The key to any successful marketing strategy is reaching your key audience in the location they frequent most. When it comes to fast food marketing, millennials — a substantial 25 percent of the population — spend more money on dining out than any other age group, according to Restaurant Marketing Labs.
The average millennial shells out $174 per month on restaurant food, compared to non-millennials, who spend $153 per month. The $21 difference could easily translate into two or three more fast-food lunches per month, and a significant bottom-line boost for quick service restaurants (QSRs). How can you take advantage of mobile marketing offerings at your OSR?
Mobile Marketing for QSRs
Your challenge is to combine a love of convenience foods with a fascination for mobile devices if you want a winning approach to marketing fast food options to millennials. So, what should the message be? What language will resonate with your target audience?
Make the message personal and focus on the key aspects of food, dining and nutrition that are of immediate importance to millennials. Here are three strategies to consider when marketing on mobile for fast food:
- Geo-targeting the individual - Use filters to send messages by location. A millennial living and working in the city center doesn't care about a suburban lunch special. Instead, send offers from restaurants within a mile or less radius of the user's address or current location. Targeting can also be based on age, income or ethnicity.
- Reach out to repeat diners - Millennials are likely to go back to a QSR where they previously had a good experience. Have they downloaded a restaurant's app? Left a review? Signed up for a loyalty program? Checked-in via Facebook? Used a digital coupon? These diners will love to see offers from that restaurant on their screens.
- Present key interests - Eighty-five percent of millennials are more likely to spend when a message is personalized to their interests, according to the University of Southern California. When it comes to mobile messaging for QSR, focus on favorite foods. Does the user always order dessert? Send messages referencing specials on sweets.
Once you've customized the message to the audience, integrate phrasing and topics that are primary concerns when it comes to choosing where to eat. Restaurant Marketing Labs noted that some attributes are important to millennials, including communal dining tables, how food is grown and coupon offers. Use these in your next message.
If you want to maximize sales for your client while boosting their brand recognition, do background research on their target audience and mobile habits. In the QSR industry, fast food marketing campaigns should focus on smartphone-loving, convenience-food-craving millennials.
