Want to take your restaurant sales to the next level?
Popmenu has a simple—and proven—formula to get you there, based on a study of marketing habits of thousands of U.S. restaurants. The best part is you likely already have most, if not all, the tools needed to meet your revenue goal. We’ll walk you through our findings and share best practices and real-life examples you can replicate today!
The Formula for Restaurant Growth
Restaurant sales are largely influenced by two factors: how many guests you reach and how often you reach them. Increase both, and orders follow.
We then calculated their average number of guest contacts and monthly email messages, including mass emails sent to all guests and automated emails that are triggered by individual guest actions. We also looked at their average number of texts to guests and social posts each month.
The chart below highlights data for restaurants in the top 25%, i.e., those who set the bar for strong, consistent marketing. You’ll notice that restaurants in higher revenue ranges typically have significantly higher guest touchpoints.
According to the chart, if you want your annual sales to fall within $1.0M to $1.5M, you should have 4,654+ guest contacts in your database, send 7,059 mass emails, automated emails or texts each month and post on social media at least 9 times each month. If you want to hit $7M to $10M in annual sales, you should have 20,256+ guest contacts, send 38,671+ emails or texts each month, and post at least 15 times each month.
While not textbook scientific, the data is statistically meaningful and can give you a blueprint for marketing activity needed to achieve business goals.
| $1M–$1.5M | $1.5–$3.5M | $3.5–$7M | $7M–$10M | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cumulative active guest contacts | 4,654 | 7,854 | 17,310 | 20,256 |
| New guest contacts/month | 127 | 184 | 384 | 690 |
| Mass emails/month | 4,861 | 7,911 | 20,110 | 28,473 |
| Automated emails/month | 992 | 1,404 | 2,697 | 3,188 |
| Text messages/month | 1,206 | 1,763 | 3,801 | 7,010 |
| Social posts/month | 9.3 | 10.4 | 10.8 | 14.8 |
Best practices for applying the formula to your marketing efforts.
Now that we’ve covered the math, let’s dive into quick tips for putting the formula into action. Building up your database of guests and keeping them engaged over time is all about getting back to the basics:
Want to drive more guests to your website?
Make Google your biggest promoter. Set up every dish on your online menu as a separate page, so Google has more information to consider—and ranks your website higher—when a guest searches for nearby restaurants, certain cuisines or specific dishes. The Hampton Social, a multi-location specializing in coastal cuisine, applies this approach to their interactive, digital menu. When someone searches for “best lobster roll in Nashville,” they rank high in Google and AI queries.
Note: Don’t worry if you’re not a tech pro. Popmenu can help make sure your online menu and website are optimized for search engines and AI.
Want guests’ email addresses or phone numbers?
Just ask. The vast majority are willing to share their contact information to receive special deals, advance invites to The Hampton Social events and other perks. The Hampton knows this firsthand with over 835,000 guest contacts!
Ocean State is an example of a single-location restaurant that does a great job of automatically collecting guest contacts on their online menu: they provide two prompts asking guests to join their VIP list, the ability to “like” and review dishes, and direct online ordering. They also incentivize guests to leave reviews with the chance to win a $500 monthly raffle. Ocean State has more than 9,000 guest contacts and reaches out to them regularly to drive repeat business.
Want higher open rates and click-through rates on emails and texts?
The more you know about guests, the more customized and lucrative your messages will be. In addition to collecting guest preferences through “likes” and dish reviews on your menu, make sure to integrate direct online ordering and reservations to build out more robust profiles for ongoing marketing.
What’s more, a significant portion of guest outreach can be automated based on what they like to eat, how often they order, if it’s their birthday, or other factors. Steam Boys, a multi-location serving Chinese comfort food in the south, keeps their 62,000+ guests loyal and spending through automated emails as well as mass email campaigns and texts they design. Because they know their guests so well, their open rate (50%) and click-through (4.7%) are significantly higher than that industry average and they’ve been able to generate $84,000+ in revenue through automation.
Need help creating social content?
Leverage AI. The most important rule of restaurant marketing is to consistently stay in front of guests. Artificial intelligence can create a full month of social posts (and emails and texts!) based on your dishes, reviews, events and other content, in your brand voice. Ruby’s Jamaican Kitchen grew through marketing-driven revenue from $2,000 to $12,000 in two months and continued to grow sales using AI-crafted content.
Want to make sure your online rep is positive?
AI can help with that as well. The majority of consumers look at online reviews to choose their next dining destination—they also look at how restaurants respond. Gather as many as you can on your own website, where you can control what content appears. For reviews on other sites, you can use AI to gather all of them in one dashboard, reply automatically (if positive) and provide recommendations so you can respond in a timely manner and manage your story is told online.
Want a closer look at how automation can bring in more orders while saving you time and money? Schedule a 20-minute, no-pressure demo with Popmenu.
