Today I was reminded of a time 8 years ago when I was at a clients restaurant running what I call the MONEY BUCKET promo!
I’ve been doing this promotion with clients and my own business for over 20 years and I can remember EXACTLY where I learned it from.
The year was 2000 and I was working two jobs. One for WGRR as an advertising “account executive” AKA salesman and the other was my side hustle of building our boat dealership through online marketing. Yes ONLINE MARKETING in 2000 🙂
The money bucket came from WGRR and our sales manager Kim Wiest. We would have a sales event once per year called the One Day Sale where we would do our best to liquidate our first quarter inventory in November since radio sales was relatively soft after the holidays. We’d spend a few weeks prepping our clients for this one day sale and then the day of DIAL FOR DOLLARS!
In November of 2000 Kim broke out a paper bag and loaded it with CASH. She would walk around the office and let you reach in when you closed a deal. That was my first big one day sale and I dominated, I was #1 out of our 4 stations by a big margin and I got to reach into the money bag A LOT! And that memory stuck with me.
So a few years later when I was looking for a way to spark the sales team at our boat dealership I turned to the money bucket. And then around 2010 when I was looking for a way to help some retail clients of my marketing agency, I did it again.
Since 2010 the Money Bucket promo has been a staple with my clients.
In episode 173 of my podcast, Restaurant Marketing Secrets, I did a deep dive into how we did the Money Bucket at Backyard Grill in Houston Texas, CLICK HERE to listen and get a tad more insight.
So WHAT IS THE MONEY BUCKET and how can it be used to increase my restaurants sales, because that’s what we all aim for.
WHAT IS IT ?
– You create a promotion
– You get some cash
– You get a bucket, bag or box
– You let customers or employees reach into the “money bucket” as your CTA, call to action.
WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS ?
– Drive traffic from your marketing
– Create excitement in the restaurant
– Incentivize and reward customers and employees.
Here are two examples of how you can do this.
First example, this is for your customers to drive enrollments in your VIP or loyalty program. You create a marketing campaign and let your customers and following know that on a particular day and time when they visit and sign-up or PROVE they are a member they get to reach into the money bucket. Ideally you create a video of you with the bucket and some cash and then use that on Facebook to get their attention.
A few notes:
– Pick a time and day when you’ll be busy, it’s a HUGE in-store excitement promo
– Don’t use big bills, I found that a $5 and $50 create the same amount of excitement at the table
– Have one person dedicated to this, no other job at that time
Ok, then you’re going to walk around to every table in the restaurant and let them know “we are letting current members or new signups reach into the money bucket for some free cash, are you game?”
Second example, this is for your employees. Create an intenal contest like whoever sells a dessert today gets to reach into the money bucket every time one sells. This is a great way to build excitement with your team and around the money bucket.
Lastly, when you do this for your customers, make sure to post some pics and videos on Facebook to PROVE that you did this and excite people for the next time you do it. I have done this across many concepts and it’s NEVER not worked. Customers and staff, LOVE IT!
OH, and the YouTube video below is a VLOG we did around one of our trips to see a client where YOURS TRULY did the money bucket for the client, so scroll down and watch.
