Per Diem Webinar: In-Store Promotional Strategies for Restaurants & Coffee Shops

Foreign I'm Tomer Malovinski. Welcome to our weekly webinar at Per Diem. Today we're going to be talking about best practices for promoting your app in store. So yeah, today is July 10th and we're excited to get started quickly. On the agenda, how you can produce eye catching window decals and how you can use them, how you can display prominent outdoor signage, how you can merchandise the app in store, stickers at the point of sale, postcards and flyers, app download stations, barista recommendations, interactive table tents, takeout packaging, receipts and to go menus. So here you can see on the left a nice little here they're not, they're promoting the app in a kind of a, not direct way. But you can see here that Blank Street Coffee, this is right outside their store. This might not actually be the best type of signage. It's very catchy. It's like more brand oriented because there aren't any cta, there's no branding there, you can't actually download the app from here. So it's really just kind of like a sign for the store. But nonetheless it is eye popping and eye catching. So let's jump right in on that note. Eye catching window decals. So when you, when you join Per Diem, we basically give you a bunch of collateral. So part of that we give you window decals and postcards obviously with your logo, with your branding, with your app. And you can see strategically placed window decals can increase foot traffic by up to 15%. If you think too of just like if you're in a busy area, you know, we're here in New York, so lots of people are walking by or driving by or whatever. If you make it easy for people to, you know, just take out their phone, scan a QR code, then that's great. Think of all those people that didn't walk into your shop that walk by every day that now can just get a bit, bit taste like they can get a taste of you now they have that reminder on their phone and that's just going to help all the way around. So, so highly recommend this as a strategy. On the one hand you should put it on your exterior so like your windows, your doors, what have you. And then there are other opportunities that we'll show you as well that, that, that you can do in store. In addition to that, once you have your app, this is a great example from Common Address here in New York. So they're one of our customers. You can see there's a clear cta, they're Showing what the benefit is a nice kind of, you know, it's even, it's not even a, an actual image of the app, but you can tell that there's an app there. So some sort of silhouette. Very cool. And that's just their pickup window too. So people walking by in New York City, they see, oh yeah, I want to get a coffee and I can just pick it up in the window. Very convenient. And as you can see here, more than 75% of Americans have visited based a cafe based on purely signage. So if you can build something into the exterior of your shop that's even better than obviously a window decal because that just becomes a part of who you are. So this is just a really great example of that from Common Address in store. So this is again displaying something from Chip City. You notice they had the window decal on the exterior of the store, but here they're actually above the cookie display, which you can see some cookies down there. They have a bunch of different promos, your birthday rewards, sign up for our loyalty program, all this stuff. And at the end they do have the CTA to download the app. So this is another great place. Again, when you're doing this type of in store promotion, we recommend to highlight the benefits. Right. Order ahead, skip the line. It's all about the convenience, getting those rewards. And then you can inject your own personality, your own brand into the actual creative but important to get those kind of, you know, unique propositions down there and a clear cta, clear CTA QR code and you're pretty much good to go. Cool. Here we can see another example of this at Kona again in New York City right at the point of sale. Same deal we're going to actually, when you sign up for per diem, we send these stickers to you in addition to postcards, which we'll show you as well. And then you can place them if you have a counter like this, that, this, this makes for a great place to, to put this if you either when people are ordering, when they're picking up their order, even if they don't do it the first time, they will eventually download your app. And so yeah, this is just a really good use of this real estate postcards and flyers. So as I mentioned, we will send you postcards as well. Same deal. We'll have a nice, nice image of your app with a QR code to download. Talking about the rewards. And these we recommend like putting out on your counter here. You can see this is like near the register right by the drinks. So as people are ordering, you know, most people won't even take the card. They're just scan the QR code and it'll go right on their phone there. But that's great. I mean, so many, you know, think of the downtime that people are in your store that they're just looking at their phone. Hey, this gives them a little something to do. They download your app and now you're on the front page of their phone. So all the better. App download station. So Sweet Green actually does a really good job of this. When you order ahead at Sweet Green, they'll put this where you pick up your order. They have those pickup stations and then that's like an area where they'll put some signage. So really good as you're on the go, you know, maybe you already did order from their app if you're picking it up, but maybe you ordered from a delivery app or something like that, and it's more beneficial to get you to download their app. So having that reminder there as people are picking up is a really great way to promote your app. Again, clear CTA make life rewarding product shot. You're in sweetgreen, so you probably don't need branding here. It's not like outdoor signage and then a clear QR code there where I can, where I can download the app. The reality is most people aren't going, you know, they're going to see the rewarding, they're going to see the image and they're going to decide whether to download. So nice job there. Barista recommendation. So obviously there's signage and all this stuff, but I think one thing that whether it's a barista or if you're, you know, you're a bakery and you know, whoever it is behind the counter, essentially. But your employees, your employees are a great way to spread the word about the app, to tell guests to answer questions. So I would highly recommend, once you have an app, make sure your employees download it. You can give them a coupon code, like an employee coupon code you can create even on per diem. You can create a subscription kind of thing maybe for employees where they can get free coffee and stuff like that. But you want your employees using your app, getting to know the app, seeing the features, because if your customers ask, you want them to be knowledgeable about it and they don't need to know every little, you know, thing in the app. But I think getting them to know it in general, pushing the app, maybe even doing some, some way where like you Know, some sort of contest or something like that. It's like, hey guys, if we get X amount of app downloads this month, then you know something. But you can create some sort of. It doesn't have to be a competition. At the very least, they should be trained on it. New baristas, just have them download the app, have them check it out and answer any questions. It might be helpful to have a little FAQ doc that you guys put together as time passes with just common questions. Hey, do I get my birthday reward through the app? Some people do that through Square. Some people will do that and use our push notification feature and send birthday rewards through the app. So that's something that it's good knowledge for your barista to know. And even if you, if you have that, if you are offering like birthday rewards through the app, then that's a great thing for the barista to mention, you know, when they're talking about the app. Oh yeah, you can download our app. We even give you a free birthday reward there or whatever other benefit. If you're giving free $5 off for your first order, extra points when you download the app, there's lots of benefits that are rolled into it. So really, again, just stressing that your employees, they can be your number one salespeople in this context and it's going to help them so they're going to benefit from it. Because all that FaceTime and those long lines that you have during your peak hours, if people are ordering through the app, then they don't necessarily have to have as long as a FaceTime by taking every individual order, but we can just be preparing it, still offering that amazing service. But things are just much more efficient and easy because the end user is ordering through the app table tents. So same deal as the postcards, you know, after people order while they're sitting down at their table, what have you, that's a great opportunity, if they haven't already downloaded your app, to get them to download the app. So adding, whether it's a promo, again, it's usually the same couple of things that you want to add. It's. It's either some sort of promotion or like a sales proposition, like you're highlighting the convenience of why you want the app. Hey, you can order ahead, you can skip the line. It gets really busy in here and lunch. So, you know, this is. So you should put that on the table, tent, whatever that CTA is, and then just make it really easy. QR codes, you know, I know they get bashed a lot, but for this context, to download your app, there's really nothing better than a QR code. It's really just you're scanning the QR code, you go to your app download page. At Per Diem, we create an app download page for you. So whether people have Android or iOS, they'll be able to scan this QR code, go to your app download page, and from there they're going to be able to download your app. And that's great. Keep in mind, again, we say this a lot, but it's worth repeating. Once somebody has your app, they're going to end up spending 3x more at your store than if they didn't have your app. And that's for a number of reasons. It's just a lot easier for them to access as opposed to a website. They don't have to log in after they've logged in for the first time. Their previous orders are stored right there. They're going to see their points there or if they have store credit and that'll incentivize them to order more. And if people do like ad store credit, we do a default pay 45, get 50. So let's have $50 in my, in my wallet for your app. I'm going to tend to, to spend that $50 a lot faster just because I know, hey, there's nowhere else I can spend that $50. So whenever I'm a little hungry or want a cup of coffee or whatever, I'm going to break out the app and just maybe just because I'm bored. So the reality is once people have your app, they spend a lot more. So you want to do all you can without being annoying, being annoying to get them to download the app. I think that's the, that's the point there. Packaging. So coffee cups, this is a great job by pretty, you can see. And they have a coffee subscription program. So incorporating promos into takeout packaging can lead to increase of 10 to 15% in awareness. Pret has a coffee subscription program. We offer the same type of coffee subscriptions through Per Diem. So you could set up the same thing as Pret. I think when they started it was like 9.99 or what have you, but 10 to $15 a week, a month. You know, maybe you have some sort of, let's say you're a bakery and you have like, you know, you, you have great coffee, but that's not your thing. Hey, you can do a $10 a month unlimited coffee and that's going to actually increase the foot traffic into your into your store by 30%. And we know that's true from people using subscriptions that are our customers and just general knowledge that's out there. So then being able to promote this type of subscription or just your app on your coffee cups, on any other merchandise, it's just a no brainer. People are going to be taking, maybe they're going to be in conversation at the office with somebody. Oh, what's that? You know, like people, they might just see it. The person sitting next to you at their, at the desk over to you sees that and that becomes of interest. So this, you know, obviously having your branding on your coffee cups, if you do that already is great. And then incorporating these promos, it can be a little bit expensive. But if you can work this in ahead of time and then just work the branding in, I think it'll be well worth the cost for you and you'll see the incremental downloads. And if you're pushing a specific promotion or program, like a subscription program, again here you can see clear CTA scan me. This is literally as good as you can get in terms of, in terms of marketing packaging. So you know, obviously beyond just taking this concept to the next level with to go bags, you know, another opportunity is on your receipts. But clearly, you know, whether you can stick on a QR code onto just the prints of your bags or you include it, you can see these stickers here. There's all kinds of ways that you can incorporate it so you don't have to, you know, get too creative. I think there's plenty of opportunities for you. But the idea and, and this gets the additional bonus of like, hey, you know, it's, it's pretty like if I'm walking down the street with a big bag of, of your to go food and what have you, then that's a little bit more prominent. People will see that. And so same deal though, make it prominent here. It might be a little bit more difficult to say, to call out like what the benefits are the app are. So it might just be like a quick hitter, like download our app, order and save some sort of quick tagline there with a QR code. But this is a golden opportunity for you to get your message out there and then obviously convert these users, these customers. This works really well too. If you're doing like DoorDash or Uber Eats or Grubhub, a third party delivery platform, obviously you're paying higher commissions on those platforms than you would be for your own app. And that's part of the reasons that we launch Per diem is so that you can up your game so that you are on their level, and then you can convert those users to your app. So the whole deal with DoorDash, hey, you're getting tons of orders from DoorDash. And we love DoorDash and we were partners with DoorDash, but we know it can get expensive. And if it's, if I'm ordering from your restaurant every day from Door Dash from their app, then you're going to be paying the 20 to 30% for my orders. When the reality is, at that point, I'm your customer and I'm going to DoorDash because it's convenient. Now you have an amazing app with Per diem. Okay, it's just as convenient. So once you're delivering those orders through DoorDash or whoever, having that CTA, whether you're inserting a postcard with a good offer, hey, $5 off your first offer, your first order. And then, and then that's a clear reason for me to download. Download your app. And then once it's, I'm download the app, hey, I'm one tap away. My previous order's right there. You can engage me with push notifications, all that stuff. So the point is this strategy specifically, you can, you can a put the materials on the exterior of the baggage, but also just slipping some materials in and doing this for all your DoorDash orders, all your Uber Eat orders, and all your To Go orders, just people walking in and ordering to go that, you know, don't use your app already. Well, that's a future opportunity. You know, think about it. The person taking that order, that's time that they're going to have to take that order. That's time that the, the person has to wait there. Your kitchen only gets that order right then and there. So by default, if it, if it takes 10 to 15 minutes, all right, that person's now waiting for 10 to 15 minutes. The whole point of the app is like, hey, on my way to your store, I can order ahead. You then save that time behind the counter because you don't have, you don't have to take my order. Explain the menu to me, all that stuff. And just the whole process works a lot better. So point is, this can start just on your packaging, and then it's going to be just a whole hell of a lot more profitable for you because you can cut out those commissions. I say this all the time. Door Dash people view it today as like this, this huge, like, you know, tax on them or what have you leverage it. You know, now that you have your own app, Door Dash can be your best marketing channel in the world and super cost efficient. If you can pay, you know, 20 to 30% for a few orders and then you convert those people to your own channel and then you never pay percentage on those orders ever again. Great. You just paid like 20 or $30 for a brand new customer that's going to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars with you down the road. Then DoorDash becomes literally the best advertising you can do anywhere. The ROI will be tremendous, but you need to have that app in place. You need to know how to engage those users. We have a lot of apps and restaurants that do this really well. Plomo Quesadillas is one that does it really well. They're based in Arkansas and Texas and they have like a late night crowd and stuff like that. And they get a lot of DoorDash orders and so they do this really well. Same we have a lot of like cookie, cookie shops that use per diem, same deal. They get a lot of heavy orders from the third party platforms. Again, that's great. Nobody's knocking on third party platforms. They're sending you new traffic. All right? Now it's your job to turn that traffic into your own first party orders and pay less for those. By the way. That's the whole reason McDonald's is doing, you know, we have McDonald's here. That's why McDonald's is on DoorDash. That's why Starbucks is on DoorDash. They already have tens of millions of users on their app, but it's another way for them to acquire new users to get them to the app, to get them to their channels, to. And at that point it becomes just a whole different ball game and those, those players become, or those customers become a lot more profitable for, for McDonald's. Well, that's what we have for today. I think there's a lot of different things, probably a number of different promos that you can do in store that we didn't even cover here. I think we just kind of scraped the surface of, of everything that you can do in store. But the bottom line is, you know, there's a lot of digital channels today, but your store is probably going to be your number one market. It's the place that you can talk to your customers and really just like put things out there that they'll see so leverage it, whether it's in front of your store, like you can see here with this outdoor signage whether it's things you can do in store, and then again, just making sure that your staff are trained up and ready to go and they know how to talk about the app, they know where to direct people to download the app. And yeah, and I think that's going to be at least, it might not get you all the way there, but it's going to get you a lot closer to where you want to be in terms of getting app downloads and just optimizing your whole, your whole sales funnel. So, thanks so much for joining us. We're here every Wednesday at 2pm Eastern Time and look forward to next Wednesday. Have a good week, everyone.