The One-Page Restaurant Marketing Plan: A 90-Day Template You Can Steal

The chef should understand it. The manager should know what is needed this week. The owner should know what number decides whether it stays or gets cut.

It should fit on one page.

Business.gov.au recommends that a marketing plan define the target market, positioning, goals, channels, activities, budget and method of evaluation.

For a hospitality venue, that can be made much simpler.

The eight boxes

Your complete 90-day plan needs only these:

1. The number
2. The service
3. The audience
4. The reason to choose
5. The campaign path
6. The proof
7. The budget
8. The review rule

Everything else is supporting detail.

Copy this template

# [VENUE NAME] : 90-DAY MARKETING PLAN

## 1. The number
The commercial result we want:
[Example: 80 additional Tuesday dinner covers per month]

Baseline:
[Current average covers / enquiries / bookings]

Target date:
[Date]

## 2. The service
The service, event or revenue line we are filling:
[Example: Tuesday dinner, private dining, weekday lunch]

Capacity available:
[Seats / rooms / bookings]

Operational constraints:
[Kitchen, staff, menu, times, blackout dates]

## 3. The audience
Primary guest:
[Who they are]

Where they come from:
[Suburbs, workplaces, hotels, existing database]

What decision they are making:
[Occasion, urgency, budget, group size]

## 4. The reason to choose
The offer or proposition:
[Specific reason to book]

What is included:
[Menu, timing, price, experience]

Why it is believable:
[Proof]

## 5. The campaign path
Discovery:
[Meta / Google / organic / partner / PR]

Decision page:
[Landing-page URL]

Booking action:
[Booking platform / phone / enquiry form]

Follow-up:
[Email / SMS / retargeting / sales call]

## 6. The proof
Images needed:
[Food / room / people / event]

Reviews or testimonials:
[Specific proof]

Useful information:
[Menu, capacity, parking, dietary, accessibility]

## 7. The budget
Management / production:
[$]

Media spend:
[$]

Other costs:
[$]

Total:
[$]

Allowable cost per booking or enquiry:
[$]

## 8. The review rule
Weekly measures:
[Spend, bookings, covers, enquiries, conversion]

Decision date:
[Date]

Continue if:
[Rule]

Change if:
[Rule]

Stop if:
[Rule]

If the plan cannot be made specific enough to fill these boxes, the venue is not ready to spend money distributing it.

Box 1: Start with the number

“Grow awareness” is not useless, but it is not enough to run a 90-day plan.

Use a result the business can recognise:

• 80 extra Tuesday covers per month
• 20 private dining enquiries
• 12 Christmas function deposits
• 200 new local email subscribers
• 30 weekday lunch bookings
• 10 profitable event bookings
• A target cost per completed reservation
• A target booking-page conversion rate

The number creates discipline.

Without it, every channel can claim success using its favourite metric.

The social person shows reach.

The ads person shows clicks.

The owner still sees empty tables.

Use one primary number and three supporting numbers

Example:

Primary: completed Tuesday dinner covers

Supporting:

• Landing-page conversion rate
• Cost per completed booking
• Email list growth

That is enough.

Box 2: Choose one service to fill

A venue can have many priorities. A campaign should not.

Pick one:

• Weekday lunch
• Tuesday dinner
• Sunday lunch
• Date night
• Bottomless brunch
• Private dining
• Functions
• New menu
• Live music
• Corporate events
• Christmas parties

This is the logic behind a HospoPro focus: one clear venue goal with its own page, ads and supporting content.

The daily feed can still show the full venue.

The campaign needs a single destination.

Capacity comes before creative

Write down:

• Seats available
• Sittings available
• Average party size
• Maximum group size
• Kitchen limit
• Staff limit
• Dates that cannot be promoted
• Time at which demand is actually needed

Do not build a successful campaign for a service operations cannot absorb.

Box 3: Define the audience by decision, not demographics

“Women aged 25 to 54” rarely tells a restaurant what to say.

A stronger audience description sounds like:

People within 8 km planning a midweek dinner for two who want somewhere polished but not formal.

Or:

Executive assistants and office managers booking end-of-year dinners for groups of 20 to 60.

Or:

Existing guests who have visited once but have not returned in 90 days.

The useful questions are:

• What are they trying to organise?
• How soon do they need it?
• How many people are involved?
• What might stop them?
• What proof do they need?
• Where do they look?
• What information must be visible?

The decision shapes the campaign.

Box 4: Give them a reason to choose

Marketing cannot fix an offer with no reason to act.

A reason to choose does not always mean a discount.

It can be:

• A limited menu
• A signature dish
• A view
• A room
• A ritual
• A time-limited seating
• A chef collaboration
• Live music
• A group package
• A seasonal experience
• Access before the public
• Convenience
• Certainty for dietary needs
• A strong value bundle without cutting the brand

Compare:

Join us for dinner.

With:

Handmade pasta every Tuesday. Two courses, one glass of wine, $42. From 5pm.

The second gives the customer something to evaluate.

Use the offer test

A strong offer answers:

1. What is happening?
2. For whom?
3. When?
4. What is included?
5. What does it cost?
6. Why should I believe it?
7. What do I do next?

If one is missing, the campaign has friction.

Box 5: Map the full campaign path

Most plans list channels.

Better plans show movement.

A customer may travel through:

1. Sees a Reel
2. Visits the profile
3. Clicks the link
4. Reads the offer
5. Checks the menu
6. Opens the booking widget
7. Leaves
8. Sees a retargeting ad
9. Receives an email
10. Completes the booking

Write the actual path.

The four stages

Discovery

Where will new people first notice it?

• Meta ads
• Google Search
• Organic social
• Google Business Profile
• Partner email
• Local press
• Street screen
• Influencer
• Existing database

Decision

Where will they get the details?

• Focused landing page
• Private dining page
• Event page
• Google profile
• Menu page
• Phone conversation

Action

What counts?

• Completed reservation
• Function enquiry
• Deposit
• Call
• Email sign-up
• Ticket sale

Follow-up

What happens when they do not act immediately?

• Retargeting
• Reminder email
• Sales follow-up
• Last-availability message
• Regulars list

A campaign is not complete at the click.

Box 6: Build proof before persuasion

The venue does not need more adjectives.

It needs evidence.

Use:

• Real dish images
• Real room images
• Real service moments
• Specific guest reviews
• Capacity details
• Menu and price
• Event photos
• Chef or founder credibility
• Availability
• Booking confirmations
• Press, if genuine

For HospoPro clients, a phone snap can become the starting point for Studio imagery, daily content, ads and landing pages, with a human quality check before use.

The image should make the promise believable.

Create a minimum proof pack

Before launch, collect:

• 3 hero images
• 5 supporting images
• 3 specific reviews
• 1 room or atmosphere image
• 1 staff or chef image
• 1 menu or inclusions graphic
• 1 clear CTA

That is enough to create a coherent campaign.

Box 7: Set the budget from the economics

Do not begin with an arbitrary percentage.

Begin with the value of the result.

Step 1: Estimate contribution per booking

Illustrative example:

• Average table revenue: $210
• Direct variable costs: $84
• Approximate contribution before fixed costs: $126

This is not net profit. It is a planning figure.

Step 2: Choose an allowable acquisition cost

If the venue is comfortable investing up to 25% of the expected contribution to acquire the table:

$126 × 25% = $31.50 allowable cost per acquired table

Step 3: Calculate the break-even volume

If the 90-day campaign costs $3,000 in total:

$3,000 ÷ $126 contribution per table = approximately 24 additional tables to cover the campaign contribution

Use your real figures.

The purpose is not perfect accounting. It is avoiding a campaign whose economics were never considered.

Separate the budget

Always show:

• Service and management
• Content production
• Media spend
• Software
• Offers or inclusions
• Other campaign costs

HospoPro’s current model keeps Meta and Google ad spend on the venue’s own card at cost, which makes the media spend visible rather than buried inside the service fee.

Box 8: Decide the rule before launch

A campaign becomes emotional when the decision rules are invented after the results arrive.

Set them first.

Example:

Continue if:

• Completed bookings cost less than $28
• Booking-page conversion stays above 4%
• The service can handle additional demand

Change if:

• Click-through is strong but booking conversion is weak
• Search terms are irrelevant
• Guests ask the same unanswered question
• The offer attracts the wrong party size

Stop if:

• The economics do not work after two meaningful creative or offer tests
• Operations cannot deliver the promoted experience
• Tracking cannot distinguish real results
• The campaign is displacing more profitable demand

Good marketing includes stopping.

A worked example

The following numbers are illustrative.

Venue

A 60-seat neighbourhood Italian restaurant.

Problem

Tuesday averages 32 covers. The venue can comfortably serve 65.

90-day target

Increase Tuesday dinner by 80 covers per month.

Offer

Tuesday Handmade Pasta

• Two courses
• Choice of three pastas
• Glass of house wine
• $42
• From 5pm

Audience

Couples and small groups within 7 km who want a reliable midweek dinner that feels better than cooking but does not require a special occasion.

Campaign path

• Meta video and static ads
• Google Business Profile event post
• Landing page with menu and booking widget
• Email to past guests
• Retargeting for page visitors
• Weekly availability Stories

Proof

• Pasta at the pass
• Dining room at 7pm
• Chef making dough
• Three reviews mentioning pasta and service
• Clear menu and price

Budget

• Content and campaign management: $1,800
• Media spend: $1,200
• Total: $3,000 over 90 days

Measures

• Completed Tuesday bookings
• Covers
• Cost per booking
• Landing-page conversion
• Repeat bookings after first visit

Review rule

Review weekly. Make the main continue/change/stop decision after four full Tuesdays, unless the offer or operations fail earlier.

The 13-week calendar

Weeks 1–2: Build

• Confirm baseline and capacity
• Finalise offer
• Create images
• Build landing page
• Set tracking
• Prepare email
• Load ads
• Brief staff

Weeks 3–4: Launch

• Send to regulars
• Publish hero content
• Start Meta and Google where relevant
• Update Google Business Profile
• Check booking flow on mobile
• Collect guest questions

Weeks 5–8: Improve

• Replace weak creative
• Clarify repeated questions
• Shift spend toward qualified demand
• Add proof
• Retarget page visitors
• Review party sizes and booking times

Weeks 9–11: Scale carefully

• Increase spend only if acquisition cost holds
• Add a second winning creative
• Create urgency around real availability
• Ask first-time guests for permission to join the list

Weeks 12–13: Decide

• Compare target with actual
• Calculate contribution
• Document what worked
• Keep, change or replace the focus
• Turn winning assets into evergreen content

The weekly 15-minute meeting

Ask only:

1. What did we spend?
2. What bookings or enquiries came in?
3. Where did people drop out?
4. What did guests ask?
5. What are we changing this week?

HospoPro reports are structured around this same principle: one concise page with the meaningful outcomes and a human note about what changes next.

Common plan-killers

Too many goals

Lunch, functions, followers, menu launch and brand awareness cannot all be the primary goal.

No owner

Every action needs one person responsible.

No capacity check

Do not promote a sitting the kitchen cannot service.

No booking tracking

Clicks are not reservations.

No review date

A campaign with no decision date drifts forever.

No proof

The promise is stronger than the evidence.

Changing everything weekly

A useful test needs enough consistency to create a pattern.

The final rule

A restaurant marketing plan should make the next decision easier.

It should tell the team:

• What are we filling?
• Who are we speaking to?
• Why should they choose it?
• Where will they see it?
• How will they book?
• What will it cost?
• What result keeps it alive?

One page can do that.

HospoPro

THE TEAM THAT RUNS THE CAMPAIGNS

We run the photos, posts, ads, email and reporting for hospitality venues across South East Queensland. Everything in this guide comes from doing the work on live venues, not a textbook.

REVIEWED BY THE FOUNDERS