You do not need to do all eight at once. The first three cost little and affect almost every new guest, so start there and add the rest as you have capacity.

1. Own the map listing

For a restaurant, the Google listing is often the first thing a hungry searcher sees, before your website. Treat it as a shop window: accurate hours, a booking link, recent photos and a full menu. Add fresh photos of dishes and the room every few weeks so the listing looks cared for.

Google's menu editor lets food and drink businesses list sections, dishes, descriptions and prices, add a menu link and choose a preferred menu source. Owners can also add popular dish names and suggest corrections, and Google says dish names added by the business take precedence over those added by customers. Update both whenever the menu changes.

2. Build a review habit that stays inside the rules

Recent reviews reassure people who have never heard of you. Ask every table in the same simple way, for example with a QR code on the bill or a short thank-you message after a booking, and reply to reviews politely, including the critical ones.

Be careful how you ask. Google's policy on prohibited content bans reviews paid for with money, discounts or free items, and it also bans selectively asking only happy guests for reviews. A free dessert for a five-star review breaks both rules, so ask everyone and offer nothing in return.

3. Market occasions, not just the restaurant

People rarely search for a restaurant in the abstract. They search for a birthday dinner, a Sunday roast, a set lunch, a private room for twelve or somewhere dog-friendly. Each of these is a marketing opportunity with its own audience and timing.

Build a simple calendar of the occasions you want to win, including Mother's Day, Christmas parties and local events, and plan content for each a few weeks ahead. Pages for your strongest occasions also help you appear in search, as our guide to keyword research for service businesses explains.

Tie each occasion to a clear next step, such as a bookable set menu, an enquiry form for groups or a deposit link for Christmas parties. Without one, interest fades before anyone books.

4. Fill your quietest night on purpose

Most restaurants have one night that drags. Rather than discounting everything, give people a specific reason to come on that night: a set menu, a producer dinner, a supper club, a quiz or a bring-your-own-bottle evening if your licence and policy allow it.

Here is a worked example for a hypothetical 50-cover restaurant with quiet Tuesdays. It is an illustration, not a client result.

Run it for at least a month before judging it, and change one thing at a time so you know what made the difference.

5. Run promotions that follow the CAP Code

Offers, competitions and giveaways count as promotional marketing, and the CAP Code rules on promotions apply. You must state significant conditions such as closing dates, how to take part and any restrictions, and where space is tight, such as a short social post, point people clearly to the full terms.

The code also says promotions must not encourage excessive drinking, and alcohol promotions must not be aimed at under-18s. Estimate demand honestly too, because "subject to availability" does not excuse you if guests are left disappointed.

6. Email regulars, with permission

An email list of regulars is the one channel you fully own. Send short, useful messages when you have real news: a new menu, a seasonal event, a few tables left for a special night.

Under PECR, the ICO guidance on email marketing says you generally need consent to send marketing emails to individuals. The soft opt-in exception can cover existing customers who bought, or negotiated to buy, a similar product or service from you, as long as you gave them a simple way to opt out when you collected their details and in every message.

The ICO says this guidance is under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act, so check it before you launch a campaign. Add a clear, unticked opt-in box to your booking form and you avoid most problems.

7. Show up locally, online and off

Short videos of dishes being made, the room filling up and the team at work give people a feel for the place that menus cannot. Consistency beats polish, so pick one or two channels you can post on every week rather than trying to be everywhere.

Offline, look for partners who share your guests: a nearby theatre, a local brewery, a market, a wine supplier or a business that hosts events. Joint menus, pre-show dinners and supplier evenings give both sides something new to talk about, and they often bring in guests who would not have found you otherwise.

8. Measure what fills tables

Ask your booking system which sources bookings come from, tag links in emails and social posts so they show up separately in your analytics, and ask new guests how they heard about you.

Watch for gaps in the data. Google notes in its bookings help that performance data is not available for custom booking links, so if you use your own link on your profile, track it through your booking system or tagged URLs instead. Review the numbers monthly and drop ideas that do not move covers.

How The Think helps restaurants

We are a small branding and web design studio that also runs SEO, local SEO and Google Ads landing pages. For restaurants, that means joining up the brand, the website, the Google listing and the campaigns so each one supports the others. See our restaurant marketing page for how we would approach it.