7 Effective Ideas For Memorial Day Restaurant Specials or Promos

Being aware of upcoming holidays is part of what it takes to operate a successful restaurant. Not just for marketing purposes but to nurture existing customer relationships and invite new ones. Memorial Day is only a few weeks away so you’re probably brainstorming Memorial Day restaurant specials and promotion ideas.

Memorial Day signals the start of the summer for many but it’s much more than that for all of us. Everything we enjoy such as long peaceful walks, barbecues, lavish house parties, etc. is all thanks to heroes. The people who fought for our freedoms.

Memorial Day restaurant promotions you can try

Memorial Day is a time to remember the fallen and their families who gave up tons so that we can retain our rights. Hence, you have to be mindful of this fact even though we’ll be discussing Memorial Day promotions from here on out. Ensure that you’re absolutely respectful as you implement Memorial Day restaurant promotions. Any and all Memorial Day promotions you choose to implement from the upcoming list must also be done with good intentions.

That being noted, the opportunity is great for restaurants that open their doors on Memorial Day. Many businesses and people in general usually take the day off during this holiday.

This behavior presents an opportunity to potentially hit your quarterly revenue targets early. You can take advantage by implementing one or more of the following restaurant Memorial Day specials.

1. Memorial Day deals for military folks

Show your support for veterans and those who’re actively serving in the military by offering Memorial Day deals. Specifically, you can offer discounts to anyone who is an active military officer or a veteran.

A capable POS (point of sale) system can easily help you promote your Memorial Day restaurant specials. For example, Lightspeed allows the near-instant creation of Gift Cards, which can optionally be given away as a promotional item. You can promote your Memorial Day promotions by using gift cards to entice and attract consumers.

Do you have staff with veterans or military personnel in their family? Does a veteran work for you? Let them mingle with patrons for the day. Thank every veteran and military person that shows up to your restaurant for his or her service.

2. Offer a free meal

Right now you might be thinking along the lines of “oh, no, how will we ever make money”.

Usually, the reason why some restaurateurs shy away from using this tactic is that they’re worried about cost. But, we’re not suggesting that you offer unlimited meals, nothing of the sort.

Offering a free meal per person is a great way of bringing military folks into your restaurant. Plus their families and friends will likely follow them wherever they go on Memorial Day.

Ideally, you should cap the cost of eligible food items (e.g. no more than $15) and include a discount for anything over. For instance, one could offer a ten percent reduction in price for anything over fifteen dollars. There are many ways you can play with this idea so don’t limit your imagination.

You can recuperate all your investment and more from beverage sales and higher priced items. Including the added guests that would have otherwise gone somewhere else.

3. Offer an emailable coupon

Tap into the excitement of summertime by offering an emailable Memorial Day only coupon. Ask customers if they are veterans or military or have military personnel within their circle of friends and family. Give away a coupon to those that qualify and briefly discuss your Memorial Day restaurant specials.

This accomplishes two things. For one, it shows consumers that you care and appreciate military persons. The second is that you’ll be collecting customer email addresses that you can use for future promotions or next Memorial Day.

You may be able to track email activity depending on your POS system.

4. Unveil new menu items

You can unveil Memorial Day-specific dishes alongside your updated summer menu. Something remarkable happens when people realize they can’t just get something whenever they want. They tend to buy it before it’s gone because they rather not wait another year.

Furthermore, this tactic is a good opportunity to see how your new summer menu items perform. You can decide to make some Memorial Day promotions permanent after evaluating performance.

5. Host a food eating contest

That’s right. A food eating competition might seem a bit much but it works. Fact is people like to be entertained and because it’s so ‘left field,” chances are that none of your competitors are doing it. This tactic can be your restaurant’s thing or the ‘why’ that brings floods of customers to your door every Memorial Day.

6. Decorate an empty table

Follow the military tradition of honoring fallen soldiers by decorating an empty table in your restaurant for Memorial Day. The “fallen comrade table” is a sacred tradition so it’s very important that you learn how to properly set your own table.

Honestly, there’s probably no better way of connecting with veterans and military persons, providing that you’re doing it for the right reasons. The added exposure and customers your restaurant attracts from having a correctly set fallen comrade table is a bonus.

7. Go live on social

Simple social media posts aren’t as effective as they used to be. We’re not suggesting that you shouldn’t post photos or blog post links because they still work. However, videos seem to be garnering more attention on social media platforms. This is partly because social media companies are pushing for more video content.

You can create a series of videos in the leading up to Memorial Day. Not so that you can simply talk about your company or Memorial Day restaurant specials, rather keep it focussed on the holiday.

For example, you can talk about the history behind Memorial Day such as how it’s sometimes confused with Veterans Day. Of course, you’ll need to introduce your Memorial Day restaurant specials but let that take a ‘back seat.’ In other words, mention it briefly in the beginning and/or ending of your videos.

Something like the following: “Thanks for watching. Don’t forget to join us this Memorial Day to honor the heroes that died serving. We will also be hosting a food eating contest”.

Kicking off the summer with Memorial Day restaurant specials

Memorial Day is a time to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Don’t forget this as you plan your marketing. The tactics laid out in this article may help ensure your Memorial Day restaurant specials are a hit.

Show off your patriotism by decorating such as hanging up country flags and relevant iconic photos among others, but don’t overdo it. Lastly, the summer celebrations start after Memorial Day. So show off that summertime menu if applicable.