By Jo van Vuuren — Fractional CMO
Idea lists for restaurants usually open with the fun parts: influencers, reels, a loyalty app. This one is ordered by payoff, using numbers from an independent restaurant that ran them this year. The pattern is blunt: the boring plumbing pays first, and the creative work pays more once the plumbing is in.
Get found where guests decide
- 01 · Claim and complete the Google Business Profile: hours, photos, the menu link, awards, and a reply to every review. Free, and where most local dining decisions are made.
- 02 · Switch on Reserve with Google, so guests book from Search and Maps without commission. At The Galley in Topsham it produced 51 bookings in its first full August (16% of the month).
Make the website earn its keep
- 03 · Publish the menu as text, with a PDF alongside if you like. A JPG menu is invisible to search engines: The Galley’s menu reads went from 51 to 2,529 in six weeks once it became a real page.
- 04 · Give the site one job: the booking. Menu, book, essentials; everything else supports those three. 5.6% of visits ending in a confirmed booking is achievable; 2–3% is the hospitality norm.
Own the seasons instead of reacting to them
- 05 · Build the Christmas page by mid-September. Party-venue searching peaks in September and festive lunch searching in October (Google keyword data): November is too late.
- 06 · Sell gift vouchers from the first of November: the cash arrives when the voucher sells, months before the table is dined. A card with the bill and a line on the Google listing do most of the selling.
Build an audience you own
- 07 · Ask for email consent on the booking form, with a reason worth ticking: first sight of the festive menu beats “join our newsletter”. Three hundred bookings a month is three hundred asks.
- 08 · Post to the weekend’s rhythm: the Thursday-evening reminder reaches people while the plan is still being made.
Then make it all provable
- 09 · Set the diary to record where every booking came from (most booking systems can) and each idea above becomes a number instead of a feeling.
- 10 · Get listed by the neighbours: the tourism sites, the B&Bs with “where to eat” pages, the local guides that already rank. Links move rankings, and AI tools recommend places they can read about.
These ten are a sequence, and the order is the point: found, bookable, seasonal, owned, measured. The thinking behind that order is in restaurant marketing strategies that fill tables; the engagement that runs it is marketing for independent restaurants.
Common questions
What is the cheapest way to market a restaurant?
The Google Business Profile and Reserve with Google: both free, both commission-free, and together they put a live Book button where guests already look. For most independents they outperform any paid campaign per pound spent, because the guest arriving through them was already searching with intent.
Do restaurant discounts work as marketing?
Rarely as a habit. A discount fills tables at the cost of margin and teaches regulars to wait for the next one. A reason beats a price cut (a set lunch, a Friday ritual, a seasonal menu). When a quiet month needs filling, a focused push moves it: one restaurant’s December went from 127 to 190 bookings on effort aimed at that single month.
How do restaurants get more customers from Instagram?
By giving the click somewhere worth landing. When The Galley relaunched its website, the share of Instagram visitors who stayed to read went from 51% to 95%: the same posts, a better destination. Post to the booking rhythm, Thursday evening for weekend plans, and link straight to the menu.
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