How to sell out your restaurant thanks to food influencers: the case of Galbar

There's no doubt about it: food influencers have a real power of attraction for restaurants. The Galbar crêperie is a perfect example. The challenge for the restaurant was to cope with a sharp drop in business. Against this backdrop, the Malou team implemented an influencing strategy to boost footfall. And it worked!

Galbar, a fast-food crêperie in the heart of Paris, sets itself apart with its iconic galettes. In the shape of cones, well-stocked with 100% local produce, these crêpes and galettes are the talk of Instagram. No "complete" or "butter-sugar" at Galbar, but La Gauloise poulet pané et tome AOP, Crème Brûlée or Tarte Tatin. Genuine stars, tested and approved by food influencers Foodgasm, Hungryconsti, Popcornparis, Luciepassionglucides, Leparisdalexis and many others. In 4 months, the number of subscribers has multiplied by 3.5, the number of impressions by 36, 4 million views recorded after Foodgasm's visit, a stock-out at 4pm following content shared by an influencer... How does Galbar achieve such results? What are the dos and don'ts of an effective influencing strategy?

1. Food influencers: a powerful lever for visibility

Part-time or full-time, micro or macro influencers, these food industry players represent real opportunities for restaurateurs. What do they have in common? An engaged community that follows them on a daily basis and listens to their restaurant recommendations. If they visit your establishment and enjoy the experience, they share it on Instagram in stories and/or posts. Content that is thus visible to their community - thousands of people. A godsend? Provided the strategy is well thought out and implemented.

In another article, we took a closer look at the phenomenon of food influencers, where you'll find out why it's so popular, who these inspirational players are, how to choose them for your restaurant and how to approach them. Here, we detail our influencing strategy for Galbar, which quickly boosted the restaurant's reputation. How did it work? What results did we achieve?

2. Calling on food influencers: a precise and coherent approach...

It's not a question of sending the same message to every content creator out there, asking them to come to your restaurant. You need to find out about the preferences of these players, their types of restaurant, F&B offer and ambience, and understand your restaurant's audience. So you can match the two.

After understanding Galbar's world, Malou's experts use their knowledge and proximity to influencers to select the most relevant ones. The aim is not only to boost the restaurant's visibility, but also to introduce these key players in the gastronomy world to an establishment that will appeal to them. A person who mostly shares bistronomic tables is unlikely to appreciate a street food establishment. Or a vegetarian in a meat restaurant. Once the choice hasbeen made, the Malou team invites everyone to come and discover the restaurant's galettes and crêpes. But at intervals! The aim is to build awareness of the restaurant over time, and create a solid virtuous circle. To get the right approach, read our detailed advice here. Content creators need to be attracted to the idea of an experience, not just a marketing tool!

Since September 2021, Popcornparis, Constance from hungryconsti, Lucie from luciepassionglucides, Alexis from leparisdalexis, thefoodparisian, Laura from amangeretavoir, Jess and Mylan from foodgasm_travel, poopiblh, have been testing the fast-food creperie. The results? An explosion in the restaurant's visibility every month! And above all, they enjoyed going to Galbar; Constance even comes back very often!

3. ...For highly effective results

From September to early December, Galbar's Instagram followers have multiplied by X3.5, with an increase of +3,500 new followers! The peaks in growth can be explained in part by the arrival of content creators and the timing of their posts and/or stories. In 4 months, the number of impressions of publications rose from 6,000 to 218,000!But above all, an increasingly engaged community is surrounding itself with Galbar! At the beginning of September, interactions with the restaurant's Instagram content stood at around 300, versus 3,570 for the month of November ! Interactions (comments, likes, replies to stories) testify to the attachment of Internet users to the restaurant.

4. An influencing strategy to boost your online communication and on-site concept

The arrival of food influencers gives Galbar's reputation a real boost. As can be seen in the monthly reports, certain peaks in visibility correspond to the dates of content shared by these food influencers.

But an influencing strategy doesn't stand alone! It only boosts the restaurant's many marketing actions already in place, and the communications it maintains on a daily basis. Because the impact of a food influencer visit is short-lived. But first and foremost, the restaurant has to provide on-site cooking and service, and offer an attractive concept.

Galbar has it all. For communication, the Malou team feeds the Galbar Galbar Instagram pagewith photos, videos, carousels, stories and reels, and launches contests and sponsorships to showcase the establishment and its offering to a wide audience. And importantly, food influencers learn about the establishment, often through the aesthetics of the Instagram page, before accepting the invitation. So taking care of your digital showcase on social media remains essential to attract customers, food influencers and many other reasons!

5. Work before, during and after

Promoting your restaurant online to acquire new customers therefore requires work. Marketing actions that match the restaurant and target the right people. The Malou team relieves many restaurant owners of these time-consuming tasks on a daily basis, leaving them to concentrate on their core business. Others want to retain control over the image they project online, and so use the MalouApp.