According to the 2022 Franchising Economic Outlook report, the number of quick-service restaurant franchise establishments is projected to rise to 192,426 in 2022 from the 188,402 established in 2021. This shows the restaurant industry’s ongoing recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For quick-service brands, there’s never been a better time to adopt marketing automation to capitalize on the current growth uptick. It’s said that a rising tide lifts all boats, so you should ready your boat (restaurant) for sailing (online advertising) and take advantage of the improving prospects in the restaurant industry. Here’s how quick-service restaurant marketing automation can help accelerate your short- and long-term growth rates.
Marketing Automation Saves You Time
Quick-service digital marketing is time-intensive because you have to market to a large target group—in fact, about 163 million Americans dine in restaurants at least once a week. With the fast-paced nature of restaurant services, you may not find enough time to effectively push your marketing messages to such a broad customer base.
Marketing automation allows you to streamline your marketing operations programmatically. This way, you can automatically send marketing messages to your customers, freeing up your productive time. Marketing automation is particularly beneficial to restaurant owners managing new franchises in busy locations.
Marketing Automation Promotes Personalized Marketing
Personalized restaurant marketing increases quick-service restaurant repeat sales by 8 to 20 percent. As a business owner, you know repeat customers are your gold mine, so you must strive to retain them by all means. Personalizing your digital marketing efforts is one of the most effective customer retention strategies you can adopt for your restaurant.
However, it’s almost impossible to pull off personalized marketing without leveraging marketing automation, given the sheer amount of effort involved. Imagine if you had to manually send and track hundreds of “We Miss You” text messages or emails to customers who haven’t visited or ordered from your restaurant for some time.
Leveraging reliable marketing automation software bolsters your personalized marketing strategy by automating the repetitive tasks that are time-intensive yet pivotal to your success.
With more time, you can focus on boosting your brand’s presence and awareness on social media sites such as Instagram. Research shows that quick-serves perform well on Instagram, with a 21.4 engagement ratio.
Marketing Automation Saves You Money
Quick-serves spend millions of dollars on advertisements each year. In 2021, Domino’s spent $510 million on ads, while McDonald’s spent $409 million. Your marketing budget may not reach these figures, but your ad spend will still be substantial because you’ll need to compete for ad space with top quick-service restaurants.
With marketing automation, you can lower the costs of your email and SMS marketing campaigns because you’ll need fewer employees to manage your campaigns. This frees up money and time, which you can then re-channel to other ad strategies, such as developing loyalty programs and social media marketing.
Additionally, automation saves you from making far-reaching marketing budget changes, such as discontinuing some of your ad campaigns in bad times. Now, more than ever, your digital marketing strategy is working in your favor, and it’s all thanks to automation.
Mary Hanula is Eulerity’s Senior Director of Marketing. Eulerity is the world’s most efficient local marketing platform. Using machine learning and automation, Eulerity’s state-of-the-art technology simplifies the complex world of developing and executing digital marketing programs—all for a flat and transparent fee. Our technology-based SaaS model is a fraction of the cost of traditional vendors. For more information on how Eulerity can amplify your online advertising through marketing automation, visit https://eulerity.com.
