There are now more than 15 million restaurants in operation, and restaurant advertising is more challenging than ever.
A great restaurant marketing strategy is essential in such a highly saturated and even more competitive market.
Marketing strategies are used to increase awareness of a restaurant’s presence and personality, attract new customers, boost sales, and retain the existing customer base. There is much to do, and the stakes are high in such a competitive space.
If you’re not an expert marketer or you’re too busy running your restaurant, hiring a dedicated restaurant marketing agency could be the key to your success.
Below, we have listed 15 leading companies that specialize in this niche. Read further to get an overview of the various services offered by marketing agencies that cater to the restaurant sector.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2009
Location: New York, New York USA
Number of employees: 11-50
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Gourmet Marketing specializes in restaurant and hotel marketing and has a proven track record of success with various restaurant chains. It is an award-winning agency that offers a comprehensive set of services for everything you might need.
Gourmet Marketing is a restaurant-specific digital marketing agency with a proven track record of successful dealing with various restaurant chains.
In addition, their firm can assist you in developing a distinct identity for your restaurant by working on branding with you. As a result, it runs targeted advertising campaigns that are extremely effective at attracting new customers.
Gourmet Marketing Agency also assists with creating your restaurant’s food and beverage menus and food prices, all of which are critical for attracting repeat customers.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2018
Locations: Boston, Chicago, Dubai, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver
Number of employees: 51-200
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Top Agency is an award-winning global agency focusing on growth and performance marketing.
They offer a full suite of services, covering everything from paid media to content creation, social media, and public relations, and they have an excellent track record working with food brands.
They are adamant about achieving measurable results across six business divisions and 36 marketing disciplines, including earned media channels like public relations and influencer marketing, focusing on restaurant and digital marketing.
Whether they are positioning a new brand, developing an e-commerce platform, arranging a digital media buy, or developing a hospitality website, this agency works as a single, cohesive team across time zones.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2022
Location: London, UK
Number of employees: 1-10
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CJ Digital is a hospitality marketing company that works with bars, cafes, restaurants, and nightclubs. In 2022, Bloc named is a leading agency, and it has delivered outstanding results for its clients.
They offer a focused set of expert services that cover all your essential bases, from strategy to web design, SEO, social media, blogging, and PPC ads.
Their most effective strategy is increasing website traffic through organic social media and SEO channels. Furthermore, they are conversion-focused, which means they help clients convert the traffic they receive.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2006
Location: Franklin, Tennessee, USA
Number of employees: 1-10
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Nice Branding Agency, based in Franklin, Tennessee, offers full-service branding, digital marketing, and creative services for various restaurants and food and beverage brands.
Nice Branding Agency’s mission is to go deep to create brands by finding connections that benefit both the individual and the global community.
Moreover, because of their focused dedication to restaurant marketing, they can push the boundaries of creativity and content for established and growing businesses.
Nice Branding Agency conducts in-depth research and analysis on every project to help you achieve your overall goals and, ultimately, provide your audience with a unique, modern user experience to engage with your brand.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2014
Location: Aurora, Illinois, USA; Chicago, Illinois, USA
Number of employees: 1-10
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The Digital Restaurant is a digital marketing company that uses technology inside and outside restaurants to help those businesses grow. Their team of skilled experts works hard to provide their clients with a higher level of service and assistance they will not find anywhere else.
In addition to a full suite of marketing services, they offer specialized services for restaurants and pizzerias, including web design, mobile app development, and online menus/ordering systems.
So that their clients can get a higher return on their investment, they can customize their services to give as much help as their client’s restaurant businesses need to keep doing well.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2002
Location: Hollywood, Florida, USA
Number of employees: 1-10
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The Foodie Agency is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps restaurants with their marketing from A to Z.
They have over 20 years of experience and an excellent track record working with local, national,, and global brands.
They have worked with clients of all sizes, from small local restaurants to global food/beverage brands, and they have an exceptionally robust portfolio of successes.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2015
Location: London, UK
Number of employees: 1-10
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Side Dish Media is a London-based agency that offers a select range of expert services tailored to make the most impact for local restaurants, where visibility and accessibility online are essential.
From social media marketing to paid ads and Google Business listings, Side Dish Media has the expertise and experience to get people through your doors.
Side Dish Media has amassed a sizable clientele of eateries who rely on them to manage their digital ad budget since its founding in October 2015.
They focus primarily on online marketing for smaller restaurants in the London area but have previously taken on more prominent clients. When they first started out, they quickly discovered that Google and Facebook ads were the most effective way to generate customers for their clients, so Side Dish Media shifted focus to those avenues.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2009
Location: London, UK
Number of employees: 1-10
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Captivate Hospitality is the leading hospitality marketing agency in the UK, serving both independent restaurants and large restaurant chains. They have an excellent portfolio and combine creative and technical expertise to create robust marketing strategies that generate results.
The youthful and energetic company comprises hospitality experts with extensive experience. Due to their passion for the industry, they are uniquely positioned to offer sage advice and implement sales-boosting strategies for their clients.
As such, they act as an outsourced marketing department for hospitality firms, combining numerous disciplines of expertise to help their clients realize their vision of running a prosperous business. Moreover, they work diligently to generate new leads and establish their brand in a competitive market.
They want their clients to be proud of their organization, so they combine new campaigns, branded graphic design, digital marketing, website design, and a great deal of effort.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2015
Location: London, UK
Number of employees: 1-10
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Restaurant Genie is a London-based marketing and design agency specializing in social media marketing and management for restaurants in the UK.
They have over two decades of experience and a very impressive portfolio that combines marketing and creative services to great effect.
They offer a comprehensive set of marketing services, which include creative services like photography and video content production.
This is a full-service agency that specializes in restaurant promotion strategy, content production (video and photography), website design, and SEO.
They have a deep passion for food and everything it represents, which shows in their work and the results they have achieved over the last 20 years.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: Undisclosed
Location: London, UK
Number of employees: 1-10
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Studio Mayall (previously The Pass Restaurant Marketing) is a digital marketing and graphic design firm dedicated to providing high-quality, bespoke consulting services and ongoing strategic assistance. They have a great track record and have worked with dozens of successful restaurants in the UK.
Studio Mayall, which was previously known as The Pass Restaurant Marketing, offers various services tailored to your needs and the demands of the restaurant industry.
They can work for you as a standalone agency, designing and implementing a tailored digital strategy, or they can work with your existing team to ensure that your marketing dazzles so that you can draw in more diners and grow your brand.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: Not available
Location: Bedford, UK
Number of employees: 11-50
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Eat With Your Eyes is a creative design and marketing firm specializing in food retail and restaurant brands, and they thrive on creating new and innovative food brands as well as revitalizing old ones.
Moreover, they bring brands to life and give them a distinct voice. They devote their time to developing what is important to each client and brand in order to maximize revenue at the lowest possible cost to clients.
As an agency with four active directors and a studio of artists and creatives, their services cover all forms of communication, including branding and concept development, marketing and promotions, e-marketing and digital platforms, market research, and photography and art direction.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2019
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Number of employees: 1-10
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Carbonate specializes in branding, communications, and digital marketing for hospitality brands and restaurants. Its approach to marketing is strategic, creative, and data-backed.
Carbonate offers services that will meet all your needs, from developing a strong strategy to executing and monitoring all your marketing campaigns.
Some of their services include brand strategy, market positioning, concept development, name, visual and verbal identity development, websites, content development, and strategic public relations.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2006
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; New York, New York, USA
Number of employees: 11-50
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Cohere is a woman-owned creative agency specializing in marketing lifestyle brands using strategic marketing and creative storytelling. It has an impressive track record and has worked with some high-profile clients.
Their approach begins with an underutilized area or story. They transform these locations into brand experiences that are useful contributions to the communities in which they are located through strategic branding, web design, marketing, content development, and advisory services.
Further, their business partners in the real estate, hotel, and economic development sectors help them achieve a coordinated result that benefits the towns and cities where they live and work.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: Undisclosed
Location: Austin, Texas, USA
Number of employees: 1-10
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Digital Society is digital marketing firm that offers restaurants a great range of social media and paid media marketing services, as well as brand reputation management, and business consulting.
The Austin, Texas-based firm Digital Society assists restaurants in attracting more customers and increasing community recognition. Social media management is their area of expertise, which includes content creation, posting, and interaction strategy.
After years of managing digital marketing campaigns for global brands, auto dealerships, restaurants, and various other customers, Madeline Grenadier founded Digital Society LLC to share her extensive knowledge and expertise in digital marketing with small and medium-sized businesses.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2010
Location: San Antonio, Texas, USA
Number of employees: 1-10
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WHY CHOOSE THEM
Embark Marketing offers digital marketing services to various food and beverage brands, including cafes, bars, and restaurants. They have a proven track record and numerous industry awards behind them.
Embark Marketing, a firm based in San Antonio, Texas, focuses on clients in the food and beverage industry.
They work with brands, restaurants, and bars, developing strong marketing strategies and offering expert services for their execution.
A restaurant marketing agency specializes in the hospitality/restaurant space. Like any other agency, it usually offers a full suite of marketing services, from overall strategy to individual campaign development and execution across various channels.
What sets them apart from other marketing agencies is that they’re experts at adapting their marketing strategies to successfully market restaurants.
They know the space and the best ways to reach the right audience, and they have the experience needed to make the most of your budget by using the right methods from the start.
That said, there are some marketing strategies that are particularly important for restaurant promoting, so let’s take a look at the restaurant-specific services you should look out for:
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a highly efficient method of promotion that aims to maximize ROI for businesses for the least amount of money.
In concept, it’s as simple as it sounds; you pay for the number of people that click on an advertisement. Those people are then taken to your website or landing page, where they are far more likely to make a purchase. As such, you’ll make back the money you’ve spent on the click.
However, PPC is far more challenging to get right than it seems and should be handled by professionals, especially regarding restaurant promoting.
Even though Google can determine where a searcher is based on their IP address and where your business is based on the information you put online, this doesn’t mean that you will always appear in local search results. An agency will work on your localized SEO to help you appear in your area’s restaurant-related searches.
They will do this by:
A marketing agency can develop a strong content marketing strategy for your restaurant and restaurant blog.
A restaurant’s blog is a fantastic way to reach potential customers, gain new followers, and experiment with new writing voices and styles. It’s a place to tell your customers about your successes, funny stories, tasty recipes, and other interesting tidbits.
But running a blog is a lot of effort, and it needs to be done well in order to be successful; that’s why the marketing company you choose will handle it for you.
Social media is the place where most of the world’s population spends at least some of their time each day. And why should your restaurant’s brand be any different?
Whether it’s managing your Instagram and Facebook channels, responding to questions on Reddit about your brand, or creating a Discord server for your most die-hard fans, the marketing agency will boost brand awareness and increase customer engagement, and that’s never a bad thing.
Check out this video by Lyfe Marketing for more on using social media to promote your restaurant:
A website will help you rank higher in search engine results and handle much of your promotion. It’s also a place where you can direct people from other platforms, like social media, making it more likely that they will convert.
Therefore, a website is a “must-have” in today’s digitally focused society; that isn’t negotiable! But since the marketing firm will take care of it for you, you don’t need to worry about developing or making one.
The marketing agency will ensure that your website:
Summary: Services Do Restaurant Marketing Agencies Offer
All the agencies we have listed here are great options. Choosing the best one for your brand depends on how well their services fit your needs and how well you connect with them when you reach out.
No matter how great an agency is, the relationship is what will make or break your experience, so contact a few options from this list, get a feel for them, and narrow it down until you find the perfect fit for your business.
Hiring a restaurant marketing agency can vary in cost depending on what you need. It can range from an hourly rate of $15-$18 to a monthly retainer of over $10,000. The key is to get quotes from multiple agencies and ask about their experience in the restaurant industry. It's important to know what to put in your restaurant's marketing plan, but how much money should you put aside for advertisements? Advertisements should account for 3% to 6% of a typical restaurant's sales. This sum should also be distributed in accordance with the size of your monthly sales volume. Read the full review to learn more about restaurant promotion and what it entails, and what the top restaurant agencies offer. Being a trendsetter is the most straightforward way to make your restaurant stand out. To make your business stand out, give your customers what they want and let them know what's new, fun, delectable, and otherwise unavailable. Being a trendsetter necessitates a thorough understanding of your target audience and determining what is trendy in their zeitgeist. Read the full review to learn more about how the top restaurants market themselves, and which agencies they're working with. Local SEO (search engine optimization) helps restaurants appear in local searches, like "Italian food near me." This is important because most restaurant customers search for nearby places to eat. With good local SEO, your restaurant will increase its 'discoverability' and be more visible in search engines and Google Maps, leading to more customers and a competitive edge.Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to hire a restaurant marketing agency?
How much money do restaurants spend on advertising?
What makes a restaurant stand out?
What is local SEO and why is it important for restaurant marketing?
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