Being a restaurateur means handling more roles than directors of Marvel films. Sometimes the end product opens to great reviews, and sometimes the response is less than ideal (looking at you “The Eternals”).
Regardless of the initial reception, making your restaurant stand out from the crowd is a never-ending battle. Luckily, in the dot.com age, marketing automation tools make all that responsibility juggling a bit easier. Here are our picks for the best marketing tools you can utilize to boost visibility and bookings.
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9 Must-Have Restaurant Marketing Tools
Any restaurateur knows running a restaurant is extremely demanding. Between managing employees, maintaining a kitchen, designing your menu and keeping often perishable ingredients fresh and stocked, the work never ends.
Then, on top of that, there’s the matter of filling your restaurant with hungry customers. If that sounds like a monumental task, don’t worry — these nine marketing tools can help you pack the house from open to close.
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Online Ordering and Reservations
Having someone to answer the phone 24/7 isn’t always feasible in a small setup (millennials hate making phone calls anyway). An online ordering and reservation system minimizes the cognitive load for both your customers and employees.
They’re chef-certified too. Hari Nayak, Chef and Owner of Gourmet Gurus Hospitality shared his thoughts.
As a chef, I use tools like Sevenrooms, Gain, Resy, and OpenTable [that have] revolutionized the way we manage our restaurant operations. These platforms streamline social media marketing, inventory management, reservations and even help with customer relationship management. The efficiency and accuracy they offer are invaluable, allowing us to focus more on delivering exceptional dining experiences to our guests.”
Resy OS
Resy OS is an online restaurant reservation system that helps users streamline operations and improve guest experience. It offers web and app booking, a mobile waitlist, custom reservations for regulars and auto-confirm texts.
Resy’s Custom Reservation Inventory For Regulars. Source
Tock
Tock is a digital reservation platform designed to increase revenue, covers and guest satisfaction. Users can set up online reservations, curate events and experiences, and manage waitlists.
Tock’s Table and Service Management. Source
OpenTable
OpenTable is an all-in-one restaurant system that helps businesses optimize their operations. You can manage and accept reservations, assign tables to guests and waitstaff, create an in-house waitlist, monitor a real-time reservation inventory and accept online orders for take out.
Optimize Seating Flow with OpenTable’s Reservation Book. Source
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Text Marketing
Smartphones are our constant companions, the emotional support cuddle toy for the grownups of today. According to SimpleTexting’s survey, 44% of millennials and GenZers check their texts more than ten times a day, with 71% of consumers opting in for texts from businesses in the last year.
Creating personalized text campaigns, like auto-confirm texts for reservations and special offers for past customers, helps build customer loyalty and makes the experience more convenient, leading to more bookings.
Text-Em-All
Text-Em-All is a mass messaging platform that helps businesses send personalized and informative texts. It offers mass texting and calling, contact management, two-way texting, and reports and analytics.
Create and Manage Text Conversations. Source
TextMagic
TextMagic is a business text messaging service that streamlines text marketing and communication. It helps restaurants with templates for opt-in confirmations, special offers, table reservations, polls and surveys, and reminders.
Use Textmagic’s Templates To Attract Customers and Improve Bookings. Source
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Website Builder
We’re all guilty of hearing of a product or service and then immediately googling the website to benchmark its credibility. Building a website with an intuitive UX boosts your credibility and customer goodwill. It also makes it easier to showcase your menu, accept bookings and improve your SEO.
Wix
Wix is a cloud-based website builder that helps users design and manage their websites using templates and visual libraries. Jagshakti Singh, Head Chef and Founder of Jag My Chef App relies on Wix to attract leads and boost visibility.
He said, “[I use] Wix—for [building] my website, driving traffic to my app and getting leads. I also drive traffic to my website from Instagram, which is my main source of leads apart from the website.”
Build Your Website Using Wix’s Drag-and-Drop Builder. Source
Social Media
A prominent social media presence isn’t just for sharing personal updates or catching up with old friends from high school. 37% of diners use social media to access restaurant information.
Restaurants like Urban Tandoor have turned amateur content creators, boosting visibility with viral reels and TikToks. While most customers don’t expect that level of commitment, posting timely updates with the help of social media management tools can improve your reach.
HootSuite
HootSuite is a cloud-based social media management system that helps users streamline and optimize their social media strategy. It integrates with all major social media platforms so you can post to multiple platforms at one time. Users can also access real-time social media analytics, insights on organic and paid social media content and customized dashboards.
Post To Multiple Social Media Platforms with HootSuite.
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Email Marketing
Did you know that the average email open rates for dining and food services are at 38.58%? Email marketing tools help you automate responses for reservations, send out promotions, get feedback and update customers on special events.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a web-based email marketing application best-suited to small businesses. It allows users to import data from spreadsheets, create customer profiles and build emails using templates.
Build Custom Emails Using Templates Like This New Menu Update Template. Source
Online Review Management
Love it or hate it, online reviews and ratings are the sword of Damocles hanging over restaurateurs heads. A blind survey by Toast discovered 43% of people won’t go to a restaurant if its rating is below three to three and a half stars. Online review and reputation management software can help you track and aggregate reviews, send out requests and respond to reviews.
Brand24
Brand24 is a cloud-based reputation management solution that helps users measure brand awareness, protect their brand reputation and track competitors. It allows users to track mentions, analyze sentiment and generate analytics.
Track Brand Mentions and User Sentiment via Brand24. Source
Nicejob
Nicejob is an online reputation management platform that helps users automate review generation processes. It allows users to create review campaigns, send reminders and share positive reviews via social media.
Create Review Campaigns Using Text or Email Templates. Source
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Loyalty Software
Reward and loyalty programs are a great way to turn one-time guests into regulars. Partner up with a loyalty program to reward frequent guests with customized promos, loyalty points and special offers.
UpMenu
UpMenu is a digital restaurant loyalty software that helps users boost customer retention with a loyalty program. Users can reward customers with redeemable points and stamps, create custom loyalty program campaigns and automate point distribution.
UpMenu’s Loyalty Program Allows Users To Reward Customers with Points and Stamps. Source
WiFi Marketing
The cost of mobile data in the States is (in)famously some of the highest in the world. So, it makes sense that guests often ask about WiFi. A WiFi marketing tool helps you collect valuable customer data in exchange for free internet – a Winn-win situation.
Social WiFi
Social WiFi is a cloud-based WiFi marketing solution that helps users capture user data and create campaigns. Users can create a custom captive portal, import contacts to their CRM and decode customer behavior.
Access Insights on Customer Behavior.
Beambox
Beambox is a guest WiFi marketing tool that helps users improve brand loyalty. Users can set up a custom WiFi login portal, collect exportable marketing lists and improve reputation management.
Gabriella Mutti, Founder and President at Muse Creative Group uses it to bring diners back. She says, “We employ BeamBox’s wifi system for targeted retargeting campaigns, enticing guests who haven’t visited in a while to return.”
Create a Custom WiFi Portal For Guests To Access. Source
Event Marketing
Organizing an event means managing multiple moving parts. Event marketing tools can help you streamline communication, build landing pages, manage guest lists and access event insights.
Eventbrite
Eventbrite is an event management system that helps users improve engagement, boost engagement and manage events. Users can set up events and a ticketing system and create customizable event pages.
Create Events via Eventbrite. Source
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FAQs
Why can’t I just use my POS system for marketing?
Adam Stewart, a Digital Marketing Consultant at Digital Bond says, “Opting out of an all-in-one POS system for marketing offers some distinct perks. It provides us with the flexibility to choose best-in-class tools for each specific need, like Mailchimp for email campaigns or Hootsuite for social media management, ensuring we’re using the most effective platform for each aspect of our marketing strategy.
This approach allows for greater customization and often results in better integration capabilities with other software, enhancing our ability to create a seamless customer experience. Plus, it avoids the trap of being locked into a single provider’s ecosystem, giving us the agility to adapt and evolve our tech stack as the market changes.”
What are the benefits of using restaurant marketing tools?
Restaurant marketing tools can benefit your eatery in the following ways:
- Saved Time: Automate tasks like reservation reminders via email or texts, welcome emails, table assignments and social media posts.
- Improved Insights: Get real-time insights on key marketing metrics and analytics on customers and competitors to optimize operations.
- Better Customer Experience: Digitize ordering and reservations, respond to customer inquiries promptly and incentivize regulars.
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Next Steps
Adding to your overheads with new software can be as stressful as hosting a table of “food bloggers” (although with probably a bit more reward). But the right restaurant marketing tools could be the missing ingredients in your recipe for success.
Wondering where to start? Try our free requirements template to see which marketing solutions match your unique needs best.
What marketing tools does your restaurant currently use? What are the main challenges you face when implementing new tools? Let us know in the comments below.
SME Contributors
Chef Hari Nayak is a Restauranteur, Cookbook Author, Celebrity Guest Judge and Culinary Consultant. His latest achievement is opening Sona in NYC with Priyanka Chopra Jones.
Chef Jagshakti Singh, Head Chef and Founder of Jag My Chef App
Jagshakti Singh is a Private Chef and Entrepreneur. He is passionate about providing clients with nutritious food in a variety of cuisines, suited to specific dietary needs.