Mother’s Day Promotion Ideas for Your Restaurant
According to National Restaurant Association, roughly four in 10 Americans will eat out on Mother’s Day 2022. While that’s a lot of potential business, that also means that the competition is high to get folks in the door.
With one of the busiest restaurant days of the year fast approaching, we have some Mother’s Day promotion ideas to help you Attract CustomersMake sure to wow guests, and don’t make common errors.
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6 Mother’s Day promotion ideas for your restaurant
1. Advertise your Mother’s Day promotion as a rare event
If you normally don’t offer brunch but you are making an exception for Mother’s Day, make sure your biggest fans know about it. Share this Social media, send announcements to your email contacts and create a mini Mother’s Day advertising campaign to get people excited about trying your limited edition brunch offerings.
Also, consider trying the opposite: if every restaurant in town offers a special brunch menu, your restaurant could plan a fantastic dinner prix fixe or tasting menu for Mother’s Day dinner. You will be a great host for those guests that have trouble getting together or trying to plan around their church times.
2. Moms deserve a little extra
Promos that give moms free apps and complimentary drinks are an excellent way to make the meal special for your family. Consider offering a complimentary dessert, specialty cocktail or 20% off discount for mom’s meal. Be sure to advertise these Mother’s Day perks beforehand and entice guests into choosing your restaurant over the competition.
3. You might consider off-menu gift ideas for moms
Don’t forget to include gifts for moms. Any way you can make mom feel special will draw people. Sending flowers or chocolates is a great way to show customers that you care and go out of your ways to make her day memorable.
4. Show your inclusion
Don’t alienate a subsection of moms and families by only catering to one version of what “mom” can mean—these days the role of mom can be filled by plenty of people from grandmothers and nannies to daycare providers.
Families can also have two moms, two dads or multiple “mom” roles—the rules of what makes a family is evolving, so make sure your take on Mother’s Day promotions fit the ever-expanding mold to make sure your visitor net is as wide as possible in the process. Be clear about the fact that “mom” and “family” aren’t strictly interpreted in your establishment and that all moms are welcome.
5. Host a Mother’s Day Eve event
If your business is more of a bar than a brunch spot, host a Mother’s Eve bash that offers free or discounted drinks for moms and host a fun night out before a day where mom is guaranteed to be able to sleep in if she wants. This way you can still capitalize on the Mother’s Day crowd in a fun and different way without having to compete for brunch business with everyone else in the morning.
6. Try something entirely different with your Mother’s Day restaurant menu
Another option is to break from tradition entirely and do something unique for Mother’s Day instead of or in addition to your usual brunch.
For example, a chef’s tasting with pairings would be a fantastic event for wine lovers. Your restaurant could also plan events that create additional “out of the box” options. You can find bars or pubs that offer food and drinks, as well live music and a ballgame for moms who are passionate about baseball and their kids.
Three mistakes to avoid this Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is arguably the busiest and most chaotic day of the year for restaurants. Here are some things you can do to reduce stress for your employees, guests and yourself.
1. Menu options confusing
Many restaurants will run a special event or prix fixe menu for Mother’s Day. It’s a great idea as it relieves the chef of any pressure and makes preparations easier. In many cases, it’s a well-paced prix fixe menu and it is usually well received by guests. Unless they can’t understand it.
Remember that guests will choose you restaurant to celebrate this day because of the delicious food they enjoy. So try to add just a few new items to your prix fixe Mother’s Day menu for those looking to try something new, but keep some familiar favorites on hand as well.
2. Understaffing
We all know that being in a hurry and understaffed is the recipe for disaster. If you’ve hosted a Mother’s Day event in the past, look at your POS analyticsYou can see the amount of people you had booked and how busy you were. From there, you can estimate how many people you’ll need to schedule, as well how much extra stock you’ll need to order.
If you don’t have a POS with analytics, take a look at your reservations system before Mother’s Day to work out the schedule.
3. Let mom wait
It can be easy to overbook on a holiday — you want everyone to be able to enjoy your restaurant and the phones are ringing off the hook. But you won’t be as happy when you have a crowd waiting in the lobby because you didn’t consider table capacity or turn times.
One idea that many restaurants take advantage of is having segmented “seating times” on busy holidays. If you are having brunch, it can make sense to have options at 10 am, noon, or 2 pm. This will ensure that your staff expects three turnovers and your guests have ample time to enjoy their food.
Successful busy events like Mother’s Day can be the difference between building a loyal customer base and a bad reputation, but with a bit of planning, you’ll be building loyalty for years to come.
Streamline operations on your busiest days
With Small Biz Sense’s restaurant POS and management system, you can offer tableside ordering, start a loyalty program and view reports to see what’s working. Talk to one of our experts about restaurantsSee how technology can streamline your business and help you make better decisions.
