Want to increase foot traffic and orders at your restaurant? Wondering what tools could help scale your restaurant’s marketing efforts?
Well, you’re in luck, then. You see – In this guide, I’ve compiled a list of 19 of the absolutely best tools restaurants use to drive various aspects of their marketing.
So, keep reading to find out what restaurant marketing tools to use for social media management, email marketing, WiFi marketing, local SEO, loyalty programs, and more.
And let’s start with this…
What types of restaurant marketing tools do you need
I think we can both agree on this – Restaurant marketing is complicated.
For one, there is no single marketing strategy or activity that could take your business to new heights. Instead, you always have to focus on at least several channels and strategies.
Add to that high competition, high customer expectations, or seasonality, and growing a restaurant is really quite an endeavor.
Naturally, there are plenty of tools to help with that. However, the fact that you rarely work on a single marketing strategy at a time means that you always need more than one tool to manage your restaurant’s marketing activities.
In most cases, you need:
- Social media management software
- Online ordering and delivery platforms
- Customer relationship management and review management platforms
- Email marketing tools
- WiFi marketing solutions to capitalize on your Guest WiFI (believe it or not, this is an incredibly powerful marketing strategy.)
- Loyalty programs
- Reservations, table management,
- Data and performance analytics, and more.
Below, I’ve compiled a list of the best tools in each category. Take a look, review them, and test the ones that best fit your needs.
Good luck.
19 Amazing Restaurant Marketing Tools
Social Media Management Tools
#1. Hootsuite
Overview:
Hootsuite is one of the most known and popular social media management tools. Its robust feature set, and the ability to also manage social media advertising makes Hootsuite ideal for managing even the most complicated social media campaigns.
But even if you’re looking for a tool to manage your restaurants’ social media presence and schedule content ahead of time, Hootsuite is a good choice.
Best features for restaurants:
- Social media scheduling
- Social media analytics
- Social listening
- Unified social media inbox
- Social media advertising
AI capabilities:
- AI content creation
- Automated caption writing
- Hashtag generation
- Automated routing and auto-responders
- Chatbot integrations
Free trial: 30 days
#2. Buffer
Overview:
Buffer is one of the first social media scheduling tools ever, if not the first. A legend in its category, Buffer is the tool restaurants and businesses turn to plan, create, and publish content across social media platforms.
Best features for restaurants:
- Social media scheduling
- Analytics and performance reporting
- Social listening
- Team collaboration tools
- Hashtag suggestions
AI capabilities:
- AI content suggestions
- Automated post scheduling
- Hashtag Generation
Free trial: 14 days
#3. SproutSocial
Overview:
The last social media scheduler I want to show you is SproutSocial. What’s unique about this tool is that it not only allows you to manage the restaurant’s social media presence, it also helps you listen to what people talk about on social media and power your social media customer support.
From robust social analytics and data to the ability to tap into customer conversations, SproutSocial is truly a powerhouse of restaurant social media marketing.
Best features for restaurants:
- Social media scheduling
- Analytics and performance reporting
- Social listening
- Unified social media inbox
- Social media advertising
AI capabilities:
- AI-driven social listening
- Automated reporting
- Intelligent social calendar scheduling
Free trial: 30 days
Online Ordering Tools
#4. GrubHub
Overview:
I guess it’s impossible not to have heard about GrubHub, both as a customer and restaurant marketer. The platform allows customers to order their food online directly from their local restaurants. And for restaurants, it connects them with a large customer base, facilitates online ordering, transactions, and even offers some marketing support.
And so, with GrubHub, you can increase your order volume, streamline the delivery process, and more. All without having to invest in developing an ordering system for your restaurant.
Best features for restaurants:
- Online ordering system
- Delivery service integration
- Customer reviews and ratings
- Promotional tools
- Real-time order tracking
AI capabilities:
- Personalized restaurant recommendations
- Predictive delivery time estimates
- Customer behavior analytics
#5. Doordash
Overview:
Doordash is another food delivery platform that can connect your restaurant with the local community and generate sales and online orders. Just like GrubHub, with Doordash, you can expand your local reach, manage orders and deliveries, and generally build up your business.
Best features for restaurants:
- Online ordering system
- Delivery service integration
- Marketing and promotional tools
- Real-time order tracking
- Customer reviews and ratings
AI capabilities:
- Personalized restaurant recommendations
- Predictive delivery time estimates
- Customer behavior analytics
#6. Ubereats
Overview:
Like the other two companies above, Ubereats allows customers to place orders online at their restaurant and have their food delivered. This means that your restaurant can quickly connect with the local community and largely expand its marketing reach.
But Ubereats is also slightly different. You see, Ubereats uses Uber’s extensive driver network to facilitate deliveries. In other words, you don’t have to have drivers in your employ and can use those on Uber’s network to deliver food to customers.
Another difference between Ubereats and other online food ordering systems is its strong integration with the Uber app, meaning you can immediately tap into the company’s strong user base.
Best features for restaurants:
- Online ordering system
- Delivery service integration
- Marketing and promotional tools
- Real-time order tracking
- Customer reviews and ratings
AI capabilities:
- Personalized restaurant recommendations
- Predictive delivery time estimates
- Customer behavior analytics
Customer Relationship Management Tools/Guest CRM
#7. Toast
Overview:
Toast is a complete restaurant point-of-sale solution that includes a CRM at its core. With Toast CRM, you can:
- Store important guest information (their email address, phone no., etc.)
- Collect order history and preferences.
- Stay connected with guests, entice them to come back to your restaurant over and over again,
- Use email marketing, coupled with CRM data, to send targeted campaigns and more.
Best features for restaurants:
- Integrated email marketing with automated campaigns
- Customizable loyalty programs with advanced reporting
- E-gift cards with online balance management
AI capabilities:
- Automated email campaigns based on guest history
- Advanced loyalty reporting
- Predictive analytics for marketing performance
Free trial: Not specified
#8. Lightspeed
Overview:
Lightspeed is another point-of-sale software that can help you manage orders and build customer relationships. But Lightspeed does more than that. With the tool, you can track inventory, process payments, run loyalty programs, offer e-gift cards, and more.
Best features for restaurants:
- Integrated email marketing
- Customizable loyalty programs
- E-gift cards
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Online ordering and delivery integration
AI capabilities:
- Automated marketing campaigns
- Predictive analytics for sales and inventory
- Customer behavior analysis
Free trial: 14 days
#9. Square
Overview:
Square is another POS tool that offers incredible capabilities for restaurants: Takeout and in-person order management, table management, reservations, payment processing, CRM, remote menu and staff management, inventory tracking, and more.
It truly is an all-in-one tech solution for managing orders and customer relationships at your restaurant.
Best features for restaurants:
- Integrated online and in-person ordering
- Customizable point of sale interface
- Table management and reservations
- Real-time sales and inventory tracking
- Customer feedback and loyalty programs
AI capabilities:
- Predictive sales analytics
- Automated marketing campaigns
- Inventory management predictions
Free trial: Not specified
Email Marketing
#10. Mailchimp
Overview:
Mailchimp is by far the most well-known email marketing platform in the world. It’s the tool restaurants use to send one-time promotional emails, deliver drip campaigns, and more. What’s more, Mailchimp integrates with many other CRM and data systems (including our MyPlace Guest WiFi) to enrich your email campaigns with additional data points, and deliver better results.
Best features for restaurants:
- Customizable templates
- Marketing automation for customer journeys
- Audience segmentation and targeting
- Detailed analytics and reporting
AI capabilities:
- AI-driven content creation and optimization
- Predictive analytics for customer behavior
- Automated marketing campaigns
Free trial: 30 days
#11. ConstantContact
Overview:
ConstantContact is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that focuses on email and social media. With ConstantContact, you can create, send, and track beautiful newsletters and emails to your restaurant’s customers. The platform also lets you communicate with them via SMS, find and connect with new customers on social media, and even manage events.
Best features for restaurants:
- Email marketing with customizable templates
- Marketing automation for personalized customer journeys
- Social media marketing integration
- Audience segmentation and targeting
AI capabilities:
- AI-driven content creation and optimization
- Automated marketing campaigns
- Predictive analytics for customer behavior
Free trial: 60 days
#12. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Overview:
Brevo is an all-in-one platform for managing customer relationships through email, SMS, and live chat. Although that last option is usually the least applicable to restaurants, the other two channels can provide you with incredible opportunities to reach, connect with, and engage customers.
TIP: Did you know that you can collect customer emails and build your list with your guest WiFi access?
Best features for restaurants:
- Email marketing with customizable templates
- SMS marketing campaigns
- Marketing automation for customer journeys
- Audience segmentation and targeting
- Detailed analytics and reporting
AI capabilities:
- AI-driven content creation and optimization
- Predictive analytics for customer behavior
- Automated marketing campaigns
Free trial: 30 days
Review Management
#13. Google Business Profile
Overview:
Google Business Profile helps local businesses manage their online presence in Google Local search results. This includes local search and Maps, meaning that with Google Business, you can connect with local customers as they are searching for a restaurant.
And a major part of the Google Business platform is the ability to collect and respond to customer reviews, and get ratings that could help convince other customers to choose your restaurant over another.
Best features for restaurants:
- Business profile management
- Customer reviews and ratings
- Posts and updates
- Menu and reservation integration
- Insights and analytics
AI capabilities:
- Automated suggestions for business information
- Predictive analytics for customer behavior
- Smart replies for customer reviews
Free trial: Not applicable, Google Business is a free service by Google.
#14. Yelp
Overview:
Similarly to Google Business, Yelp for Restaurants provides restaurants with tools and capabilities to:
- manage online presence, and provide crucial data about the restaurant to customers,
- respond to reviews, and also,
- attract new customers through Yelp’s platform.
And so, with Yelp for Restaurants, you can increase your online presence, generate greater engagement, collect and manage reviews that would help convince others to visit your restaurant, and more.
Best features for restaurants:
- Review management and response
- Business profile customization
- Advertising and promotional tools
- Reservation and waitlist management
- Analytics and performance reporting
AI capabilities:
- Automated review response suggestions
- Predictive analytics for customer behavior
- Personalized recommendations for advertising
Free trial: Not specified
WiFi Marketing
WiFi marketing is a strategy in which you use your restaurant’s WiFi network to collect customer data and engage them with personalized promotions and advertisements. And all this happens on a captive portal that they must see as they are trying to connect with your guest WiFi.
Benefits of WiFi marketing for restaurants:
- WiFi marketing lets you capture customer contact information
- It enhances and boosts customer engagement
- It allows you to show customers targeted promotions and offers
- It also gathers valuable customer insights and analytics that help drive repeat visits, and more.
And there is a wonderful tool that allows you to do that and more…
#15. MyPlace
Overview:
MyPlace (disclaimer – this is my tool,) is a WiFi marketing platform that will help you capture customer data via the guest WiFi in your restaurant. You can then integrate that data with your email marketing tool, for example, to engage those customers further, send them promotional messages, and increase the likelihood of a repeat visit.
Best features for restaurants:
- Email capture through WiFi login
- Customizable branded WiFi portal
- Integration with email marketing tools like Mailchimp
- Customer data analytics
AI capabilities:
- Automated email verification
- Real-time data updates
Free trial: 14 days
Loyalty Programs
#16. Vyper.io
Overview:
With Vyper, you can create viral giveaways, contests, and loyalty programs for your restaurant to increase engagement and, of course, get more customers and sales.
Vyper focuses on giveaways and contests that others could share on social media and boost the virality of your efforts.
This also means that to fully take advantage of it, you need to have at least some social media presence so people can share information about your contest with their networks.
Best features for restaurants:
- Viral giveaways and contests
- Customizable reward programs
- Social media integration
- Advanced analytics and reporting
AI capabilities:
- Automated contest and giveaway management
- Personalized recommendations for user engagement
Free trial: Free to use. However, some features are available only on paid plans.
#17. Fivestars
Overview:
Fivestars is an amazing platform for local businesses to boost their customer loyalty and engagement with rewards programs. Granted, the platform offers other capabilities, too, but for the purpose of this guide, I’m focusing on its restaurant marketing features.
And so, with Fivestars, your restaurant could run customer loyalty programs, manage reviews, and even collect payments, combining data collected across those activities to enhance your marketing programs even further.
Best features for restaurants:
- Customer loyalty programs
- Review management
- Customer data analytics
- Integrated payments
AI capabilities:
- Automated customer segmentation
- Predictive analytics for customer behavior
- AI-driven marketing suggestions
Free trial: Not specified
Table Management
#18. OpenTable
Overview:
OpenTable is a robust restaurant reservation software. It’s the tool to use when you want to offer customers the ability to book tables online, without having to call your restaurant first. For you, the tool also offers comprehensive features to manage bookings, collect reviews, and even build customer data in the CRM.
Best features for restaurants:
- Reservation management
- Table management
- Customer relationship management
- Review and reputation management
- Marketing tools and analytics
AI capabilities:
- Automated reservation management
Free trial: 30 days
#19. Resy
Overview:
Resy OS offers a reservation and table management system that helps restaurants optimize operations, manage reservations, and enhance guest experiences.
Best features for restaurants:
- Reservation and table management
- Customer relationship management
- Automated confirmation and SMS notifications
- Guest insights and surveys
- Business intelligence and analytics
AI capabilities:
- Predictive analytics for customer behavior
- Automated reservation management
Free trial: Not specified
And there you have it…
19 most useful restaurant marketing tools today.
All that’s left for you is to review them more closely and try out those that fit your current marketing campaigns.
Good luck!
