketing strategy is about what the CEO or the president or I want, we’re doomed. It has to be about responding to the guest.”

See http://www.rimag.com/web-exclusives/articles/melting-pot-database.asp

Restaurant gains 10,000 e-mail addresses through coupon offer

A single restaurant in the Melting Pot restaurant chain had only 102 e-mail addresses in its customer contact list. But through a coupon and event-driven e-mail campaign to a third-party opt-in database of local consumers, it grew its list to 10,000 e-mail addresses in 10 months, its e-mail marketing firm says.

The St. Louis Melting Pot, part of a 70-unit chain of fondue restaurants, retained marketing firm Brighton INBOX to build its customer base and sales through e-mail marketing. Brighton sent $10 coupons for midweek meals, then expanded the campaign to include offers for specific events like a special Valentine’s Day dinner and offers of 50% off all wine on Mondays.

Ray Burrows, e-mail marketing specialist for Brighton, says the campaign has realized a return of more than $4 in new revenue for each $1 spent. He adds that a single e-mail newsletter has generated as many as 140 reservations.

The restaurant is now planning to automate e-mails to customers for such things as birthday coupons, anniversary coupons and reservation confirmations, Burrows says.

 http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=15132

Restaurant email marketing and loyalty programs

Keeping an existing customer is always easier than attracting a new one, and email marketing and loyalty programs are helping restaurant operators meet constantly evolving customer expectations, sharpen their competitive edge and generate repeat business. Today’s consumers demand personalized products and services and want to be engaged by the restaurateur. Email marketing and loyalty/frequency programs help restaurant operators deliver on those high expectations, retaining existing customers and creating more opportunities for repeat visits. In fact, according to the 2006 National Restaurant Association Forecast, 46 percent of consumers say they’d be more likely to patronize a restaurant more if it offered a rewards program. Additionally, the technology behind email marketing and loyalty programs is becoming more affordable and accessible to restaurants of all sizes.

Building a restaurant loyalty marketing program is a three-step process. Email clubs are a cost-effective first step. Launching an email club helps build your customer email database, which can later be used for more extensive loyalty programs, and it allows opportunities to increase sales, boost your brand and tailor offers to individual stores. Frequency or card-based programs are the next level, capturing transactional data that allows for segmentation of customers by recency, frequency and spending, which provides valuable business insights and marketing information. The highest-level loyalty program creates true opportunities for personalization by using all these tools to determine what your best customers are buying so you can create offers and programs especially for them.

See Full Article http://www.restaurantreport.com/departments/net_returntome.html