6 Best Marketing Tools for Restaurants to Drive More Orders
Running a restaurant means juggling a dozen priorities at once, and marketing often falls to the bottom of the list. But without the right strategy, even the best food stays a secret. The best marketing tools for restaurants help you cut through the noise, reach more customers, and turn one-time visitors into repeat buyers who order directly from you.
Most restaurant owners already know that third-party apps eat into profits with steep commissions. That's exactly why we built The Foody Gram, a commission-free online ordering platform that gives restaurants their own branded website and direct ordering system. But a great ordering setup is only one piece of the puzzle. You also need tools that drive traffic, build loyalty, and keep customers engaged between visits.
In this guide, we break down six proven marketing tools, including platforms for email, social media, reputation management, and online ordering, that help restaurants fill more seats and generate more orders. Each pick is based on what actually moves the needle for independent restaurant owners, not enterprise chains with six-figure marketing budgets.
1. The Foody Gram
The Foody Gram earns the top spot on this list of the best marketing tools for restaurants because it solves a problem no other tool addresses quite as directly: it gives you a fully branded website and commission-free ordering system in one package, so customers order from you instead of a third-party app that takes a cut of every sale.
What it helps you do
With The Foody Gram, you get a custom, mobile-optimized restaurant website built and launched in 48 to 72 hours, complete with an integrated ordering system for pickup, delivery, pre-orders, and reservations. All of it runs through a single real-time dashboard and kitchen ticket printing setup, so your front-of-house and back-of-house stay on the same page during busy service windows. The team also manages your menu uploads and ongoing updates, which means you never have to deal with the technical side yourself.
Key features you get out of the box:
- Commission-free online ordering with direct deposit payment processing
- Custom branded restaurant website with mobile optimization
- Pre-orders and reservation management
- Real-time order dashboard and kitchen ticket printing
- 24/7 customer support and managed menu updates
How it drives more orders
When customers order through your website, you keep your full revenue on every transaction rather than handing 25 to 30% to a platform like Uber Eats or DoorDash. Every order also gives you customer data you actually own, which lets you run promotions, follow up with regulars, and build direct loyalty without relying on a third-party platform to control that relationship for you.
Restaurants that move from commission-based apps to direct ordering often recover their entire monthly subscription cost within the first few orders placed.
Your order volume is unlimited on all plans, so a surge in demand never results in higher platform fees.
Best fit for
The Foody Gram works best for independent restaurants and small restaurant groups with one to three locations that currently pay high commissions to delivery apps and want to bring ordering in-house without a complicated technical setup.
Pricing
Plans run from $159 to $199 per month on standard tiers, with no setup fees, no long-term contracts, and no per-order commissions. You also get a 45-day money-back guarantee, which removes most of the risk from giving the platform a real test.
2. Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile is one of the most impactful free tools you can use to reach local customers who are actively searching for a place to eat. If someone types "pizza near me" or "best restaurants downtown," your profile determines whether they find you or your competitor first.
What it helps you do
Your profile controls how your restaurant appears across Google Search and Google Maps, including your hours, address, phone number, photos, and menu links. Setting it up accurately takes about 15 minutes and requires almost no ongoing technical effort.
Posting updates, responding to reviews, and sharing limited-time promotions directly on your listing keeps you visible to local searchers without spending money on ads.
How it drives more orders
A complete profile with recent positive reviews and accurate details significantly increases your chances of appearing in the local map pack, the three-result block that dominates most local restaurant searches. Customers can click straight from your profile to your website or online ordering page, shortening the path from discovery to purchase.
According to Google, businesses with complete profiles get significantly more direction requests and website clicks than those with incomplete listings.
Best fit for
This is one of the best marketing tools for restaurants at any stage, whether you're a new spot building local visibility or an established location that wants tighter control over its online reputation.
Pricing
Google Business Profile is completely free to create and maintain. You only pay if you choose to run Google Ads, which is entirely optional.
3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most widely used email marketing platforms available, and it translates well to the restaurant industry. You can use it to build a subscriber list from your existing customers and send targeted campaigns that bring people back through your door or back to your ordering page.
What it helps you do
With Mailchimp, you can design and send email newsletters, promotions, and automated sequences without needing a developer or marketing agency. You can also segment your audience by behavior, such as customers who have not ordered in 30 days, and send them a targeted offer at exactly the right moment.
Automated email sequences triggered by customer behavior consistently outperform one-time broadcast campaigns in both open rates and click-through rates.
How it drives more orders
Pairing Mailchimp with a direct link to your restaurant's ordering page turns each campaign into a revenue driver. A well-timed promotion, like a discount on a typically slow night, can fill gaps in your schedule without paying a third-party platform to do that work for you.
Best fit for
Mailchimp works best for restaurants that already have a customer email list or a reliable way to collect emails, such as through an online ordering account or a loyalty signup form. It ranks among the best marketing tools for restaurants that want to own their customer communication channel for the long term.
Pricing
Mailchimp's free plan supports up to 500 contacts and 1,000 monthly emails. Paid plans start at $13 per month and scale based on your list size.
4. Thanx
Thanx is a customer loyalty and engagement platform built specifically for restaurants. It connects your loyalty program to your actual customer purchase behavior, so you can run targeted campaigns based on what guests order and how often they visit, rather than guessing at what might bring them back.
What it helps you do
Thanx lets you build a digital loyalty program that tracks customer spending without requiring guests to carry a physical punch card or scan a separate app. The platform captures purchase data automatically and gives you a dashboard to see which customers are regulars, which are at risk of churning, and which have not visited in a while. You can then trigger personalized offers and messages to each segment based on that behavior.
Loyalty programs that tie rewards to spending history rather than visit count tend to generate higher average order values over time.
How it drives more orders
Thanx runs automated re-engagement campaigns that target lapsed customers with a time-sensitive offer, which pulls people back to your restaurant without requiring you to manually manage each outreach. Connecting those campaigns directly to your online ordering page shortens the path from receiving an offer to placing an order.
Best fit for
Thanx works well for restaurants looking for one of the best marketing tools for restaurants focused on retention. It suits full-service and fast-casual concepts that have a consistent customer base and want to reduce churn.
Pricing
Thanx does not publish standard pricing publicly. You need to request a demo and receive a custom quote based on your location count and order volume.
5. Birdeye
Birdeye is a reputation management and customer experience platform that helps restaurants collect, monitor, and respond to online reviews across multiple platforms from a single dashboard. Given how heavily customers rely on star ratings before choosing where to eat, having a system that actively manages your online reputation can directly influence how many new guests visit your ordering page or walk through your door.
What it helps you do
Birdeye pulls in reviews from Google, Yelp, Facebook, and dozens of other review sites so you never miss a piece of customer feedback. You can respond to reviews directly from the platform and set up automated review request messages sent to customers after their visit or completed order, removing the manual follow-up work from your plate entirely.
How it drives more orders
More positive reviews improve your local search ranking and give hesitant customers the social proof they need to choose your restaurant over a competitor down the street. Birdeye also includes direct messaging tools that let you communicate with customers between visits, which keeps your brand in their minds when they are ready to order again.
Restaurants with a higher volume of recent reviews consistently rank better in local search results than those with fewer, older reviews.
Best fit for
Birdeye is one of the best marketing tools for restaurants that depend on word-of-mouth and local discovery. It suits restaurants that receive regular customer feedback but lack a structured system to collect and act on it.
Pricing
Birdeye does not publish standard pricing publicly. You request a demo to receive a custom quote based on your location count and business needs.
6. Buffer
Buffer is a social media scheduling and analytics platform that helps restaurants plan, publish, and track content across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and other major channels without logging into each platform separately. Consistent social media presence builds brand recognition, and Buffer removes the daily friction that keeps most restaurant owners from posting regularly.
What it helps you do
With Buffer, you can schedule posts in advance across multiple social channels from a single dashboard, so you batch your content creation on a quiet afternoon and have it publish automatically throughout the week. You also get basic analytics on post performance, showing you which content drives the most engagement so you can double down on what works.
How it drives more orders
Posting consistently keeps your restaurant visible in your followers' feeds, which means more people see your menu, your specials, and your ordering link when they are deciding where to eat. You can schedule posts that include a direct link to your online ordering page, turning a food photo into an actual revenue opportunity.
Restaurants that post three to five times per week on social media see meaningfully higher engagement rates than those that post sporadically.
Best fit for
Buffer fits restaurants that want a low-cost way to stay active on social media without hiring a full-time social media manager. It ranks among the best marketing tools for restaurants operating with a lean team and limited time for daily content management.
Pricing
Buffer offers a free plan for up to three social channels. Paid plans start at $6 per month per channel, making it one of the more affordable options on this list.
Next Steps
The best marketing tools for restaurants work together, not in isolation. Google Business Profile and Birdeye build your visibility and reputation. Mailchimp and Thanx keep customers coming back. Buffer keeps your brand active on social media. But all of that traffic needs somewhere to go, and that is where a direct ordering system makes the difference between marketing that looks good and marketing that actually pays off.
You do not need to adopt every tool on this list at once. Start with what solves your biggest revenue problem right now. If you are currently paying commission fees on every order, that is the first thing worth fixing. The Foody Gram gives you a commission-free ordering system and branded website with no setup fees and a 45-day money-back guarantee, so you can test it without risk. Check out our restaurant website and ordering plans and see which tier fits your operation.