How to Get More Customers to Your Restaurant in 2025
Running a restaurant isn’t easy. You pour your heart into your food, create a warm and inviting space, and offer top-notch service but if people don’t know about you, they won’t walk through the door. It sounds obvious but when we are so wrapped up in the business day to day, your own visibility can be easily missed.
The industry is famous for being cut throat so we’ve compiled a list of five practical and easy-to-implement ways to boost your visibility.
1. Make Sure People Can Find You Online
Think about the last time you wanted to eat out. You probably Googled “best sushi/burger/Italian near me” or scrolled through Instagram for restaurant recommendations. If your restaurant isn’t showing up in searches, you’re missing out on a ton of potential customers.
What to do:
Make sure your website is mobile-friendly because most people search on their phones.
Use key phrases like “best Italian restaurant in X” on your site.
Set up and optimize your Google My Business profile with updated contact info, menu links, and high-quality photos.
Encourage happy customers to leave Google reviews, it helps boost your ranking.
Example: Studies show how impactful good reviews can be for your business, see stats below. For every star received on an online directory, a 5%–9% increase in revenue can be expected. Diners are 3.9x more likely to choose a restaurant with the highest positive review displayed on Google for each cuisine.
2. Get Social and Show Off Your Food
People eat with their eyes first, especially on social media. I remember the early ‘viral’ days when takeaways would fill whole pizza boxes with as much food as possible just to create content that made people stop scrolling. Times have changed slightly but the concept hasn’t.
What to do:
Post interesting photos and videos of your food, your team, and your restaurant’s vibe. In our opinion, just posting food shots is way behind us now. Try and capture the vibe and atmosphere as much as possible (providing it’s an atmosphere worth capturing…)
Use TikTok & Instagram Stories and Reels to share daily specials, behind-the-scenes clips, and customer shoutouts.
Engage with your audience by replying to comments, resharing customer posts, and running fun polls or giveaways.
Partner with local food influencers to tap into their audience.
Example: If you get people to follow you, remember you have a lifetime to advertise to them through your organic socials. Every time they see a new piece of content you are reminding them you’re there. It’s also free so shouldn’t be something you disregard.
3. Use Targeted Ads to Get in Front of Hungry Customers
Social media and Google ads are like digital billboards they put your restaurant right in front of the people most likely to visit. If you’re a restaurant that doesn’t benefit from being smack bang in a high-footfall area, you can’t expect people to just stumble in as they are passing by. You need to get in front of them. The quickest way to do this is digital marketing.
What to do:
Use Facebook and Instagram Ads to target food lovers within a few miles of your restaurant.
Run Google Ads for searches like “pizza delivery near me” or “romantic dinner spots.” Just make sure it aligns with your brand, don’t try and catfish people into your restaurant as it never ends well.
Retarget people who visited your website but didn’t book a table. If someone has gone onto your website then it means they are somewhat interested. You can use this to your advantage and hit them with ads to remind them that you are there, maybe even float an offer in front of them around payday to get their attention.
Example: One of our clients had a real issue with people understanding how easy they were to get to, as they were just outside of London. So what did we do? We literally told them how to get to them whilst showing off with some sexy ad content. Bookings flew through the roof and they haven’t looked back.
4. Keep Customers Coming Back with Email and SMS Marketing
Getting people to visit once is great, but turning them into regulars is even better. Email and text messages are perfect for reminding customers why they should come back.
What to do:
Collect emails and phone numbers through online reservations, loyalty programs, or sign-up cards at the table.
Send out special deals, birthday discounts, and new menu announcements.
Keep it personal use their first name and recommend dishes they’ve ordered before.
Example: This works a lot easier when you have a good booking platform to help segment and use your customer data. One of our clients follows up on each new booking with an email that asks how they found the food whilst offering them a free drink the next time they make a booking. Simple but it makes the customer feel good and it’s so easy to implement in today's world of tech.
5. Let Your Customers Market for You
Word-of-mouth marketing has gone digital. When customers post about your restaurant, their friends (and followers) take notice. Encourage them to share their experience online!
What to do:
Make your dishes and decor Instagram-worthy so people want to snap and share.
Offer a small incentive, like a discount or free drink, for tagging your restaurant in their post.
Engage with user-generated content comment on and reshare posts to show appreciation.
Example: A rarely used but super effective strategy here is to ask customers or influencers if you can use their content of your restaurant as an ad itself. You should obviously pay them or give them a load of freebies for the trouble but it works two fold. You both get exposure and you get wicked content to promote your restaurant.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, great food and service are what keep customers coming back, but boosting your visibility helps you get them through the door in the first place. If you nail the above then you’ve got a solid chance of keeping things going nicely. It’s a lot though so if you’re struggling to do this all on your own then it may be better to outsource it to people who know how to do it well.
If you wanted to explore running digital ads, we work with a lot of restaurants to bring in covers all year round. Drop us a line and we can see if it would work for you as well.
_edited.png)
Comentários