With such a celebratory identity that strengthens with each year, Halloween is the ideal time to put an event-specific marketing strategy into practice.
If you manage a business with its own branded digital ordering (online and/or mobile) technology, there are some simple ideas we recommend for making the most of the days leading up to and on Halloween itself. These tactics will get more people using your business’ app to place orders and, as a result, will help to enhance customer loyalty.
The great thing about a mobile or online ordering technology like Preoday is that businesses have real-time access to the back-end of the platform – and that includes the menu. With just a few simple clicks, items can be added or removed and the menu updated.
For Halloween, we suggest businesses promote one or two limited edition products via the digital menu. Cafes or coffee shops might consider adding a Halloween Pumpkin Latte – only accessible if pre-ordered using the mobile app or website. You can make customers aware of this fact through digital marketing or by asking staff to reference the fact during customer conversations. For restaurants or outlets where the focus is food, we might advise creating a trick-or-treat themed dessert, for instance a toffee apple pie, or spooky spider cake/biscuit. Alternatively, businesses of any type might make branded products, such as tote bags or reusable bottles, available.
Customers flock towards items marketed as ‘limited’ or ‘exclusive’ and will download a business’ app just to get their hands on them. Once they’ve downloaded the app, placed an order, and experienced a positive service, they will undoubtedly use it again in the future. And, of course, if a customer opts into marketing when doing so, you can use their ordering data to influence future marketing campaigns.
If the addition of extra food/drink to the menu is difficult to achieve, an alternative idea is to consider a small halloween giveaway; a cost-effective gift that people qualify for when ordering over a certain amount via the online portal or mobile app. Sweet-gathering buckets shaped by pumpkins have proven particularly popular in retail outlets over recent years.
We are also big believers in the effectiveness of promo codes; they create an influx of customers that may never have tried a business’ products or services otherwise. If a business wants to set-up a promotion or discount on their Preoday platform they can easily do so by logging in and inputting their code on the management dashboard. They can then use email marketing and social media to advertise that promotion to customers alongside a strong call-to-action such as:
“Treat yourself this Halloween, use promo code GHOSTLY to get 20% off mobile app orders on 30 October – No Trick!”
In order to connect with audiences and grow their loyalty, it is increasingly important for businesses to create personalised marketing campaigns. To do so, the gathering of customer data is essential and having an own-brand mobile or online ordering platform is a fast and effective method of collection.
For further event or holiday specific marketing suggestions, Preoday’s marketing team is poised to help clients with advice – it’s all part of the service! Contact us now.
It’s not as catchy as: ‘When is a door not a door?’ (answer, when it’s a jar) but it speaks to the idea that in-car collection, and the technologies that support it, are flexible enough to bend to the needs of a business and its guests.
Delivery can be daunting to the uninitiated, and it might be tempting to sign up with a third-party ordering aggregator that offers the service, such as UberEats, but other options could suit your business and brand better. Here we present three different ‘levels’ of delivery, starting with the most basic – and cheapest method: doing it yourself.
