As we speak, mobile order ahead is disrupting the QSR industry. It’s not hard to see why, and given that you’ve recently implemented PoppinPay as your Square mobile order ahead app solution, we’re willing to bet that you’re ready to get in on the action.
There’s only one problem. Now you have to promote customers to start using it and try to figure out the most effective methodologies for doing so.
Low app adoption rates often come down to marketing visibility and the way you’re promoting the product. Fortunately, these are easy fixes, so let’s get more people using that app.
1. Train Employees to Sell It
Your employees should be advocating customers to download the app whenever possible.
If you’ve just recently launched the order ahead app, make sure you talk to each employee about it, and verify that he/she understands the app inside and out. Teach them about the app’s features/benefits, and the best way to explain those benefits to customers.
This will take a little salesmanship on your employees’ part to see results, but you can improve your odds by training your employees to focus on the end user benefits rather than the product itself.
For example, encourage them to explain how the app lets customers skip the line and get in and out of the store faster. They can set their favorite orders on the app for quick processing, and if they’re ever running late, they can use it to get their order ready as they’re heading towards the store.
The only limit here is what your employees are willing to do! Build this type of customer outreach into each employee’s training, and make sure to recognize the employees who go above and beyond in pushing the app.
2. Send Square Marketing Emails
Did you know that Square offers a marketing upgrade to its standard platform? With just a few clicks you can get some great information on your business, including customer details, promotion performance, and sales analytics that show you which areas are most profitable. And on top of that, it offers a detailed suite of customer engagement features you can use to raise awareness about your app.
Primarily, this upgrade helps tie your email marketing into your Square customer data. The upgrade lets you set up custom email campaigns targeted to specific subsets of users: One-time shoppers, loyalty program members, power users, and so on.
You can tap into these segmentation tools to find the customers most likely to download the order ahead app. From there, you can write personalized email messages that relay the benefits of the app to the customer in a way that gels with their previous shopping behaviors; e.g. “Tired of waiting for those cappuccinos? Why not order ahead and skip the line?”
This type of personalization goes a long way. In one survey, 70 percent of customers agreed that connected processes—such as personalizing emails with info from previous interactions—encouraged them to stay with a brand.
3. Display Signage Throughout Your Store and Site
This is an easy one. Marketing is largely about visibility, and you need to take advantage of that wherever you can. Draft a few signs promoting your app, and place them throughout your store. Put them near registers, entrances, bathrooms, even on the tables. If you’re using digital signage for your menu boards, create a new content template for the app that you can add to the display rotation.
Try to vary the signage language a little bit rather than printing out a single template and plastering it everywhere. Readers will quickly tune out signs that are all the same, but if different signs have different messages, readers will stay engaged longer and will be more prone to scoping out the others.
And remember to update your website as well! If you want maximum visibility, update your home page to include a mention of the app, either as a pop-up or within the design itself. You could also create an entirely separate page that describes the app, its benefits, and where users can go to download.
These subsidiary pages don’t typically pull in tons of traffic, but including the information is good practice for joining your mobile apps with your other web assets. Plus, the right mobile order ahead keywords may score you some SEO points for those search terms, which is never a bad thing for your brand.
4. Incentivize Downloads
Customers sometimes won’t do things for free. They need to get something in return. And yes, the ability to order ahead should be incentive enough for these folks, but it doesn’t hurt to sweeten the pot a little more.
Look at your inventory and see what kind of incentives you can offer those who download. Discount codes, BOGO, small gift cards, are all common choices, but you don’t have to restrict yourself to the classics. Get creative with your promotions and try to find new ways to catch the customer’s attention. (For example, entering a customer’s name in a monthly drawing every time he/she places an order through the order ahead app.)
Work these incentives into your marketing. A study on brand loyalty found that 57 percent of customers would like to engage with loyalty programs via mobile device, but 49 percent didn’t know if there was an app associated with the program. With a mobile order ahead app, they’ll definitely know where to look.
Building Momentum for Your App
There are two keys to success for any mobile order ahead app: How you promote it to customers, and patience.
Like any other marketing goal, these strategies will take some time to germinate. But when done correctly, each has the potential to substantially increase your revenue. Why not give them a try? Oh, and if you don’t have a Square mobile order ahead app yet, reach out to PoppinPay today to get started!