Running a restaurant is hard. Keeping it profitable is harder.
In an industry known for razor-thin margins and high failure rates, diners are more selective than ever and competition is everywhere. Our 2026 Restaurant Industry Trends Report reveals that guests switch between delivery, pickup and dine-in while expecting a personal experience on each one.
The good news is that you don’t need a brand overhaul or a celebrity chef to grow revenue. Here are 23 practical ways to increase restaurant sales, whether you want to attract new guests, win more business from your regulars, upsell in-house diners or grow your takeout and delivery orders.
How to reach new customers and earn more revenue
Want to fill more seats and grow your guest base? These ideas are designed to help you get discovered (and booked) by new diners.
1. Optimize your Google presence (organic & paid)
Google is the first stop for many hungry diners. SevenRooms 2025 Restaurant Industry Trends Report shows that 1 in 3 people discover and book restaurants through Google. That means your Google Business Profile can be one of your most valuable marketing tools, and best of all, it’s free.
Last year’s updates to the platform, like Reserve with Google, prepayment options and social media linking, make it easier than ever for diners to find and book your venue.
After claiming your listing, be sure to add your direct reservation and online ordering links to save on fees and drive more profitable bookings.
To further stand out from other local businesses, add high-quality photos, menu links and SEO optimized tags that highlight your offerings and ambiance.
“An optimized GBP increases your local discoverability and makes it easy for diners to book with you,” says Ashley Do from Google Partnerships. “Done right, it’s a tool for local marketing that helps diners find exactly the information they care about and gets them in the door.”
If you want to take it further, you can run paid Google Ads that target high-intent diners searching for terms like “best brunch near me” or “rooftop restaurants in New York.” Paired with an optimized GBP, it’s one of the most effective ways to boost visibility and fill seats.
Reviews on the same listing profile (formerly Google My Business) can also feed AI search tools, which draw on review content and menu details when they recommend a restaurant. 34% of U.S. operators are already managing reviews to improve how they show up in AI search results. Ask for reviews after good visits, reply on Google and other restaurant review sites and keep menu details current.
Post-visit customer feedback fills in what public reviews leave out. 59% of U.S. operators use online reviews to evaluate how guests see their brand (SevenRooms 2025 research), but only a few guests ever post one.
SevenRooms reputation management sends surveys automatically after each visit or order, and AI Feedback Summary sums up the responses, so you know what to fix and which happy guests to ask for a Google review.
2. Focus on SEO to increase restaurant sales
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your restaurant show up in local searches like “vegan brunch in Austin” or “late-night sushi Chicago.” Appearing in these searches drives traffic to your website, where you can convert visitors into diners.
Search engine optimization helps your website and Google Business Profile rank for both branded and unbranded keywords: terms diners use when they don’t yet know where they want to eat.
In fact, 50% of U.S. restaurant operators said they were investing in organic Google strategies in 2025, making it one of the most popular (and cost-effective) digital marketing channels.
To improve your local SEO:
- Add relevant keywords to your website and menu pages
- Create content that highlights your cuisine, location and unique features
- Keep your Google Business Profile updated with accurate info, links and photos
- Embed reservation and ordering links to convert searchers into paying guests
Ranking higher in search doesn’t happen overnight, but it can drive consistent, long-term revenue when done right.
3. Join social media platforms and link to your reservation and ordering pages
Social media isn’t just for aesthetics: it’s a discovery tool. 49% of diners in the U.S. use social media to find and book restaurants. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook help you stay visible, build loyalty and drive direct bookings.
Start by setting up accounts on the platforms that align with your ideal guest, whether that’s Gen Z foodies on TikTok or local families on Facebook. From there:
- Add direct reservation and ordering links to your bio
- Post regularly with high-quality photos, behind-the-scenes content and timely updates
- Use local hashtags and geotags to surface your content to nearby diners
- Interact with followers, reshare tagged posts and respond to comments to boost engagement
Want to expand your reach? Paid social ads let you target people who live and work near your restaurant and whose demographics match your existing customers.
Platforms like Meta (Facebook and Instagram) use geotargeting, so you can run ads that only show up to users within a specific ZIP code, neighborhood or radius. This makes your budget go further and ensures your promotions reach people who are most likely to dine with you.
Together, organic content and paid targeting make social media one of the most effective ways to turn scrolls into sales.
4. Use third-party marketplaces strategically
Reservation and third-party delivery marketplaces can help you reach new guests who may not have found you otherwise. But while they offer visibility, they also come with drawbacks, like commission fees, limited guest data and competing restaurant listings.
Nearly 80% of customers prefer to support restaurants directly by booking via the restaurant’s website or calling the venue. If you use third-party platforms, make sure you're leveraging them as a gateway to build direct relationships.
Add marketing inserts to delivery orders encouraging first-time guests to order directly next time. Include QR codes or promo cards in your check presenter that link to your reservation site.
The goal: use these platforms to get discovered, then move guests into your own ecosystem. This shift helps you build stronger relationships, boost loyalty and save on fees: savings you can reinvest in enhancing the on-site guest experience.
5. Participate in your city’s restaurant week
If your city hosts annual restaurant week events, consider participating in the event to attract potential customers. Not only does this give your venue extra exposure, but it also drives more foot traffic.
Restaurant weeks are the perfect time to show off signature dishes, and experiment with new ones. While you’ve got diners' attention, advertise your private events, group booking opportunities, loyalty program and more. You might also consider offering an exclusive, limited-time promotion available only for restaurant week guests, enticing them to return again soon.
6. Collaborate with brand ambassadors and micro influencers
Influencer marketing can be a great way to attract new diners, especially Millennials and Gen Zers.
Partner with local micro influencers and brand advocates to market key moments for your restaurant, from grand openings to menu changes to events. The key is authenticity: Choose partners who actually love your restaurant and will create content that feels genuine, not transactional.
Younger diners are more likely to discover restaurants through social media: 69% of U.S. Gen Z diners use social media to discover restaurants, but only one in 10 U.S. diners find restaurants through influencers. Treat creators as one part of your social media presence for attracting new customers and give each partner their own booking link to track results.
How to attract repeat business and get more sales
Follow these tips to create targeted marketing strategies that increase loyalty and boost your bottom line.
7. Save every walk-in guest’s details
A walk-in spends the same amount on average as a reservation and often leaves little information behind. No name, no preferences, no way to invite them back.
Instead, if you run the waitlist on a device at the host stand, every walk-in becomes a profile: contact details, party size, what they ordered, how long they waited. That record is what makes the second visit more feasible.
8. Implement a loyalty program to increase revenue
Implement a customer loyalty program that lets customers accumulate points for on-site and online orders and redeem points for free food, exclusive experiences and more.
9. Send texts to advertise deals
SevenRooms’ 2025 U.S. Restaurant Industry Trends report found that 48% of consumers prefer connecting with restaurants via text, especially when it comes to receiving time-sensitive messages and reservation updates.
Encourage diners to “opt in” to your SMS marketing in your reservations widget and social media profiles. Then send updates about last-minute table openings, events and promotions to generate bookings.
“Keep your messaging as short and concise as possible, even if your platform doesn’t restrict character count. Use images to make your texts stand out and include links to encourage reservations and event ticket purchases,” Henry Kaminski, CMO of Fabio Viviani Hospitality, tells SevenRooms.
With this strategy, Fabio Viviani Hospitality generated more than $440,000 in revenue in just six months from their text marketing campaigns using SevenRooms.
Text marketing through SevenRooms drives an average of $1,800 per campaign and delivers 24X ROI for restaurants.
10. Personalize emails for more bookings
While email marketing is known to boost sales, it's even better at getting customers to return when it's personalized.
According to 2025 SevenRooms platform data, targeted, automated emails generate 12X more revenue per email than mass sends.
To increase covers, tailor campaigns to highlight promotions, menu updates, exclusive offers and special events relevant to your selected audience segment. For example, Balance Hospitality Group rewards loyalty by offering specific customer segments early access to events via email, generating over $1.3M and 18,000 covers with an impressive average open rate of 59% in just 18 months.
Try something similar: send invites to tastings, cooking classes or mixology workshops to past attendees. Share your wine list in advance with cocktail lovers, or unlock “secret” recipes in exchange for email signups.
11. Offer deals on your slowest shifts, not your busiest ones
Discounting a normally busy Saturday gives away revenue you were going to earn anyway. Instead, the opportunity lies in the shifts that typically sit half empty.
Group your guests by when they usually book, then send offers to the people whose habits fit your quiet times. That could be regulars who often visit early in the week, guests who tend to book late in the evening or people who live within walking distance.
For example, an early-week tasting menu or a bar-only event aimed at one of these groups can fill empty seats without conditioning your Saturday guests to wait for a discount.
Start by identifying those slow periods. Look at daily sales and covers by hour, which campaigns filled which shifts and which guest segments tend to book at different times.
Few operators have this level of visibility. Only 27% of U.S. operators are very confident they know which campaigns led to repeat visits, and just 30% target all their promotions to specific guest groups.
Pro tip: SevenRooms restaurant reporting tracks spend, repeat visits and promotions by venue and timeframe, with Group Reporting across locations. Use those insights to fill specific gaps with targeted offers instead of broad discounts.
How to increase customer spend and restaurant sales
Follow these creative ideas to increase sales by incentivizing diners to spend more during each visit.
12. Optimize your menu design
Leveraging menu engineering when you design your menu encourages diners to spend more. Simple adjustments to the order of your menu items, removing currency signs from each dish, descriptive storytelling and the reworking overall color scheme are all known psychological tactics restaurants can use to guide choice.
For example, restaurant owners might write longer descriptions for the dishes they want to sell more of, or price dishes using round numbers when they want to make the establishment feel more exclusive.
When you’re looking for ways to increase restaurant sales, start with the menu. It’s often one of the first things a new guest checks, and 60% of U.S. consumers say the menu and type of food influence their decision to book a new restaurant through a reservations app.
Menu engineering helps you identify which dishes deserve the most attention. Use POS sales data and plate costs from your inventory system to identify high-margin, popular dishes, then place them where guests are most likely to notice them. Remove dishes that are low in both margin and popularity, and test new ideas on seasonal menus. This helps you improve menu profitability before raising prices.
13. Adjust pricing by day, shift and demand
Most restaurants charge the same prices all week, even though a Tuesday at 6 p.m. and a Saturday at 8 p.m. are completely different. One is quiet, the other is packed, yet both bring in the same amount per guest.
Revenue management tools look at how quickly tables are filling up, how big each party is and how busy each shift has been in the past. They then show you when guests will happily pay more, or when a higher price will act as a deterrent.
Start with the seats guests already see as the best in the house, like window tables, the chef’s counter or the patio when the weather’s nice. Charge a little extra for those seats, and set it up once in your booking system so it applies automatically.
14. Offer reservation upgrades
Let guests pre-purchase birthday cakes, champagne toasts served upon arrival, flowers on the table and more through prepaid reservation upgrades.
Pre-paid add-ons are an easy way to increase customer satisfaction and seamlessly collect prepaid revenue at booking without complicating the user experience.
For example, The Island Quarter used SevenRooms restaurant reservation system to offer upgrades during booking, generating $41,000 in prepaid experiences in just six months.
Here’s what guests see after selecting a reservation time at their fine dining venue, Cleaver & Wake:
Learn More: How to Upgrade Your Guest Experience & Grow Revenue with Online Payments
15. Offer special experiences that customers are willing to splurge on
Push past the boundaries of traditional dining by offering guests unforgettable experiences (think tasting and prix fixe menus, chef’s tables, kitchen tours, or dinners with live jazz) and make them available for a premium.
The more personalized, the more powerful. According to SevenRooms’ 2025 survey, guests are willing to pay more for elevated, tailored touches like:
- Curated appetizer platter (62%)
- Customized tasting menus (59%)
- Commemorative menus or special occasion keepsake (57%)
- Personalized beverage pairings (53%)
- Live music (53%)
With the right restaurant management and event software, you can easily sell and manage these experiences, increasing revenue and delighting guests.
Encouraging direct booking and prepayments for reservations and special events also helps reduce cancellations and no shows.
16. Cross-promote your entire restaurant portfolio
If you run multiple restaurants, make sure your guests know about every venue in your portfolio, so that you can be part of more of their dining-out or ordering-in occasions. Create an automated marketing campaign that sends after their first visit. Let guests know where else they can enjoy your restaurant group’s hospitality and incentivize them to book tables or place orders.
17. Make the most of your venue setup
If your venue has the space, create special areas that give guests a more memorable experience, and offer them as a premium option when they book. If your restaurant has a view, take a page from the Darwin Brasserie playbook and monetize what makes your place stand out. By designating its window seats (which boast panoramic views of London landmarks like the Shard and St. Paul's Cathedral) as a premium option guests could select at booking, the venue achieved a 626% increase in digital sales within two months.
Rooftops, patios and other unique spaces can also represent new revenue streams. Consider using your patio for live music nights, or offer to host birthday parties or special events in your outdoor area.
Your busiest shifts can generate more revenue from the tables you already have. Match party sizes to table sizes, pace courses and reset tables efficiently without rushing the guest experience. Faster table turnover on busy days can add covers without needing to add seats. SevenRooms table management shows table status, wait times and turns in real time from the host stand.
Celebrations offer another way to generate revenue from your existing space: 86% of U.S. consumers choose dine-in restaurants for occasions such as birthdays and date nights. Offer private dining, buyouts and group bookings with set menus and deposits. SevenRooms Event Management lets guests book private events with menus, minimum spends and deposits shown upfront.
18. Train staff to make personalized recommendations to increase profits
When you know your guests and their order history, you can recommend items that increase spend.
Train your front-of-house (FOH) staff to recommend drinks, appetizers, desserts and side dishes based on guest data stored in your CRM.
Let’s say you have a guest who prefers a particular $75 bottle of wine. During their next visit, staff trained in upselling might recommend similar wines near that price point or a dish that pairs well with the flavor notes. At quick service restaurants, upselling could entail asking guests if they want to upgrade a small drink to a large one. You can also teach staff to incorporate sales techniques in their process with suggestive language like, “Sparkling or tap water?” and “Would you like to add a protein to your salad?”
19. Sell restaurant-branded merchandise
Branded products can be a real revenue driver: 87% of consumers would buy a different type of offering from restaurants, like cookbooks or cocktail kits, according to 2025 SevenRooms data.
From cookbooks to wearables, you can sell branded products like t-shirts, water bottles, aprons, cookbooks and even canned versions of your famous sauce; the sky’s the limit.
Add merch upgrades and add-ons to your booking process. Etch. in London uses SevenRooms to upsell boxes of chocolates, aprons and a cookbook within their reservation flow.
How to earn more takeout sales and increase revenue
Restaurant businesses can also increase sales by offering different services that appeal to the masses, such as takeout or delivery options. Here are a few ways to generate income from these services.
20. Create takeout bundles
Create the to-go version of a prix fixe menu with takeout bundles for your online ordering customers. Offer multi-course meals or large-format family-style entrees guests can pre-order and pick up.
Choose dishes that travel well and package them with care, so guests get a meal that feels special and worth the price.
Bundles also make it easy for delivery guests to feed a group or treat themselves:43% of U.S. consumers would pay more for family or group meals on delivery, and 42% would pay more for premium bundles or combos. Offer family meals, premium bundles and catering packages for offices and events so guests can order for the whole group in one go.
21. Introduce online ordering
If you haven’t done so already, add an online ordering revenue stream to your business.
Joining a delivery services platform like DoorDash helps meet the growing demand for convenience, making it easier for guests to order delivery or pickup. It also expands your reach to new customers who might not discover you otherwise and simplifies the logistics of managing takeout operations.
Knowing how to increase restaurant delivery sales starts with helping new guests find you. 37% of U.S. consumers discover restaurants on delivery apps.
Over 55% of first-time orders at a restaurant on DoorDash in 2025 came from consumers who were browsing, according to DoorDash internal data. List your restaurant on the DoorDash app to reach these browsing customers, and add DoorDash Online Ordering to your website and Google Business Profile so guests can also order from you directly. That gives you two ways to sell, and DoorDash drivers (called Dashers) handle the deliveries for both.
Your online menu also needs to turn that discovery into orders. 87% of U.S. consumers have chosen what to eat on a delivery app based on an appealing photo or video. Add photos and clear descriptions to every listing so guests can see what they’re ordering. Photos help manage guest expectations, increase cravings, and many will pick a restaurant that shows them instead of just telling them.
22. Upsell add-ons on every order
Boost incremental revenue by upselling add-ons to delivery and online orders. For each order, configure your online ordering system to suggest add-ons that complement the items already in the cart.
Match each recommendation to what’s already in the cart: suggest a side with a main, a drink with a burger, dessert with a family meal or a larger size for a group. Set these recommendations up once, and they become part of the ordering process, helping increase the average check amount.
23. Cross-promote online and takeout offerings internally
Drive repeat business by cross-selling delivery to your dine-in guests and on-site reservations to your delivery diners.
For example, you can encourage guests who always dine at your restaurant to order online by offering them a promo code for their first order. Similarly, you can motivate pickup and delivery customers to join you in person by offering them upgrades via email, like a free champagne toast upon arrival.
Setting up two automated email campaigns targeting each customer segment can help you cross-promote at scale with little effort.
Driving restaurant sales and delivering personalized experiences to every guest
Every strategy above helps you do one of three things: welcome new guests, bring them back again or facilitate a higher spend. All three get easier when you know who your guests are, whether they book a table, order online or walk in.
SevenRooms connects reservations, guest profiles, marketing and direct online orders to a single guest record. Each interaction adds to that profile, giving you more information to use the next time that guest books, orders or visits.
Increase Restaurant Sales FAQs:
How do you increase restaurant revenue without increasing foot traffic?
Focus on increasing the average ticket value of each visit, and facilitating repeat visits. The National Restaurant Association expects industry sales to grow 4.3% in 2026, mostly on menu pricing rather than guest counts, so the gains are going to operators selling upgrades at the booking and bringing the same guests back more often. Repeat diners already spend 27% more than first-time diners.
Why are restaurant sales declining?
For most operators the problem is fewer guests coming through the door, not the prices they charge. 60% of operators reported less traffic last year, and more than seven in 10 consumers say they would eat out more often if they had the money, according to the National Restaurant Association. The demand has not gone away. People still want to dine out, but they’re more careful about where they spend their money.
How much more do repeat diners spend than first-time diners?
Repeat diners spend 27% more than first-time diners, according to US restaurant activity on the SevenRooms platform from October 2025 through March 2026. 80% of dine-in visits are to a restaurant the guest has been to before, so your regulars are both the guests most likely to book and the ones who tend to spend the most.
What is the fastest way to increase restaurant sales?
Upsell at the booking. Reservations with prepaid upgrades generate 16% more revenue per cover, and the appetite is already there: 30% of guests would pay more for a special-occasion package, 25% for preferred seating and 24% for a limited-time experience.
Do loyalty programs increase restaurant sales?
Yes, especially when guests can earn and use rewards however they choose to eat with you, whether they book a table or order delivery. 90% of consumers would use a loyalty program that covers both reservations and delivery, and 87% say a credit, discount or perk has convinced them to order again.
