Predictive analytics is absolutely crucial for the restaurant industry. They determine how much food is ordered when food with longer cook times is prepared, scheduling needs, and more.
However, you might not be aware of how important predictive analytics is for marketing in the restaurant industry.
There are numerous benefits to leveraging predictive analytics not just for operating the business, but for marketing purposes as well.
Here are the benefits you should expect by leveraging predictive analytics to its fullest extent.
1: Be Ahead of the Curve
A massive part of capitalizing on trends is identifying them beforehand and getting ahead of the curve. There was a massive pop culture example of this in recent years.
When chicken sandwiches suddenly became a craze, the companies that identified the upcoming trend and adopted it immediately saw the best results. There were literal fights breaking out over who would get the chicken sandwiches from the companies that released them first. Companies that weren’t quick enough to jump on it saw lackluster results because the craze was exceptionally fleeting.
Predictive analytics can help you get ahead of the next trend and change your approach to marketing in a way that will help you leverage the trend to its fullest.
2: Knowing What to Market
Just like predictive analytics can help you prepare for your daily operations, such as only thawing so much of a certain meet ahead of the dinner rush, it can help you understand what marketing efforts will be the most effective, too.
The majority of consumer interactions are extremely predictable, and that translates to their reaction to marketing materials, as well.
With predictive analytics, you can get a good idea of whether or not marketing a certain menu item will be worth the funding if running a certain online ad will work, or even if customers will respond to email and text campaigns.
This is a powerful tool. The restaurant industry has a very small profit margin, and every expense needs to be weighed heavily against its potential benefits. If you can predict what those benefits will be accurate, you can make better marketing decisions as a restaurant owner.
3: Prioritizing Your Efforts
As we just said, restaurants have to manage every tiny expense to the smallest detail. If they don’t, they’ll go bankrupt and shut their doors fairly quickly. Luckily, this is another thing that predictive analytics already helps with. It helps minimize food and labor waste.
However, it helps with marketing, too.
Let’s say that you’re about to launch two marketing efforts. You want to give customers a reason to sign up for emails to increase your direct-to-customer engagement, but you also want to run a big TV ad.
With predictive analytics, you can determine which method will bring more beneficial results to your restaurant, and you can allocate funding more effectively. This helps you save money and direct it to efforts that will have better turnarounds while minimizing commitments to less effective options.
Get Help with Your Predictive Analytics
If you want to start leveraging predictive analytics in your favor, contact Fox Metrics. Fox Metrics provides comprehensive data analysis for the restaurant industry to help restaurants grow and succeed.