/ 6 min read / Restaurant SEO Company team
A Restaurant Marketing Plan You Can Write in an Afternoon
A one-page restaurant marketing plan with goals in covers and orders, three channels, a monthly calendar, a budget and a filled-in bistro example.
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A restaurant marketing plan fits on one page: a goal you count in covers or orders, three channels you'll actually keep up, a calendar by month, a budget in dollars and hours, and one number per channel to check. Bring last year's sales by month and by daypart, block out the gap between lunch and dinner, and you can finish it before family meal. The five steps are below, followed by a filled-in example for a made-up 60-seat bistro.
1. Set goals you can count at the pass
"More awareness" and "better engagement" never show up on the ticket rail. Write goals in covers, orders and booked parties, tied to a day or a daypart:
- Add 15 covers a night to Tuesday and Wednesday dinner.
- Move 40 app orders a month to our own ordering page.
- Book two private parties a month from January to March.
Pull covers by day and daypart from your POS for the last 12 months. Your weakest nights and months are where marketing has the most room to work; a Saturday that already turns every table twice doesn't need a campaign. Two or three goals is plenty for one page.
2. Pick three channels, not ten
Write down everything you could do: your Google Business Profile, your website (menu pages, events, private dining, catering), an email list, Instagram, delivery app listings, neighborhood partners such as hotels and offices, local press, paid ads, flyers. Then cross out all but three.
A mix that covers the main jobs:
- One channel that finds new guests: local search and your Business Profile, delivery apps, or ads.
- One that brings regulars back: an email list or a loyalty program.
- One that costs mostly time: partnerships with nearby hotels and offices, a community event, profile posts.
Match the channel to the goal. A private dining goal needs a private dining page people can find and someone who answers inquiries the same day. A Tuesday goal needs a way to reach regulars on Monday.
Then put a name and a weekly time slot next to each channel. A channel nobody owns is the first thing dropped in a busy month.
3. Lay out a month-by-month calendar
Make twelve rows. Mark what you already know: holidays, school breaks, local festivals, patio season, convention weeks and the quiet stretch after New Year. Give each month one main push tied to a goal, and start it four to eight weeks before you need the covers. A holiday party page that goes live in December is too late for the office manager who booked somewhere else in October.
4. Set a budget from your own sales
Skip the industry percentages; they don't know your rent or your margins. Start from what you can spend without squeezing payroll, list each channel's cost in money and in staff hours, and compare it with what one extra cover or order is worth to you. Our post on how much restaurants spend on marketing walks through building that number from your own sales.
5. Decide how you'll measure each channel
One number per channel, written down at the end of each month:
- Business Profile and search: direction requests and website clicks from the profile's performance view, plus orders and bookings that came through your own site.
- Email: covers or orders on the night an email promoted, compared with the same night the week or month before.
- Delivery apps: your net payout after commission and fees, not the gross. The app commission calculator shows what moving some of those orders to your own page would keep.
- Partners: inquiries and bookings that mention the hotel or office.
Add "How did you hear about us?" to reservation and catering forms. If a channel shows nothing after three months, change how you're running it or swap it out.
Filled-in example: a fictional 60-seat bistro
Everything in this section is made up to show the format. The bistro and its numbers are invented. It isn't a client, and none of the figures are benchmarks.
Marlowe's is a 60-seat bistro in a mid-size city, open Tuesday to Sunday for dinner, with brunch on weekends. Weekends run full. Tuesday and Wednesday dinner average about 45 covers. A back room that seats 18 sits mostly empty in winter. Roughly a third of takeout comes in through delivery apps.
Goals for the year
- Tuesday and Wednesday dinner: from 45 to 60 covers a night by June.
- Back room: three private parties a month from November to February.
- Takeout: move 40 app orders a month to the bistro's own ordering page.
Channels and owners
- Business Profile and website. Owner, one hour a week: menu as text pages, a private dining page with capacity and sample menus, a weekly profile post, replies to reviews.
- Email list. General manager, one hour every two weeks: addresses from the reservation system and from a card that goes out with the check; one email every other Monday.
- Neighborhood partners. Owner, two hours a month: two hotel front desks and one office building manager get a card with the back room details and the menu link, plus a small tasting each quarter.
Calendar
| Month | Main push | Goal it serves |
|---|---|---|
| January | Tuesday three-course menu, announced by email and profile post | Midweek covers |
| February | Valentine's dinner (page live since mid-January); midweek email | Midweek covers |
| March | Spring menu: new dish pages and photos | Midweek covers |
| April | Patio opening email and photos | Midweek covers |
| May | Back room page refreshed for graduation and shower parties | Private parties |
| June | Patio Wednesday emails | Midweek covers |
| July | Own ordering link checked on the profile; card with the direct link in every app bag | Direct orders |
| August | Tasting for hotel and office contacts ahead of fall | Private parties |
| September | Holiday party page live; email to past party hosts | Private parties |
| October | Holiday party follow-ups; partner cards refreshed | Private parties |
| November | Holiday hours updated everywhere; Thanksgiving week email | Private parties |
| December | Gift card email; January Tuesday menu announced | Midweek covers |
Budget, per month (fictional)
- Email platform: $30
- Printing (check cards, partner cards, bag inserts), averaged over the year: $40
- Quarterly partner tasting, food cost averaged: $50
- Photos: shot in-house during prep, $0
- Total: about $120 a month in cash, plus 8 to 10 staff hours
How Marlowe's measures
In the first week of each month the general manager writes four numbers on the plan: average Tuesday and Wednesday covers, private parties booked, own-page orders against app orders, and direction requests from the profile. If Tuesday covers haven't moved by April, the owner changes the Tuesday offer before blaming the channel.
Where outside help fits
Some owners hand one channel to someone else and keep the rest. If that's search and the Business Profile, ask for monthly reporting in covers, orders and inquiries, not impressions. We don't run ads, social media accounts or email campaigns, so a plan like the one above would keep those in-house either way.
Print your page, tape it next to the office computer and check it in the first week of every month. If the search and Business Profile channel is the one you'd rather hand off, our restaurant marketing agency page lays out what that work covers and what stays with you.
