How to Plan a Weeknight Postcard Offer for Your Restaurant
For many independent restaurants, weekends look after themselves and weeknights don’t. A postcard to nearby homes is one way to give people who live close by a specific reason to come in on a Tuesday. It works best when you plan the offer, the area and the measurement before anything is designed.
Start with one weeknight goal
Pick the problem you actually want to solve, and keep it narrow. “More customers” is hard to measure. “More reservations Monday to Thursday” is something you can count.
Write the goal down before you book. It will shape the offer, the wording on the card, and what you look at afterwards.
Choose an offer people can act on
A postcard spot is small, so the offer has to be understood in a glance. Good weeknight offers tend to be:
- Specific. “Free appetizer with any entrée, Monday to Thursday” is clearer than “Great weeknight deals”.
- Limited in time. Give it an end date so people don’t put the card away and forget it.
- Easy to redeem. Say exactly how: book online, call, or mention the card when ordering.
- Affordable for you. Work out what the offer costs you per table before you print it.
Other common formats include a weeknight set menu, a family night, or a bring-a-friend offer. Choose the one that suits your kitchen and margins, not the one that sounds biggest.
Pick the area
Weeknight diners usually come from close by. Start with the neighbourhoods closest to you, the ones people could walk or drive from easily on a work night.
On Spotix, the spot size sets how widely you can target: a Solo Spot targets one neighbourhood, a Duo Spot two, and a Full Spot has full coverage. Check the areas we currently list, and ask which are closest to your restaurant.
Decide what goes in your spot
Less is more. A clear spot usually has:
- Your logo and the restaurant’s name
- The offer in one short line, with the days it applies and an end date
- One good photo of a dish, if you have one
- How to book: a QR code to your reservations page, a phone number, or both
- Your address or cross-streets
Spotix designs the spot from what you send and gives you a proof to approve before anything is printed.
Make it countable
If you can’t tell which reservations came from the card, you can’t decide whether to do it again. Plan how you’ll count them:
- QR code (included with Duo and Full Spots): point it at your reservations page so scans can be counted.
- Tracking phone number (included with a Full Spot): calls from the card are kept apart from your usual calls.
- An offer code or “mention the postcard” (works on any spot): brief your staff to note it on the booking or the bill.
Some people will just walk in without mentioning the card. Treat what you count as a minimum, not the whole effect.
Decide what success looks like before you mail
A simple way to judge the result is cost per tracked reservation:
Spot price ÷ tracked reservations = cost per reservation
Compare that with what an average weeknight table is worth to you after the cost of the offer. The table below is arithmetic only, using the Duo Spot price. It shows how the numbers work, not what to expect.
| Tracked reservations | Cost per reservation |
|---|---|
| 10 | $39.70 |
| 20 | $19.85 |
| 40 | $9.93 |
Response to any mailing depends on the offer, the area, the season and much else. Spotix doesn’t promise a particular number of responses.
Line the offer up with the mailing cycle
Spotix mails once a month. Book by the 15th, approve your proof by the 20th, and the postcard is set to be mailed by the 1st of the following month. Delivery is handled by Canada Post, and delivery dates are estimates, so have your offer start once the card is likely to have arrived and run for several weeks.
If the first month teaches you something, such as one area responding more, or people calling rather than scanning, use it to adjust next month’s offer.