How Applebee’s Draws Crowds With Unique Promotions

Applebee’s operates in an incredibly competitive landscape, and to set itself apart and keep customers coming, the restaurant chain offers a wide range of unique promotions. Crafting marketing promotions to appeal to its target demographic isn’t easy. Yet Applebee’s makes it appear seamless with its limited-time offers, online presence, and impressive brand partnerships. Let’s look closer at the brand’s marketing efforts to see how it draws customers in.

Limited-Time Offers & Special Deals

Time-sensitive promotions are a common marketing tactic as they incite action by creating a sense of urgency. You’ll see it used by online casinos that provide a limited-time offer code to their players and stores that offer limited-time sales, particularly during Black Friday or Boxing Week. It’s highly effective and a key strategy for Applebee’s.

However, Applebee’s doesn’t just offer sales or promotions on a whim. The company is committed to deeply understanding its target customers and how to better serve them, resulting in limited-time offers that people genuinely want to take advantage of. But the company keeps customers engaged in these events through more than just urgency. It also lets its patrons know that as soon as one deal wraps up, another will launch. This approach builds anticipation alongside urgency, keeping customers engaged and increasing sales. 

Some of Applebee’s best-known limited-time promotions include Dollaritas and all-you-can-eat deals.

Dollaritas

One-dollar margaritas, or “Dollaritas,” are one of Applebee’s most popular promotions. The event brings in new and recurring visitors with its affordability and focus on a fun beverage. It’s been so successful that Applebee’s has also introduced variations for popular cocktails like vodka lemonades and Long Island iced teas.

All-You-Can-Eat Deals

Affordability and value are important to Applebee’s and its customers, so promotions like all-you-can-eat deals resonate positively with its customer base. The chain brings in customers for deals on popular menu items like wings, allowing guests to enjoy their favorite items without worrying about an expensive bill.

Social Media Engagement & Digital Marketing

An online presence is a crucial part of marketing in the modern age. Applebee’s not only knows this but goes above and beyond online, creating successful, award-winning digital campaigns.

The “Fancy Like” TikTok Campaign

The best example of Applebee’s ability to draw customer attention and increase sales is its award-winning “Fancy Like” TikTok campaign. It leveraged Walker Hayes’s country song, which mentions the company. Applebee’s used the song across social media and ads, significantly boosting online engagement, brand awareness, and increasing sales. Customers even began posting their own takes of “Fancy Like” videos at Applebee’s restaurants.

Instagram-Worthy Food & Drink Promos

Promotions like the “Halloween Spooky Sips” feature eye-catching cocktails like the “Boo Lagoon Mucho” that the company encourages its guests to share on social media. This helps create social proof for the brand, showcasing that real people enjoy its menu items while expanding its reach and online presence. Combined, all these elements increase restaurant visits and sales.

Customer Loyalty Programs & Repeat Business

By creating and nurturing repeat business through loyalty programs and exclusive offers, like “Club Applebee’s” and date night packages, Applebee’s strengthens customer loyalty, which is a central component of many marketing initiatives.

Club Applebee’s

When customers sign up to join Club Applebee’s, they immediately earn a coupon for a free appetizer and gain access to a host of deals, including exclusive offers. These arrive in email inboxes or the app, reminding customers about the restaurant and encouraging them to redeem their offers. It’s not a practice unique to Applebee’s. It’s proven across many businesses to be an effective way to gain repeat business and nurture relationships.

Date Night Pass

As mentioned, Applebee’s makes sure to develop a deep understanding of its customer base, and one thing it learned about its customers was that they were spending increasingly higher amounts for date nights. Learning this and knowing that its customers appreciate value, Applebee’s developed the Date Night Pass. 

The pass lets couples enjoy $50 off an order once a month, with an upfront $100 payment. The offer, exclusively available to select Applebee’s Club members, is a hot commodity, especially since the company only offers a certain number of these passes. When first introduced, the exclusivity of the pass garnered a lot of attention for the brand, selling out in minutes. 

Community Engagement & Fundraising

Applebee’s understanding of its customer base helps foster audience excitement and engagement by developing partnerships with brands like the NFL and supporting local work important to its community.

NFL Partnership

In 2024, Applebee’s developed a thrilling multi-year partnership with the NFL, an organization many of its customers are huge fans of. The partnership sparked enthusiasm for Applebee’s customers in a few different ways. It included promotions like 50-cent wings and the “Pick Six” offer that gave customers an additional six wings of their choice with their order. The partnership also brought celebrity appeal to Applebee’s marketing, with NFL athletes and coaches appearing in ads distributed across online platforms. 

But perhaps the most exciting offer of Applebee’s NFL partnership was the possibility of winning Super Bowl tickets through the Club Applebee’s program. If the ads and offers hadn’t already brought in repeat business and new loyal customers, this initiative undoubtedly would have, because what NFL fan could pass up an opportunity like that?

Fundraisers & Local Partnerships

While less attention-grabbing than the NFL partnership, Applebee’s also caters to its community by engaging in philanthropic efforts reflecting the company’s and its customers’ values. These efforts encourage customers to visit or order from restaurants because they know that they are not only indulging in some of their favorite happy hour deals and drinks but also supporting their community through their purchases.

Impact of Applebee’s Promotions

These different promotional avenues have brought much attention to Applebee’s, helping the company set itself apart in the competitive food landscape. While some of these may seem like casual ideas that happened to strike the right chord, the marketing team at Applebee’s has worked hard to understand its audience and tailor-make each of its promotions to foster brand loyalty, excitement, and engagement with the brand.