Great NCAA Championship game last night, hope those of you with the proper systems in place, i.e., HDTVs, could get a good showing in your locations.
I suspect there’s some extremely unhappy folks in the state of Kentucky. So let’s not belabor the point and get on with the restaurant marketing news and ideas update this week.
Sorry for missing last week, too, folks. We like to do this roundup and think it’s interesting reading for all ya’ll, but client demands got a bit in the way. Received only two nastygrams for missing it — not bad!
Tell you what, since we missed last week and generally give you six updates per week, we’ll give you a BONUS one this week.
- Kickstarter. Heard of it? Surely you have by now. It’s a community where any of us can financially contribute in new products or projects we believe in. We’re not INVESTING in those projects, but contributing — there’s a difference. But did you know that many, many restaurants have been kickstarted? Great interview at Eater with one of the Kickstarter founders on the future of restaurant financing via crowdsourcing.
- Nate and I talked about this in our most recent episode of This Week in Restaurant Tech, but not all of you watch that, so here you go: “With digital ordering, Panera makes a big bet on tech” is the headline over at CNN Money. Panera is making a huge bet on the entire digital transaction chain. From your order on the go, to your arrival on-premise, to your pickup and departure. Really interesting read.
- Credit where credit’s due. Wendy Frink over at Entrepreneur.com wrote a great how-to for getting jumpstarted on Twitter (not to be confused with kickstarted) with Twitter. Short and sweet.
- This is really interesting whether you run a single restaurant or chain, just to learn from: Taco Bell’s social strategy is to play “cool friend” to millennials. Say what you will about their approach, their success in doing this, anything. But you can’t say they haven’t nailed their social media approach in a super simple manner.
- Speaking of the NCAA tournament earlier, do you have screens in your locations? If so, give my article over at Foodable a read. I talk about the evolution of digital signage into social signage.
- Technology. As common as menus in the next generation of restaurants? I think so. So does Michael Essany at Digital Journal. A great quote from the article: “Soon, as mobile POS technology evolves, restaurants will also be able to send coupons to the phones of customers who opt-in based on their shopping habits or geographic location. They will even be able to offer sophisticated, mobile-based loyalty programs.”
- What is the most effective channel, based on coupon redemptions? Email? Twitter? Facebook? Your own website? Privy has thousands of promotions running through their software as part of their service. What they’ve learned:Â Facebook has the lowest in-store redemption rate of promotions that are discovered on social media channels. Your website is the most effective channel, as measured by redemption rates, believe it or not.
That’s it for this week. What do you think of our weekly restaurant marketing news and ideas update? Connect with us on Twitter, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter (SUBSCRIBE NOW button underneath this article), and comment below to join in the conversation.
