One of the most important things to understand about restaurant marketing is that no two establishments are created equally. Fast casual eateries, for example, have an entirely different set of challenges to contend with than traditional full-service restaurants and their direct mail marketing campaigns need to play directly into that fact.
The millennial generation in particular seems to have embraced fast casual dining with open arms so if you truly want to play to that audience (and make no mistake, you should), there are a few key things you’ll want to keep in mind.
A New Era of Fast Casual Is Upon Us
By far, the most important thing you can do to both attract millennials to your fast casual restaurant and improve your response rate involves highlighting your niche however you can.
Do you serve healthier options than fast food chains? What does “casual” mean in this context, anyway? Do you offer gourmet cuisine at affordable prices? These are the types of questions that your audience members will be asking and it’s up to your marketing collateral to answer them.
Along the same lines, you’ll also want to always keep your target audience in mind. Millennials in particular love fast casual because it’s not only convenient, but of a high quality as well. Therefore, you need to use direct mail to present your dishes in a way that photographs well for members of the Instagram generation. Go out of your way to create the type of experience that people genuinely want to share.
When it comes to the actual type of collateral you use, be sure to leverage things like plastic postcards whenever possible. Not only are they a great, natural way to stand out from every other piece of mail that someone happens to receive that day, but they’re an incredible opportunity for personalization as well.
Likewise, plastic postcards have the highest response rate out of any type of targeted mailing collateral you might be using. They make a long-lasting impression on millennials in particular, who historically love the convenience of pop-out gift card offers that can easily be redeemed in-store or via popular food delivery apps such as Uber Eats and DoorDash.
If you’d like to learn more about just what you can gain by advertising your fast casual restaurant to millennials, or if you have any additional questions about what collateral like plastic postcards might be able to do for your campaigns, please don’t delay – contact us today.
