10 Restaurant Marketing Tips That Can Help Drive Results

Marketing can play a significant role in your restaurant’s success. Think about it this way: no one can buy your food if they don’t know it exists.

But marketing is a broad term, and some marketing tactics will be more or less successful with different audiences. Here are 10 general restaurant marketing tips you can try today that might help you grow your food sales and customer base.

You can start here before you attempt any other marketing tactics.

A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that outlines the tactics you’re going to use and provides a space for you to record the results. Think of it as a to-do list for the rest of your marketing tactics and your overall marketing goals.

It may seem counterintuitive to discount your food, but it could help increase restaurant sales in the long run. Many people love a discount and can be encouraged to try your food if they feel like they’re getting a better deal by ordering from your restaurant than from one of your competitors.

Uber Eats Manager has an in-built tool that can help you set up certain offers, making it easier than ever to try this restaurant marketing tactic. Uber Eats Manager has a range of time-tested offers to choose from, like “buy 1, get 1 free” and “spend more, save more”, so you can test what kind of deals resonate best with your customers.

Restaurants that have implemented offers generally experienced an average increase of up to 86% more orders.*

The Uber Eats app lets you recommend items that customers might like to add to their order. Commonly these items can be starters, desserts, or drinks, but they can also be premium add-ons to a meal or even a second meal that other customers frequently order together.

The thinking behind this marketing tactic is that once a customer is placing an order with your restaurant, they may be open to adding more items to their order if it will make their food taste better or get them better value. Even if they weren’t intending to order anything extra, suggesting additional menu items that complement their order may encourage them to add more.

A well designed menu can help increase orders and encourage repeat customers. In Uber Eats Manager you can create different menus for different times of the day, so that customers who order during breakfast can only see your breakfast menu, for instance.

You can also use this functionality to prioritise dishes that typically sell ‘well’ at the right time. Say people order a lot of salads from your restaurant during lunch hours but a lot of burgers for dinner. You can create separate menus for different times of the day that place these dishes at the top so they’re the first thing customers see when they click on your restaurant in the app or website.

You can also do this with any menu items you’re currently running an offer on, increasing the chance of customers ordering what you want them to order.

But optimising your menu can also mean changing it to use seasonal ingredients (which could help save you money on inventory and appeal to customers who are looking for trendy food), add more options of a popular dish, or remove unpopular dishes.

The saying “people eat with their eyes” has a ring of truth to it, especially when they’re ordering online and the visuals are the only quality they can use to judge your food. It’s important to make sure your food looks the best it can, then.

Gone are the days when you needed to hire a professional photographer for this. Now anyone can do high quality food photography if they have a smartphone.

Do find an aesthetically pleasing location in your restaurant with natural light, and photograph freshly made food. Don’t take photos from too close or too far away. Explore more menu photography tips here to make sure you show your food off in the best light possible.

Have you seen the “Featured on Uber Eats” section up the top of the app or website? These are sponsored listings—and you can get your restaurant featured here too.

Just go to the marketing section of Uber Eats Manager, set a weekly budget and bidding method, and we’ll take care of the rest. This feature aims to increase your restaurant’s visibility among potential customers and hopefully should help increase the chances of them ordering from you too. 

Advertising in the Uber Eats app is an easy and smart restaurant marketing tactic, and may help increase your orders up to 14%.

Outside of the Uber Eats platform, you can also consider the way your restaurant appears through public search results—for example, on Google.

If you create a Business Profile, you can usually update information about your restaurant more easily and you can include details like your restaurants location, opening hours, contact information, links to your website or social media accounts, and menu photography.

Advertising your restaurant in the Uber Eats app can help you draw in customers who are already using the app, but how do you get people from further afield?

Creating social media accounts for your restaurant can be a great way to reach new customers—particularly when you build your presence by posting content and engaging with users.

Also consider which platforms would work best for your restaurant. Facebook tends to be primarily used by older demographics, while Instagram and TikTok typically have a younger audience. Between them, Instagram is generally popular for food photography, while TikTok tends to promote more video content.

Research your audience, find out where they’re spending time online, and meet them there.

If you’re struggling to create content for your social media accounts, another option is to work with influencers or other agencies to help you with your social media engagement. For example—depending on the arrangement that works best for you—an influencer or third party might post a video about your restaurant which could bring in new eyes, new followers, and maybe new orders!

Once your restaurant is set up on social media and if you’re interested, you can help increase your reach by advertising through the relevant platforms.

For example, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook may have advertising options available to you.

Look at your restaurant marketing tactics holistically and identify ways to combine or amplify your efforts using what’s already at your disposal. You can combine any and all of these marketing techniques to drive results—just remember to track their performance and experiment to find out what works best for your restaurant.

*Uber internal data based on performance across all restaurants in Australia and New Zealand between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.

The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only. You should consider your individual circumstances, needs and any applicable legal requirements.