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How your fast casual can cash in on even those 'made up' holidays

There are numerous holidays throughout the year, including National Coffee Day on Sept. 29., for example, that restaurants can use to maximize customer engagement and boost traffic every month of the year.

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September 23, 2019

By RJ Horsley, president of SpotOn Transact LLC

The holiday season is approaching, which is a great opportunity for restaurants within the fast casual and quick-serve sectors to connect with customers and cash-in on the holiday spending spree. Indeed, many businesses are already gearing up their marketing plans for the holidays. There's no reason to limit this marketing approach to only the official holiday season, though. There are numerous holidays throughout the year, including National Coffee Day on Sept. 29., for example, that restaurants can use to maximize customer engagement and boost traffic every month of the year.

To get the most out of a campaign, however, it's important to have a multi-channel marketing approach that starts well in advance of the holiday, so customers have time to plan accordingly and also spread the news of the occasion through their personal networks. 

Let's take as an example a cafe that is executing a marketing campaign around National Coffee Day. To celebrate the event, the coffee shop might add the following incentives:

• Seasonal items: pumpkin latte and pumpkin cheesecake.
• Loyalty reward: Free slice of pumpkin cheesecake after three visits.
• Limited-time deal:buy-one-get-one-free deal on pumpkin lattes.

With those incentives in place, the cafe creates a strategy that incorporates email, social media and in-store marketing to get the widest reach as possible with the National Coffee Day marketing campaign. They include:

• An email drip campaign leading up to the event that started in early September annoucing the seasonal items, loyalty reward, and limited-time deal, which will is only available on Sept. 29. 
• An email invite the week before the holiday, asking customers to join the shop for National Coffee Day that reiterated the seasonal items, loyalty reward and deal.
• On National Cofee Day, the cafe will send the final email, reminding customers of the holiday and inviting them stop by and reiterating the special deal.
• Social media posts throughout the entire month leading up to the holiday. Whereas, the emails will reach only existing customers on the cafe's mailing list, the social posts will have a broader potential reach and attract new customers. 
• Offering loyalty points to any loyalty customers who share their posts through their integrated digital loyalty program.
• In-store signage and flyers at the checkout counter announcing the holiday and incentives.
• Training employees to tell customers about the limited-time loyalty reward and encourage them to sign up.

Cumulatively, this multi-channel approach will have numerous benefits. The cafe will not only get a spike in traffic on National Coffee Day, but also see a steady uptick in business leading up to the holiday. Just as important, they will be enrolling new customers into its digital loyalty program, who will also be added to the email marketing list. That means, come October, the cafe will have a larger reach to announce the next holiday they decide to promote.

This winning strategy is 100 percent sustainable for fast casual and quick serve restaurants. When done consistently throughout the year — rather than only during the traditional holiday season — it is a great recipe for continually growing customers and revenue.