Voucher marketing for restaurants: 10 tips that work
A voucher can bring in new customers and bring old ones back. A careless one teaches people to wait for a discount. Here is how restaurants get voucher marketing right.
What is a voucher?
A voucher, or coupon, gives a customer something of value: a discount, a free item or free delivery. It usually has a code, a set value and an end date. Restaurants now share them mostly by WhatsApp, social media, their own website and app, and delivery apps.
What a voucher can offer
- A percentage off, such as 20% off the order.
- A fixed amount off, such as a set amount off orders above a minimum.
- A free item, such as a free dessert or buy one, get one free.
- Free delivery.
Choose the type that grows sales without hurting your margin. Before you launch, work out what each redeemed voucher costs you, and how many extra orders you need to cover it.
Why customers love vouchers
Saving money is only part of it. A voucher feels like a gift, and people like to give back to places that treat them well. “Free” works especially hard. In their paper “Zero as a special price”, the behavioural economists Kristina Shampan’er and Dan Ariely found that people react to a free item much more strongly than to a small price cut. That is why a free dessert can beat a discount of the same value.
10 tips for voucher marketing
Start by asking whether vouchers fit your brand at all. How do you want customers to see you? Will discounts help that, or hurt it? Which customers do you want more of? Then use the tips below.
1. Set a goal
Every voucher campaign needs a clear goal, a target group and a start and end date. The goal can be new customers, more orders from lapsed ones, or a bigger average order. Measure it when the campaign ends.
2. Give a reason
A discount without a reason makes people wonder what is wrong. Give one: your anniversary, a new branch, Ramadan, a big match night. A reason makes the offer feel like a celebration, not a clearance.
3. Know who you are talking to
Group your customers by what they order and how often. A busy working parent who orders family meals on weekdays needs a different offer from a student who orders late at night. The better your customer data, the better your offer fits.
4. Pick the right time
Demand rises and falls with Ramadan, Eid, school terms, summer travel and pay day. Plan offers for the moments your customers value them most. Use them to fill quiet days, not to discount your busiest night.
5. Make codes easy
Codes should be short, easy to read and easy to type. Avoid letters and numbers that look alike, such as O and 0. A playful code fits a casual brand; a simple one fits a fine-dining room. A code that fails at checkout loses the order.
6. Make customers earn it
If you discount all the time, customers stop ordering at full price. Tie offers to an action instead:
- Welcome voucher: a discount on the first order, in return for a phone number or an account.
- Minimum order: the voucher works only above a set order value. This raises the average order.
- Refer a friend: both the customer and the friend get a reward.
Set a limit of one use per customer, and an end date, on every code.
7. Use event codes
At a food festival or a pop-up, hand out a code that works for the next two weeks. It turns a one-time taster into a returning customer, and it tells you how many came back.
8. Reward your regulars
Your best customers deserve the best offers. A points or cashback programme rewards every order. Even without one, a thank-you voucher after a customer’s tenth order goes a long way.
9. Give each creator their own code
When you work with food creators, give each one a unique code. You see exactly how many orders each one brings, and you pay for results, not for reach.
10. Launch new items with an early-bird offer
New items cost time and money to develop. Help them start well: offer the first customers who try a new item a small discount or a free side, for a short time.
Putting it together
A good voucher has a goal, a reason, the right audience and an end date. Measure what each one brings back. Zyda’s campaigns send offers on WhatsApp to the customers most likely to order, and show you the orders each one brought.