Simple 7-Step Takeaway Marketing Strategy to Boost Online Sales

The number of takeaway restaurants keeps increasing year after year. For example, in the UK, the number of takeaway businesses increased from 37 thousand in 2013 to 47 thousand in 2023. How will you make your business stand out amongst all your competitors? 

Do you have a lot of takeaway business ideas but no plan on how to grow and promote them? In this article, we’ve outlined an easy-to-follow, 7-step plan to create a takeaway marketing strategy that will bring you new clients and turn them into regulars.

How to Devise a Takeaway Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps

Do you want to know to increase sales for a takeaway business? By getting the word out about it and tempting people to try your delicious food.  Learn how to make a takeaway successful without breaking the bank following the advice below:

Step 1: Choose the right online ordering system for your needs

The first thing you need when creating a takeaway marketing strategy is the main tool that will help you sell your food online: an in-house online ordering system.

You should look for a tool that allows you to:

• Accept orders in real-time with the tap of a button
• Auto-accept orders
• Enable order ahead and scheduled orders
• Update your menu and services on the fly
• Mark items as out of stock and pause services
• Reach more customers with advanced marketing tools
• Access detailed analytics and reports

The GloriaFood online ordering system offers all of that and more. What’s more, you can set it up in no more than 10 minutes. Here’s how:

Read more: The Benefits of an Online Food Ordering System & How to Get the Best One 

Step 2: Put together a mouthwatering online menu

Even if you already have a menu that you use for dine-in, takeaway is its own thing that requires a smaller menu made up of items that travel well.

Moreover, while print menus don’t usually need photos, online menus would be dull without them. People want to see what they order and a mouthwatering photo at the right time and place can motivate them to add more items to the cart.

Creative and enticing menu descriptions can also help you sell more by making customers feel hungry and crave your delicious dishes.

Learn the basics of creating a successful online menu by watching the tutorial below:

If you want to delve deeper into menu settings that allow you to hide items from the menu or mark them as hot, vegan, vegetarian, halal, gluten-free, nut-free, raw, or dairy-free, check out this video:

Read more: How to Personalize Your Restaurant Menu Categories & Attract More Customers 

Even if your online menu is smaller than your dine-in menu, that doesn’t mean you can’t provide customers with plenty of variety. How? By allowing them to customize every menu item with add-ons, toppings, sides, and extras:

Read more: How to Improve Your Restaurant Menu with Choices and Add-ons 

Step 3: Create a restaurant website designed to help you sell more

Your takeaway marketing strategy needs a place to bloom. It’s similar to how businesses in the SaaS space use effective tools like SaaS explainer videos to clearly showcase their solutions and engage users.

That place is your restaurant’s website. That is where people will place orders and where you’ll display your menu, special offers, events, announcements, and more.

That means you don’t just need any website. You need a website that’s designed with conversion optimization at its core. This means:

• Responsive and fast loading on any device
• Optimized for search engines
• Menu & order button in a contrasting color visible above the fold
• Delivery area map and delivery fees
• Opening hours
• Contact information
• Photos of your food and restaurant
• Special offers and promotions
• Links to your social media and review websites

If just looking at this list gives you a headache, we have an easy solution for you. Our restaurant website builder allows you to generate a sales and SEO-optimized website that contains all the features above in minutes.

If you’d like to sample how your website could look, here’s a demo website for you to browse.

Step 4: Encourage first orders by inviting customers to order online

Now that you’re ready to accept takeaway orders, it’s time to kickstart your takeaway food advertising strategy by targeting customers who have already dined at your brick-and-mortar location.

If you have their contact information, GloriaFood’s Kickstarter module allows you to send email invites letting them know they can now enjoy food from their favorite restaurant at home.

Moreover, you can take advantage of our flyer module to encourage people to order online. Even if you don’t have prior customers to invite, you can encourage first orders by creating a discount coupon code that you print on flyers and distribute around the neighborhood.

Learn how to use Kickstarter in the video below:

Step 5: Send targeted email campaigns to foster loyalty

Attracting new customers is just one part of any good takeaway marketing strategy. Your second goal is to persuade them to come back and become loyal patrons. That’s a job for email marketing.

GloriaFood’s Autopilot module is designed to help you preserve customers by:

• Encouraging second orders with unmissable incentives
• Re-engaging clients that are slipping away with limited-time offers
• Prevent cart abandonment to remind customers of uncompleted orders

The great news is that you can set up these campaigns once and they’ll run in the background without you having to lift a finger.

Here’s how to increase takeaway sales by persuading customers to return:

Read more: Restaurant Email Marketing Done Right: 12 Ideas to Woo Customers 

Step 6: Tempt customers with irresistible promotions

Whether new or returning, every customer enjoys a good deal. Marketing takeaways is all about giving customers a good reason to click the Order button. That’s what promotions do.

Use our promotion templates to create any type of deal you can imagine, such as:

• Percentage discount on cart
• Percentage discount on selected items
• Free delivery
• Buy one, get one free
• But 2, 3,… get one free
• Fixed discount amount on cart
• Free item
• Payment method reward
• Meal bundle
• Percentage discount on combo deal
• Fixed discount amount on combo deal
• Free or discounted item as part of a meal

Learn how to set up any restaurant promotion in seconds by following the instructions in the video below:

Step 7: Keep track of your sales to improve your takeaway business

Finally, to ensure the success of your takeaway marketing strategy, you need to track vital data, such as:

• The number of website visitors
• The website funnel
• The number of new and returning customers
• Your Google ranking
• The number of orders
• The total revenue
• Which menu items sell well, and which aren’t bringing you any sales

Luckily, our Reports module provides detailed restaurant analytics that will help you make informed decisions about the fate of your takeaway restaurant.

Keep a close eye on the data provided and you’ll be able to nip restaurant problems in the bud instead of wasting precious time trying to put out fires when it’s too late.

Wrap up

Do you have a takeaway business plan? Does it include a detailed takeaway marketing strategy? If the answer is no, don’t panic yet. You are one click away from building and promoting your takeaway business. Just click on Get Started below.

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