The Green Sheet Online Edition
April 4, 2024 • 24:04:01
Boost sales with AI-powered restaurant marketing

SpotOn, a restaurant software and payments partner, created SpotOn Marketing Assist. Designed to streamline restaurant marketing, the solution will help restaurant operators easily and efficiently drive guest visits and boost sales, the company stated. Bryan Solar, chief product officer at SpotOn, mentioned that restaurateurs dealing with labor shortages and fluctuating food costs may not always have the time, resources or funds needed to build their brands and drive guest loyalty.
"SpotOn Marketing Assist is democratizing AI and automation technology for the independent restaurants who need it the most," Solar said, noting that operators can leverage the solution to automate campaigns, drive repeat business and gain data-driven insights.
Comprehensive marketing toolkit
Digital marketing can be a hassle and hiring an outside agency is cost-prohibitive, Solar added, stating that restaurateurs are finding SpotOn Marketing Assist affordable and easy to manage, with a centralized dashboard that offers the following tools:
- Customized campaigns: After selecting marketing objectives, such as increasing online or in-person orders, phone calls or reservations, operators can set discount limits, choose fonts and colors, upload photos, and link to a Facebook or Google Business profile page.
- Email blasts: SpotOn Marketing Assist syncs with the SpotOn Restaurant POS to generate email lists from the restaurant's SpotOn Order and SpotOn Reserve customers and create a marketing campaign tailored to a restaurant and its specific goals. Operators can view, edit or delete scheduled campaigns in the dashboard anytime.
- AI-powered, automated content: Powered by automation, SpotOn Marketing Assist uses AI to create campaign content and schedule marketing events each month, selecting imagery from a restaurant's images or stock photography. With operator approval and setup, SpotOn Marketing Assist will take over, seamlessly publishing campaigns through email marketing and social media channels.
- Data-Driven Insights: Deep integration with SpotOn Restaurant POS and SpotOn Order facilitates redemption in person or online and provides operators with invaluable campaign performance data and customer insights. SpotOn Marketing Assist ties campaigns to revenue through the connection with SpotOn Restaurant, providing operators with a better understanding of guest preferences and marketing program performance.
Proven results
Citing a recent industry report by the National Restaurant Association, SpotOn representatives noted that more than eight in 10 adults would take advantage of discounted dining on slow days or off-peak times to save money. To help operators leverage this opportunity, SpotOn created a Slow Day Boost revenue-driving campaign that allows operators to input their slow days and meal periods for SpotOn Marketing Assist to auto-generate a campaign with a limited-time offer for shorter periods the operator outlined.
In a review of early performance, SpotOn confirmed that its latest subscription service offering, SpotOn Marketing Assist, improved restaurant email performance by 23 percent, with automated emails reporting a 9.55 percent open rate, compared to manual emails that had generated a 7.79 percent open rate. Researchers cited Slow Day deals as a top-performing redemption category, followed by Happy Hour deals and Deal of the Month campaigns, and suggested consumers would be willing to change dining times to save money.
Test drives available
After testing SpotOn Marketing Assist, Kim Dieu, owner of Mi 'N Tea, stated, "Without SpotOn, I was doing marketing maybe once a month, sometimes skipping it completely when we were busy or short-staffed. Now it takes just 15 minutes, my customers are receiving relevant emails each week, and I've seen a significant increase in sales in recent months." SpotOn representatives noted that the company strives to build and support technology that works the way people do, from seamless and efficient POS systems to integrated restaurant management solutions. For a limited time, they added, SpotOn will offer a free three-month trial of SpotOn Marketing Assist to select partners and clients
Website: https://spoton.com Contact: sales@spoton.com
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