Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Dear Pickett,

It's 222 days (today), until September 30, 2011.
Why not offer a series of 30 for 30 deals?

Customers that come in to your restaurant throughout September that spend more than $30 get a free dessert,
or complimentary soft drinks, or a free salad for everyone in their party (up to six people).

OR,

Come in to the restaurant 30 times up until September 30 and the next five meals are on the house (with certain limits and restrictions, all of which will be clearly posted and explained).

OR,

Throughout September, any couple that spends $30 per head gets a free bottle of wine.

The thing here is to offer the lower overhead items that will make people's money go that little bit farther but that will add to their enjoyment.

You have 369 people on Facebook that LIKE your restaurant. Using social media you have DIRECT ACCESS to every single one of these people, access that basically begs you to send them tempting, time specific offers (by time specific I mean an offer that expires within seven days, or that night). And using just a few tweaks on Facebook you can find out when the vast majority of these people have birthdays, anniversaries, and lord knows what else, thereby giving you a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to send out offers along the lines of "Hi BillyBob, Happy birthday for the 15th. As our way of thanking you, bring a printout of this message to Sliders over the next seven days and if you've got someone with you, you eat free of charge, on us, as a birthday treat!"

This should at least give you something to go on.

Good luck and congratulations on your 30th year in business. The trick, if there's a trick here at all, is to make your message valuable to your customer because in truth, lovely people that you are, I'm sure, the only people that care about your 30th anniversary are you and your hubby. But again, hearty congrats to both of you.

Gary Bloomer
The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
Princeton, NJ, USA

I like the idea of prices ending in $X.30.

But I also like anniversary celebrations that bring back something from 30 years ago -- a menu item, a copy of the actual menu (so people can complain about the prices!), or maybe bring back an item at the original (1981) price.

Of course, you might have to require a customer to buy X or Y or Z to qualify for that 1981 price, but it still would be fun for people to think back to who they were 30 years ago as they order from that menu.

Maybe you could try to identify people who visited your restaurant that first year -- your long-term customers.

And have you seen all those birthday cards that list major events in the birth year -- in your case, 1981? Perhaps you could somehow relate your restaurant and menu to some of those events -- Ronald Reagan's inauguration? Songs of that era that contain words from your menu (seafood)?

I do think a 30-year run is a good thing in any business, and I hope you can find a way to connect your past with your present.

For those of us who still respect tradition, the traditional 30 year anniversary gift is the pearl, quite appropriate for your Oyster Bar! Consider running a monthly contest (maybe customers sign their receipts?) and have a drawing for a specific pearlized theme item (photo frames are a big hit) or have a grand prize of a piece of pearl jewelry. Whatever you decide on, it could be a way of getting more customers, keeping the ones you have AND getting media attention.

Best,
jag
MarketBase