St Patrick’s Day: the well-known day when all Irishmen celebrate and party, and everyone else becomes honorary-Irish for the day. It appeals to the ‘big night out’ consumer and is a high-energy occasion with a spike in drinks sales and customer excitement. With St Paddy’s falling on a Thursday this year, we’re expecting a long weekend full of celebrations!
Lots of venues will be celebrating the big day, so it’s vital to position your pub as the ‘go-to’ place for customers to enjoy the festivities. Here are a few ways that you can boost your app downloads and sales for St Patrick’s day.
Minimise queues, maximise customer satisfaction
Encourage customers to order and pay at table via the app or web solution to prevent queues at the bar and free up staff from taking orders and payments. With less customers clustering around the bar, it keeps the space clear for staff to run orders to tables more quickly, and without having to take payments, they can focus on providing great customer service.
For passers-by, a crowd at the bar is an instant turn off. You can be just as busy - but with everyone staying sat at their tables, passing trade is more likely to choose you over a venue with long bar queues.
Another benefit is that customers spend more when ordering via the app, because it’s so easy to add extras onto their order - so it’s a win-win for both customers and your business.
Reward your app users!
Create special perks in the app to gain more traction - try creating a special St Patrick’s Day campaign and send a free Guinness to 50 customers who use the app, which can then be redeemed over the weekend.
Creating special perks creates excitement and makes customers feel valued, and the chances are they won’t want to waste their free perk by not showing up! We expect the vast majority of consumers who visit to redeem a perk to stay for multiple orders, driving revenue and number of visits.
By making these rewards app-exclusive, you incentivise customers to download and order. The fantastic app service received will ensure they keep ordering well into the rest of 2022...
Create a special St Patrick's Day in-app menu
Why not create a special, St Patrick’s Day themed menu for the occasion too? St Patrick’s Day is chiefly a wet-led occasion, so the drinks offer is crucial for success.
Offer unique cocktails only available via the app, such as the ‘Little Leprechaun’ and ‘Patrick’s Punch’. Also offering food with drinks, such as pint & pie deals or pint & burger deals can add an extra revenue stream, and keep people in the pub for longer - improving the overall experience and driving additional sales and revenue.
Don’t run out of the black stuff…
Ultimately… just make sure that you have enough Guinness to last the long weekend! 36% of UK pubs see an increase in non-regular customers on St Patrick’s Day and more than 60% agree that heavily promoting Guinness and going mad with merchandise drives footfall. (Morning Advertiser, 2014)
App marketing is your best friend
Visibility is vital for success - so make sure you market, market, market! Create posters to put up in the windows, make use of advertising on social media, send push notifications via the app, and use the Six Nations rugby tournament as a springboard to promote your St Patrick’s Day event. Ensure all your advertising efforts carry an app message, to keep reminding customers of your convenient ordering solution!
Send a marketing email every week in the lead up to the big day to your customer-base and let them know of any special deals or events you’re running to celebrate. Maybe offer an incentive to customers, offering them a discount code or a free shot to redeem if they download the app between then and St Patrick’s Day.
Get your team on board
Lastly, one of the most important things to consider is your team. A week or so before, sit down and engage your team - especially if you’re expecting to be very busy. Ensure to make them aware of any specials and promotions that you are running, get them excited about the day and outline how it benefits them for customers to use the venue’s mobile solution.
If you have team members who are fairly new and haven’t experienced a busy app shift before, make sure they’re partnered with a strong team member who can show them the ropes.
If staff feel encouraged and excited, they are more likely to promote the app and their enthusiasm will rub off on customers.
As always, our team are happy to help with any queries - so if you’d like to get your app set up, please get in touch here.
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