What is the most effective marketing for a restaurant?

For most independent restaurants: a complete Google Business Profile, a steady flow of reviews, and automated messages that bring past guests back. They are cheap, repeatable and tied directly to orders.

How much should a restaurant spend on marketing?

A common rule of thumb is 3 to 6 percent of sales, weighted toward channels you can measure in orders, such as your own online ordering, email and SMS.

How do I market a restaurant with no budget?

Start with free channels: your Google Business Profile, review requests, regular social posts and a win-back text to past guests.

Guides

Restaurant marketing ideas: 20 ideas that bring in real orders

Updated November 6, 2026

The best restaurant marketing ideas are not clever. They are the ones you can repeat every week that bring guests through the door or into your online ordering. Here are 20, grouped by the job they do.

Get found

Complete your Google Business Profile: categories, hours, 20+ photos and an Order online link to your own site
Post a weekly update on Google: a special, a new dish, an event
Ask every happy guest for a review, 30 to 60 minutes after their order
Make sure your menu is a real web page, not a PDF, so Google and AI assistants can read it
Check your Yelp, Tripadvisor and delivery-app listings for wrong hours or old menus

Fill slow days

Run one offer on your slowest shift only, such as a weekday lunch combo, instead of discounting everything
Create a family meal or feast bundle for weeknights
Host a theme night: a regional menu, a tasting, a chef’s special
Promote pre-orders for holidays and game days a week ahead

Win bigger orders

Add a catering page with packages and a request form
Drop menus at nearby offices and offer a first-order tasting
Partner with venues, schools and event planners for referrals

Bring regulars back

Send a birthday offer automatically
Win back guests who have not ordered in 30 to 60 days with a personal note and a reason to return
Start a points program guests can see at checkout
Sell gift cards online, especially before holidays
Remind guests who left food in their cart

Move app guests to direct orders

Put a card in every delivery-app bag with a reason to order direct next time
Keep your own menu prices at or below the apps
Make reordering on your own site one tap

Pick a few and keep them running

Most restaurants do better running five ideas every week than twenty once. Start with your Google profile, review requests, one slow-day offer, a win-back message and a catering page. Measure orders from each, keep what works and drop what does not.

How Saltifi helps

Saltifi plans and runs this for you: a monthly content calendar, posters and menu designs, ads and offers built around your slow days, plus email and SMS automations, loyalty and review requests that run on their own. Everything ties back to real orders on your own commission-free ordering.

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