Promote your soup with smart strategies

When it comes to promoting soup, your servers are your best bet for selling. So make sure they know how soup can enhance the guest experience. You may even go so far as to see that they sample the soups being served. That way they can speak to what is special about each variety. In order to better train your servers to sell your soups, offer incentives to servers who suggest soup to customers.

Providing soup samples for your customers is a way for them to try something new while attracting attention to menu selections or soup station. Offer customers a small-taste sample portion to remove the risk from their buying decision. Customer sampling helps increase customer awareness of your soup offerings while reassuring customers they’ve made the right choice. It also encourages trial and increases sales.

You can boost your lunch sales by advertising daily soup and sandwich combinations with Twitter, Facebook and website updates. When thinking about how to promote your soup offering via social media, try to think outside the box. Adding social media to your marketing can help engage your guests, drive new traffic and encourage loyalty, but you have to understand how to use it correctly.

One of the first steps you have to take in promoting your business is knowing your audience. Develop a tone for your social media and be sure to stay true to what your brand represents. When you’re ready to start posting, use relevant and trending hashtags, regardless of the social media site. For example, if it happens to be national cheeseburger day, post a photo of one of your best-selling cheeseburgers and make sure to include the hashtag #nationalcheeseburgerday. You can also include geographic specific tags like #sohoeats to attract customers who may be nearby. If you’re running a particular campaign, create a hash tag for it, and encourage people who are getting engaged to do the same. And always include a hashtag of your restaurant name.

With just a few simple steps, you can create geo-targeted ads on Facebook. Facebook makes it incredibly easy to advertise with them. You simply provide an image with your message, and the Facebook template builds the ad for you. You can also make sure your own brand page is working in your favor by choosing an engaging cover image, relevant page tabs, posting photos and videos of your food, offering deals and using geo targeting to reach local customers.

If you think the aesthetic of your food will attract customers, set up a photo contest through Instagram. A photo contest can motivate the friends of your current patrons to visit your restaurant, and it’s also great publicity for you. At the end of the photo contest, pick your favorite user-submitted photo and award that guest with a $15 gift card.

If you’re looking for a quick way to boost your digital traffic, try Twitter. Start by linking to your menu in a tweet. It gives your followers a chance to investigate you further. You can also include appetizing photos of your food to draw in customers. One of the most important things about using Twitter successfully is the timing of your tweet. Be sure you send out tweets close to breakfast, lunch and dinner when followers are most likely to be checking their phones.

Many restaurants have had success in asking their customers what they’d like to see on the menu. The incentive for creating the winning menu addition might be monetary, or it could just be incentivized by the fame of having the customer’s creation on a nationally known menu.

Of course, you have to take precaution when sourcing ideas from your followers. To avoid back-of-house chaos, operators should reserve the right to take liberty with the menu ideas. They should also make it clear that the winning item will not be a permanent menu staple and will instead be offered and promoted for a short period of time.

Good soup promotion starts with your employees and carries through your menu and digital footprint. The promotion of your soups is the main factor in enhancing guest experience. Sampling, updating menus and offering incentives can help drive traffic in-restaurant. Beyond the restaurant, make sure to promote your soup offerings through social media with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The more patrons hear about you, the more likely they’ll be to come in and visit.