A Direct Mail Promotional Idea for Restaurants

We recently received a postcard in our mailbox from a well known restaurant in our community.

The postcard suggested we come in for dinner and gave us a phone number to call to make a reservation. They also made the offer that if we mentioned the postcard when we made our reservation, we’d be entitled to complimentary deserts for everyone in our party.

We took them up on their offer and our party of six had a wonderful dinner plus desert.

This mailing accomplished several things for the restaurant:

We made a reservation and brought four other people with us, two of whom had never had been to the restaurant before.

The dessert offer gave us a reason to want to respond, a “benefit”, while providing the restaurant with a simple way to measure the effectiveness of the mailing.

By incorporating the offer for the free desert into the reservation process, it eliminated our need to bring in the card.

We suspect that many others took advantage of this offer resulting in a very successful promotion at a nominal cost.

Why not test this approach for your own restaurant? Of course you can vary the offer in a number of ways.

You may want to offer a bottle of wine or perhaps a complimentary appetizer or even a free meal when another meal is purchased. If you’re not sure which offer will work best it is easy to test the idea by mailing half of your postcards with one offer and the other half with a different offer. If you do this, be sure and provide a key number so you can distinguish which postcard they are replying too.

When you’re ready to try this idea contact the folks at Avery Print and Mail Center. They’re available to assist you in all aspects of completing your mailing. You can reach them at 877-AVERY PMC (877-283-7976 or visit www.printandmailcenter.com.