Restaurant digital marketing has never been easier or more complicated, depending on who you ask. The sheer number of available marketing tools can be overwhelming and each of them claims to be the best in its category, so how do you choose? We have curated a menu of our recommended restaurant marketing tools that can be combined with our 6-step plan to supercharge your digital marketing strategy and brand awareness.

Generate brand awareness with engaging visual content

Thinking you may not have the skills or a big enough budget to create really good content? With these 3 easy-to-use design tools, even those without design experience can create professional-grade digital materials for restaurant branding, social media posts, videos, and more. With their free tiers, these design tools can satisfy the design needs of most restaurants. If you need premium capabilities, plans start as low as $10/month.

1. Canva

With Canva, you can create a brand kit that maintains consistent colors and fonts throughout your designs. Canva’s templates and tools allow you to develop professional and cohesive marketing materials for your restaurant without needing any design expertise.

2. VistaCreate

VistaCreate is a graphic design tool that allows restaurant owners to create custom designs for their business cards, flyers, menus, and other marketing materials. It features a user-friendly interface and a wide selection of templates.

3. Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a user-friendly tool that empowers restaurants to create compelling visual content and graphics to promote their brand on various digital platforms, such as social media, email marketing, and websites.

Engage and build with your audience with these social media tools

We get it, social media can seem tricky the way trends come and go in a blink of an eye. It can be hard to keep up, but using any of these 3 tools will make things easier even when it feels chaotic. Pricing depends on the number of linked accounts, but basic plans start at just $10/month.

4. Buffer

Buffer is an intuitive social media marketing tool. It allows users to manage their social media presence from a single platform, track engagement and reach, and optimize their posting schedules.

5. Crowdfire

CrowdFire is a social media management platform that makes it easy to create, schedule, and analyze content across multiple platforms. Its follower management tools also help users grow their audience and reach more people.

6. Post planner

Post Planner is a social media scheduling tool that allows you to manage multiple social accounts in one place, discover top-performing content, create and optimize posts, and recycle them for maximum reach.

Drive traffic to your restaurant with an impactful website

Every restaurant needs a website. Imagine going to a restaurant with no menu. It’s difficult for prospective diners to learn about your restaurant and decide to give it a try without a website to entice them first. In addition, having a website also gives you more control over your restaurant’s branding and digital marketing efforts as you can direct web traffic from social media making it more effective. Prices for the below website builders start at $25/month.

7. Squarespace

Squarespace is an all-in-one website platform with built-in SEO and analytics. The ability to integrate OpenTable or Tock reservation capability, delivery, and more, makes it an intriguing choice.

8. Flavor plate

Flavor Plate offers a simple restaurant website solution with online ordering, gift card sales, and communication tools. They offer free initial design setup and a more comprehensive content setup.

9. Wix

Wix provides various restaurant-focused features and integrations, such as online ordering, reservations, and menu management, making it a good choice for building and managing your restaurant’s online presence.

Get more sales for less with Email and SMS marketing tools

Email marketing might be the most cost-effective marketing tool available. Remind diners of the great experiences they had at your restaurant, announce new menu items or promos, or, raise awareness about your social media posts quickly and efficiently with any of these 4 messaging tools. Pricing depends on the size of your email list, but you can expect to start as low as $20/month.

10. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is a digital marketing platform that allows restaurants to connect with their audience through email and SMS. It offers tools for creating engaging email campaigns, managing contacts, automating marketing workflows, and tracking performance metrics.

11. Sender

Sender can help create and send email campaigns to promote menu items, special events, and promotions to its customer base, as well as provide analytics to track campaign performance and improve future campaigns. Sender also offers ways to create signup forms and manage email lists.

12. Benchmark Email

Benchmark Email is an email marketing platform that provides a drag-and-drop editor, automation tools, list management features, and advanced reporting capabilities. For restaurants, it can be a great way to build customer loyalty and increase sales by sending targeted email campaigns, event invitations, and promotions to a segmented email list.

13. Omnisend

Omnisend can help restaurants engage with their customers and increase sales through personalized messaging and targeted campaigns, as well as streamline their marketing efforts by integrating with various e-commerce platforms.

Elevate your restaurant’s marketing with professional stock photos

Want to save money and time while still maintaining professional-quality visuals for your restaurant’s marketing? Eliminate the need to hire a professional photographer or find time to take your own photos with these 3 free stock photo websites.

14. Pexels

Pexels’ simple search function allows for efficient and hassle-free browsing through its vast library of free images, making it easy for restaurants to find the perfect visuals to enhance their marketing materials and social media presence.

15. Unsplash

Unsplash is an ideal resource for restaurants looking for high-quality, professional images to use in their digital marketing efforts. The vast library of free, royalty-free images makes it a good choice for stock photos.

16. Pixabay

Pixabay has royalty-free HD photos, videos, illustrations, and more. Everything is free to download and safe to use without attribution, even for commercial purposes.

17. Foodee takes care of all these details for corporate catering

A great way to boost your restaurant’s reach is to join the world of corporate catering by partnering with Foodee. Foodee has thousands of corporate clients seeking local restaurant caterers and takes care of logistics, delivery, marketing, and client service for each order.

By collaborating with Foodee, restaurants can tap into a wider customer base and expand their marketing exposure, ultimately enhancing their reputation and bottom line. Success stories include, Healthlyish Republic being able to open a brick-and-mortar location and AAamazing Salad’s business growing up to 30% due to this newly accessed revenue stream after becoming partners.

Use any of these affordable marketing tools that are designed to simplify the process and start building your restaurant’s digital presence today.
We recommend one from each section of our menu of restaurant marketing tools for a great restaurant digital marketing experience. Even if you’re new to the game, utilizing the user-friendly digital marketing tools outlined above can help you launch your restaurant branding strategy. If you want an oven-ready solution to corporate catering, Foodee is ready to help.