Full-service restaurant marketing is evolving by the minute. Today’s restaurants need sophisticated, data-backed channels to connect with guests, keep them returning, and get new faces coming in the door.

Digital marketing is a fantastic way to get more out of your marketing spend and capture data-driven insights about your guests.

Restaurant guests are increasingly using a multitude of channels to decide where to eat. According to research by Mondovo:

• 83% of customers use their phones to look up restaurant locations, directions, and hours.
• 75% of customers look up menu info online.
• 51% of customers order takeout or delivery from restaurant websites.
• 55% of customers read restaurant reviews online.

This makes it even more crucial for full-service restaurants to increase their focus on digital marketing. However, every marketing strategy needs a plan and high-performing tools to boost the bottom line.

There’s a slew of digital marketing tools out there… but don’t get overwhelmed! We’ve rounded up 15 excellent digital marketing tools that can help your full-service restaurant stay on top of its digital marketing game.

Online ordering & reservations

1. Olo

Digital ordering is growing 300% faster than dine-in traffic. Olo is a digital ordering and delivery enablement platform built for multi-location restaurants. Olo allows customers to skip the line, order their food, and pay – directly from their smartphones.  And, it integrates with popular POS systems, customer engagement programs, and payment providers.

2. NuOrder Tech

Give your customers access to their orders in the palm of their hands! NuOrder Tech allows you to get the most out of your digital ordering platform with open APIs, insightful data analytics, robust integrations, and Facebook ordering. Their platform helps restaurants increase check averages and provides smooth experiences for restaurant guests.

3. OpenTable

Ready to evolve past phone-in reservations? OpenTable is the world’s largest dining network offering table booking and management and is changing the reservation game as we know it. With 25 million diners in their network and over 600 integrations, OpenTable is a great way for old and new guests to book a seat at your restaurant.

Influencer marketing

4. NeoReach

Word of mouth matters. Influencers are lucrative for today’s restaurants, generating $17.50 for every $1 spent. Use NeoReach’s expansive network of industry influencers, segmentation, workflow automation, and campaign reporting to drive customers into your restaurant.

Customer engagement

5. Thanx

Customers that feel connected to your business are more likely to come back, spend more, and stay away from the competition. Thanx is an automated customer engagement platform that uses data to drive real incremental revenue. Thanx drives 6x ROI with winback campaigns, integrates with popular online ordering platforms, enables you to respond to real-time customer feedback, and provide personalized, targeted offers to guests through email, SMS and an app.

6. Woobox

From sweepstakes and giveaways to polls and games, Woobox allows you to easily create fun marketing campaigns. Woobox’s platform offers powerful and intuitive front-end campaign tools and analytics to measure your success.

Paid digital advertising

7. Google AdWords

AdWords is Google’s pay per click (PPC) advertising system. AdWords runs on an auction-based system, where you bid on specific keywords that are relevant to your restaurant. By using effective keywords and writing valuable, high CTR ads, you can bid for clickable ads to drive traffic to your restaurant website.

8. Facebook Ads Manager

Create and manage targeted Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns all in one place. Using Ads Manager, you can create paid social media ads, manage where and when they will run, and track campaign performance. 94% of social media marketers are using Ads Manager, making it a channel you probably don’t want to skip.

Organic digital marketing

9. SEMrush

You’ve likely heard about the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) – 98% of web searchers choose a business on page 1 of the results they get. Using SEMrush, you can build out a calculated keyword strategy and gain insights into competitors rankings.

10. Tint

A picture is worth a thousand words – and pictures created by happy customers are even more powerful. Consumer-generated content (CGC) is content that’s been created and posted by your contributors. Tint’s platform allows you to collect the most engaging, impactful CGC to create a social campaign that is fueled by the patrons of your restaurant.

11. Sprout Social

75% of people purchase products because they saw them on social media. And with #food and #drink hashtags boasting over 223 million posts, it’s important to create a strategic social media strategy for your restaurant. Using Sprout Social to streamline your social media strategy, grow social engagement, publish strategic campaigns, uncover industry trends, and track campaign performance.

Email marketing

13. MailChimp

Email marketing boasts an impactful ROI of $38 for every $1 spent. MailChimp is the world’s largest email marketing automation platform and integrates with high-performing customer engagement platforms to help restaurants increase engagement with their audience.

Thanx

We’re mentioning Thanx in two categories because with the out of the box capability to send emails to all your customers (not just the members of your loyalty program) Thanx can replace an ESP and help you reduce the number of tools in your technology stack.

Many email service providers (ESP) don’t allow you to measure revenue generated from specific campaigns. With Thanx, you can send targeted email newsletters and drip campaigns that turn your email subscribers into loyal customers.

Site optimization tools

14. Sumo

Your restaurant would benefit from more site traffic, higher email signups, and a deeper understanding of how users are interacting with your website. Sumo provides a suite of tools to make your website the very best it can be. Protip: some of their tools are free!

15. Google Analytics

Google Analytics gives you a complete picture of how users are interacting with your restaurant brand. Use Google Analytics as a one-stop dashboard for data collection, analysis, and reporting. The insights you uncover will help you improve your marketing channels and make data-driven decisions.

Wrap up

If you want to connect with your customers and drive more revenue for your full-service restaurant, make sure your digital marketing strategy is a top priority. With a few of these tools, you can unlock scaleable new ways to engage your customers in meaningful ways.