Contests are a great way to get people talking about your restaurant and improve foot traffic. Thanks to social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you don't even have to leave your business to host contests, and they're completely free to set up.
However, you must ensure that the competitions are entertaining and exciting. Otherwise, it's possible that your efforts would be in vain. As a consequence, in this post, we've hand-picked the top ten contest ideas and themes for your restaurant.
Running Contests at Your Restaurant Has Its Advantages
If you hold the right contests, you can quickly become the talk of the town.
Competitions and online promotions, in particular, can help you reach out to potential clients who might not have discovered your company otherwise. It also helps to generate excitement and engagement, which leads to improved sales.
According to studies, when businesses run social media contests, they gain an average of 17,500 new social media fans and 34% new customers.
Contests can also help to maintain existing client ties. You may, for example, email a link to clients urging them to participate in the competition and win a gift. This shows that you haven't forgotten about them and helps to establish a two-way relationship with them. As a result, the reputation and revenues of your business will increase.
Restaurant Contest Ideas
1- Share to Win
Holding a contest is one of the most common and effective restaurant contest ideas. Request that your consumers use social media to share photos of themselves eating at your restaurant or consuming your food (in case of online ordering).
Request that they tag you and use a hashtag that is unique to you (highlighting so you can discover their photos quickly). The person whose post receives the most likes and comments can be rewarded.
P.S. Don't forget to share customer posts on social media (via stories). In exchange for a shoutout, people will be more likely to share it. You could even want to incorporate them in the highlights of your story.
2- Engage to Win
In order to win a prize, you can also invite people to like the post, follow your account, and tag their friends in the comments section. To entice them to join, offer them a gift card, a free lunch, or another incentive.
Here's an example of a restaurant offering a free meal to its top Facebook fans.
To increase your social media following, you can host comparable contests on a variety of platforms. If you want to increase participation, consider a tempting present.
3- Gift Cards
After giving away free meals and discounts in previous contests, you'd want to offer something new. In this circumstance, gift cards are really useful. Customers can use their gift cards at any time to eat in or order food from you. They can also give it to their family and friends.
Take my word for it, but don't take it literally. Take a look at the graphs below:
In 56 percent of situations, customers want a gift card from their favourite restaurant.
According to 65 percent of clients, they spend 38 percent more than the gift card's face value.
According to 44% of consumers, gift cards encourage them to try a new restaurant they might not have tried otherwise.
You may easily track your restaurant's average order value with the Eatance online meal ordering system. It provides you with a bird's-eye view of all of your orders (day, week, and month). This will ensure that your customers make the most of their gift cards and enter other contests (which you don't want them to miss).
4- Restaurant Memories
It's at this point that things start to get interesting. We all have a favourite restaurant or vacation spot. All you have to do now is urge your consumers to tell their friends and family about their positive experiences with your company.
This contest will remind your customers of their most recent visit to your restaurant, assist them in remembering their experience, and urge them to return. This is how Cactus Club Cafe accomplished it.
5- Food Photography Contest
Food photography is becoming increasingly popular. If you search for #food on Instagram, for example, you'll get 463,915,738 results (as of writing this article). This demonstrates how excited people are about photographing food.
For you, this means that all of the participants' followers will see the photographs of the meals, increasing interest in your company.
However, there is a snag. You can host one of two sorts of photography competitions:
Customers who upload images of your restaurant's cuisine may be eligible for a discount.
Invite your friends over for a free meal, and the best photo will win a voucher or gift card.
Source: https://eatanceapp.com/drive-customer-engagement-to-your-restaurant-with-contests/