Summer might end, and schools will be opening soon, but you can still make this month more lively with these fun August promotion ideas.
After pulling off your Independence Day and other July promotions, don’t let your customers down and maintain the energy from the previous month.
Make your customer’s August as lively as it should be. Make the end of the summer season a spectacular one by creating promotions and events that will keep them hooked on your next offers.
August is just as fun as other months. Take this as an opportunity to attract new guests and make a buzz for your F&B brand. Check out these August promotion ideas below.
National Chocolate Chip Day (August 4)
Complimentary chocolate chip cookies for any dine-in or takeaway orders
On National Chocolate Chip Day, offer your customers and patrons a free cookie. You can even set the conditions, like a minimum purchase or purchasing a specific menu item, or you can always give it to them for free.
International Beer Day (August 5)
Happy hour events like beer pong and chugging competitions
International Beer Day falls on a Friday, which means—TGIF!
Create happy hour events for your bar, like beer pong and chugging competitions.
Then give out free merchandise to winners, like coasters, beer mugs, bottle openers, etc., with your bar’s logo.
American Family Day (August 7)
Discounted ‘Family Bundle’ set of menu items
Group menu items together in a bundle and create a set with a discounted combined price.
A discount of at least 5% of the original combined price is enticing for family patrons.
You’re helping them cut costs while promoting eating out as a family.
Many charities and nonprofits collect donations and necessities all year long to support military families.
You can help by holding a fundraiser or offering your services, special skills, resources, or connections.
Offer a free or discounted meal for Purple Heart recipients and their immediate family members
Show your appreciation to our modern-day heroes from the military and their families by offering free or discounted meals.
Prevent unnecessary expenses and wasted supplies by promoting your event in advance or requesting registration and RSVPs.
International Cat Day promotion ideas (August 8)
Create and offer limited edition cat-themed menu items
Make cute and attractive cat-themed food items and desserts for your coffee shop, like cat latte, cat cake pops, cat pancakes, etc.
A cat bento box or cat onigiri can also add some life to your sushi menu.
Offer discounts to cats’ “staff”
There’s a joke going around that dogs have owners and cats have “staff.” Reward cats’ loyal servers with discounts they can enjoy on International Cat Day.
You can customize the conditions, like showing their best selfie photo with their cats.
Create a cat menu
About 45.3 million households own at least one cat, so chances are you have cat owner customers.
To celebrate International Cat Day, create a menu, especially for cats, and allow your customers to bring their feline friends inside. Just make sure you create a guideline the cat owners can follow.
Challenge right-hander customers to a contest using their left hand
Living in a world mainly dominated by right-handed people, appreciate the lefties by celebrating Left Hander’s Day.
Host games and challenges for right-handed customers, which will require them to use their left hand to complete.
Reward the winners with limited edition and branded promotional items with your logo.
National Tell a Joke Day (August 16)
Organize a comedy night or open mic competition
Create an avenue for your humorous guests and organize a comedy night open mic contest. It is an excellent way to socialize and interact with your customers.
Moreover, you can attract the attention of new customers looking to relax and relieve their stress.
National Potato Day (August 19)
Offer discounts on french fries, chips, or mashed potato products
As a result, many restaurants, especially fast food chains, either increased their prices, controlled their portion sizes, or suspended their potato (mostly french fries) sales indefinitely.
However, you can still celebrate National Potato Day by giving limited-time promotional discounts on potato products.
National Bacon Lover’s Day (August 20)
Free bacon add-ons and options for any digital orders using QR code
Perhaps, bacon is one of the most well-loved American breakfast staples. It goes well with waffles, pancakes, pasta, burgers, and pizzas.
It can also be a game-changing wrap, like the perfect blend of sweet and salty bacon-wrapped pineapple.
Hence, on National Bacon Lover’s Day, offer bacon add-ons or options exclusively to customers ordering through your QR code restaurant menu for free.
Aside from giving an awesome deal, it’s also a way to promote your digital menu ordering system to potential customers.
National Senior Citizens’ Day promotion ideas(August 21)
5 to 10% discount to customers 55 years and older
As a sign of respect to the older generation, apply at least a 5 to 10 % discount to customers over 55 years of age on National Senior Citizen’s Day.
Give out free drinks to elderly customers
Moreover, if you’re feeling extra generous, why not give out free drinks to dining senior citizen customers? Your drinks can be anything from iced tea, a cup of coffee to a mug of beer.
Senior citizen discounts on certain days of the week
On the other hand, you can always set aside a specific day of the week to offer senior citizen discounts as a treat for your elderly customers.
For instance, you can offer your restaurant customers 10% off on Wednesdays. This strategy is effective in retaining patrons and customer loyalty.
Whether it’s soy, coconut, almond, or rice milk, offer plant-based milk alternatives to any drinks or desserts for free.
Livestock agriculture is responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gasses, which means using dairy products like milk, butter, or cream significantly impacts the environment.
Encourage customers to help participate in and support your restaurant’s sustainability efforts by offering free plant-based milk alternatives.
Introduce your customers to plant-based milk; they might be surprised that non-dairy milk’s taste is not far from cow’s milk.
Cafes, coffee shops, or bakery and pastry shops can offer baking and sponge cake decorating lessons.
Keep kids and students occupied and engaged on the last few days of their summer vacations and before the classes start by teaching them the basics of baking.
Also, adults are welcome to participate in this promotion alongside children. It’s a way to share valuable cake baking and decorating tips and tricks with your customers, which they will love and be thankful for.
National Waffle Day (August 24)
Offer new waffle food combination menu items
If you don’t have it on your menu yet, offer waffle and waffle combinations like waffle and ice cream, waffle and bacon, chicken and waffle, or the classic waffle and syrup.
Adding new menu items to your menu is one way to keep it updated.
Create a DIY breakfast waffle menu category
Waffles are probably the most versatile breakfast base, aside from pancakes. They can be paired with almost anything, from sweet to salty.
After creating a DIY breakfast category, add different types of waffles as the base. Then create add-ons and options for your customers to choose from.
Include sweet waffle complementary items like ice cream or whip cream, syrup or honey, and different fruits like blueberries, strawberries, bananas, raspberries, etc.
You can also include savory items like fried chicken, bacon, eggs, ham, avocado, salad, tuna, or cream cheese.
National Dog Day promotion ideas (August 26)
Hold an online dog photo liking competition
Allow dog owner customers to show off their furbabies by creating an online dog photo liking competition.
The mechanics are very simple. Customers must submit to your social media page or post the cutest photo of their dogs, tagging your restaurant or adding the hashtags you created. Then the photo with the highest number of likes and shares will win.
The winning photo gets you exclusive brand merchandise, a discount, a free meal, or, well, bragging rights.
Host a dog party or allow dogs in your restaurant
You can turn this celebration into something extra special by holding a dog party on your patio or allowing dogs to enter your restaurant with their owners.
Additionally, you can give prizes and fun awards to outstanding and deserving dogs at your dog party.
Ensure that your staff is well-prepared and aware of how to handle dogs. Allowing pets inside restaurants requires time, training, and careful planning to execute flawlessly.
Lay out your restaurant’s guidelines beforehand so pet owners know what to expect and do.
National Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day (August 28)
Create a pet photo wall in your restaurant
Losing a beloved pet is a different kind of pain that only pet owners can feel and relate to. It’s just heartbreaking, and some people never really get over losing a pet.
Commemorate our cherished pets who have already crossed the rainbow bridge by creating a photo wall where customers can post photos of their departed pets and/or some notes on the wall.
No one can really get enough of the time they have spent with their pets. It’s the perfect way to celebrate and immortalize their precious short-lived lives
Join the #RainbowBridgeRemembranceDay trend
Moreover, you can help trend the hashtag #RainbowBridgeRemembranceDay on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook.
You can increase your visibility on social media platforms so app users can see your posts, discover your restaurant, and possibly increase your potential customers.
You can even make your posts with your customized hashtag that includes your restaurant’s name, like #JoeSteakhouseRainbowBridgeRemembranceDay.
Use MENU TIGER to expand operations and smoothly serve more customers during your August promotions
MENU TIGER is an interactive restaurant menu QR code software that creates a no-code website containing an interactive digital menu.
Customers can directly order using MENU TIGER’s interactive digital menu, making the ordering process fast, smooth, and errorless.
Moreover, MENU TIGER generates the digital menu in a QR code, so instead of handing a paper menu, customers can scan the QR code menu on their table and order using their phones.
It is editable and easy to update so that the digital menu can be improved at any time, and any changes made will be reflected in real-time.
How to upgrade and expand restaurant operations to accommodate more customers using MENU TIGER
Aside from building a no-code restaurant website, creating a digital menu, and generating a QR code, here are other ways to use MENU TIGER for your August promotion ideas.
Make a menu item category for August promotion ideas
You can create a particular category for your promotional items that you can offer for a limited time.
To create a promotion category, go to Menu and click Foods
Below the food categories, click “Add.”
Choose the store location included in your promotional category
Create a Name and add a Modifier group. Then, click Add
Create special menu food items
If you just want to add a special item to your menu for a promotion, then here’s how you can do it.
Go to Menu, select Foods, and choose the category you would like to add the item
Then, beside the Foods label, click Add
Fill out the form with the needed menu item information.
Check the Availability box when you want to display it on the menu. Otherwise, if you hide it from the menu, uncheck the box.
Schedule August promotion ideas and discounts ahead of time
The Promotions section on your MENU TIGER restaurant website allows you to schedule the specific date and time when your promotions will automatically start and stop. On the dashboard, click Website and select Promotions
Click Add and add a name, description, and add an image
Choose the Start and Stop displaying dates
Input the discount value in Amount or Percentage
Then, choose the Applicable Foods for discount
Check the Applicable for add-ons box if the discount will apply to add-ons aside from the menu item.
Finally, click “Save.”
Make August more fun with promotion ideas using MENU TIGER
This August, keep your customers entertained with exciting promotion ideas you can create and offer using an interactive restaurant menu QR code software.
An interactive digital menu, like MENU TIGER, can help restaurants prepare and operate efficiently during an influx of customers by having monthly promotions.
Expand your business operations with us, and go to MENU TIGER website today to sign up for free. No credit card is needed.
