The new year can be a quiet period for many hospitality businesses, including pubs, hotels and restaurants – but it doesn’t have to be. Read on for our suggestions on how you can boost sales and maintain footfall during January and February.
Christmas is fast approaching, and we know this time of year can be pretty chaotic for most businesses. While it’s good to be busy (especially after losing out on two years of trade during the pandemic), now is the perfect time to look past Christmas and think about your marketing plan for January.
Ok, we know this might not be what you want to hear while you’re so focused on getting to Christmas… but if you put in the leg work now, you’re less likely to see a post-Christmas slump in trade in January and February.
Here are a few ideas for generating custom and increasing sales in the new year.
This can be a great way to boost email sign-ups. Offer all the customers who visit you in December an attractive discount when they visit in January, only accessible by email. We’d suggest creating offer cards or flyers with a QR code that takes them straight to your sign-up page to make it as easy as possible for them to sign up.
An alternative to providing money-off discounts is to give customers more for their money. Pubs and restaurants could offer a complimentary bottle of wine with every two meals purchased or a free dessert with every main course, for example. Hotels might offer free upgrades or three nights for the price of two.
Christmas is hectic and tiring for everyone, and you can use this in your marketing by appealing to people who really need a rest! Is a discounted stay at your luxury hotel the perfect way for busy parents to get some downtime after Christmas? Maybe you can tempt families to dine with you by suggesting they ‘let someone else cook for a change’.
Everyone loves a free pint! A nice simple offer like this is easy to deliver for you and hard to resist for your customers. And once people are through your door, they’re much more likely to stay and spend more while they’re there (especially if you have other tempting offers running). Don’t forget to offer alternatives, too, including a non-alcoholic option.
Do you have a new product or service launch coming up? Perhaps you’re trialling a new menu, upgrading your facilities, or launching a new package. Or maybe you offer something that appeals to customers’ new year resolutions or helps them get started on a health kick.
If so, January and February could be the perfect months to run a marketing campaign and generate some excitement and engagement around the launch. Start talking about it on your social media channels and share it with your email subscribers to get the word out.
As well as generating sales after Christmas, January is also a good time to review your systems and marketing plans for the coming year. The big one to focus on is the phasing out of Universal Analytics and the introduction of Google Analytics 4 (for more information on this, see our recent blog post, Google Analytics 4: What you need to know).
Here at Zesty Digital, we love to help businesses plan, implement and refine their digital marketing strategy. Get in touch for an informal chat about how we could help your business.
