Promotions, discounts... effective marketing levers to promote your restaurant?

"25% off your dessert", "1 dish bought = 1 dish offered", "Happy Hour from 5pm to 7pm", "Menu at 20 euros instead of 25"... Promotions are eye-catchers, and help you to acquire and retain customers. But there are certain pitfalls to be avoided if you want to promote your restaurant and not discredit it.

51% of respondents to a Statista study said that a "2 for 1" promotion had influenced their decision to visit or order from a restaurant. Promotions are indeed effective. But first of all, it's important to understand the different types, their respective purposes and the stakes involved, in order to ask the right questions. Then you need to publicize these offers, using a variety of online practices. What kind of promotions can be used to acquire and retain customers? What are their limits? When should they be used? How to communicate them? Carmila's Louiza and Pierre-Alain answered these questions in this latest webinar. They gave you the keys to making this lever an effective way of promoting your restaurant.

A big thank you to all participants for your presence and active participation! We hope these tips have helped you understand and apply promotion in your restaurant. For those of you who were unable to attend, we'd like to take a look back at the main points of the webinar and share the replay with you.watch the webinar replay

1) What does it mean to promote your restaurant through promotional offers?

Above all, promotion remains a means to be used occasionally. By definition, it covers all actions designed to influence the behavior of prospective customers, in order to encourage them to consume. Closely linked to advertising, it's about pushing a product forward, to sell off stock quickly, or if food costs are particularly low. Promotion is generally a good way to generate volume. But why exactly? The reasons that give rise to the need for promotions:

• The desire, or need, to sell quickly. A reduction in the base price tends to quickly catch the eye and generate orders. A strategy based more on the short term.
• To convert customers over the long term. You have an opportunity to retain this new clientele, who wanted to try out your establishment following the appearance of your promotion. If customers are satisfied, they'll come back again in a non-promotional setting.

2) What are the limits of promotion?

It's a great sales tool, but you have to be aware of the pitfalls of promotion:

• Weakening margins. In the foodservice industry, sales margins are generally tight, so adding a discount to the selling price can become a risk of loss.
• Weakening your brand image. If you run too many promotions, the impression is created that your original prices were too high, leaving you more room for promotion, which can turn customers away and lower the perceived quality of your establishment.
• Become a promotional restaurant. Some customers may become accustomed to coming to you for discounts if they are too regular. They won't feel the need or inclination to come when no promotion is displayed.

It's important to avoid these pitfalls, and to remain vigilant, so that you can use the promotion in the right dose and benefit only from its advantages.

3) What kind of promotion for your restaurant?

There are several types of promotion. Which one you choose depends on your objectives and the identity of your establishment. These include :

• Long-term promotions such as loyalty programs. Cards, etc., to keep customers coming back for free in the future, as a way of saying thank you.
• Discounts on the total amount or price of the particular dish.
• Offerings such as "1 bought = 1 free", which you can concentrate on a dish, a dessert...
• Offer a free service, particularly for delivery. Offer free delivery above a certain amount to give customers the feeling that you're offering them an extra service.

Photo by Harps Joseph on Unsplash

4) Focus on delivery promotions

It's becoming increasingly common to see promotional offers on delivery apps. Almost a normality. The giant Deliveroo encourages these flash sales during off-peak hours. Just as LaFourchette does during restaurant downtime, the aim is to help professionals promote their restaurant to maximize sales and clear out end-of-service stock. To stand out from the many offers out there, we recommend that our customers set up a promotion above 25%, so as not to be perceived as too low by consumers. This offer should be conditional on a minimum order value.

For its part, UberEats has set up a successful promotion system. It enables new customers to be targeted, and recommends a personalized budget to be allocated, based on the target's location and order history. Ephemeral campaigns and types of offer vary: discounts over a certain amount, one free, free delivery... As with Deliveroo, promotional offers incur no additional costs for professionals. Note that these offers cannot exceed 7 consecutive days. The giant also offers the creation ofa loyalty program to acquire new customers, build loyalty and improve visibility. Today, this program is said to increase sales by 10%. Find out more here.

As a general rule, the type of promotions you use will depend on your establishment, the context, the season, and your objectives. Happy hour to fill off-peak hours, set lunch menus if you have an office clientele nearby, special offers during sporting events... Subtle promotion makes customer acquisition easier. But for this to happen, customers need to know about your promotional offers. So how do you go about it?

5) How do you communicate your offers online?

Your message must be simple, but precise. Clear and powerful. Your target audience needs to feel that they're getting a good deal, and that it's worthwhile for them to take advantage of it today. If the customer isn't sure about your promotion, the terms and conditions, or what's in it for them, they won't try to take advantage of it. Keep the conversion process as simple as possible. Catch the eye with a striking message and visual while communicating subtly, not insistently.

But where to communicate this message? Mostly online. For 9 out of 10 French people, the restaurant selection process takes place on the Internet. Your online shop window should therefore display your current promotional offer. In addition to communicating it on your website, like the Majouja restaurant above, use your Instagram bio. As the first element viewed by your clientele, your bio remains a strategic place to promote your restaurant and relay the key elements that set you apart. Using a promotional code to pass on benefits to consumers has 2 main advantages. The code is short and easy to use. You can communicate your promotion in a static way.

It's also necessary to promote your restaurant and its offerings according to a dynamic strategy. On Instagram, prioritize the publication of Stories for its ephemeral aspect. Available only 24 hours a day, relaying your promotions in Stories allows you to adapt your message, changing it as sales evolve. If you realize that you've got too much of a dish, offer an ephemeral deal instantly with the aim of clearing stock within the day. To promote your restaurant and its promotional offer in a more sustainable way, you can also publish it for a longer-term purpose. Once your offer has been relayed both statically and dynamically, go further in converting your customers. Instagram invites you to redirect your customers directly to your delivery or takeaway system. If you haven't already done so, set up this button for an effective Call to action by following the steps below. Once you've created this button, you'll be able to integrate a tag into your Stories with the aim of directly redirecting your order space.

6) What other levers can you use to promote your restaurant online?

In our article here, we give you our complete guide to promoting your restaurant online, with tips and advice drawn from Malou's accumulated expertise. 30 steps take time to put in place, and even more time to maintain in order to improve your strategy and adapt it to trends. Promoting your restaurant is almost a job in itself. But you don't have the budget to hire someone, or you want to keep control of your restaurant's marketing? At Malou, we've automated most of these steps and brought them together in an all-in-one solution dedicated to restaurateurs: the MalouApp. If you're interested, don't hesitate to contact us for a MalouApp demo at contact@malou.io.