If you’ve ever wondered how to make a slow restaurant busy, then adding delivery to your restaurant business is the key to achieving all that.
And this is backed by recent studies. Restaurant delivery statistics show that online food orders have more than tripled over the last 7 years. Think about it this way: you already have a growing base of consumers who want food delivery. Now, all you have to do is find some quick ways to make customers choose your restaurant instead of your competitors’.
How to attract customers and make them order from your restaurant: 3 Quick Tips
1) Use a simple to use online ordering form
Your customers need a convenient way to place delivery orders. If you’re adding delivery to your restaurant, then you might as well update your website with an online order form, like the one provided by GloriaFood.
Such online ordering system will help you more than you know, because most of today’s customers think of phone calls as an inconvenience. However, they will use your online ordering system to order food because of multiple reasons:
- it’s easier: all they need to do is select the food they want to enjoy & complete a simple checkout form (with GloriaFood this only happens when your customer first places on online order with your restaurant; afterwards, he will be able to reorder food much faster, since he will be able to skip over filling in the checkout form)
- they can use the online ordering system even when they cannot make a phone call, like, for instance, when they are in loud environments, in the bus, at work, etc.
- it’s mistake proof: there is no room for misunderstandings of food orders that frequently happen over the phone
- they can pre-order food for later (even if that means for the next day) – so, it’s a great way to secure the sale. (See more benefits of using a restaurant pre-order system here)
- they can also choose to pay online (tips including) – many people would rather pay online with a credit card rather than scraping for cash when the food arrives
You don’t need technical skills to add an online ordering page to your website. You can just use our online ordering system to start taking free and unlimited online delivery orders. Plus, the setup is fast and easy.
2) Make the online ordering button visible, so your customers can easily find it
Your hungry customers should be able to see the online ordering button at a glance. Unless they do so, then they will leave your website and head out to the competition, instead. And you’ll lose your customers. So make the online ordering button visible. This is how ours look:
3) Attract new customers with free delivery promos for minimum order values
This may actually be the most important one: offering your clients free delivery for minimum order values will help you increase their cart value.
So for instance, John takes a look at your menu and decides to have a medium pizza, worth $8.99. Then, he sees your free delivery promo for orders over $11, so he decides to add two can of cokes to the menu, therefore achieving minimum cart value necessary to benefit from the free delivery promo. It’s a simple, yet highly effective way to persuade customers into buying more.
4) Build an App That Makes Ordering Easy for Customers
Your most loyal customers might want an even easier way to order food from your restaurant. A smartphone app gives them a quick, convenient way to order the food they want. For this, you can choose an experienced app development agency.
Letting your customers order through an app can also give them the option to:
- Repeat their favorite orders.
- Automatically pay without leaving the app.
- Receive messages about your current promotions.
Related: Mobile Apps For Restaurant Owners And Their Food Clients
Considering that 96% of Americans own some type of mobile device, it makes sense to give customers an app that helps them order food.
Related: How to increase profit margin restaurant
5) Increase your restaurant delivery business with HeatMaps
Navigate to your GloriaFood admin account – > Reports -> Extended -> Delivery Heatmaps, where you will see the following map:
Use it to increase your delivery sales:
- The areas in red and dark blue highlight the great sales potential of the area – How you can use this to your advantage: deliver flyers to these areas, so people will get to know a bit more about your restaurant. You can also offer promos for first-time clients, so you can encourage them to order from you.
- Light blue shows a more low-value area – How you can use this to your advantage: start by setting up a minimum order value. Considering that not that many people from those areas order from you, then you can make it lucrative and worthwhile to deliver to that area, by delivering orders that hit your minimum value.
Find out how you can easily create and manage delivery areas using our online ordering system using this video tutorial:
6) Use Social Media to increase your delivery sales
You probably already use social media platforms to tempt your customers with your delicious dishes. When you want to know how to increase foot traffic in a restaurant, look no further than platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
You can use similar creative restaurant marketing ideas to grow your delivery orders.
A useful delivery marketing strategy should include information about things like:
- Your delivery radius.
- Whether you charge a delivery fee.
- Delivery companies that you partner with.
- How long does it typically take for a delivery order to reach the customer.
- Specials that apply only to delivery orders.
Customers want information, but they also need images and messages that convince them to act on the spot.
You have nearly unlimited ways to entice your audience with social media posts. On Instagram, you could show pictures of:
- A delivery driver heading out the door.
- Attractive images of packaged food ready for delivery.
- Happy customers enjoying their food.
Encourage your customers to share pictures of their food and include an unique hashtag (specific to your restaurant) that will help other people to easily find those images.
7) Follow Your Competitors to Learn Creative Food Delivery Marketing Ideas
You can’t learn how to improve your restaurant business in a vacuum. You need to learn from your local and national competitors to see what types of creative marketing ideas they use.
By following your competitors, you will discover some of the best restaurant promotions right now.
Not all of them will apply to delivery, but you can adapt concepts to meet your needs. For example, if a pizza restaurant posts a Valentine’s picture of a heart-shaped pie, you could post a similar picture with a heart-shaped pizza. Include a link to your website to make it simple for your followers to place their delivery orders.
You can also update brunch marketing ideas by adding some text to your photos. Post a beautiful link of a popular brunch item with a message that says “Can’t leave the office today? Stay energized with our brunch delivery!”
Related: 9 Food Delivery Packaging Ideas to Make Your Restaurant Stand Out
8) How to Increase Restaurant Delivery Sales During Special Events
Special events give you excellent opportunities to promote certain menu items and services. If you want to learn how to increase footfall in your restaurant, you would post information about drink & appetizer specials.
When you make a subtle twist to the concept, you can find how to increase delivery orders during special events.
Consider what people ate during the 2019 Super Bowl. Overall, Americans consumed:
- 1.3 billion chicken wings
- 2 million pizzas
- 10 million pounds of ribs
About 98.2 million people watched Super Bowl LII from home. You know that a lot of those viewers had food delivered to their homes.
Why not get customers to get food from you by posting pictures of your food and telling everyone about your game-day delivery promotions?
You don’t need one of the world’s most popular sporting events to promote your delivery items, though. You can use practically any event as an excuse to market your business and promote delivery orders.
Related: Unique restaurant promotion ideas
Take National Keto Day (January 5) as an example. On National Keto Day, you can promote low-carb items on your menu. Perhaps you even wave your delivery fee for customers that only order keto-friendly foods.
You can develop similar creative ideas for celebrations like:
- Fun at Work Day (January 28) – Push lunchtime delivery options.
- National Plant a Flower Day (March 12) – Include a free flower with every delivery.
- National Foster Care Day (May 7) – Give a special treat to foster parents and kids.
Use Every Opportunity to Boost Business
You need technology and marketing ideas to increase delivery sales and help your restaurant earn more money. If you really want to know how to increase restaurant delivery sales, then you have to combine a good website (or app) with creative promotions that will get the attention of existing and potential customers.
