Holidays

5 Quick Restaurant Marketing Ideas for Mother’s Day

How to use social media, email, restaurant loyalty programs, and promo codes to maximize profits at your restaurant this Mother’s Day.

Historically, Mother’s Day brunch is one of the busiest services of the year for restaurants. The latest research from the National Restaurant Association shows that 4 in 10 consumers plan to celebrate the holiday with a hospitality experience — 27% of consumers plan to go out to a restaurant and 18% of consumers plan to order takeout or delivery. The demand for reservations is highly competitive, with diners often left scrambling to make last-minute plans, and interest in takeout and delivery has grown 10% in the past four years.

Diners are looking for opportunities to engage with their favorite restaurants, and there will be a wide variety of ways of doing so this Mother’s Day. That includes:

Indoor and Outdoor Dining
Online Ordering for Pickup or Delivery
Catering or Meal Kits

With that, restaurants need to get the word out about their Mother’s Day operations. Marketing Mother’s Day offerings is a multi-faceted campaign that consists of multiple methods across a variety of channels and platforms. From email marketing to social media and promo codes to loyalty programs, there is no shortage of ways to increase bookings and drive more revenue.

We put together a list of marketing ideas that restaurants can use to promote their Mother’s Day offerings to maximize on-premise and to-go operations.

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5 Ideas for Mother’s Day Restaurant Promotions

Restaurants have an array of channels to market themselves — the website, email and social media. Paired with incentives like promo codes and restaurant loyalty programs, they are powerful tools to bring in business.

Heather Dratler, Vice President of Marketing and Brand Integrity at Sage Restaurant Concepts explains how the scope of channels, and how driving back to the website, is fundamental in their marketing efforts.

“We use the full breadth of marketing channels that are available to us – social media, email marketing, Google Business Profile posts, Yelp CTAs, etc. We typically drive traffic back to our website, particularly the “Happenings” page, as the first step in the marketing funnel.”

Knowing what tools restaurants have at their disposal can help them in optimizing each channel to market their offerings and increase reservations, online orders, and drive revenue this Mother’s Day.

1. Optimize Your Website

Restaurants need a digital storefront as much as they do a physical one. Your website is the first place that curious diners visit before deciding to dine with you. Restaurants can utilize website pages, eCommerce tools, a catering store, and online ordering to spotlight all of their great Mother’s Day offerings.

Piper in Oceanside, California uses their Happenings page, which lives in the top navigation for easy access and better visibility, to promote upcoming events at the restaurant. When website visitors click on the call-out for Mother’s Day Brunch, they are directed to a dedicated page with more details and a call-to-action button to Book Now.

Another option is to add special offerings directly to your Menus page, like Rosalie in Houston, Texas. The special menu for Mother’s Day Brunch lives in its own tab on the page, so it’s clearly separated from the regular offerings. You can even add a CTA button to make a reservation (as shown below) to drive more bookings.

2. Email Subscribers About Mother’s Day Promotions

Email marketing has long been a powerful tool at a restaurant’s disposal. However, a past pain point has been gathering the contact information of diners. Today, It’s never been easier.

First and foremost, restaurants should utilize signup features across their website to capture email addresses. For loyal customers, this is how they will learn about new menus, events and promotions at the restaurant.

Then, restaurants can send marketing emails to their list of subscribers that highlights Mother’s Day offerings. The Charter Oak promotes Mother’s Day in their latest marketing campaign, enticing diners to make a reservation. Emails to customers are ideal ways to connect with the most loyal of guests to get their business.

Beyond capturing email addresses through your website, restaurants can turn to other sources to capture key contact information. Direct online ordering and tableside ordering are two great examples. When a diner orders directly from a restaurant’s online ordering platform, like BentoBox online ordering, all of their contact information is saved in the backend, which can be exported to any email marketing platform the restaurant uses.

Similarly, for on-premise diners, tableside ordering systems like Dine-in Ordering, allow diners to browse menus, order, and pay all from their mobile devices. This system not only optimizes on-premise operations but also gives restaurants access to even more diner information for remarketing opportunities.

3. Use A Loyalty Program to Drive Repeat Diners

Loyalty programs are powerful marketing tools that drive repeat business. In the realm of restaurants, diners are brought into loyalty programs after their first purchase and then incentivized to purchase more to reach a milestone that results in a reward. These rewards can be promo codes for 5% off a purchase, a free dessert, or even a free meal on the house. It’s up to the restaurants to decide how they reward their loyal diners.

This Mother’s Day, use loyalty programs to incentivize diners to purchase Mother’s Day specials. For BentoBox customers, a customer loyalty program is free for online ordering customers and easy to turn on in the BentoBox backend.

4. Use Promo Codes to Increase Online Orders

Alongside loyalty programs, offering promo codes is a great method to engage customers and drive profits this Mother’s Day. Restaurants can use them to great effect by including them in marketing emails or even posting to social media channels.

BentoBox makes it easy to set up promo codes on the backend so that diners can input promo codes at checkout. Restaurants can add a homepage alert with messaging similar to "Save XX%/$XX on [offer] today! Use code [promo code at checkout.]" We also recommend posting promo codes on social media.

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5. Post on Social Media to Engage and Convert Followers

For a busy holiday like Mother’s Day, using social media as a marketing tool is a no-brainer. It’s one of the greatest channels for restaurants to get discovered and bring in new customers. Post a sneak peek at the special menu you’re offering for Mother’s Day, share a photo of a few dishes, or take a video of your chef working behind-the-scenes on recipe development.