Congratulations on being on top of your restaurant business. Your customers enjoy great food and a great environment.

They love and appreciate your customer service and usually come for your staff’s familiar faces.

And you think it’s time to spice up your restaurant with some specials for your guests to enjoy and to bring more awareness to your business.

At the end, as a business owner, you keep looking to grow your business and acquire new customers.

This is where marketing tools come in handy to serve you in the best way possible.

More specifically, promotions and specials that bring traffic and increase your sales. 

Basics to know before starting any specials

Know your customers 

Before digging into different specials and promotions, it’s important to know your customers’ preferences since you want an idea that interests them and entices them. 

Analyse their needs, the different possible categories that represent a potential for upselling and possible combinations or hours that they might prefer.

Who are your customers?

Are they mostly young or on the older side? Families or singles? What are your peak hours of operations?

All of this information is essential before deciding on specials.  

Look for visibility not only revenues 

The biggest motive behind specials isn’t restricted to generating more revenues. 

It’s intended to grow your visibility among people. 

You are looking for creating brand awareness that goes far beyond the specials’ limited dates.

The specials are meant to create long term revenues that are more consistent.

Know your numbers

Your numbers are essential here to identify what you can work with and how much you can lower your prices. 

Knowing your numbers enables you to create bundles with the most profit margins.

Know your weaknesses 

Before starting on a certain special, knowing your challenges and weaknesses is crucial. 

What items aren’t really popular? 

Which items are not moving?

What are your slowest hours of operations?

These are your weaknesses that you should work on strengthening.

Create specials to create demand on slow categories. 

Create specials on slower times to bring in more traffic.

The science behind promotions 

It makes people happy and it’s not just random.

It’s scientific. 

A study done by Dr. Paul J. Zak, professor of neuroeconomics at Claremont Graduate University, illustrates the impact promotions can have on our brains.

People in the group that received a discount experienced  an increase in oxytocin, the brain chemical that’s related to love, happiness and stress relief. 

You sure want happiness to spike in your customers.

Specials to try out at your restaurant 

Holidays

What’s better than holidays? 

Holidays’ specials. 

Create specials on holidays, let’s say Halloween costumes event where best dressed customers win giveaways.

Specials on Christmas drinks and appetizers. 

You can create specials nights on mother’s or father’s day. 

Bottom line, you can create an event of specials on literally any occasion.

It’s up to you to decide on the length of offerings and items of offerings depending on your numbers. 

Specials on seasonal menu items

It’s convenient to create specials on seasonal items that are already cheaper with high profit margins.

The good news is that when it comes to limited time items, serving them is special by itself.

Who doesn’t know the pumpkin spice latte offered by Starbucks strictly around mid of September till end of October?

Starbucks didn’t even discount its price. 

They simply promote it as “limited time beverage” and it generates a huge profit for the company.

Customers are even paying more for this item than regular beverages that are available all year round.

“Recent data from market research firm NPD shows the average check for a pumpkin spice latte buyer in fall and winter 2014 was $7.81, compared with $6.67 for non-buyers.”

McDonald’s and Tim Hortons followed the lead of Starbucks with their pumpkin flavoured doughnuts and beverages.

Chef’ specials 

You can rotate items of chef’ specials on different days of the week.

The specials are items that the chef is particularly good at. 

They might be your most popular items or any regular item that might not be well noticed.

You can fix your chef’ special dish on the menu or you might change it everyday so customers can try different special platters on different days. 

Put the chef’ special platters on special prices to let your customers savour unique tastes with discounted prices.

The point here is to create awareness and bring in more traffic.

Bundles

Create bundles on complementing items.

Drinks with appetizers, wine and cheese, margaritas and tacos. 

Offer discounted prices on these bundles to encourage customers to buy them. 

Choose a popular item with a slow moving item to promote sales growth for unpopular items. 

You can create bundles as a prix fixed menu that contains 2 appetizers, 2 main dishes and 1 dessert with beverages or a bottle of wine.

Nights on specials 

Another way to spice up your customers’ dining experience is through special nights.

Taco Tuesday, ladies night on Thursdays, shisha night or weekends. Exclusive offers are just examples on how you can create specials restricted for a specific day of the week to bring in more traffic on this day. 

Specials on menu categories 

It might be the most popular category or the category that generates the most profits regardless of its popularity.

A limited time discount on appetizers or subs or burgers.

Which category are you looking to promote? 

Are your salads not getting the attention needed? 

Review your data and decide on the category you wish to promote.

Whatever you choose, don't forget to spread the word using social media platforms. Announce your specials ahead of time and you can create online contests for your followers.

Whenever you feel things are getting boring at your restaurant or maybe sales are being stable, you know what to do to bring those numbers up.