5-minute read ---
For many, the month of March marks anticipation of Spring, St. Patrick’s Day festivals, and watching the annual “March Madness” college basketball tournament with family and friends. With these activities and more, there are many ways restaurants can tailor their March marketing to hungry customers.
Fat Tuesday - March 1
Whether it’s known as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, this annual day of feasting continues age-old cultural and religious traditions celebrated throughout the world. In the U.S. the most famous way to participate is through southern-style Mardi Gras festivals (Mardi Gras being French for “Fat Tuesday”). Celebrations traditionally include music, colorful masks, sweets, and rich, multicultural flavors.
Restaurants and bars looking for a fun way to spice up their marketing can host Mardi Gras events with live music and southern comfort foods such as king cake, beignets, jambalaya, and Po’boys, or hurricane drinks, Ramos Gin Fizz, and Vieux Carré specials from the bar.
Whether it’s known as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, this annual day of feasting continues age-old cultural and religious traditions celebrated throughout the world. In the U.S. the most famous way to participate is through southern-style Mardi Gras festivals (Mardi Gras being French for “Fat Tuesday”). Celebrations traditionally include music, colorful masks, sweets, and rich, multicultural flavors.
Restaurants and bars looking for a fun way to spice up their marketing can host Mardi Gras events with live music and southern comfort foods such as king cake, beignets, jambalaya, and Po’boys, or hurricane drinks, Ramos Gin Fizz, and Vieux Carré specials from the bar.
National Sons Day - March 4
Like National Daughter’s Day (September 25), National Sons Day honors all who are sons and those who raise them. Typical commemorations are done through social media “appreciation posts” and families and sons spending quality time together with games, outdoor activities, and trying new hobbies. Restaurants can help customers celebrate this day with family-centric promotions, discounts, and events such as game nights or watch-parties with food and drinks.
Restaurants can also create limited menus catered to fathers and sons that include popular menu items such as chicken wings, chips and dip, and root beer floats. This provides restaurants a great opportunity to boost their loyalty campaigns, offering discounts and future rewards for guests who bring in their sons.
National Meatball Day - March 9
Little is known about the history of National Meatball Day, but because of their delectable taste and culinary versatility (think meatball sandwich, spaghetti and meatballs, meatball soup, and meatball pizza), meatballs pose a great opportunity for engaging hungry customers. Big or small, in stroganoff or casseroles, made of beef, turkey, or even plants, meatballs are a classic menu item that everyone can enjoy.
Best of all, meatballs freeze well, saving restaurants time and money when they prepare meatballs ahead of time. Celebrate National Meatball Day this year by spicing up your menu with limited-time meatball menu items.
Saint Patrick’s Day - March 17
Saint Patrick’s Day began in honor of St. Patrick, Christian patron to the country of Ireland, and has been celebrated since the 17th century. Today, especially in the U.S., Irish descendants celebrate with parades, live music, dancing, green beer, traditional food, wearing green clothes, and recalling leprechauns from Irish folklore.
Traditional Irish foods include soda bread, shellfish, stew, and potato dumplings, but many Irish-Americans also celebrate with green-colored foods and drinks such as beer, cocktails, green-frosted baked goods, pancakes, and mashed potatoes that are easy to add to any menu.
National Cocktail Day - March 24
Cocktails have been around for thousands of years, but grew in popularity in the 18th century when public houses or “pubs” combined dark liquors with spices and juices, making hard liquors enjoyable for every palate. Through the American Prohibition era, adding sugar and spices to “black market” alcohols established cocktails in American drinking culture.
Celebrate National Cocktail Day by releasing a new alcoholic drink or non-alcoholic “mocktail” to attract the growing number of customers moving away from consuming alcohol.
Create Limited-Time Menus with Masa+
Limited-time menus allow restaurants to promote experimental, seasonal, or top-selling items. Small, limited-time menus make routine customer dining decisions exciting and new, offering delicious food and drinks consistent with the restaurant’s staple quality food and drink items.
Menus created with Masa+ provide support for static or dynamic limited menu offerings, enabling owners and operators to make changes from the Masa+ cloud back-office. Masa+ image-based online menus complement traditional in-store menus and can even replace these when customers use Masa+ Online Ordering in-store.
By launching a loyalty campaign around these types of events, restaurants can generate greater loyalty program adoption by offering double loyalty rewards around the above noted special days, which will also drive customer traffic.
A leader in developing restaurant point-of-sale solutions for more than 20 years, Aldelo Express Cloud Point-of-Sale is an E2E restaurant technology platform supporting full-featured merchant- and customer-facing solutions. Merchants leverage a rich ecosystem for customizing and improving customer ordering, dining, and delivery services. This includes Masa+, offering restaurant businesses a seamless Web-based Restaurant Storefront, Mobile Online Ordering, Secure Digital Wallet with Gift, Loyalty, and Reward programs.
Learn more by contacting an Aldelo representative today at [email protected] or 925-621-2410
Learn more by contacting an Aldelo representative today at [email protected] or 925-621-2410
Restaurants that use ultra-competitive Aldelo Pay or Aldelo Partner Merchant Services obtain access to a Centralized Multi-Store Restaurant Technology Platform that includes Masa+ Online Ordering, Unlimited Software Releases, Unlimited Software Upgrades, and 24/7 Technical Support! *** Please contact an Aldelo representative today for more details, including a free Aldelo Express POS demo trial [email protected] | 877-639-8767 | [email protected] |
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