Sponsored by MGH - Modern Marketing for Restaurants
Operators should always be privy to ways of cutting labor costs, and one of the first places they should look is how they can improve their digital ordering.
MGH, a Google Premier Partner agency that specializes in multi-location and franchise restaurant marketing, has compiled a list of three tips to galvanize your online ordering results. Whether you’re new to the online ordering space or a seasoned veteran, these tricks offer surefire ways of driving profitable online revenue:
1. Don’t shun email, segment instead
The cost to acquire a new customer is higher than retaining a current one, and email is a tried and true method of staying in front of customers you’ve already earned. Now, it’s time to take that email game to another level.
One size doesn’t fit all with email marketing, which is why some messaging shouldn’t go to your entire list. Find out which customers have the highest propensity to come back, along with the ones who might need an extra nudge. Segment it further by category, lifestyle, demographic, etc. The more specific the message, the more effective it will be.
Now that you’ve broken your emails out, it’s time to get smart with how often those customers are getting your message. Increasing the frequency of your well thought out messages will help you get in front of your audience as often as possible. Some tools are even leveraging artificial intelligence to ensure your email is delivered with precision at the best time and frequency. Don’t be afraid to explore tech options if your bandwidth to scale is an issue. It’s worth it!
2. Watch your conversion rate like a hawk
Driving traffic to your online ordering site can be your main focus, but if customers have a poor experience upon arrival, those efforts were all for naught. High click counts only matter if they’re accompanied by an entree and a drink.
In order to test and improve the conversion rate of your website ordering process, start by setting a clear baseline with your analytics team to understand what’s causing customers to drop off once they get close to completing an order.
Develop a hypothesis — if we change X, we think customers will be much more inclined to do Y — and then work with your developers to test. Not every idea will yield results, but testing is still key. The more changes you can cross off your efficiency list, the better chance the next one will make an impact you can learn from. Be careful during this process, however, as some changes may negatively impact your sales. We certainly don’t want those ineffective tests running longer than they need to before information is learned.
3. Identify points of friction and remove them
Since we’re in the testing mood, investigating pain points in your ordering process should be a high priority as well.
In today’s world, speed and convenience are everything. Stay focused on removing any digital roadblocks between you and your customer, and then go out to find your customers where they already are.
There are tools you can utilize to track users and find trends in behaviors that may be causing them to drop off. Surveying customers also achieves a similar objective, and if you have specific theories of what could be the issue, write specific questions geared to those hypotheses.
Enlisting competitor and industry research can be a great way to close the gap as well. What is your competition doing in their ordering process that you could emulate or even improve upon? Are features like saved order preferences, payment information and rewards programs the difference between a sale and a dropped lead?
Further, exploring new ways for your customer to complete their order will go a long way. A recent Juniper Research study estimated that retail sales from Chatbot orders will nearly double each year from $7.3 billion this year to $112 billion by 2023. A number of online platforms have started incorporating voice ordering as well.
You are not alone
Between navigating conversion rate optimization, driving awareness of your online offerings (store signage, box toppers, targeted ads) and effectively utilizing the data you’re collecting throughout the process, there’s no one more qualified to help than an experienced agency.
If you’re in search of a trusted marketing partner with experience in multi-location or franchise restaurants, reach out to MGH and its CEO Andy Malis at 410-902-5012 or [email protected].
