This year a prime-time Super Bowl TV ad costs an estimated $2.6 million for a 30 second spot. Those commercials typically are fun to watch—hilarious even—but you have to wonder whether such broadcast messages ever yield real sales.That’s a question you don’t have to ask when your restaurant has an online ordering platform with an e-mail marketing component. Every targeted message you send goes directly to qualified customers who’ve already purchased your food and told you their preferences. Better yet, sending those emails out cost only the time you spend making your pitch.

Come Sunday, all 450 Hooter’s restaurants will give away a 40-inch high-definition TV. The following Tuesday it’s expected all 1,500 Denny’s Restaurants will repeat last year’s smashing promotion when they gave away free Grand Slam breakfasts to 2 million people. Heaven only knows what Coke, McDonald’s and E-Trade will spend on squeezing a few laughs out of us.

You, on the other hand, have made the investment in your online ordering and marketing system, so your spending is over. Using it wisely to score some serious Super Bowl sales is all that remains.

Going mobile at light speed

So you’ve got an online ordering site that’s super cool, fully automated and a real sales horse for your restaurant. You’re proud of it and you should be. But according to new research released by Morgan Stanley in December, you could be behind the tech curve if your site isn’t set up to market to mobile phone users. In its “Mobile Internet Report,” the venerable investment and banking house concluded that “more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years.” And given how quickly mobile device use is growing, that number may be conservative: Researchers found that the use of mobile devices for Web access is growing far faster than it did when the only option was through a desktop computer. If you doubt that finding, ask some teens whether they prefer their laptops or their smart phones for surfing the ‘net. Their thumbs, permanently bent from typing on their mobile phones, will provide some proof.

Apple seeding the market

Not surprisingly, Morgan Stanley researchers pegged Apple Computing (and its groundbreaking iPhone) as the leading innovator in mobile applications. What many once called a gadget is the most influential force helping grow mobile phone commerce, and there’s no end in sight. Does your website have an iPhone app? If it doesn’t, but yours is an ONOSYS site, the upgrade is simple. If you don’t have an ONOSYS Online Ordering platform, give us a call. We’ll help revolutionize your restaurant business by moving you ahead of the technology curve. To read the “The Mobile Internet Report” for yourself, visit (http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/2SETUP_12142009_RI.pdf).

The world's most exclusive Subway is also cooler than you'd ever thought Subway could be: Fully-functioning, inside a shipping container, delivering sandwiches up and down the full height of the Ground Zero construction—soon to top 100 stories.

 

Kudos to Subway for coming up with a truly radical marketing idea: a sandwich shop that dangles from a crane that moves it up and down to serve workers on different floors of the emerging Freedom Tower. (The building is under construction in Manhattan at the site of the fallen World Trade Center complex. When completed, it will rise to 1,776 feet.) The shop is about the size of a rail car, is painted bright yellow and branded with the well-known Subway logo.

The story of the soaring store (click here to learn more) will doubtless attract worldwide attention, and given the emotions attached to the new building’s construction, Subway will earn some “feel good” points for its involvement. And what a boon it is for iron workers who don’t have to leave the super structure to get lunch. Now that’s convenient!

If you don’t know twit from tweet about the popular social networking tool dubbed Twitter, then count yourself in the majority.

And then get busy learning how to use this nifty gizmo to drive your sales.

Twitter is a Web-based application enjoyed mostly by mobile phone users who use it to send short (140 characters) messages to friends, family and customers-known in Twitter language as “followers.”

Followers share information about themselves or, more importantly, about their businesses, such as, “Tony’s Pizza’s got a new Stromboli pizza. Show this code-76543-and get a free slice from Tony Amorone!”

Sound too simple to be truly effective? A growing flock of restauranteurs say no. The Loft at Soby’s in South Carolina “tweets” its lunch and dinner specials daily. In Iowa, Panchero’s Mexican Grill tweets “meet the marketing manager” messages inviting customers to different stores for lunchtime prizes.

Oh, and Twitter itself is a free service.

Twitter is convenient

Most customers view junk mail as a hassle, so getting your message across conveniently and quickly is what they want. Twitter’s ability to do that makes it a marketing natural.

Operators say most successful promotions are “tweeted” right before mealtimes, when customers are hungry, and when they provide an incentive to buy, such as an online coupon.

With ONOSYS’ newly released version 3 (V3) of its online ordering platform, you not only can track Twitter coupon redemption, but all other coupon offers.

Better yet, the system automatically calculates your net sales increase as a result of redemption rates and tracks usage limits for each customer. Combine that power with ONOSYS’ new mobile phone application and your sales are bound to fly.

Your most powerful marketing tool may be sitting by the cash register. That’s right, your trusty business card collecting fishbowl can be the center of your restaurants digital marketing campaign.  Is your restaurant taking full advantage of your fishbowl’s marketing potential?

E-mail is cheap, fast, and it’s easy. And when done right, it’s very lucrative. Follow these simple guidelines when dropping your message into their digital inbox.

The Do’s

Do e-mail valuable coupons/specials.Your customers don’t care that your restaurant’s four and half year anniversary is coming up. What’s in it for them?

Do allow them to remove their name from your list.If you don’t your e-mail will be considered spam, and the only thing people like less than spam is people who send them spam.

Do allow customers to sign up in multiple ways.  Aside from that fishbowl, your POS system, website, and online ordering system should all be able to collect e-mail addresses and customer information.

The Don’ts

Don’t send a plain text e-mail. Unless your sign reads, Cousin Vinny’s Pizza and Bait Shop, a boring text only e-mail will not cut it for your customers. Setup a branded template and use colorful graphics where possible. Frankly, even Cousin Vinny’s customers deserve better.

Don’t e-mail too often or not often enough. It’s like phone calls while dating. Call too often and you sound desperate. Too infrequently, and you seem disinterested. Pick a campaign schedule and stick to it or your customers will cheat on you with that sexy new restaurant down the street.

Don’t send it at the wrong times. Studies show that the best time to send that kind of e-mail is right before lunch. We also recommend avoiding Mondays since that’s when most people clean their inbox then from the weekend overflow.

It’s been said the only certainties in life are death and taxes. And today, many Americans will likely tell you death is preferable to taxes. Like no other day, April 15 brings incomparable loads of headaches, hand wringing and teeth-grinding as the payment for living in a free country. (How’s that for irony?)

Yet amid today’s endless number crunching, file riffling and abundant swearing, restaurateurs are showing their smarts-and their sympathy in this economic downturn-to drive business with Tax Day bargains. A quick check of Google News this morning revealed numerous eateries giving customers 15 percent off meals and $5 freebies to help relieve some of today’s pain.

Several creative pizzerias are planning slice giveaways on the sidewalks and driveways leading into many cities’ main post offices. Their thinking is simple: We might not be able to make your tax woes disappear, but we can eliminate your hunger.

Time isn’t on their side

Even if your customers don’t owe Uncle Sam additional duties, they’re still pressed for time if they’ve still not mailed that 1040-EZ or otherwise. That provides a great opportunity to use your online ordering system’s electronic marketing capabilities to send them some April 15 offers.

In this day of Turbo Tax, they’re certain to be at the computer anyway and likely will get your offer instantly. Making it easy for them to order without leaving their seats-and giving them a Tax Day discount-is the “no brainer” type of service they need today. It could give them a much-needed lift to finish the job.

What better way to do your patriotic duty than by helping your fellow countrymen pay their taxes on time?