11 Proven Strategies to Grow Your Restaurant Business

Running day-to-day operations as smoothly and efficiently as possible can be the soul focus of many restaurant owners and operators. But looking ahead and planning to grow your business is equally vital to its long term success.

While growth may seem intangible, some simple steps can go a very long way - without distracting you or your team from delighting customers in the day-to-day. We've assembled 11 strategies you can use to grow your restaurant business, with some top tips for how to make them happen.

What is restaurant growth and why is it important?

Restaurant growth is all about putting your business in a position to generate more revenue and sustain its long-term health. It might look like opening a new venue, adding a new product line or simply maximising profits within the current scope of your business.

Growth provides the following vital opportunities for restaurants:

• Increased revenue: Examples of growth like expanding to a new location can cost you money in the short-term. However, it provides a longer-term opportunity to bring in more money and achieve higher profitability.
• Market presence: Growth leads to a greater market share and brand recognition. Your business has stronger visibility in the market, causing more customers to walk through your doors.
• Economies of scale: As businesses get larger, many kinds of costs are reduced. For example, when serving more customers, you can purchase inventory in bulk, making it more affordable and cost efficient.
• Sustainability: When your business is growing or has achieved excellent growth, you are more likely to weather events like economic downturns.

11 strategies to grow your restaurant business

Your business may have growth as an abstract goal, but working to achieve it can be difficult. These 11 strategies are actionable ways you can get your restaurant on the right path.

1. Social media marketing

Marketing is crucial for any business, and hospitality is no exception. In particular, it's important to use up-to-date marketing methods to ensure you target your customers most effectively.

For this reason, social media marketing is imperative. Platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram are major hubs for discussions around dining hot spots and the best croissants in town.

53% of Millennial TikTok users have visited or ordered food from a restaurant after seeing it on the app.

For an effective restaurant social media marketing strategy, consider the following elements:

• Use video, widely considered the most engaging social media format.
• Take advantage of social media analytics. These tools can offer insights such as the best times to post content.
• Consider adding a booking widget to your social media profile to help convert your followers into diners.

2. Manage your online presence

Your online presence goes well beyond social media. You can reach more customers with a well-optimised website following search engine optimisation (SEO) best practices.

Maintaining your Google Business Profile is another great way to get eyeballs on your business. This is the informational panel that appears in Google Search and Maps results. With a ResDiary integration, customers can make a booking from your Google Business Profile in just a couple of clicks.

You can achieve stronger ranking performances for your Business Profile by ensuring your business information is up-to-date and using features like Posts.

Another important element of your Business Profile and online presence generally is review scores. Research suggests that 82% of customers read online reviews before deciding where to eat, drink, and shop. 

You can probably relate to this in your own experiences as a consumer. Would you dine at a restaurant with two stars on Google?

You get more reviews for your restaurant by asking your most loyal customers for reviews and searching for positive social media mentions of your restaurant.

3. Turn first-time diners into life-long customers

A priority for any restaurant is making sure your customers come back for more, which isn't only vital to ensuring your business survives, but is also a direct path to ensuring it can grow. After all, repeat customers have been found to spend 67% more than first-timers.

When a diner visits your venue for the first time, you should have a range of methods at your disposal to ensure they want to return. Some top tips in this area are:

• Great food and service: The first tip is a simple one: Make sure your diners have an amazing time at your venue. This might be the most reliable way to ensure they want to come back.

• Diner data: ResDiary enables you to use diner data to create an easy-to-use customer database. You can then target these customers with effective marketing campaigns.

• Special occasions: Special occasions are a major growth opportunity for restaurants. If a customer made their first visit to your restaurant on Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, reach out to them when that event rolls around next year.

• Incentives: Incentives like discounts or special menu items can be a great way to reach out to diners and draw them back to your restaurant. With data collected by ResDiary, it’s easy to find a deal that appeals to them.

For more information, check out our guide to doing more with your customer booking data.

4. Expand your offerings

New revenue streams can be a great way to achieve growth in a restaurant. Some products your restaurant could start selling include:

• Gift cards: Gift cards are a great way for your most loyal customers to share their love of their venue with others. With ResDiary vouchers, implementing them in your venue and measuring their effectiveness is simple.
• Take-home products: Customers can't get enough of your signature sauce? Why not bottle it and let your customers take it home grocery-style?
• Branded merchandise: Once you've put in the work to build your brand, consider selling branded apparel, mugs or tote bags. You can even compile your top recipes into a cookbook.

5. Consider a new location (or make the most of the space you have)

If your business is growing steadily, it may be time to consider a new location. You should only make this decision if you have a strong opportunity to do so.

Maybe you've received feedback that your restaurant is on the wrong side of town for many customers who don't frequently dine with you for that reason.

If you aren't sure if a new location is the right decision for your business, ask yourself if you're making the most of your current space. For instance, you may have an outdoor area you can capitalise on.

With ResDiary's segments, as part of its table management system, you can change parts of your diary for certain periods. It's an easy way to open yourself up to take bookings in an outdoor area during the summer season and make your indoor space more versatile. Then, you can seamlessly change your diary back when it ends.

When opening up your venue for summer, here are a few pointers from our Ultimate Guide to Summer for Hospitality Venue 2024 to look out for:

• 92% of diners cite sunny weather as their top reason for dining out in summer months. Make sure your outdoor spaces are able to take advantage of the weather.
• During summer, 71% of diners want to eat outside.
• 51% of diners want to visit a venue with a garden, deck, terrace or patio.
• 60% of diners want to see special offers and promotions for summer, while 52% get excited for new summer menu items.

Segments can also be used for events like Valentine’s Day. On this day, you might make changes to your venue to create more tables for two. Whatever changes you need to make to maximise your space, it can be easily done with ResDiary segments.

Another way to ensure you are maximising your current space is with a digital floor plan. These floor plans enable you to:

• Clearly view space in your venue and ensure you have an optimal number of tables.
• Spot opportunities for table joins, allowing you to be more adaptable to party sizes.
• When your floor plan is available in your booking diary, you’ll be able to clearly see the status of tables. At a glance, you can see if a party is running late or if a table is being cleaned.

Check out our guide to designing the perfect floor plan - with 20 ideas you can download too!

6. Embrace online ordering

The value of the online food delivery market in the UK is estimated to be over £34 billion. Placing your restaurant on third-party food delivery apps can enable you to sell to new customers and increase sales.

If you don't want to pay commission fees, you can even create your own online ordering system. Alternatively, consider other forms of online ordering to increase restaurant sales.

For instance, at-table QR codes can be used to allow customers to place orders. This can free up time for your staff as they don’t need to collect orders from around the restaurant.

It can also make your venue more accessible. Diners who live with physical or mental health conditions that make verbal communication difficult or impossible can place their orders much more easily.

7. Optimise your menu for taste and for profits

The chance to earn more revenue might be staring you in the face. Your menu could be the key to unlocking growth in your restaurant.

Firstly, investigate whether your menu is as delicious as it could be. Solicit customer feedback and ask if there are any changes that they would like to see.

There are also many steps you can take to get more value from your menu, such as:

• Optimise the menu for reading patterns: Research has found that customers tend to read menus like books, but that their eyes are generally drawn to the upper right-hand corner. This may be the perfect place to drop in some high-margin items.
• Highlight high-margin items: Other ways you can highlight high-margin items include bright colours, borders, or attractive imagery.
• Hide currency symbols: Another common menu engineering practice is to remove currency symbols from your menu. This can reduce the "sticker shock" of your menu pricing.

8. Cut down your costs

While searching for ways to generate more revenue, don't neglect reducing costs in your business as well. Bringing down your costs makes it much easier for a hospitality business to optimise operations, work more efficiently, and become more profitable.

Some methods for reducing costs in your business include:

• Smarter rotas: Use booking data to understand how many staff members are required for a given service. Consider using specific kinds of rotas, such as rotating rotas, to optimise them even further.
• Reduce food waste: Food waste is a major financial and environmental concern for the restaurant industry. Studies suggest that in UK restaurants, a staggering 39% of meals end up with a substantial portion going in the bin. Closely track food wastage in your venue. This should inform you whether to take steps like reducing portion sizes or updating your inventory practices.
• Limit utility costs: Try to bring down utility costs by using more energy-efficient equipment and lighting. You can also create thermal zones in your kitchen so your appliances function more smoothly.
• Reduce no-shows: No-shows can cause major issues for hospitality businesses due to lost revenue. With steps like booking deposits and automatic customer reminders, you can reduce no-shows and their impact.

9. Increase average spend per head

Increasing average spend per head is a powerful way to drive growth as it relies on customers who are already in your venue. With smoother operations, you can extract more value from each of them.

Some of the top ways to increase average spend per head are:

• Premium dishes: Look into ways you can make your dishes have a more premium appeal. This can justify a higher price tag without costing too much more to produce.
• Upsells: Upsells are a great chance to elevate your diners' experience while also generating more revenue. Conduct staff training including menu tastings so they can offer genuine insights to your customers. With ResDiary, you can bake upsell opportunities into the booking experience!
• Desserts and beverages: These menu items carry high profit margins and are a great way to increase average spend per head. Implement simple-to-make and delicious-to-eat desserts. Consider wine pairings to offer the perfect complements to your menu. 

10. Host events and experiences

Events and experiences are a great way to open your venue up to new kinds of customers. Whether it's a wine tasting or a special menu night, a special event can attract serious attention and facilitate growth.

When hosting events, make sure to start with something manageable and gradually build as your team gets more experienced. With the proper preparation, you'll find that your staff can do a great job transitioning to the tasks of event management.

Want some extra help? ResDiary's Event Management Software can take the stress out of holding events with personalised booking forms, a comprehensive event manager screen and more.

11. Prioritise sustainability and community engagement

If you want to future-proof your business, sustainability and community engagement are critical areas to focus on. Hospitality is at the forefront of many issues surrounding environmental sustainability.

The decisions of customers are increasingly influenced by sustainability issues, especially food waste.

A third of all food produced worldwide ends up being wasted. This food ultimately becomes landfill and accounts for up to 10% of human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

UK restaurants create nearly 200,000 tonnes of food waste each year. Do your part to reduce food waste in your venue, and don't be afraid to let customers know about it.

Community engagement is another great stepping stone to growth. When customers believe your venue has a genuine interest in the communities it operates in, they will be happy to follow your business to new ventures. 

It also ensures that as your business grows, you stay true to your roots and don't develop a homogeneous brand identity. To showcase community engagement, prioritise local sourcing of ingredients and mention this on your menu. You can also host charity nights and host cooking classes and workshops.

How to measure restaurant growth

Growth can look quite different from one restaurant to another. One reliable way to measure your restaurant growth is with key performance indicators (KPIs).

These are the key numbers that give you insight into how your restaurant is really performing. Some significant KPIs to consider to measure the growth and growth potential of your restaurant are:

• Cost of goods sold (CoGS): This KPI measures the money spent on food and drinks in your business. Understanding this metric is a crucial counterpoint to your sales.
• Labour cost ratio: Calculating your labour cost ratio involves dividing your labour costs by your gross profit and multiplying the result by 100. This lets you know if the money you are spending on labour is in line with the performance of your restaurant. 20-35% is considered a good benchmark for labour cost ratio.
• Net profit: To calculate your net profit, deduct all business expenses from gross sales. This is a holistic metric that explains the fundamental financial performance of your venue.

Tracking these metrics over time will give you an outlook into how your restaurant is growing and further opportunities you may have.

Optimise and grow your restaurant with ResDiary

ResDiary helps to optimise operations in your business, making growth more attainable. Our restaurant reservation management system offers tools like smart rules to automatically control your bookings and an analytics suite for easy data insights.

We also integrate with over 60 leading providers of hospitality software for even smoother business. Once your business is streamlined, it becomes much easier to bring down your costs and achieve the growth you're dreaming of.

Book a demo today and get start growing your business with ResDiary.