Holidays

6 Creative Ways for Restaurants to Boost Sales This July 4th

How restaurants are getting creative and promoting new offerings that drive profits this holiday weekend.

The Fourth of July is a great time to get together with friends and family over food, drinks, and fireworks. For restaurants, here’s how you can prepare. Take this chance to optimize your online ordering and catering menus and promote Independence Day packages, meal kits, and menu items to boost your restaurant’s revenue online.

Keep reading to see examples from special-edition catering packages to ticketed events that show how restaurants are getting creative over the holiday weekend. Plus, we share three easy ways to promote your offerings.

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How To Increase Fourth of July Revenue

1. Create Special Fourth of July Packages

The Fourth of July is a great opportunity to sell catering packages. Diners are looking to celebrate the holiday with food and drinks from their favorite restaurants, so it’s a good time to meet that demand with creative catering options.

Craft, a New York City restaurant from Executive Chef Tom Colicchio, created Craft at Home — a curated collection of seasonal to-go items — during the pandemic. Today, the restaurant offers a variety of meals including the holiday special “Tom’s 4th of July BBQ Party” — a $275 package that guests can order directly online for pickup. Each box serves 8 people and includes a healthy mix of barbecue, sides, and greens. Guests can even complete their order with a “Backyard Punch” cocktail kit for 4 or 8. It’s a fun, engaging way to offer something special to diners who are looking to support their favorite restaurants and chefs.

Big Pig Barbecue & Catering in Peabody, Massachusetts, optimized their online catering store to feature “4th of July Pre-Order” packages. Guests could schedule and purchase “Party Packs” in advance for pickup to take home and grill out with friends and family.

2. Sell Independence Day Event Tickets

Event tickets are another high-margin way to increase sales and engage your customers this Fourth of July weekend. Whether it’s a virtual cooking class or an outdoor event, it’s a big cashflow opportunity for restaurants.

Alibi is a whimsical rooftop bar and restaurant in downtown Tempe, AZ. To celebrate the Fourth, the restaurant hosted a pool party all weekend long, featuring DJs, poolside cabanas, and food & drink specials throughout the day and night. Alibi uses their website to host more information about the event under the “Happenings” section, prominently placed in the website’s navigation.

Billie’s Grocery in Kansas City, Missouri is celebrating the 4th by selling tickets to their Whole + Plant-Based: Independence Day Celebration — a cooking seminar. Attendees will learn the good news about plant-based nutrition alongside recipes to cook with friends and family.

3. Curate the Evening with Special Wine-Packs and More

Depending on local laws and regulations around alcohol sales, restaurants should consider ways to bring knowledge and the hospitality experience to a guest’s backyard. For example, restaurants around the country are batching special 4th of July cocktails and selling curated wine and beer selections.

At Cork Wine Bar & Market in Washington D.C., the bar curates wine for you. Through their website, Cork offers a large selection of curated wine packs perfect for a variety of occasions.

For the holiday weekend, restaurants can emulate the “BBQ Season 6-pack”, a mix of weather-appropriate wines to sit back and enjoy with food and friends — perfect for a backyard barbecue, countryside picnic, or rooftop party.

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How To Promote Fourth of July Offerings

We’ve highlighted the ways in which other restaurants are optimizing their offerings to encourage diners to order with them this Fourth of July. Getting the word out is an equally important part of the equation. Here’s how restaurants are marketing their new offerings.

1. Add a Homepage Popup Alert

Homepage popup alerts grab the attention of your website visitors and ensure your messaging is front and center (quite literally), so that diners don’t miss the promotion. You can customize the text, imagery, and call-to-action depending on what you’re offering.

2. Promote Fourth of July Specials to Your Email List

Another way to market Fourth of July specials is by sending a series of marketing emails to subscribers. For BentoBox users, subscriber information lives in the backend of the BentoBox website and integrates with a variety of email marketing platforms for an easy way to reach loyal diners.

Write about new holiday offerings and specials.
Be sure to include captivating photography to further engage the audience.
Last, add a prominent CTA to prompt the reader to take action, such as start an online order, browse catering options or purchase a ticket to an event.

3. Post on Social Channels to Drive Engagement & Sales

A restaurant’s social media channels are a great way to drive traffic to the website and increase the potential for more orders and revenue this Fourth of July. Use this opportunity to post about the latest specials and include a way for guests to purchase the promoted offerings.

A great example is New York City’s, Craft, which promotes its “Tom’s 4th of July BBQ Party” catering package on Instagram. It’s a great way to extend the visibility of the special, driving traffic back to the website to purchase orders for pickup and delivery.

Similarly, Chaia Tacos in Washington, DC promotes their “Two for $10” Summer special: Chips & Dip with a cocktail on Instagram with a high quality photo and simple copy.

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Restaurants can start thinking now about more ways to encourage loyal customers to purchase directly from the restaurant this Fourth of July. As e-commerce is now a solid revenue source for restaurants, it’s important to learn about what consumers are looking for and how best to optimize offerings, to not only fulfill their hunger but also boost the restaurant’s bottom line in the process.

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