October 14th is coming, and this is a special date for those of us who have a sweet tooth… It’s National Dessert Day! For businesses that are in the food and restaurant industries especially, this is a great day to give your social media followers a little bit of a special “treat.”
Read more: Days of Observance and Holidays in 2020 for Small Businesses
Here are some of our favorite ideas to help you celebrate National Dessert Day with your social media followers!
Keep reading to find out:
Interact With Your Audience
Don’t have a lot of time to plan something? No worries! You can celebrate National Dessert Day by just asking your audience and customers what their favorite dessert is. People love to share their thoughts on fun things like this, and it can create a lot of engagement. If you want to make it easier for them to interact with you, create a poll with 4-5 popular desserts, and have them pick their favorite one. If you’re a restaurant, this information might just prove to be valuable as you develop your next seasonal menu!
Ask Your Customers for Suggestions
On that same note, if you’ve been wanting to introduce some new dessert options to your customers, now is a great time to ask for suggestions! You might consider offering a prize to the best suggestion (voted on by you and your staff) to encourage more people to weigh in. This is a great way to understand what your audience actually wants and help them feel like they’re a valuable part of your business. Plus, it’s just a great opportunity to connect with them!
Create a Special Menu
You may not want to ask your audience to choose which dessert you add to your permanent menu, but you might want to curate a special “dessert week” dessert menu. Add in some limited-time options for the week and encourage people to come in and try them by posting photos on your social media feeds. Keep in mind that you will need to give people time to plan, so you might want to share your special menu a week or two in advance.
Share Recipes
Want to make your customers really happy? Share your favorite dessert recipe with them! This is something that everyone can do, not just those in the food and beverage industry. If you have a blue-ribbon pie recipe in your family or a trendy new dessert that is a favorite in your home, go ahead and share it on social media. Be sure to put your handle on the photo as a watermark so when people share it (and they will share it), everyone will know where it originated. You will probably gain some new followers because as you know, food is the way to people’s hearts.
Create a Giveaway
Creating a giveaway on social media is fairly easy – in fact, we tell you exactly how to do it in this post. This is also an amazing way to reach more people and introduce them to your business. So, plan a giveaway that’s somehow related to National Dessert Day and post about it on your social media feeds. Get creative with the prize, too! For example, you could give away a $100 gift certificate for the best recipe inspired by the work you do.
Give Free Desserts or Samples
Who doesn’t love a freebie? Restaurant owners, this is especially easy for you. All you have to do is invite your followers to join you for a meal and give them a free dessert during the week of National Dessert Day. If they order takeout, why not send a delicious dessert sample as a little surprise? People will be so happy to get a free dessert, they’ll probably post about it on their social media feeds, which means free word-of-mouth advertising for you! Just make sure they know the dessert is a gift to celebrate National Dessert Day; otherwise, they might think it was a mistake or expect a free dessert every time they order.
Give Discounts
This is one of the most traditional ways to promote a special holiday or a national day. If you want to keep things simple, just give a discount on your dessert menu for the day or the week. You can make it even more attractive to your customers by sharing a cute post on social media. Besides the discount on the menu items, you might also consider giving free delivery when they add on a dessert.
Create Dessert-Related Posts
Even if you’re not a restaurant or don’t work directly with food, you can always use National Dessert Day to have some fun on social media. Let’s say you have a small cosmetics brand with some products that smell like or are named after desserts. Celebrate by giving your audience a discount on those products. Or, let’s say you offer spa services. Create a cute infographic with a “recipe” to create an indulgent self-care routine using your products.
Get creative and celebrate National Dessert Day as a day to bring you and your followers closer together.
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