Restaurant Marketing Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide (With Strategies for Any Budget)

Let's talk about your restaurant marketing strategy: A good marketing plan isn't magic—it's getting the right message to the right people consistently. It takes some effort upfront, but in the end, you'll know what works for your business and why. You can also check out my video on restaurant marketing ideas below:

What is a restaurant marketing plan?

A restaurant marketing plan aims to attract new customers, keep regulars coming back for more and boost sales. It’s a living document that can change monthly or even seasonally, depending on your goals and progress. Your plan is a written roadmap that guides your marketing efforts and is a key element of any restaurant business plan.

Our template will help you create a simple plan that you'll actually follow (because a marketing plan that sits on a hard drive is as helpful as no plan at all).

How to create a marketing plan for a restaurant

Use this graphic as a template when creating your restaurant marketing plan and follow the steps below to fill it out with your specific information. 

1. Define your brand

Before even starting to brainstorm marketing strategies and ideas, you should review your brand identity. The center of this is your mission statement, vision statement and positioning statement. 

If you already have these, revisit them to make sure they’re still true and valid. If you don’t have them, now’s the time to develop them. 

Here's my advice for creating or revising these brand identity statements:

• Mission statement: This to-the-point statement highlights the reason you opened your restaurant. It should be inspirational, specific and realistic as it shares your restaurant’s value. Generally, I recommend making it about one to three sentences long and with around 50 words. 
• ‍Vision statement: This forward-looking statement shares your realistic goals for your restaurant’s future. Use future tense to share the impact you hope to have with your restaurant on your customers and the industry. 
• ‍Positioning statement: Share how you want your customers, competitors, community and stakeholders to perceive your restaurant. I'd keep it short and direct. 

2. Confirm your target audience and menu-market fit

Okay, this is the real beginning. This is where we get down to the basics, to build a really solid foundation for our restaurant marketing plan—starting with defining your target audience and finding your menu-market fit.

Who you think your target audience is and who it actually is can be two different demographics. You should use menu-market fit to help you determine whether your target audience is accurate.

Menu-market fit is how well your menu fits the demands of your local market. Both parts of this equation matter, because a good restaurant can fail in the wrong market. Your local market is something you can’t change. So you should instead look at what’s around you and lean into any obvious trends, like:

• If there are lots of office workers nearby
• The age of the area (i.e., is it an older community, families or a young and hip downtown?)
• What’s their budget? (E.g., well off professionals or budget-friendly students?)

Some of the questions to ask as you define your target audience and market include:

• What are your demographics? This will include customer characteristics like age, income, lifestyle and dining habits.
• What are the psychographics of your target market? We define this by looking at their lifestyle, preferences and attitudes to dining out.
• How do your customers decide where to eat? Are they grabbing takeout or treating themselves to a fancy night out?

3. Perform a competitor analysis

I’m going to guess you already have a fair idea of who your competition is when it comes to other restaurants around you. But it’s definitely worth listing them out on paper, as you might be surprised about who pops up.

First, list every competitor you can think of. Once you have that list, there are some questions to ask about each of your competitors, which is essentially a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis gives you a fantastic insight into your local restaurant market. What gaps do you see now that you’ve filled in the surrounding areas with information about your competitors?

Here's how to apply a SWOT analysis to your competitor research:

• Strengths: Identify your competitors' strengths. What do they do well? What are their unique selling propositions (USPs)? This could be anything from their menu pricing and offerings to their ambiance and service.
• Weaknesses: Look for your competitors' weaknesses. Are there areas where they fall short? This could be a limited menu, high prices, slow service or negative online reviews.
• Opportunities: Based on your competitors' strengths and weaknesses, what opportunities exist for your restaurant? Can you offer a more niche menu, a more affordable price point or a more unique dining experience?
• Threats: Identify potential threats posed by your competitors. Are they planning to expand their menu or offer new services? Are they targeting the same customer base as you?

All of these questions are the same questions you’re asking yourself, so it gives you a fantastic insight into your local restaurant market. The knowledge you develop here will help you build a gut instinct of what will work and what won’t work.

4. Build a distinct and focused USP

Every restaurant needs a secret weapon in their marketing arsenal—a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that makes them stand out from the crowd. It's that “super awesome thing” that pops into your target customers’ heads when they think of your restaurant. Think Domino’s famous “30 minutes or less, or it's free” guarantee—simple, clear and impossible to forget.

Your USP goes beyond just speedy delivery. It's the heart of your brand identity—the thing that makes you special. It could be anything including unique menu items, a focus on locally sourced ingredients, a quirky ambiance or a commitment to sustainability.  

Start with a clear idea of what your USP will be. But don’t expect to get it perfect on the first go. You have to build and improve your USP over time with feedback from customers and order data.

With all of that in mind, here are some questions to start with:

• What are your restaurant’s features? Think ambiance, service style, locally sourced ingredients, etc.
• How does your offering improve their lives (healthy, time-saving, etc.)?
• What sets you apart from the competition?
• How will your ideal customer feel after dining with you (content, relaxed, etc.)?

Here are some restaurant marketing plan examples of successful USPs to inspire you and spark creativity:

• Metro Pizza: A top 20 highest-volume pizzeria with over $8 million in annual sales. The USP for their neighborhood pizzeria in the suburbs of Las Vegas identified their customers as families or older people from the area. As a result, their brand is comforting, authentic, homey, convenient—and delicious. Everything about their brand tells that story and sets those expectations to these customers.‍
• Talkin’ Tacos: A Mexican restaurant based in Miami with a different type of customers—young, vibrant, trendy, hip. So their brand meets those expectations with vivid colors (neon green and black), bold Mexican art and club music in-store. They sell trendy dishes (birria tacos and even birria ramen) that appeal to younger people. As a result, they’ve gone from $4,000 to $12,000 in direct online sales.

5. Set your marketing goals

Okay, let’s get into your dreams and aspirations here. What do you really want to achieve for your restaurant in the next year? A “good” goal is always SMART, but an effective goal depends on the maturity of your business, the issues and opportunities you’re seeing, and the market you’re in. 

Set SMART, effective goals by making sure they’re:

• Specific: Increase new online orders coming from Google (Our data shows Google drives 10-15x more first-time sales for restaurants than social media).
• Measurable: We get 20 orders per month from Google, so this will be a 75% increase.
• Achievable: We think this lift is possible and we’d be able to fulfill the increase in orders.
• Relevant: Google traffic is consistent and new direct orders would reduce our 3P fees.
• Time-bound: We’ll give ourselves 90 days since Google can take time to reward our website.

As you’re setting goals, think strategically: What do you want to accomplish in the next year? Increase revenue? Boost brand awareness? I’d also recommend considering these factors when setting goals:

• Is it ambitious yet attainable?
• Does it fit your budget and timeframe?
• Have you achieved similar goals before?

Not all goals are created equal, so prioritize ruthlessly. Rank them based on importance, ensuring you focus on the most impactful ones first. Remember: A realistic and focused approach will set you on the path to achieving your restaurant dreams.

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To inspire you as you brainstorm your own restaurant marketing goals, here are some common ones to consider:

• Gain new customers: Every business could use more new customers! But if you’re just getting off the ground with your restaurant, this is especially important. Here’s where SMART goals become especially helpful—because new customer acquisition can pull you in so many directions. List tactics to figure out what you’ll try within that timeframe to increase the number of new orders coming in. Some examples could be (explained in my YouTube video): 
  
  • Set our homepage to the best local keyword for our cuisine type 
  • Optimize the alt text for the images on your menu items 
  • Create dedicated pages so your top items can be found in Google 
  • Update your Google Business Profile so you appear in the “Local Pack”
• Obtain repeat customers: If you’re trying to increase your percentage of repeat customers and establish regulars, you’ll want to follow the same process of setting a SMART goal as I mentioned above. You’ll also want to list out some tactics to try within that timeframe, but this time for raising and repeating order rates, like: 
  
  • Make sure your online ordering collects emails/numbers to reach customers later.
  • Set up an automatic “You might also like…” email for first-time orders.
  • Send a promotion/discount to one-time orders from 2+ months ago.
  • Send an email blast announcing your new loyalty program

For example, Rahul from Saffron Indian Kitchen wanted to improve his second-time order rate. He used Owner.com’s “You might also like…” template: after a customer’s first online order, they get recommended new, similar dishes by email. Rahul initially had a goal of $1,000 for the campaign but earned $4,000 in repeat orders just 30 days after setting live.

6. Create a marketing budget

Budget first! Don't fall into the “hungry shopper” trap by setting goals without a budget. Industry standard suggests 3-6% of your revenue for marketing. For example, a restaurant making $800,000 a year would target a budget of $24,000 to $48,000. But, a high-end restaurant may have more room to spend than a fast food chain, so this will depend. 

Now, if you feel like you couldn’t possibly afford this, check out your profit margins and see if you can trim any fat. Marketing is a crucial part of your continued success as a restaurant, so prioritize creating a decent, workable budget. You’ll want to figure out how to spread out that budget throughout the year. 

For example, if you have a pretty steady stream of customers throughout the year, you might just want to have light marketing in normal months, and then increase your budget in the months when you have specific promotions or events.

Assessing your finances becomes a crucial (albeit dreaded) task to figure out where you are. You’ll want to look at: 

• Profits: Specifically, your bottom line, but also have a look at the receipts for your expenses. What did you probably pay a bit too much for? Were all of your expenses totally necessary?
• Sales: What were your total sales last year? Did they go up during any particular calendar event? Maybe there was a promotion in June that increased sales? How do you think you compare to your competition?
• Growth: What has the trend been over the last few years? Have you grown 10%? Or maybe you’ve slowed down just a little bit?

7. Pick your marketing channel(s)

Now, you’ll need to choose your preferred marketing channels to get your message across. This step is where you can really test your marketing ideas, but it’s not a plan in themselves. 

Pair channels with goals—and don’t jump into a new channel without a clear goal. Want to increase customers? SEO and paid social. Want to retain? Email, SMS and your mobile app. If you are in doubt, Google is your friend to confirm your thinking or help you with a different idea. Some of the many marketing channels you can pick from include:

• Email marketing: Build an email list to send targeted newsletters with mouthwatering specials, loyalty program updates and event announcements.
• SMS texts: Text message marketing lets you send exclusive offers and reminders directly to your customers' pockets, keeping your restaurant top-of-mind.
• Website: Your website is your digital home base. Use it to showcase your menu, highlight your unique selling points and provide clear contact information.
• Search engine optimization (SEO): Don't underestimate the power of SEO! By optimizing your website and online presence with relevant keywords, you can climb the search engine rankings and get discovered by hungry customers looking for restaurants in your area.
• Meta Business Suite: Curate and analyze your Meta owned profiles, Instagram and Facebook, with the Meta Business Suite. Instagram and Facebook are powerhouses for showcasing your delicious food and fun atmosphere. With high-quality photos and videos on Instagram and targeted Facebook ads, you can reach hungry customers exactly where they scroll. You can also place ads to promote your restaurant.
• TikTok: If your audience is younger, create fun and engaging videos of your signature dishes, chef's creations or behind-the-scenes looks. For example, Talkin’ Tacos' TikTok has millions of views by showcasing their appealing food and cool kitchen processes.

I like to recommend focusing on one channel at a time. Nail it, then scale it—you have to succeed in one channel before you can think about splitting your efforts into another. Also, don't be afraid to experiment. Measure how each channel performs and adjust your strategy based on what gets the most buzz. 

8. Regularly measure your marketing plan

Marketing success isn't a one-shot deal. It's a continuous loop of experimentation, measurement and adaptation. This cycle, used by marketing pros everywhere, ensures your restaurant marketing hits the right notes with your target audience. It goes like this:

• Experiment
• Measure
• Modify
• Repeat the experiment

There are many restaurant marketing tools you can use to measure your metrics. Doo-Dah Diner utilized Owner.com to develop a branded app and found that over 500 of their customers downloaded it within 30 days of launch. Because of those findings, the app has become the primary way people order takeout from that restaurant. 

Here are some considerations I recommend you keep in mind while you measure your marketing:

• Experiment strategically: Forget throwing darts at random marketing channels. Remember our work on the target market, unique selling proposition and ideal channels? We use that foundation to craft targeted messages. Your first experiment could be a Facebook ad with a specific headline.
• ‍Cut losing campaigns, double-down on winners: If an ad just isn't getting clicks or sales, even after you've tried tweaking it, it's time to say goodbye and put those funds towards something that works better. If you see that your SMS marketing campaign is resulting in more online orders, then double down and put more of your efforts towards that strategy.
• ‍Look for patterns: Don't just focus on individual campaign results. Look for broader patterns across your marketing efforts. Here are some questions to consider: 
  
  • Are certain menu items over-represented in first-time orders? Those are your “get people in the door” items that should be promoted heavily to new customers.
  • What channels (e.g., social media, email marketing, search engine ads) are driving the most conversions?
  • Are there specific times of day or days of the week when your campaigns perform better?

By identifying these patterns, you can refine your overall marketing strategy and allocate resources more effectively.

• Focus on prime cost and profitability: You can’t call it “good” marketing if new customers lose you money. Marketing is one part creativity (unique promotions, clever copy) and one part math (did this campaign turn a profit vs. its cost?). Your marketing should bring in enough money to cover that prime cost, plus some extra profit. If your marketing brings in customers, but the price scares them away, you might need to adjust your pricing or target a different audience.

Best marketing strategies for restaurants

The best restaurant marketing strategy for your business will likely contain a mix of focus areas and channels, especially when executing different restaurant promotion ideas. Here are some of the most popular marketing strategies you should consider:

Restaurant digital marketing strategies:

• Website
• SEO
• Social media
• Review sites
• Loyalty rewards programs
• Email marketing
• SMS text messaging
• Content marketing
• Automatic marketing

Restaurant traditional marketing strategies:

• Flyers
• Mail
• Contests and giveaways
• Events
• Sponsorships

For each strategy you choose, define the:

• Objective
• Audience
• Timeliness
• Responsibilities
• Measure of success

Craft a restaurant marketing plan that sparks success

The restaurant marketing plan journey will be challenging, but I promise you, the rewards are just incredible. The right marketing plan won't just help you set your restaurant business goals, but also achieve them.

All you have to do is go through these steps, one by one. Take your time, and talk to your team. If you begin to feel discouraged, focus on the success that’s waiting for you on the other side of this plan.

If you want to ensure your restaurant marketing plan reaches its full potential, consider using Owner.com's restaurant website builder, which includes automated marketing, a mobile app and more.

Restaurant marketing plan FAQ

Curious about other aspects of creating a winning restaurant marketing plan? Get answers to additional questions below:

What are the 4 Ps of restaurant marketing?

The four Ps help restaurants attract and retain customers to grow their profits. They are product, price, promotion and place.

Can I create a marketing plan for my restaurant even if I don’t have a background in marketing?

Yes! Using the above restaurant marketing plan template walks you through all the steps you need to create a successful marketing plan. 

Should I hire a marketing agency or create a marketing plan myself?

Hiring a marketing agency means your marketing plan is being created by professionals who will dedicate the time to craft a tailored plan for your restaurant. But, agencies can come with some restrictions.  

With the DIY route, you're the boss. You can tweak your message on the fly based on what's working and ditch what's not. No waiting for approvals from an outside agency. And let's not forget: Keeping marketing in-house can save you some serious dough compared to agency fees.

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