Marketing for Hospitality & Restaurants
Get known, get found and fill your tables, with marketing that shows people exactly what they’re coming in for.
Why marketing is tough for hospitality
Great food and service aren’t enough if people don’t know you exist.
No one knows you, so tables stay empty
The biggest problem we see is simple: not enough people coming through the door. If people don’t know about you, they don’t know to come to you.
Specials don’t work if no one sees them
When it’s quiet, it’s tempting to run another special or discount. But if no one sees it, it won’t bring anyone in, and discounting eats into margins that are already tight.
Costs are up and diners are cutting back
Food, wages and rent keep going up, and when budgets tighten, eating out is one of the first things people cut. Every marketing dollar has to bring people through the door.
Diners decide online first
Most people check Google Maps, reviews, photos and your menu before they choose where to eat. If your listing is out of date or your website is hard to use, they’ll pick somewhere else.
People eat with their eyes
If your social media doesn’t show your food, drinks and atmosphere, people will choose a place where they at least know what they’re getting.
No time to market while running the floor
Owners and managers are already juggling staff, suppliers and service. Marketing ends up being whatever gets posted on a quiet afternoon, with no plan behind it.
Marketing services built for hospitality
Each channel is set up around one goal: more people through the door, more bookings and more orders.
Google and Meta ads: fill your tables and sell out events
Google Ads put you in front of people searching for things like “restaurant near me” or “dinner Christchurch”, while Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram show locals your food, drinks and events before they’ve decided where to go. Little India turned $11K of Google Ads into over $258K in takeaway sales, and Kaiser Brew Garden’s birthday campaign generated over $55K in tracked sales.
Google Ads services →Social media and content creation: epic video and photo
People eat with their eyes. Our team comes on site to shoot your food, drinks, team and atmosphere, then turns it into reels, posts and ads that make people want to come in. Before it even opened, The Loft grew to 745 followers in its first month with no ad spend.
Videography and photography services →Websites: make it easy to see the menu and book
A clear website that shows your menu, where you are, your opening hours and how to book or order, with real photos of your food and space. We make booking one tap on mobile, so people who find you can lock in a table straight away.
Talk to us about your website →Local SEO and Google Business Profile: get found by hungry locals
We keep your Google Business Profile up to date with your menu, hours, photos and booking link, list you on the directories that matter and work on getting you onto best restaurant and top 10 lists, so you show up when people search for somewhere to eat nearby.
Local SEO services →
Results for hospitality businesses
Real numbers from restaurants and bars we work with.
$258K+ in takeaway sales from Google Ads
Before touching a single ad, we looked at when orders peaked, where demand was being lost and what a customer was worth. A mobile-first setup and an 80/20 budget split focused on peak ordering windows did the rest.
$55K+ in tracked in-venue sales from one campaign
A Facebook ad campaign and automated Birthday Bot offered a free pizza in people’s birthday month, matched every redemption to in-bar sales and made Kaiser a go-to spot for celebrations.
Sold out within hours, with national media coverage
The Loft is a sports bar, but by listening to its audience we spotted a cultural moment: The Summer I Turned Pretty finale. Custom cocktails and themed menus brought in a brand new audience that had never considered The Loft before.
Hospitality marketing from people who know the industry
We’re not a marketing agency that learned hospitality from a course. We’ve spent years working with venues at every stage, and we’ve seen what separates the ones that thrive from the ones that don’t.
New venues
We’ve launched venues from zero, with no audience, no reputation and no ad spend, and turned them into fully booked openings with a community waiting at the door.
Established venues
We’ve taken venues with loyal followings to the next level, with new audiences, new revenue channels and growth that doesn’t come from doing more of the same.
Franchise groups
We build marketing systems that work across multiple locations: a cohesive brand and a consistent presence, with every venue keeping its own personality.
What our hospitality clients say
Venues we’ve worked with, in their own words.
“If you’re looking for a strategic digital marketing partner, I’d highly recommend Digital Influence. We love working with the team and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
Arjun Gill, Little India
“We’ve been working with Digital Influence for 6 years. We do reels, we do content. They help us make our design and our brand advertising. We love working with Digital Influence. We’ve got a great team that look after us.”
Sarah Bradley, Winnie Bagoes City
How we work with hospitality businesses
Four steps, so you know exactly what you’re getting before you spend a dollar on ads.
Audit
We start with keyword research, competitor research and an audit of your venue, including your Google Business Profile, website, menu, reviews, social media and ads.
Strategy
A strategy built around where you want to go: the easy wins first, then the most direct way to get there, without doing extra tasks just for the sake of it.
Launch
We set up tracking for bookings, online orders and enquiries first, then launch your SEO, ads, website changes and content.
Report
Our team sends you a weekly update on what we’ve been working on, plus monthly reporting and a quarterly business review to make sure we’re heading in the right direction.
Hospitality marketing FAQs
How do I get more customers into my restaurant?
Make it easy for people to find you and see what they’d be coming in for. That usually means an up-to-date Google Business Profile with plenty of reviews and photos, a website that clearly shows your menu, location and how to book, and regular social content showing your food and atmosphere.
From there, Google Ads and Meta ads put you in front of locals deciding where to eat. Little India generated over $258K in takeaway sales from $11K in Google Ads.
How long does SEO take for a restaurant or bar?
Most venues see early movement in local search within a few months, with stronger results building over six to twelve months.
Timing depends on your starting point, how competitive your area is and how many reviews you collect. Google Ads and Meta ads can bring people in while SEO builds.
Are Facebook and Instagram ads worth it for restaurants and bars?
Usually, yes. People eat with their eyes, and Meta ads let you show your food, drinks and atmosphere to people nearby. Kaiser Brew Garden’s birthday campaign generated over $55K in tracked sales.
We track bookings, orders and offer redemptions back to the ads wherever we can, so you know what’s actually bringing people in.
Which social media platform is best for hospitality?
For most venues, Instagram and Facebook come first. That’s where locals look for somewhere to eat and drink, and Meta ads let you reach people in your area.
TikTok can work well for venues with a younger crowd and a team who enjoy being on camera, but it’s better to post consistently on one or two platforms than to spread yourself thin.
What should I post on social media for my venue?
Show people what they’d experience if they came in: your food and drinks, your space, your team and what’s coming up, like events, new dishes and specials.
Short videos tend to do best. Behind-the-scenes clips, your team on camera and real customers enjoying themselves all help people feel like they already know you.
How do I get onto best restaurant lists?
Start with the basics: a strong Google rating, a complete Google Business Profile and listings on the directories that local guides and food writers check.
We also reach out to the publications and bloggers who put together best-of and top 10 lists. Those mentions bring in diners and build the backlinks that help you rank on Google too.
Should I run specials and discounts to get people in?
Occasional offers can fill quiet nights, but they only work if people see them, and relying on discounts trains customers to wait for the next deal.
A stronger approach is giving people a reason to choose you, through great photos, events and reviews, then using offers strategically. Kaiser Brew Garden’s birthday offer worked because it was targeted and every redemption was tracked.
I’ve just opened a new venue. Where do I start?
Start building an audience before you open. The Loft grew to 745 organic followers in its first month with no ad spend, using street interviews, behind-the-scenes videos and photos of the fit-out.
Then make sure your Google Business Profile, website and booking system are ready on day one, so people can find you and book as soon as they hear about you.
How do I get more Google reviews for my restaurant?
Ask, and make it easy. A QR code on the table or bill, a review link in your booking follow-up and a team who mention it at the end of a great meal all help.
Replying to every review, good or bad, also shows future customers you care.
How do I fill quiet nights midweek?
Give people a reason to come in, like a regular event, a set menu or a themed night, and promote it to the right people early enough for them to plan.
Meta ads, email and social content all work well here. The Loft sold out a 240-seat watch party within hours by building an event around what its audience was already talking about.
Do I need a website if I already have Instagram?
Yes. Instagram is great for showing your food, but you don’t own it, it won’t rank well on Google, and it makes it harder for people to find your menu, hours and booking link.
A website gives people everything they need in one place and helps you show up in Google and AI search tools like ChatGPT.
How do I know which marketing is bringing people in?
Set up tracking before you spend more on ads. We track bookings, online orders, calls and offer redemptions back to the channel they came from wherever we can, so you can see what’s actually working.
You’ll get a weekly update, monthly reporting and a quarterly business review, so you always know where your budget should go.
Will ChatGPT or Google’s AI recommend my restaurant?
No one can guarantee it, but you can make your business easier for AI tools to find, check and trust.
An up-to-date menu on your website, a strong review profile, consistent business details across the web and mentions on best-of lists all help.
To see where you stand, take our free DIVE Scorecard. It comes with a complimentary 15-minute chat with Scott to talk through your results. If you want to go one step further, book a Deep Dive, where we go through your results in detail and give you a clear game plan.
What should my restaurant website include?
Your menu (as text, not just a PDF), where you are, your opening hours, how to book or order, and great photos of your food and space.
Make booking or ordering one tap on mobile, since that’s where most people are looking. We’ll tell you in the audit whether your current site can be improved or is holding you back.
Do you work with businesses outside Canterbury?
Yes, we work with businesses all across New Zealand.
Our team is based in Christchurch, and we work with hospitality businesses all over New Zealand. Strategy calls and reporting can happen over video, and we can travel for on-site photo and video shoots.
Book a free strategy chat!
What our partners say about working with us
Digital Influence online reviews
