Straight answers to the restaurant marketing questions

What to take away

Guests ask four things: where to eat, whether a table is free, whether the menu is current and whether the price is worth it. These are the restaurant marketing questions that decide covers, and each has an answer you can check this week.

Start with restaurant marketing fundamentals, then work down the list.

What should the Google Business Profile contain?

Google Business Profile is the free listing most guests see first in search and Maps. Set the primary category, service options, hours and phone number. Then add the website, menu link, ordering link and booking link as separate fields. Finish with attributes such as outdoor seating, wheelchair-accessible entrance and takeout.

Menu and ordering links are separate fields. A profile with a menu link but no ordering link sends guests to a page where they cannot buy. Open the live listing on a phone, logged out, and read it the way a guest does.

Which menu questions come up most?

Guests ask about allergens, substitutions, portion size and price. The menu should answer the first three without a phone call. Allergen handling is regulated by the FDA Food Code and your local health department; confirm procedures with a certified food safety professional, not a marketing page.

Publish one master menu with prices, then adapt presentation per channel. DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub each let you set a different pickup price, and delivery menus are typically priced 10 to 20 percent above dine-in to absorb commission. An outdated price on a delivery platform creates refunds and one-star reviews.

How do reservations and ordering actually differ?

Reservations hold a table for a time. Ordering moves food out the door. They need different systems, different staff and different metrics.

SevenRooms, OpenTable and Resy handle reservations and waitlists. Tock sells prepaid and deposit bookings for tasting menus and ticketed events. Toast, Square and ChowNow handle online ordering and pickup. Pick one per job, connect both to the same guest record, and measure no-show rate and order accuracy separately.

Expect to pay for both. OpenTable lists tiers from roughly $149 to $449 a month plus per-cover charges, and Toast lists software from $0 to about $165 a month. Square takes 2.6 percent plus 10 cents on in-person cards and 2.9 percent plus 30 cents online.

What does each channel cost?

A single-location restaurant typically spends $500 to $2,000 a month across email, paid search and review tools, before delivery commission. Commission rates vary by platform, city and contract. Get the current figure from your platform agreement. Compute contribution as order value minus food cost, labor, packaging, commission and refunds.

How should reviews be handled?

Answer every review on Google, TripAdvisor and Yelp. Reply to negative reviews within 48 hours, name the fix, and move the conversation offline. Do not argue about facts in public.

Track review volume and average rating monthly. A drop in volume usually means fewer guests, not happier ones. Reply rate and response time are the two numbers a small restaurant can improve this week. Aim to answer every review on every platform, and keep the tone consistent.

What makes guests come back?

Repeat visits come from three things: the food was right, the service was right, and the guest was asked back. Email and SMS lists work when they carry a reason to return, not a discount every time.

Segment by last visit date. A guest who has not visited in 90 days gets a different message than one who came last week. Send one to four emails a month; more lifts the unsubscribe rate. Set the first loyalty reward at a level a regular guest reaches in five to eight visits.

Worked example: a Tuesday lunch problem

A 60-seat restaurant runs at 40 percent capacity at Tuesday lunch. It spends $400 on paid search for the week and books 30 covers at an average check of $22.

Revenue is $660 against $400 in ad spend, before food and labor. At $2 a click, $400 buys about 200 visits, and a 15 percent booking rate turns that into the 30 covers.

The cheaper fix is often the listing. If the Tuesday hours are wrong on Google, or the lunch menu link is broken, no ad budget repairs that. Check the listing first, then the offer, then the spend. A hotel marketing checklist shows the same order of operations.

How should results be judged?

Set the review date, the metric and the person who owns it. Compare completed transactions, not clicks. A campaign that looks strong at the click stage can fail after the order, when dishes run out or waits run long.

Track four numbers weekly: completed orders, cost per completed order, repeat visit rate and no-show rate. Add the operational signal that explains the miss, such as cancelled orders or long wait times.

The GAO evaluation design guide explains how to match an evaluation question to the evidence it needs. The W3C Privacy Principles cover how guest data should be handled in web systems. Neither replaces advice from a licensed professional on privacy law in your jurisdiction.

Common questions

How often should listings be checked?

Check hours, menu links and prices whenever operations change, and review the live guest view monthly. A wrong closing time costs more covers than a slow ad campaign.

Should every campaign carry a discount?

No. An offer can bundle value, introduce a new item or improve convenience without cutting price. Discounts train guests to wait for the next one. One offer a month is usually enough.

What is the first metric to fix?

Completed orders and repeat visit rate. Pair them with the operational signal most likely to explain failure, such as cancelled orders or long wait times.

Do I need a reservation and an ordering system?

Only if you take both. Many restaurants need one. If you take both, connect them to one guest record so you can see the whole relationship. For more on the same ground, see common hotel marketing questions.