Marketing tools for restaurants: what you need and what you can skip

Plan first, then the tool

Marketing is the first thing to slip once lunch starts. That is why tools are so appealing: they do the jobs you never finish. Sending an email, scheduling a post, asking for a review, updating your opening hours. But a tool is not a plan. It makes a plan quicker to carry out, and without a plan it mostly makes a mess faster.

If you have no direction yet, start with a marketing plan in a few steps: who your guests are, what you want them to do and which channel fits. This article then goes through the tools job by job and says who each one suits. It is deliberately not a ranking. The tool that suits a pizzeria with delivery is not the one that suits a restaurant with sixty covers and a terrace.

A tool takes over one job

A tool earns its place when it takes over a job that keeps coming back and that you now do by hand or let slide. If you cannot name the job, you have no reason to buy the tool.

What a subscription has to bring in

Do the sum once. Say you take six subscriptions at an average of €20 a month. That is €120 a month and €1,440 a year. A €28 order including VAT is €25.69 net. If 30% of that goes on ingredients, about €17.98 is left to pay for everything else. So you need roughly eighty extra orders a year just to cover the subscriptions. That is one and a half orders a week, for all six together. If a tool does not win you that, it is there for nothing.

Subscriptions are business costs. Some suppliers invoice without Dutch VAT, because that VAT is then shifted to you and you declare it yourself in your VAT return. How this works for your subscriptions depends on the supplier. Give your bookkeeper a list of what you pay for, so they know what to check.

The fourth question is not a formality. The GDPR, the AVG in Dutch, requires you to have written agreements with anyone who handles guest data on your behalf, and those agreements are called data processing agreements, or verwerkersovereenkomsten. Many suppliers include one in their terms or their help centre.

Which other apps you need for the till, rota, stock and bookings is covered in this article on the apps a restaurant needs. This one is only about the tools that reach your guests.

Design: menus, posts and flyers

A restaurant always needs something to show: the weekly menu, the post about the new special, the flyer that goes in the bag, the story about holiday hours. A design tool with templates takes that work off you, so you never have to call a designer for a single A4 sheet.

Canva is the best known. The company is Australian and works with a free base and paid plans. You build posters, social posts and presentations by dragging and dropping, and you can edit photos and video in it too. For a logo or other design work with vectors and layers, the same owner has Affinity, with a free basic version since October 2025.

According to Adobe, Adobe Express has a free plan with a limited number of AI credits. You can make posts, flyers, menus, QR codes and short videos in it. It suits anyone who already works with Adobe or simply prefers the layout.

Keep your look in one place

The difference between a place that looks cared for and one that looks messy is rarely talent. It is that the same colours, the same typeface and the same spot for the logo keep coming back. Set them once and use them everywhere.

1. Pick two colours and two typefaces and write them down, colour codes included.
2. Put your logo, colours and typefaces into the tool, so every new design starts with them.
3. Build templates for what keeps coming back: the daily menu, the special of the week, opening hours and holiday hours.
4. Save them, and make a copy each week instead of starting from a blank page.
5. Order a proof print of anything for print, and ask the printer which file format, colour setting and bleed they want.

Put your menu on your website as plain text as well as in the design. An image of your menu looks good in a story, but on a phone people have to zoom in, and a search engine can do less with it than with text.

Photo and video: the camera you already own

A good photo of a dish sells more than any template. You do not need a studio for it. A phone from the last few years is enough, as long as you set up the conditions well.

Photos of your own dishes

1. Shoot in daylight, ideally next to a window, and without flash.
2. Wipe the rim of the plate clean and pick a calm surface.
3. Take the photo within a few minutes of the dish leaving the kitchen, before it sinks or dries out.
4. Use the same spot every time, so your photos belong together.

Edit lightly. Brightness and crop are usually enough, and the editor built into your phone can do both. A filter that changes the colour of your dish makes the photo prettier but also untrue. The rules against misleading advertising apply to your photos as well: what you show has to look like what you serve. That goes double for images an AI program makes for you.

Hiring a photographer

If you hire a photographer, agree beforehand what you may do with the photos. In the Netherlands the copyright stays with the maker by default. You get a licence, and it covers the use the two of you agreed. So write down where you may use the photos, on your site, on social, in print and on the delivery platforms, and for how long. If recognisable people are in them, such as your team or guests, portrait rights come into play as well: they have to give permission. If you are unsure about the terms, put them to a lawyer.

Short videos

Video works well for what a photo cannot show: the pizza coming out of the oven, the sauce going into the pan, the kitchen during service. Keep it short, clips of five to eight seconds strung together, shot upright. Three programs do the work.

Add subtitles, so the clip also works for people watching with the sound off. All three make them automatically. You only check the place names and the dish names.

Mind the music. According to the explanations of several music services, a business Instagram account cannot use every popular track, because those are cleared for private use. Meta has its own library of music that is cleared for business use. Pick from that, or let the sound of your own kitchen carry the clip.

Scheduling social media, and your link in bio

Which channels are worth your time is covered in social media for your restaurant. This section is about scheduling. With a scheduler you sit down for forty-five minutes once a week and then leave it alone for the rest of the week.

Four schedulers

For most places the first choice is also the simplest: Meta Business Suite. It lets you manage your marketing on Facebook and Instagram from one spot. You schedule posts, stories and ads there, see the statistics and answer messages. If those are your only two channels, you need little else.

Choose one. Two schedulers side by side means you plan posts twice and lose track of what is where.

Set a fixed time, say Monday afternoon, and get the week ready. Three posts a week is enough to start: a photo of a dish, a look into the kitchen and a practical notice about opening hours or an offer. Look again on the day itself at what is due to go out. If you scheduled ‘fresh mussels tonight’ and the supplier lets you down, it will still go live.

One link in your bio

According to the coverage when it was introduced in 2023, Instagram lets you put up to five links on your profile. Check in the app under Edit profile whether that works for you. Only the first link is visible and the rest appear after a tap, so the order matters. A sensible order: order online, menu, book a table, directions, and then catering or jobs.

Linktree is the best-known service that gives you one address pointing to all your links, with a free plan and paid plans. Buffer and Later have a version of their own. If you pick a link page, make at least one of the links point to your own site. A visit to your own page can be measured, and that is where your own order button sits.

Email and SMS

Email is the channel for guests you already know. Eight emails that bring guests back describes what to send and when. This section is about the equipment. A good email tool does five things: a sign-up form for your site, a list with the consent recorded alongside, an editor whose output looks right on a phone, automatic emails that go out at a set moment and an unsubscribe link that simply works.

Whichever you choose, start with a welcome email and one for people who have not ordered in a while.

SMS

A text message is short and arrives straight away, so it suits what matters right now: your table is ready, the order is ready to collect, there is room tonight. How to use it is covered in SMS marketing for restaurants.

For sending, you can use the email tools above that offer SMS, such as Brevo and SendPulse. With Mailchimp it is an add-on. There are also providers for people who want to connect messages to their own systems. CM.com, from Breda, handles SMS, WhatsApp messages for businesses and email campaigns. Bird connects email, SMS and WhatsApp. If you want to click through a campaign yourself, a campaign tool is simpler.

Consent and unsubscribing

This is where it goes wrong in practice, and the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) supervises it. You may only send advertising by email, SMS or WhatsApp to people who agreed to it beforehand. That consent has to be a deliberate choice: no pre-ticked box, no pressure and nothing buried in your general terms. It also has to be clearly about advertising. And you must be able to show that someone said yes, for up to five years after sending.

There is an exception for existing customers. About products or services that fit their earlier purchase, you may message them without separate consent, as long as they can unsubscribe and it is clear who the sender is.

This is not legal advice, and the rules are tightened from time to time. If something is at stake, read the ACM’s explanation or ask a lawyer.

WhatsApp Business

Many guests already message you: whether there is room tonight, whether you can allow for an allergy, whether a buffet for twenty is possible. Those questions mostly arrive on WhatsApp. There are two ways to handle that properly.

• The WhatsApp Business app is for small businesses. You get a business profile, you can show products or services with prices and you set up a greeting message and an away message.
• The WhatsApp Business Platform runs through a provider such as CM.com, Bird or Brevo. It is meant for larger volumes and for messages sent from your own systems, with templates for standard messages.

For a single restaurant the app is enough. Put your opening hours in the profile, a greeting that says when you reply and an away message for outside those hours. Then a guest knows what to expect, even when you are in the middle of service.

Advertising on WhatsApp

Answering questions is different from sending advertising. WhatsApp itself sets as a condition that you only contact someone who gave you their number and agreed to later messages. It is your responsibility that the way you ask for that consent fits the law. The ACM names WhatsApp explicitly in its rules on electronic advertising, so the same consent applies as for email and SMS.

Broadcast lists in the app only reach people who have saved your number in their contacts, and only a limited number of people fit on a list. Check the current limit in the app itself. For hundreds of guests you work through a provider with the Platform, and with a list in which everyone gave consent.

Three things often go wrong:

• Using your private number for the business. Give the business a number of its own.
• Putting guests in a group without them asking.
• Leaving a guest waiting. An unanswered message is worse than no WhatsApp number, so only put one on your site if someone will reply.

Being found: Google, Apple Maps and search terms

Someone who is hungry and types something in sees a small map first, showing a few places nearby with photos, stars, opening hours and often a button to call or order. That card comes from your Google Business Profile. That spot decides whether you appear at all, before your website is ever opened.

Google Business Profile

The profile is free. You manage your address, your opening hours (including special ones, such as holidays), your category and attributes, photos and videos and your replies to reviews. You can also see how often people look at your profile. Google itself says your place in local results depends mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that you cannot pay for a better place. What you can do is get your profile verified and keep it complete and up to date.

The whole story is in the Google Business Profile for restaurants. Check your opening hours before every holiday. A guest standing at a closed door does not write a kind review.

Apple Maps

Someone searching on an iPhone often uses Apple Maps, the default map app on the device. Apple has a management page for that, these days called Apple Business and previously Apple Business Connect. There you claim your place and manage your logo, opening hours, photos and key details. Changes do not appear instantly, so do not leave it until the day before a holiday. Keep the details the same everywhere too: the same name, the same address, the same phone number and the same opening hours on Google, Apple, your site and the delivery platforms. If one is wrong, guests hesitate, and so do search engines.

Search terms: what people near you actually type

Someone who types a name has already chosen. Someone who types ‘lunch’ or ‘sushi’ with a town name is still looking and might choose you. That second kind of search is worth understanding.

Google’s Keyword Planner is the tool for that. You enter words that go with your cuisine or a dish, and the planner shows related search terms with an estimate of searches per month. You find it in Google Ads. Google first asks you to set up the account, billing details included, before you open the tool.

Read the numbers as a direction, not a count. What you mainly see is which words are more popular than others. Say you serve Indonesian food and see that people in your town search for ‘nasi bestellen’ more than for the names of your own dishes. Then you put the word guests use on your site and in your profile too, next to the name you give it.

Collecting and answering reviews

A guest torn between two places reads the reviews. Your Google profile is where that happens, so a few good, recent reviews with a decent reply from you do more than an expensive design. Reviews come from guests who are asked, at the moment they are happy.

Asking for a review

Google allows you to ask guests to write a review, and gives you a link and a QR code to make that easy. Your guest needs a Google account. Here is how to ask at every moment guests meet you:

Ask everyone, not only the guests you think were happy. A profile with nothing but five stars looks odd, and you miss what you could improve.

Replying

Reply to every review, the good and the bad. Your profile has to be verified for that. In your profile you choose ‘Read reviews’ and use the reply icon on the review. Google checks every reply against its rules before it appears.

A reply to a bad review can follow four steps:

1. Say thank you and mention something from the review, so it is clear you read it.
2. Acknowledge what went wrong, without defending yourself or contradicting the guest.
3. Say what you are doing about it, concretely and in a small way.
4. Offer to settle it by phone or email, and keep personal details and order specifics out of a public reply.

The effect of asking is just arithmetic. Say you have 50 reviews averaging 4.4. Add 10 five-star reviews and your average becomes (50 × 4.4 + 10 × 5) divided by 60, which is 4.5. That looks small, but it is the difference between an average that is sinking and one that is rising.

Reputation platforms

There are platforms that collect reviews from several sites and suggest replies. According to its own site, Birdeye aims at chains with several locations. Podium is an American platform for local businesses that answers leads and messages with AI. For a single Dutch restaurant they are usually more than you need: the link, the QR code and your own reply cover what matters. With several locations it is a different calculation.

Website, ordering and bookings

Your site is where guests land from Google and Instagram. It does not have to be big, but a guest has to find quickly what they came for: what kind of place you are, where, when you are open, the menu and a button to order or book. How to build one is covered in website builders for restaurants. Here are the three builders you will meet most often.

Whatever you choose, keep your own domain name. An address ending in .nl that is registered in your own name stays yours if you switch builder. Put your business details on the site too, such as your KvK number. The Chamber of Commerce (KvK) and the Dutch government explain which details are required.

Ordering

An order button on your own site is different from a listing on a delivery platform. The platforms are good for reach and new guests. On your own ordering page you know who is ordering, can invite that guest back later and keep the order in your own figures.

Check three things in an ordering module: do you get the name, email and order history (with consent), can you export them, and does the module talk to your till. Many till suppliers have an ordering module of their own, such as Lightspeed with Order Anywhere, and Wix has an ordering option in its restaurant offering.

Bookings

If you have tables to fill, booking software is marketing too, because every booking is a guest with a name. Zenchef is a restaurant platform with online booking, a waiting list, a deposit against no-shows, guest profiles and help with reviews. Formitable and Resengo have since become the same platform. For any booking tool, ask whether the guest data is yours and whether you can export it.

Loyalty and guest data: where your list lives

A loyalty programme is rarely a separate tool. It belongs where the order happens, because points only work if they are credited automatically. How to set one up is covered in loyalty programmes that bring in orders. Here the point is where it runs.

You find loyalty features in three places: in your till, in your ordering system, or in a separate loyalty app or a digital card in the phone’s wallet. Brevo lists a loyalty component in its package, and booking platforms such as Zenchef have guest profiles. That way the same guest can sit in five places at once, with none of those places knowing about the others.

One list has to be in charge. Usually that is the system where the orders arrive, because the guest, what they ordered and when all meet there. That is what a restaurant CRM does: it turns your guest data into repeat visits. The other tools draw from that list or feed it.

The GDPR gives your guests rights over their data, including the right to see it and have it deleted. If you know where a guest appears, you handle such a request quickly. If you do not, it becomes a hunt through five tools. Keep a note of where guest data is stored and explain in your privacy statement what you do with it.

Measuring what works

What you do not measure is belief. That does not have to mean a dashboard with twenty tiles. A few tools tell you what you want to know for little or nothing.

• Google Analytics shows how many people visit your site, which pages they read, on what kind of device and where they came from: a search, an ad or an email campaign.
• Search Console is a free service from Google. You see how often your site appears in search results, for which searches, how often people click and where Google finds problems.
• Plausible is a privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. According to its own site it places no cookies and the data stays in the EU. There is a thirty-day trial and no free plan.
• The statistics in Meta Business Suite and the performance figures for your Google profile show what your posts and your profile bring in.
• The report from your ordering system counts your real orders.

Cookies and consent

A measuring tool on your site can place cookies. Cookies that track something about your visitor need consent. Analytics cookies are only exempt if they intrude little on privacy, and whether a standard Google Analytics installation falls under that depends on how you set it up. Look at the Dutch Data Protection Authority’s site, or ask whoever builds your site. A tool that places no cookies at all, such as Plausible according to its own site, makes it simpler.

Make your links measurable

Add a label behind the links in your emails, your bio and your flyers, so your measuring tool knows where a visit came from. These are the so-called UTM parameters: a source (utm_source), a medium (utm_medium) and a campaign name (utm_campaign). For example source ‘newsletter’, medium ‘email’ and campaign ‘christmas-menu’. Never put anything about a person in them, such as an email address.

A fixed quarter of an hour a week

Simply ask ‘how did you hear about us?’ too, at checkout on your site or at the counter. A short list with five answers tells you more than a report full of guesses.

Work out an action

Say you email 400 guests about a new special, and 12 of them each order €28 including VAT. That is €336 in sales, about €308 without the 9% VAT. If 30% of that goes on ingredients, about €216 is left to pay your other costs. If the email tool costs €20 that month, you keep €196, before the hour it took you to write it. That is a sum you can do for every action: what was left, and was it worth it.

A set in three sizes, and what to do on Monday

The real problem with many separate tools is not the price but the gaps between them. Each tool is another login, another invoice and another place where a guest or a figure can fall out. The fewer systems keep track of your guests, the less you retype and the less you lose. If one supplier’s package has more features than you need, you pay for that. If you have a patchwork, you pay in hours. Weigh the two.

You rarely need more than this. If you are still at ‘up and running’ after a year, that is not falling behind.

What to do on Monday:

1. Open your Google Business Profile and check the opening hours, the category, the links to your menu and to ordering, and the photos.
2. Fetch the review link and the QR code and put it on your receipts.
3. Pick colours and typefaces and build templates in your design tool for the daily menu and the special.
4. Schedule the first three posts of the week in a scheduler.
5. Put a sign-up form with an empty box on your site and pick an email tool with a free plan or a trial.
6. Add labels behind the link in your bio.
7. Put a fixed quarter of an hour in your diary for the numbers.

You can read more about email and SMS from your own ordering channel on the email and SMS page.