By now you would have your Abacus Online Ordering set up and ready to go for your restaurant or cafe, that’s step one done! Step two is essentially finding a way to engage your customers with your online ordering platform to generate those vital extra sales for your business.
Discovering effective ways to reach out to your customers will in essence determine the amount of revenue that you’ll be able to generate for your business, and so in this article we’ll be taking you through some easy strategies to help you draw in more customers.
Optimising your website
Because customers are unable to physically visit your restaurants or cafes, it is then important to make sure you treat your website as if it were another storefront. And with any storefront, you want it to be easily accessible/found and also reflect your aethstetic, brand, purpose and promotions.
You will therefore want to make sure your website is well optimised toward your particular niche in the market. This means making sure your rank highly when people search for your specific business name, and also your particular cuisine and location. This may require a small budget to ensure that every part of your website is capable of ranking highly in Google’s algorithm. Some minor things you can begin with are ensuring your landing page clearly displays your business name, what you specialise in and where you are located.
Your online store also comes with its own URL, so the best place to put it is on your website to guide customers to begin ordering. Some of our customers have opted to place a large and clear “Order Now” button at the top of their webpages, or created a banner across the whole top of the page indicating that their online store is open. These are just some of the many ways you can encourage your customers to order online.
Use your social media channels to amplify your message
It would be criminal for us to be talking about spreading your Online Ordering to the world without mentioning the use of social media. Here a few ideas that you can use in your upcoming social media posts.
- Create a few posts across all your social media channels that tell your community that your online doors are open, with a direct link to your website or online store! This is a very easy way to kickstart the orders coming through to your store
- Maybe you’re noticing a particular product is selling like hotcakes
Let your community know and ask customers who have purchased it before to leave a comment about how delicious it is. There is nothing better to increase demand than social proofing from your most loyal customers. - Promote any new products you may be adding to your menu. Some of our customers have begun offering DIY kits that their customers can take home and cook themselves. Talk about thinking outside the box, especially when so many people are itching for activities to do at home. Well, why not cook?
- If you’ve got a few extra finances for promotion, you may want to also consider social media advertising. This will allow you to broadcast your message outside of your own following, to a select audience and location (of your choosing). This could enhance your brand presence in your community and also entice some brand new customers.
At the end of the day, there are an endless number of things you can be doing on social media to make sure you are bringing more customers to your online store. Please keep in mind, the golden rule is to make sure you post consistently with content that provides value to your customers 
A classic letterbox drop or bag drop
Many of your customers won’t be able to go any further than their mailboxes outside. That’s fine, that is far enough for you to still get your message to them. The good, old fashioned letter box drop with a pamphlet or business card can entice customers to visit your online ordering store. You can put things like promotions you are currently running or what your most popular products are to give customers no choice but to cancel their original dinner plans
You’re probably thinking, we can’t do this, we’re not allowed outside. Thankfully, there are letterbox drop services you can reach out to, who can do all this for you.
Here is one if you’re interested:
- LetterboxPush – For local area marketing
- ParcelPush – For marketing across Australia
- MarketingPush – For digital avenues of marketing
Alternatively, you can instead just place these pamphlets into the bags of takeaway and delivery orders with the same content, to encourage customers to continue to order from you. In essence, you want to enable repeat purchases by making sure you are always front of mind when a customer is deciding on their next meal 
Shop a docket
With supermarkets, health pharmacies and large retailers being the go-to places when needing to buy essentials, with a very consistent flow of traffic and transactions, there would be a lot of receipts being printed any given day. This is the perfect opportunity to potentially invest a small amount of resources into displaying your business and offers at the back of each docket, giving you a clear path straight into most homes in your local area.
We really hope that we’ve been able to supply you with some ideas on how you can maximise your sales when utilising our online ordering platform. If you’ve decided to use a couple of our tips and are gaining traction, be sure to mention us, we’d love to hear all about your success stories! 