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6 Reasons Restaurants Need Social Media Contests

Image of Furqan Tafseer
Furqan Tafseer

Do you own a restaurant and are looking for fun ways to engage your target audience and host social media contests? 

Engaging in a social media giveaway contest is one of the most effective strategies for attracting local customers to your restaurant. It's not only enjoyable but also a fantastic way to generate excitement and reach potential patrons. We can all agree that receiving complimentary items is universally delightful, whether you have a competitive spirit or prefer a more collaborative approach.It takes a handful of sizzling restaurant contest ideas to create an engaging online community for your restaurant. Hosting a restaurant contest presents an excellent opportunity to express gratitude to your loyal customers for their unwavering support of your establishment and get your potential customers interested in your restaurant.

This could be as simple as a social media giveaway or as elaborate as a cross-platform competition with a substantial grand prize. Regardless of the format you choose, restaurant contests serve as an exceptional means to boost customer engagement, create a buzz, and even bolster revenue.

Contests offer an enjoyable and straightforward route to generate buzz around your business, elevate your social media presence, and ultimately attract a larger audience. Thanks to platforms like Facebook and Instagram, there's an abundance of free, user-friendly online contest ideas at your disposal. Let's explore some restaurant contest concepts and how you can seamlessly integrate them into your marketing strategy.

 

Supercharge your restaurant with proven social media strategies.

 

Why Hold A Restaurant Giveaway Contest?

Let's briefly go over the value of a contest before we go into all of our restaurant giveaway contest ideas.

Running an online campaign is a very efficient approach to improving interaction, raising brand recognition for your restaurant, and creating excitement among your target audience.

You may advertise the contest on social media and point visitors to a landing page for your business. This enables your restaurant to use the competition as a lead-generation method while attracting a more extensive consumer base. You may collect visitor information each time they come in. This is an illustration of converting a contest submission into a customer.

Yes, you will be required to choose, publicly announce, and award the winner(s) with a reward. This will be a small cost to compensate for the larger audience you will reach and possibly attract to dine in at your restaurant.

Setting goals for your competition is a crucial factor to take into account. Before you post a giveaway, you need to think of the achievements you want to make from it. Yes, increasing sales is the primary objective, but there are other reasons why restaurants might post contests. This may involve, among other things, getting more reviews, growing sales due to the competition, lead generation, or raising brand recognition.

Restaurants will be required to offer a free reward of some sort. This might happen once a year, once a month, or once a week. In any case, be sure that your contest has definite objectives so it can be organized around them.

Can Restaurant Giveaways Increase User Engagement And Online Visibility?

These are not your regular competitions, and when the Restaurant CEOs come up with such novel concepts, the restaurants are likely to profit from such occasions. People enjoy the excitement, and contests of many kinds provide it.

People prefer to know about the competition when you arrange it. They want to see the live-action to know who will win the contest. When you include a worthwhile cause in the competition, it becomes more poignant. Engagement will be substantially higher.

Such contests increase your online visibility and have a more vital recall factor. Of course, the names of all the businesses whose postings and advertisements viewers see daily won't stick in their minds. However, there is a potential that the brand name lingers with the buyers with this type of marketing contest.

Your restaurant may accomplish the following goals by correctly marketing online freebies and putting a solid plan behind them:

  • A giveaway on Instagram that requires followers to enter is an excellent method to increase your following. 

  • In addition, if you require them to tag their friends or share the post to their timeline to enter the giveaway, you can get more engagement on the post and increase the post's visibility to the participant's friends list. There will be a lot of discussion about your restaurant, increasing the buzz surrounding you.

online restaurant visibility

Advantages Of Running A Restaurant Giveaway

When done well and efficiently, social media competitions for restaurants have several advantages and are a terrific way to increase brand exposure and deepen customer connections.

Here are a few advantages of social media competitions and why you should consider holding one for your company.

1. Promote Community

A contest is a fantastic approach to developing a devoted following when it is successfully managed. In addition, a contest would undoubtedly spread the word about a brand or business, as they may not know them until their family, friends, or social circles do.

When discussing the advantages of social media contests, it is undoubtedly essential to bring up the notion of community building. 

Contestants are frequently encouraged to speak up and inform their friends and family about it, given the current state of social media contests. As a result, today's enterprises almost seem to be only gaining acceptance in the communities of their audiences rather than creating their own. And that's significant, discreet, and beneficial.

2. Get New Potential Customers

Run a Facebook competition that directs users to the Facebook app only to discover that no one has yet liked your page. However, they will appreciate your page right away to enter the competition.

A contest is a fantastic technique to attract new followers to your social media profiles. It gives them a compelling incentive to do so in return for a chance to win the reward you're offering in your social media campaign.

3. Increase Awareness

A contest is a fantastic technique to increase interest in your restaurant's promotional dishes or combos through your social media or website. This is because most contest platforms have a "share" option that users may utilize to spread the word to their friends. It encourages the competitors to spread the news.

Check out how Best POS helped The Juicy Crab Hiram to generate brand awareness.

4. Increase Subscriptions

One of the best ways to get people to sign up for your email newsletter is by holding a social media contest. Fans must complete a lead capture form on social media contest sites like Binkd.

Today's businesses understand that yelling in a haphazard mass of people might not be the best strategy. Sure, you would raise brand recognition, as was already discussed, but if your product is irrelevant to the audience, you are unlikely to be heard, no matter how loud you yell.  

5. Boost Sales

After spreading awareness and growing your subscription base, the next logical and essential step in the advantage of your contest is to boost your sales.

Contests are a terrific method to transform potential consumers into loyal ones.

When running a seasonal offer like a Valentine's 3-course combo or a New Year's Special, consider hosting a giveaway where the winner receives the free combo. This enables you to promote your seasonal special or combo to the giveaway audience, increasing awareness of your campaign and potentially driving more sales.

restaurant profits

6. Engage More People 

When done correctly, a contest is a great way to boost participation on your social media page. Your giveaway could ask entrants to tag their friends or share the post to their profile. This allows you to engage participants' followers and their community.

Drawing the right audience to your page results in new and relevant followers, which in turn enhances engagement metrics such as comments, shares, retweets, likes, pins, and others. These followers are likely to revisit your page regularly to stay updated on relevant content and activities.

Last Words

Ready to give social media contests a shot? Make sure to Incorporate your restaurant's logo, mouthwatering food photography, and other distinctive company details. Should you need expert guidance on running a top-notch social media giveaway, our dedicated Best POS team is ready to assist you.

Let's discuss how we can tailor our restaurant-focused digital marketing services to fulfill your specific goals and desires.

 


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