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Restaurant owners may struggle to generate customer traffic during the rainy month of April. However, customers always enjoy having something to celebrate. By engaging your customers with clever marketing opportunities this April you can effectively promote your restaurant and encourage repeat visits.

Here are 5 engaging marketing opportunities for April 2023:

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As a restaurant owner, you are always looking for ways to attract new customers and keep your regulars coming back for more. One way to accomplish this is through the implementation of a loyalty program with one or several campaigns. A loyalty program rewards customers for their repeat business, which leads to increased customer retention, increased customer satisfaction, and ultimately, increased revenue. In this post, we will review 5 steps to successfully implementing a restaurant loyalty program and how you can make more money with restaurant loyalty programs.​

Step 1: Identify Your Goals and Objectives

Before implementing a loyalty program, it's important to identify your goals and objectives. What do you hope to achieve by implementing a loyalty program? Are you looking to increase customer retention, boost customer spending, or both? Once you have a clear idea of your objectives, you can begin designing your program.

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Aldelo Express is a point-of-sale (POS) software designed specifically for restaurants. It provides restaurant owners with an array of features to manage their business, such as menu management, table service, order management, and inventory management. One of the features offered by Aldelo Express is a complete gift card program available through the Masa+ Digital Payments solution. In addition to being available to Aldelo merchants at zero additional cost, in this blog post we will discuss what a Masa+ Gift Card program offers a restaurant.

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Restaurants have a lot of competition in the market. Increasing gift card sales can be an excellent way to serve existing customers and attract new customers. Gift cards can help restaurants generate revenue in advance, interest-free, and create loyal customers who keep coming back. Here are some key ways that gift cards will increase revenue for your restaurant.
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1. Promote Gift Cards In-Store and Online

One of the easiest ways to increase gift card sales is to promote them in-store and online:

• Have gift card signage prominently displayed at the point-of-sale
• Make sure that physical gift cards are visible and easily accessible to customers
• Promote gift cards on your website and social media channels

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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.​

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In the modern market, restaurants that offer digital loyalty and rewards programs see increased sales. Digital loyalty and rewards offer restaurants a competitive advantage in gaining and retaining customer allegiance in their local market. Restaurants that use Masa+ Loyalty and Rewards create multiple custom loyalty and rewards campaigns that cater to both existing and new customers. Operators can launch campaigns that specifically target a day of the week or meal period that are traditionally slow to increase traffic and sales.

Merchants that choose Aldelo Pay and approved Aldelo Partner merchant services receive the Masa+ multi-store digital Loyalty and Rewards Program available on the Aldelo Marketplace at ZERO additional cost. Any restaurant can utilize the flexible loyalty and rewards solution for one or more stores that allows operators to directly cater to the needs of their business and influence customer behaviors.

5. Easy to Set Up and Manage

​Merchants activate Masa+ with a single click, taking only a few minutes to activate the highly flexible Masa+ Loyalty and Rewards program, all managed through a cloud back-office environment.

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​The end of the year brings increased business and excitement as restaurant owners and staff work hard to serve an influx of customers and prepare for the coming year. For business owners, reflecting on the past year and writing down specific and measurable goals for their business makes them more likely to succeed in the coming year.

Aldelo is committed to helping merchants succeed. Unlike some point-of-sale software vendors whose direct contact ends after the system is installed, Aldelo supports restaurant owners throughout their initial year of use and beyond. Aldelo does this to ensure that merchants utilize the Aldelo Express native POS solutions, modules, and features that help their business thrive and grow. Plus, Aldelo merchants receive unlimited software updates and feature releases year-round, ensuring they are always operating with the latest-version POS software.

​Here are 5 considerations for restaurant owners as they prepare for the coming year:

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Masa+ provides restaurants with several secure digital solutions that help restaurants generate additional sales revenue. As a browser-based extension of the Aldelo Express POS platform, Masa+ supports multiple customer-driven ordering and payment solutions, including:

• QR code-based digital menus
• A Masa+ Online Storefront unique to their restaurant
• Secure digital wallets that store personal credit cards, egift cards, loyalty, rewards, and coupons
• QR code-based digital transactions, including Scan & Pay via customer receipt
• And more

Advertising In-Store via QR Codes

QR codes are a great way to promote your restaurant’s Masa+ Online Storefront. Merchants can either download a unique QR code that links to their restaurant through their Masa+ cloud back-office environment (pictured below), or generate and link their own QR codes to Masa+ online solutions via the following instructions: www.aldelo.com/marketing-qr-setup.html

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The holiday season is upon us, providing restaurant owners several opportunities to engage customers with holiday themed promotions and campaigns. In addition to Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve, December is host to several festive ways to promote your restaurant’s products and services.

December 9 - National Pastry Day

Pastries are a category of baked desserts that feature fluffy or flaky dough, fruits, and custards. Popular especially in European cuisine, pastries are a perfect addition to a morning coffee or as an after-meal sweet.

​This National Pastry Day, enhance your holiday campaigns by providing customers special offers for pastries bundled with qualifying food, drink, or gift card purchases, or as a “thank you” to customers who spend over a specified amount in-store or through your restaurant’s Masa+ Online Storefront.

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By implementing Masa+ multi-store Gift Cards, restaurant owners enable customers to conveniently purchase, redeem, and recharge physical and digital gift cards, keeping the business top of mind during the holidays and throughout the year. With no swipe fees, processing fees, or costs for the Masa+ eGift Card solution, restaurants using Masa+ eGift Cards instantly increase sales revenue for single and multi-store operations.

The holidays are all about giving and gift card purchases allow customers to share their favorite restaurants and bars with loved ones and friends. When received as a gift, customers that place orders with gift cards almost always spend more than the card’s value. When used alongside Aldelo Express Self-Service Kiosks and Masa+ Online Ordering, restaurant owners enable faster and easier gift card-based payments in any dining environment.

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Thanksgiving Day is one of the most popular U.S. holidays. Each year on the fourth Thursday of November, millions of Americans travel to share a meal with their family and friends. In the days surrounding Thanksgiving Day, many customers turn to their favorite local restaurants for convenient and complimentary food and drink items that save them time – and spare them additional kitchen clean-up. As a result, restaurants can gain additional customers by promoting their restaurant’s online ordering, takeout, and delivery services this November.

Aldelo Express POS is a E2E cloud-based restaurant technology platform that supports both in-store and off-premises restaurant services. Using iPad and Android-based point-of-sale hardware, merchants choose from a variety of merchant-facing and customer-facing ordering and digital payment solutions that work together to run a complete restaurant operation. This includes several native cloud POS modules and features such as:

• Delivery Module, including Order Dispatching, Driver Tracking, and Digital Mapping
• QR Code-Based Masa+ Online Ordering and Digital Payments
• Native Inventory and Recipe Module
• “Matrix” Menu Module for Creating Hundreds if Menu Items in Minutes
• Advanced Pricing Module for Easy Digital Menu Management
• Third-Party Integration Solutions
• And More

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November is most commonly associated with Thanksgiving. More Americans travel to be with friends and family on Thanksgiving Day than they do for Christmas, New Year’s Eve, or any other popular holiday. As a result, many restaurants promote their business through Thanksgiving-themed dinner specials, food and drink bundles, desserts, and gift card campaigns.

Here are 3 additional ways to market your restaurant this November:

Día de Los Muertos (or Day of the Dead) - November 1-2

From ofrenda (offering) altars and sugar skulls to bright marigolds and colorful papel picado (perforated paper), Dí​a de Los Muertos is a great way for local restaurant owners to engage their communities this November with festive promotions. Restaurants can add some limited-time menu items and even put their own twist on easy-to-make items, such as tostadas, margaritas, and quesadillas, to commemorate this widely-celebrated holiday.

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Restaurants not utilizing gift card programs are missing out on additional revenue. Gift cards have the ability to generate hundreds if not thousands of dollars of additional sales each year that acts as another revenue stream that helps restaurants sustain the business during slower periods.

Masa+ is a full-featured online ordering and digital payments platform that includes:

• Multi-Store QR Code-Based eGift Cards
• Text-Based eGift Card Sharing
• QR Code-Based Digital Menus
• Secure Personal Digital Wallets
• Loyalty, Rewards, and Coupon Programs
• And more

Here are the top 5 benefits of the Masa+ eGift Card Program:

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The month of October is famous for Fall Harvest Festivals, pumpkin patch trips, the Major League Baseball Post-Season Playoffs, and Halloween. Each one of these October activities provides restaurant owners an opportunity to encourage new and existing customers to visit their restaurant by incentivizing menu purchases via gift card, loyalty, and rewards-based promotions.

Here are a few ways restaurants can engage their customers this October:

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​Largely ignored in the US for years, QR codes are proving daily how much of a productive and trusted asset they are to business owners in today’s unpredictable market climate. As restaurant owners continually adjust to the contactless and digital market, utilizing QR code-based access to native and third-party online ordering and digital payment integrations help staff and customers increase operational efficiency, reduce order errors, and improve overall customer service levels and satisfaction.
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With eight out of ten people carrying a smartphone camera in their pockets, unique QR codes enable restaurants to put ordering and payment capabilities into the hands of their customers, including:

• Paperless menus
• Place online orders
• Scan-and-pay at the POS
• Web-based digital payments
• Leave cashless tips
• Receive paperless receipts
• Gain loyalty points
• Trigger curbside pick-up
• Digital restaurant storefronts
• And more!

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The school year is back in swing, which means restaurants are engaging schools, students, and school groups in their local communities. For many customers, their daily schedules are prioritized around their childrens’ school, extracurricular activities, and their local social network. By supporting students’ success while encouraging new and existing customers to return the favor through support of their business, restaurants successfully increase customer traffic this fall and throughout the school year with back-to-school themed campaigns.

Here are three ways to engage your local customer base with back-to-school themed campaigns and events:

Homecoming Catering and Promotions

Homecoming is an exciting time of year for students, families, and their communities. With homecoming float-building, dances, and football games occurring throughout the fall season, restaurants have a unique opportunity to support local schools with homecoming-themed catering and promotions. Examples include:

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Because coffee is the most popular drink in America, nearly every restaurant offers hot or cold coffee beverages on their menu. This September 29th, on National Coffee Day, restaurant owners across the country are taking advantage of the opportunity to promote their restaurant’s digital menus with coffee-themed loyalty campaigns. By incentivizing digital online ordering purchases with coffee-based giveaways and discounts, businesses see increased purchases of food and drinks placed both in-store on QR code-based digital menus, and online.

For new and existing restaurant owners, offering a full-featured digital menu means enabling customers to customize their own coffee-based drinks using simple, complex, and priced menu item modifiers. Using a single cloud-based login, owners/operators monitor and manage digital menus and menu item modifiers anytime, anywhere through the Aldelo Express POS cloud back-office. When used alongside self-service Kiosks and QR code-based signage placed throughout the indoor and outdoor restaurant environment, restaurants utilizing Aldelo Express and Masa+ eliminate long lines and reduce wait times through on-demand customer-facing digital ordering and secure payment services.

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One of the best strategies a restaurant can make at the end of a busy summer season is leveraging customer contact information gathered over the previous several months and establishing new loyalty campaigns. Promoting reward incentives that cater to busy schedules keep customers engaged despite a transition into school-year routines. When successful, these restaurants not only retain summer customers, but can present their restaurant as a “grab and go” option or as an ideal “hotspot” for parent meetings, local fundraisers, or a fun time out.

​Here are 3 creative ways to target customers this September with themed campaigns:

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For millions of Americans, September marks the end of summer. By the end of August, summer tourists, campers, and out-of-towners are going back to their school year routines, making September a challenging period for many restaurant owners who are at risk of losing new summer customers. As a result, one of the best things a restaurant can do is target their customers with integrated loyalty and rewards incentives so they will be reminded of their favorite “summer stop” throughout the school year. When successful, these restaurants not only maintain a growing customer base, but present their restaurant as an ideal vendor for fundraisers, sports team gatherings, homecoming catering, and more.

One of the best ways restaurants can strategically compete in the growing loyalty market is to reward customer purchases and influence return visits with unique customer promotions. These help restaurants increase customer traffic and earn additional revenue that is often essential for sustaining the business during slower periods.

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Red wine is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages among U.S. consumers. This means that National Red Wine Day (August 28) offers restaurants and bars a unique opportunity to promote new and existing partnerships with local wineries, tasting rooms, and restaurants through cross-pollination advertising and collaborative campaigns.
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For example, a restaurant and tasting room partnership can use National Red Wine Day to encourage customers to purchase their favorite food and drinks in a tasting room environment, or purchase locally-made wines with their meal on a restaurant’s premises. Partners can offer their menu items in promotional bundles or through limited-time discounts. In both scenarios, business owners and operators make customers aware of existing collaborations, influence guests to place orders for additional items, and can generate future visits with limited-time gift card, loyalty, and rewards offers.

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Bars, pubs, and clubs were one of the most severely hit markets during the coronavirus pandemic. But there are silver linings emerging from an industry that had to reinvent itself during difficult times. Business owners are maintaining off-premises alcoholic services through curbside pickup, takeout, delivery, and do-it-yourself cocktail kits while expanding and promoting their menus with new drinks, appetizers, desserts, and other food items. This is welcome news as customers return to their pre-pandemic purchases and restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs are working hard to make up for their recent losses.

When used with Aldelo Express POS, Masa+ digital solutions enable any-sized business owners to promote new and existing menu items via loyalty-based campaigns. Masa+ offers highly customizable online ordering and digital payment solutions, including physical, digital, and hybrid loyalty, rewards, and gift card programs that operators use to incentivize purchases and encourage future visits for guests to collect and redeem new rewards.