Did you know that implementing a loyalty program in your restaurant can significantly boost customer retention and revenue? In fact, venues that implement TouchBistro Loyalty see a 12-13% increase in average transactions in just the first three months of using the product. In order to maximize the benefits of this kind of tool, you’ll need to invest time in loyalty program promotion. In other words, you have to make sure your customers – both new and old – know about your loyalty program and the value of signing up.
And, the best way to do that is to connect with them where they are: on social media. This guide to loyalty program promotion will help you do just that. Keep reading to:
- Learn how to promote a loyalty program using social media
- Get five free social media templates for loyalty promotions
Download these social media templates to spread the word about your loyalty program and encourage new sign-ups.
How to Promote a Loyalty Program Using Social Media
So, why should you turn to social media to spread the word about your loyalty program? Because it’s one of the most popular channels diners turn to when they’re looking for a place to eat. In fact, about one in four American Millennials and Gen Zers, and one in four Canadian Millennials and one in three Canadian Gen Zers look for restaurants via social media.
When you post about your loyalty program on social media, you’re spreading the word to a receptive and eager audience. Here are six loyalty program promotion tactics you can implement on your restaurant’s social media channels starting today.
Post On All Platforms
When it comes to using social media to promote your loyalty program, the number one tip is to not just promote your restaurant loyalty programs on one platform; leverage all of them to reach different audiences. Post everywhere your restaurant has a presence on social media.
According to TouchBistro’s 2023 Dining Trends Report, Facebook is the most influential social media platform for restaurants. However, that doesn’t mean you should neglect your Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok audiences when promoting your loyalty program. If you assume there’s an overlap in audiences between platforms, you could be missing out on reaching customers who might be the most likely to sign up for your loyalty program and become loyal regulars. So, make sure to stay active on every social network where your restaurant has an account and talk about your loyalty program on all platforms.
Pro Tip: As you fine tune your loyalty program promotion strategy, remember that different platforms have different media requirements for posts. For example, photos are key in Instagram posts, while TikTok is all about videos. Learn the ins and outs of each platform to post content your followers will be more likely to engage with. After all, engaging content could drive loyalty program sign ups and help you drive lucrative repeat guests.
Download these social media templates to spread the word about your loyalty program and encourage new sign-ups.
Expand Your Social Media Presence
When was the last time you expanded your social media presence? Creating a loyalty program promotion plan is an opportune time to consider adding new platforms to the mix.
If your restaurant already uses Facebook and Twitter, think about joining Instagram to spread the word about your loyalty program to a whole new audience of potential customers. If you’re active on Instagram but want to reach an older audience, consider signing up for Facebook. According to our 2023 Diner Trends Report, Facebook’s audience skews older than Instagram’s and TikTok’s, with the platform influencing 16% of American and 13% of Canadian Boomers’ dining decisions. Because many Boomers are in the midst of or approaching retirement, they tend to have more free time and more disposable income, and are therefore excellent contenders for a loyalty program.
And, if you’re not already on TikTok, what are you waiting for? 40% of U.S. restaurants already use the platform, according to TouchBistro’s 2023 State of Restaurants Report. Using TikTok is an especially great way to engage Gen Z, which is the demographic that dines out most often. Use TikTok to invite them to join your loyalty program and incentivize them to become lifelong regulars.
Pro Tip: Research social media platform demographics before committing to any new platforms to make sure you’re spending your time promoting your loyalty platform to the right audience.
Post Often
As mentioned above, you shouldn’t be posting to just one platform and you certainly shouldn’t be posting about your loyalty program on your social media platforms just once. Instead, post about your loyalty program regularly – often, in fact. You might be worried that you’re spamming your followers, but don’t be. Due to algorithms, they won’t see every post you share so posting more often makes it more likely that your message will reach your audience.
An easy way to make sure you conduct loyalty program promotion regularly is to tie these posts to restaurant holiday promotions with holiday-related messaging and relevant graphics in the time leading up to the big day. And we have templates below to help you do just that!
People celebrate holidays with food, so they’ll be looking for restaurants to help them mark the occasion. When customers find out via social media that you have a loyalty program that rewards them for their repeat business and/or offers a sign-up incentive, that could convince them to celebrate that special holiday with you (and then come back again in the future).
Beyond generally reminding followers that you have a loyalty program, you should also be posting about new rewards as you introduce them. Publicizing rewards, like double the point or tempting rewards, can incentivize current loyalty members to work toward these milestones and persuade non-members to sign up.
Pro Tip: In addition to letting your customers and loyalty program members know about new rewards via social media, you should also be alerting them via email. Fortunately, with the TouchBistro Loyalty and Marketing integration, you can put email promotion on autopilot so you can constantly keep your audience updated on the latest updates to your rewards program.
Download these social media templates to spread the word about your loyalty program and encourage new sign-ups.
Take Advantage of Micro-Holidays
Tying posts to restaurant holiday promotions is a great place to start spreading the word about your loyalty program. When you’re ready to take things up a notch, you can also create similar posts and limited-time rewards for micro-holidays (a.k.a., social media holidays) like Donut Day, Margarita Day, or National Pizza Day.
For example, you might offer double points when loyalty program members purchase a whole pizza on National Pizza Day, or give members who order a margarita pitcher on Margarita Day a free margarita during their next visit. The novelty of these micro-holidays keeps your loyalty program fun and interesting to current members, and makes non-members want to sign up.
Download our calendar of national food days to plan your campaigns ahead of time and give your followers highly-engaging content that doubles as loyalty program promotion.
Pro Tip: Food micro-holidays can also help you inspire loyalty program members to create user-generated content (UGC): social media posts related to your restaurant that are created by customers. If you run a donut shop, for example, customers will want to treat themselves at your bakery on National Donut Day and post photos of your beautiful treats to their own social media accounts – photos that their followers will see as well. It’s like free promotion to a whole new audience!
Take further advantage of UGC by engaging with and re-posting the content your customers share with you. When people see others like them enjoying your food, they’ll want to do the same to avoid missing out. Add a signup link for your loyalty program when you share UGC to capitalize on this FOMO.
Make It Easy to Sign Up
The goal of loyalty program promotion is to drive sign ups and engagement, so make sure it’s easy for guests to do just that. Add links to your loyalty program and customer web app whenever possible, such as in Facebook posts or in your Instagram bio.
Pro Tip: Using a shortened link can help make the link look neater and remove friction. A shortened link condenses a URL into just a few characters, making it easier to read. You can make one yourself by pasting your desired URL into a free tool like bit.ly.
Monitor Engagement and Track Results
Once you’ve posted about your loyalty program, see what guests are saying about it online and how they’re reacting. For example, you might notice that sign-ups spike when you post about your program on Instagram, but not as much on Facebook.
Consider using polling features, such as those on Twitter and Instagram Stories, to directly solicit feedback from followers about your loyalty program. Read comments, collect valuable feedback, and then make changes as needed. If, for example, people are commenting that they wish there were more ways to earn points, you could implement a double points promotion on slower days.
Download these social media templates to spread the word about your loyalty program and encourage new sign-ups.
5 Templates for Loyalty Program Promotion
Linking your loyalty promotions to holidays can be very effective for a number of reasons.
First, because people commemorate most holidays with food and feel social pressure to spend for certain holidays, your customers will already be looking for a place to celebrate or from which to buy a gift card. Incentivizing them with your loyalty program helps to keep your business top of mind during this time.
Second, holidays are some of the busiest days for restaurants, so you can build on existing momentum to get customers to sign up for your loyalty program (and then keep them coming back post-holiday season).
We know it can be difficult to invest time into promoting your loyalty program and posting on social media when your tables are fully booked and you have takeaway orders constantly pouring in. To speed up the promotion process and take one thing off your plate, we’ve created five holiday-related loyalty program promotion social media graphic templates. All of these templates were created using Canva, which is a free, easy-to-use design tool. With Canva, you can download the template as-is, or customize it to match your restaurant’s unique branding.
All you have to do is:
- Click the button below each template to visit the corresponding Canva page.
- Create a free Canva account or log in to your existing account if you have one.
- Customize these graphics with Canva’s easy drag-and-drop tools to match your restaurant’s branding. You can also resize the images for different social media platforms if needed.
- After downloading your final image, customize our pre-written sample social media post text to pair with your post.
- Schedule these holiday-related loyalty program promotion posts using your social media scheduling tool of choice.
- Then, carry on with business as usual and watch the loyalty program sign-ups roll in!
Download these social media templates to spread the word about your loyalty program and encourage new sign-ups.
1. Mother’s Day Template
Mom deserves to be celebrated every day! Use this template to incentivize customers to sign up for your loyalty program in the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day. By offering a discount upon loyalty membership sign up, you’ll incentivize customers to bring their moms in for a meal or buy her a treat from your establishment. And, when your servers invite Mom to sign up for your loyalty program after her meal, she can earn year-round rewards.
In this template, rewarding mom refers to treating her for Mother’s Day. Rewarding yourself refers to accruing points with every purchase, which you can eventually redeem for rewards. Make those benefits clear by using the sample text below!
Sample Social Media Post Text:
“Sign up for our loyalty program to reward Mom today and treat yourself tomorrow. You’ll receive 10% off your first purchase, then accrue points with every purchase, which you can redeem for tasty rewards.”
2. Christmas Template
Who doesn’t love the Christmas countdown? Use this loyalty program promotion template in the weeks leading up to Christmas (or just the general holiday season) to incentivize loyalty program sign ups. Customers will also be looking to your restaurant for gift cards during the holiday season, so it could be helpful to create a gift-card-related sign up incentive.
Use this sample text below to make sure every guest can get into the festive spirit.
Sample Social Media Post Text:
“While you’re busy buying gifts for loved ones this holiday season, don’t forget to treat yourself! When you sign up for our free loyalty program, you’ll earn points for every purchase you make. You can redeem those points for discounts and freebies at our restaurant.”
3. Thanksgiving Template
Thanksgiving is all about sharing great food and gratitude with loved ones. Capitalize on these generous feelings – and big appetites – by tying this social media template to Thanksgiving-time loyalty promotions to boost sign ups. Mid-September in Canada and early November in the U.S. are good times to start sharing this post.
Whether you’re celebrating up north or down south, use this sample text ahead of turkey day.
Sample Social Media Post Text:
“We’re thankful for our customers! Join our loyalty program and reap the rewards of being our customer year-round. You’ll earn points with every purchase, which you can redeem for discounts and freebies.”
4. Valentine’s Day Template
People who show love through food will be looking for a delicious place to spend Valentine’s Day. Tap into those warm and fuzzy feelings at the end of January and early February by sharing this Valentine’s Day template to promote your loyalty program. Post this graphic several times with different variations of post text and watch sign ups increase.
Leave your loyalty regulars feeling warm and fuzzy with this sample text.
Sample Social Media Post Text:
“You + Our Loyalty Program = a relationship worth celebrating year round! Sign up for our loyalty program this Valentine’s Day to start accruing points with every purchase. You can redeem those points for rewards you’ll love. You can share them with someone special… or keep them to yourself!”
5. Summer Template
When temperatures rise, people want to cook less and prefer spending time with friends eating out. Take advantage of this joyous summer feeling by using this seasonal template to boost loyalty program sign ups.
Celebrate the start of summer with this sample text and accompanying post.
Sample Social Media Post Text:
“Get rewarded for treating yourself all summer long! Sign up for our free loyalty program and earn rewards you can use any time of year.”
Those are our top tips for loyalty program promotion, but there’s no need to just stop at social media! Email and in-app messages are also great tools, especially if you have both TouchBistro Loyalty and Marketing. Spread the word about your TouchBistro Loyalty program to keep customers coming back for more.
Katherine is the Content Marketing Manager at TouchBistro, where she writes about trending topics in food and restaurants. The opposite of a picky eater, she’ll try (almost) anything at least once. Whether it’s chowing down on camel burgers in Morocco or snacking on octopus dumplings in Japan, she’s always up for new food experiences.
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