The Restaurant Growth Playbook
You’ve got amazing food and hospitality. Let’s make sure everyone knows about it. This playbook is filled to the brim with easy tips and best practices used by thousands of restaurants to increase revenue online and on-prem. Consider it a checklist for growth paired with delicious real-life examples you can use for inspiration.
Ready to dive in?
What's inside: Choose your first course
First and foremost, be easy to find.
Make Google your biggest promoter.
When people look for a place to eat, they go to Google. If your restaurant shows up on the first page of search results, you're more likely to catch their eye—which is especially critical when dining options abound. Here are a few best practices to get more people to your website and through your door:
Serve up fresh and dynamic content
When it comes to search, Google ranks websites based on volume of relevant content. Because interactive menus treat each dish as a separate page, you have multiple pages for Google to consider. A PDF only gives you one page.
Connect your Google Business Profile
Linking your Google Business Profile to your website ensures that your address, phone number, and hours of operation are always up to date on your Google listing.
Google likes websites that perform well...so make sure your site checks the back-end boxes that matter the most:
Speed
Security
Accessibility
Mobile-friendly
Be the obvious choice for guests.
Competition for guests is fiercer than ever—make sure you're giving guests everything they're looking for to make their dining decision easy.
Make your menu visual and responsive.
Guests eat with their eyes first. Include photos with every dish.
Ensure your menu entices on all devices: 80% of guests visit restaurant websites from their phone.
Speaking of reviews...let's use your raving fans to drive more revenue.
57% of consumers say that reviews are a top reason they choose a restaurant. The number one reason? Photos! (Ahem...see above.)
Make reviews easily accessible on YOUR website.
Promote great reviews on social media and via emails and texts to create buzz.
Respond to reviews in a timely manner.
The number one way to gain more reviews? Just ask.
Incentivize guests to leave reviews with a special offer or discount.
Prompt guests to share reviews through website popups, social media, email, and text promotions.
Create a contest to see which staff can get the most reviews.
Print QR codes on table tents to encourage reviews while guests are still at the table.
Answer the phone!
This one may seem obvious...but restaurants lose revenue to unanswered phones all. the. time. Guests want answers to their questions before they make a dining decision—and they're okay if you use AI to do it.
There are a number of AI tools that can be used to answer calls 24/7 with custom responses and send links for orders and reservations.
Kapow Noodle Bar in Florida used AI phone answering to field 89,000 calls and, in turn, saved nearly 1,000 hours for staff. The AI tech sent more than 22,000 links for reservations, generating an estimated $1.6 million in revenue.
Grow your guestbook.
Myth: Guests don't want to share their contact info. The reality? 80% of guests are willing to provide their email to receive info on special offers, events, and updates from their favorite restaurants.
Here are a few ways you can easily capture key info:
Create automated prompts across your website that promote the benefits of signing up.
Invite guests to become a VIP on social channels and table tents.
Entice them to join with a special offer.
Be smart about how you work with third parties.
Use third parties to introduce yourself to new guests.
Third-party ordering and delivery services are a great way to reach new guests. However, the commissions that these services charge often eat into your profits. Encourage guests to order direct to minimize those losses:
Add an "order direct" sticker to your third-party order packaging.
Incentivize direct online ordering with a small discount.
Add reservation links to your website.
Taking reservations is a huge way to grow your business and your guestbook....but be smart about it. Embedding links to reservations not only reduces the cost per reservation for you, it also makes the experience easier for guests—meaning they're more likely to grab a table.
Keep online orders on your own website (as much as you can).
Own your guest data and 100% of your online ordering revenue.
Two-thirds of consumers order takeout at least twice a week. Let them know they can order directly from your website with promotions on social channels, emails, and texts. Because when guests order directly, you not only get all the profits, you get all the juicy data on their preferences and behavior for ongoing marketing.
When third parties own the data collection process:
Name
Phone number
Delivery address
When restaurants own the data collection process:
Name
Email address
Past orders/order history
Phone number
Review history
Delivery address
Order frequency
Birthday
Allergies
Make online ordering easy and integrated.
When's the last time you ordered from your own website? If it's a clunky experience, guests may opt to use a third-party site or order from another restaurant.
The majority of online orders are placed via mobile devices (PDF menus are hard to read). Make sure the mobile experience is just as good as the desktop.
Integrate your POS with your online ordering system to ensure accuracy.
Connect online ordering with your marketing tools, so you can invite guests back again and again.
Made $150,000 in online sales in 3 months.
Generated $500,000 in direct online orders, saving $150,000 in third-party fees.
Be consistent with marketing.
Hot take: Even the best guests can forget their favorite restaurant. Why? (Great question.) When you aren't consistent with your marketing, you create gaps for other restaurants to fill. Help your guests take the guesswork out of where to eat with regular and relevant information.
Make it personal.
Whether it's saying "thank you" for a review or offering a birthday reward, your guests love a little somethin' special in their inbox. Use what you know about guests (like their favorite dishes and dining preferences) and other data to create marketing materials that hit the spot!
Reward regulars for their loyalty with an automatic email that sends whenever they spend a certain amount.
Create timely offers tied to preferences to drive orders and reservations.
Steam Boys generated over $18,000 in revenue with automated rewards.
Automated Emails
Automated messages triggered by follower engagaement.
Your open rate is 36.1% higher than industry average.
18,885
Delivered
55.8%
Average open rate
$18,480.66
Pop ordering revenue
Promote your restaurant across channels.
Use your website and popups to promote specials and events.
Post to social media consistently.
Need ideas? Highlight popular dishes, standout reviews, exclusive offers or upcoming events! There's plenty of content inspiration to take from your menu and website.
Don't forget on-premise offers!
Automate whenever and wherever possible.
How do you know what to send? Or when to send it? How do you catch a guest’s attention at the right time? Well...automation helps.
Automatically send emails and texts based on guest preferences and order history.
In 18 months, GIOIA sent 49 emails (39 sent automatically) to one guest, resulting in 101 orders and $5,700+ in revenue.
Consider AI tools that can instantly create marketing content for you—but beware of generic messaging.
Shameless plug: Popmenu's AI Marketing is one of those tools, producing a monthly calendar of pre-crafted social posts, emails, and texts that are specific to each restaurant.
The Metropolitan American Diner & Bar drove big results with a little help from AI.
3x monthly marketing impressions and revenue.
67% increase in monthly traffic to reservation page.
25% increase in overall monthly website traffic.
Track it all to determine your next move.
Monitor results in real time.
Now, we know the word "data" can conjure images of mind-numbing spreadsheets. Look for tools that provide easy-to-read, actionable findings that can help you determine 1) whether your marketing efforts are working and 2) what to do next.
Key questions to ask:
How many people are coming to your website? What actions do they take?
Is your list of guest contacts growing?
Which marketing messages and channels are producing the most revenue for you?
Which days and times are orders spiking or dropping off?
Libby’s Neighborhood Brasserie identified Monday and Tuesday as slow ordering days, so they created a 35% off discount deal for Monday and Tuesday for the summer.
The result: they earned nearly $20,000 in revenue from an offer in just one month. Bonus: Monday and Tuesday are now their busiest ordering days.
That's a wrap
With this playbook, you now have all the tools to boost your restaurant's visibility and profitability. By applying these best practices and drawing inspiration from real-life examples, you're poised to elevate your business and ensure your exceptional food and hospitality delight even more customers.
About Popmenu
As a leader in restaurant technology, Popmenu is on a mission to make profitable growth easy for all restaurants. Digital marketing, online ordering, and on-premise technologies headline a powerful product suite infused with artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and deep data on guest preferences. The company consolidates tools needed to engage guests, serving as a digital control center for more than 10,000 independent restaurants and hospitality groups in the US, UK, and Canada. For more information, visit popmenu.com.