Restaurant · Guide · Updated July 2026

Top Restaurant Marketing Trends You Need to Act On

Six restaurant marketing trends define where customer attention is moving right now. Act on them and you build a customer base that keeps coming back. Ignore them and you hand that ground to a competitor who will not.

Why TikTok Is Not Optional for Your Restaurant

TikTok is not a platform for teenagers doing dances. By 2020 it was already packed with finance content, business strategy, and operators building real audiences from zero. Your restaurant belongs there.

Here is the key thing about TikTok’s algorithm: you do not need a large following to reach a large audience. As long as your content is appealing and people are actually watching it, the platform will push it out. TikTok actively wants to feature new creators because new content is how the algorithm grows. That means a restaurant that posted its first video yesterday can reach thousands of potential customers this week.

One story that captures this perfectly: a business owner started during the pandemic, spent their life savings, and posted on TikTok. The growth that followed was not because they had built a following first. It was because the content was good and the algorithm rewarded it. If you have a compelling story, a photogenic product, or an interesting process in your kitchen, TikTok will work for you.

How Does Showing Your Values Actually Grow Revenue?

This is not soft advice. This is math.

More than 41% of diners say a restaurant’s values directly impact their purchasing decision. On top of that, more than 21% say they will not dine at a restaurant whose values do not align with theirs. Combined, that means a significant portion of the people within reach of your restaurant are filtering their choices by what you stand for, not just what you serve.

Yelp searches for Black-owned businesses grew more than 6,500% after the events of 2020. Searches for women-owned businesses rose 114%. These are not rounding errors. These are customers actively looking for businesses that reflect what they care about.

You will not attract everyone. You are not supposed to. Your job is to attract the customers who will come back again and again, spend more, and tell their friends. Those people want to know what you stand for before they hand you their money. Tell them.

Is Online Ordering and Curbside Pickup Still Worth Doubling Down On?

Yes, without question.

Fewer people are walking past your storefront and impulsively deciding to dine in. More people are searching for where to eat before they leave the house. That means your online presence is now your front door.

Online ordering, curbside pickup, and delivery need to be easy to find and easy to use across every platform: your website, your Instagram, your Google My Business listing, all of it. When someone decides they want to order from you and they visit your website, they should be able to place that order in under a minute. If they cannot find the button, they will not call you to ask where it is. They will order from the restaurant that made it easy.

Your goal is a frictionless experience from the moment someone thinks of you to the moment their order is confirmed. Any friction in that process is a lost sale.

What Does Hygiene Have to Do With Marketing?

Everything. Hygiene is not just an operational issue. It is a perception issue, and perception is marketing.

According to a Yelp diner survey, customers are extremely cautious about three specific things when considering dining in: being seated at a shared family-style table with strangers, laminate menus that have been handled by many people, and being seated directly behind other diners. These are concrete concerns, not vague discomfort.

More than 67% of diners said they would not visit a restaurant where they did not feel safe. That is two thirds of your potential customers making a decision based on what they perceive about your hygiene before they ever taste your food.

The fix is showing your practices, not just executing them. Post on Instagram. Document your staff protocols. Show your QR code contactless menu in action. Show how you prepare food. Show what your team does before service. Give customers the evidence they need to feel confident walking through your door, or placing an order for pickup. The communication of your hygiene standard is as important as the standard itself.

How Much Do Online Reviews Actually Affect Your Sales?

More than most operators realize.

A report by BrightLocal found that more than 87% of consumers check online reviews before deciding where to dine. That number had risen significantly from 2019. Your reviews are not a bonus feature. They are part of your sales process whether you manage them or not.

Research from UC Berkeley found that a half-star improvement in your rating increases your bookings at 7 PM by 30 to 40%. Moving from four stars to 4.5 stars on Yelp or Google does not just feel better. It translates directly into more reservations and more dollars in your pocket every single month, potentially hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on your volume.

That means asking for reviews is not optional. User-generated reviews carry more weight than anything you say about yourself. Focus on Yelp and Google. Make it easy for happy customers to leave a review. Respond to every review, positive and negative. Your reputation online is your most measurable marketing asset.

What Does a Good Restaurant Collaboration Actually Look Like?

Collaboration is two parties working together to promote something, and both audiences get exposed to something new. That is the whole mechanic. It works because people crave novelty, and because you each benefit from the other’s reach.

McDonald’s partnered with rapper Travis Scott in September 2020. Their sales forecast for Q3 shifted from 1.4% to 3%, with the Travis Scott meal as a major driver. That is a large chain example, but the principle is identical for an independent operator.

Dunkin’ Donuts partnered with Charli D’Amelio, one of TikTok’s highest-earning creators at the time. Two audiences merged around one product. Both sides grew.

At the local level, this looks like a chef partnering with a chocolatier on a new dessert. A bakery partnering with a deli to create a limited item. An independent restaurant partnering with a local food influencer on a tasting event. The parties involved might seem unrelated at first. What makes a collaboration work is shared values and a genuine win for both sides. If both parties are winning and both audiences are genuinely interested, the collaboration does its job.

When you are looking for a collaboration partner, start with who your customer already loves. Then find the overlap where your values and theirs meet.

The Bottom Line

These six trends, TikTok, values, online ordering, hygiene messaging, reputation management, and collaboration, all point to the same underlying shift: customers now research, filter, and decide before they ever set foot in your restaurant. Your marketing job is to win that decision before they even arrive. Show who you are, make ordering easy, prove you are safe, stack your reviews, and find partners who bring you to new audiences. The operator who does all six builds something competitors cannot easily copy: a loyal customer base that chose you on purpose.

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