Ready to go live with Toggle, but not sure what to do next? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. First, just make sure you’ve completed all the stages needed for building your Toggle account.
Remember, your Toggle store is one of the few places you can generate revenue any time, directly from your website. It's measurable and powerful, so it should absolutely be a focus for the guest journey. However, sales of your products won’t just happen - you need to drive traffic to your webshop using different marketing tactics in order to generate sales - such as:
Digital marketing (website / emails / social media)
Marketing campaigns (using key sales dates - e.g. Christmas, Black Friday / using Toggle to help brand campaigns - e.g. new venue launches)
In-store marketing (utilising printed materials and venue staff)
You can break the above down into two focusses. You've got:
Permanent 'set and forget' methods that drive traffic to your webshop by making it unmissable in places people already go.
Regular and one-off campaigns. Driving traffic and focus to your webshop by building Toggle into your marketing rhythm and bigger campaigns.
Permanent links
Call to action (CTA) buttons or links offer a great solution for permanent links within digital marketing. The command, or action phrase you decide to use should be embedded with a hyperlink to your Toggle webshop e.g. Shop / Buy Now / Gift Cards.
These CTAs should be included within high traffic areas, that are guest facing, and easy to find. The aim is to make your Toggle webshop visible across all the areas your guest might interact with you digitally.
We recommend the following as key areas to promote these:
Your brand’s website
Promoting your Toggle webshop on your brand website is a must. This is your digital storefront where guests come to find information about you, and make reservations.
It should be obvious on your website that you offer gift cards, experiences and retail products. Using the following areas can be extremely helpful for sharing this message about your webshop, as these will be high traffic pages:
Navigation on your main homepage
Booking / reservation pages
Thank you for booking page
Post visit feedback page
Make this journey easy and convenient for your guests as it plays a key element on your website, acting like a signpost. Don’t hide this information!
Make it easy to find, and navigate to your Toggle webshop!
A single, clear, call to action will be enough - see The Joiner’s Kitchen website here for an example.
Social Media
Do you have brand social media channels? If yes, then create awareness about your webshop here using CTAs, posts and stories.
Your guests will all be engaged with you slightly differently; promoting your webshop across different channels gives you the best opportunity to reach them all.
Every platform works a little differently, so some research into the ones you’re using will be needed. Consider using bio space, CTA buttons, bots, and Linktr.ee as ways to help your guests navigate easily.
Email signatures & newsletter templates
Update your email signatures and newsletter templates to include a permanent call to action button, directing guests to your webshop.
Email signatures will automatically give all staff members individual marketing opportunities. Without trying, staff will be promoting your store to key guests and suppliers with every individual email that is sent.
Ensuring there is a permanent call to action button within your newsletter template helps make the purchase journey easier. There are many other special occasions that have different dates for your individual guests. Birthdays, anniversaries, congrats on your new home, etc. Make it an easy choice and task to complete a purchase.
Campaigns links
In addition to permanent links, you should market your Toggle webshop throughout the year within different campaigns. Plus, take advantage of your amazing assets and staff that work for you. During these campaigns, you might decide to mix up where exactly your guests get direct too - sometimes you might want to focus on particular products, e.g. Black Friday deals.
Every guest of yours will react differently to campaigns / CTAs, so reminding them throughout the year that you offer gift cards, experiences and retail items is important. You could tie your marketing into key holidays too, whilst also pushing your own brand campaigns. This might include new menu launches and openings. Your guests will be looking out for different things, so different messages throughout the year are important.
All your staff are brand ambassadors; the ones in-store can help grow your brand and sales differently as they are the face of your business; the ones who talk to your guests daily. Consider putting together an action plan - something to encourage and incentivise in-store sales of gift cards with your teams. In store, you can also use printed materials to drive sales.
You could try some of the following to help drive extra traffic to your Toggle webshop:
Website pop-ups - with short messages, and CTAs (great for seasonal campaigns)
Your welcome journeys and trigger emails - your most important email campaigns!
If you use Airship, you can issue automatic digital gift cards for birthdays, etc.
Printed marketing materials - think about your menus, a-board, till receipts, table tents, magazines / press, the list goes on…
These can offer subtle marketing opportunities in your stores, and can all go to different products
Social media - drive awareness with messages, competitions and influencers - you can issue Free Of Charge items
FOC & Promotions - use gift cards and experiences to help drive guests to your venues
Use gift cards as rewards / incentives (local businesses or loyal guests who promote you)
As a way to drive local residents to try out your new venues e.g. here's a free drink on us
To encourage guests to try new menu dishes e.g. discounted meal experiences
To send to influencers
To use as competition or giveaway prizes
Collaborations - partner with others to sell unique products
Face to face - encourage your customer facing staff to drive additional sales, and awareness at the heart of your business
Need a little extra help? Check out our Toggle Academy for additional support articles.