Marketing Signature Cocktails
Creating a signature cocktail for your restaurant is a great way to share your brand personality and quite literally give customers a taste of your restaurant. The goal of any signature cocktail is to create an experience at your restaurant that is original to you. Signature cocktails are a great way to differentiate yourself from competitors, and can be an excellent marketing tool.
Use your cocktail to bring people into your restaurant
The presentation of your cocktail allows the unique opportunity to create something beautiful that guests will want to take photos of. When guests take and share photos of your offerings, they’re creating user-generated content. This is a coveted marketing tool that allows you to share authentic content and stories from guest experiences with your restaurant on social media. With your beautiful drinks shared across socials, you’re likely to find new guests and attract them to your restaurant with the promise of a delicious experience. After all, guests look towards others' opinions and reviews when deciding where to dine, so user-generated content is a great way to promote yourself.
Also consider that you’re not just catering to a local audience, you want travelers from out of town to visit you as well. You can use your cocktail to create a localized experience that is unique to your area. For example, when visiting New Orleans you would want to enjoy a hurricane cocktail, or a Manhattan cocktail in New York City. Consider local ingredients, specialties, or stories that you can weave into the marketing if your cocktail. You can also use branded glasses or offer souvenir cups that will both appeal to travelers and place your brand front and center in user-generated content shared online.
Upselling cocktails in your restaurant
Arguably the most common way to upsell and get drinks in guests’ hands is by offering a happy hour. You can customize and create any kind of deal that you see fit to increase your sales. For example, you could offer a happy hour combo of a cocktail and appetizer for a special price to increase sales on a slow night of the week for your restaurant.
Another trick is to train servers to work it into their script as an offer to guests. By asking guests if they’d like to try your signature cocktail, servers will raise an awareness of its existence. Plus, when you serve beautiful and eye-catching cocktails, guests may see other tables with your drinks, and specifically ask their servers about them.
If you’re creating and marketing a signature cocktail, Sherane Chen LLC can help! We have a team of experts ready to help you market your cocktails and increase your foot traffic. Contact us today or call (386) 627-3628 for a consultation!