The Hidden Cost Problem: Why "Free" Marketing Software Isn't
That "free" restaurant marketing platform you're considering? It'll cost you 8,400 MAD in hidden fees this year. Most restaurant owners in Morocco discover this after signing up — when the SMS charges start rolling in and the "optional" integrations become mandatory.
The real cost of restaurant marketing software goes far beyond the monthly subscription. Here's what you actually pay when you piece together a marketing stack in Morocco.
What You Actually Pay (Beyond the Sticker Price)
Take a typical Agadir restaurant running 500 orders monthly. The marketing platform advertises "299 MAD/month" — sounds reasonable. But watch what happens when you add reality:
| Cost Category |
Monthly Amount (MAD) |
Annual Total (MAD) |
| Base subscription |
299 |
3,588 |
| SMS fees (0.40/message × 1,500) |
600 |
7,200 |
| POS integration setup |
- |
2,500 |
| Staff training (20 hours × 30 MAD) |
- |
600 |
| Email sending limits overage |
150 |
1,800 |
| Total |
1,049 |
15,688 |
That's 52 MAD per order just for marketing tools — before you've sold a single tagine. Most restaurant marketing platforms charge per SMS in Morocco, where rates run 0.30-0.50 MAD per message. Send a cart abandonment reminder, order confirmation, and delivery update? That's 1.20 MAD gone.
The 22% Cart Recovery Rate: What This Means for Your Revenue
Let's talk about the one automation that actually pays for itself: cart abandonment recovery. Here's the math for a Marrakech restaurant with 1,000 monthly orders:
Average order value: 120 MAD. Cart abandonment rate: 35% (350 abandoned carts monthly). Recovery rate with proper automation: 22%. That's 77 recovered orders × 120 MAD = 9,240 MAD in monthly revenue you'd otherwise lose.
But here's what most articles won't tell you — timing matters more than copy. Send that recovery message within two hours, not 24. In Morocco, where dinner decisions happen fast, waiting means losing the sale to your competitor down the street.
Six Marketing Automations That Move the Needle (Ranked by ROI)
Forget alphabetical lists. Here are the six automations that actually impact your bottom line, ranked by return on investment in the Moroccan market.
Cart Abandonment (22% recovery within 24 hours): The math is simple. Customer adds items, gets distracted, forgets. Your automated reminder brings them back. Set it for 90 minutes after abandonment — long enough they've moved on, soon enough they still want dinner.
Post-Order Upsells (18% return within 30 days): Three days after delivery, send a personalized offer based on what they ordered. Customer loved your pasta? Offer them 15% off your new risotto. This isn't spam — it's relevance. OCHI's dynamic segments make this automatic, pulling order history to create targeted campaigns.
Tier 2: Long-term Customer Value
Welcome Series (first 7 days): New customer signs up. Day 1: warm welcome with your story. Day 3: bestseller showcase. Day 7: exclusive first-order discount. Conversion rate: 34% place an order within two weeks. The key? Space your messages. Moroccan customers appreciate respect for their inbox.
Re-engagement Campaigns (dormant 60+ days): Customer ordered five times, then vanished. Something changed — maybe your service, maybe their situation. A simple "We miss you" with their favorite dish and a 20% incentive brings back 12% of dormant customers. That's pure profit from your existing database.
Tier 3: Relationship Building
Birthday Campaigns: Everyone does birthday discounts. Do them right. Send the offer five days before their birthday, not on the day. Why? They're planning their celebration, checking options. A 25% birthday discount captures the decision moment. Average party size: four people. Average check: 480 MAD.
Review Requests (timing matters): Request reviews 2-3 hours after delivery — while the experience remains fresh. Earlier feels pushy. Later gets forgotten. Response rate: 8% leave reviews. Those reviews drive 30% of new customer decisions in Casablanca's competitive market.
Why Multi-Channel Doesn't Mean Spray and Pray
Most restaurants blast the same message everywhere. That's not multi-channel marketing — that's noise. Smart restaurant marketing software lets you match message to medium based on urgency and context.
The Moroccan Customer Communication Preference
WhatsApp dominates Morocco with 84% smartphone penetration, but not for restaurant promotions. Customers want WhatsApp for order updates, not offers. SMS works for urgent communications — your order's ready, driver's arriving. Email? That's where offers live, with 23% open rates when personalized correctly.
Push notifications through restaurant apps see different engagement by city. Casablanca customers tolerate more frequent updates (3-4 weekly). Agadir prefers less (1-2 weekly). Exceed these thresholds and watch your uninstall rates climb.
When to Use Each Channel (Decision Tree)
Order confirmation? SMS — customers check texts immediately. Weekly offers? Email — gives time to plan. Flash sale ending in 2 hours? Push notification to app users who've enabled alerts. Order ready for pickup? SMS again — urgency demands immediacy.
OCHI's campaign builder handles this logic automatically. Set your message type, and the platform chooses the optimal channel based on customer preferences and past engagement. No manual segmentation needed.
Should you buy one restaurant marketing platform or stitch together specialized tools? The answer depends on your operation's complexity.
Single Restaurant (Under 500 Orders/Month)
For a single location in Fès processing 400 monthly orders, integration complexity kills productivity. You'll spend 15 hours monthly just moving data between systems. That's 450 MAD in labor costs if you value your time at just 30 MAD/hour.
All-in-one platforms make sense here. Yes, the email tool might be slightly less sophisticated than dedicated software. But your chef doesn't need 47 email templates — they need customers ordering dinner tonight.
Multi-Location Operations
Running three branches across Rabat? Now you need centralized reporting. Which location drives birthday campaign success? Why does Branch A see 30% email opens while Branch B manages 15%? Patchwork solutions mean manual Excel consolidation — error-prone and time-consuming.
Multi-location operators need unified customer data. A customer who orders from your Agdal branch should receive relevant offers when near your Hay Riad location. OCHI's multi-branch architecture handles this automatically — one customer profile, accessible across all locations.
Getting Started: Your First 30 Days
Theory's worthless without execution. Here's your concrete 30-day plan to implement restaurant marketing software that generates ROI from week one.
Week 1: Foundation Setup
Day 1-2: Audit your customer data. How many email addresses? Phone numbers? Order histories? Clean this data now — bad data means bad campaigns. Remove duplicates, fix formatting, update obsolete information.
Day 3-4: Implement cart abandonment automation first. It's the quickest win. Set your timer for 90 minutes, craft a simple message: "Your dinner's waiting — complete your order?" Include the items they selected. Add a subtle 10% discount if needed.
Day 5-7: Define success metrics. Not vanity metrics like email opens — real business impact. Orders recovered. Revenue per campaign. Customer lifetime value. OCHI's analytics dashboard tracks these automatically, no manual calculation required.
Week 2-4: Expansion and Optimization
Week 2: Add welcome series and post-order campaigns. Test different timings — does day 3 or day 5 work better for welcome offers in your market? Track, measure, adjust.
Week 3: Launch re-engagement campaigns for dormant customers. Start with those inactive 60-90 days. Test offers: percentage discount vs. free item vs. exclusive preview of new menu items.
Week 4: Analyze your first results. Which automation drives the most revenue? Where are customers dropping off? A Tangier pizzeria discovered their birthday campaigns generated 5x ROI compared to generic weekend promotions. Your data tells your story.
The best restaurant marketing software isn't the one with the most features — it's the one your team actually uses. At votrenom.ochi.ma, every automation activates with one click. No complex setup. No hidden fees. Just marketing that works.
Ready to see what automated marketing can do for your restaurant? Explore the full platform at ochi.ma/partners.
