Quick Service Restaurant Marketing: 10 Top Tips That Work

Quick service restaurant marketing can help business owners outshine the competition and attract more new and loyal customers. Some of the most popular QSR marketing strategies are creating a compelling Unique Selling Proposition, utilizing Search Engine Optimization, taking advantage of social media, and including automation.

In this article, you will find both tried-and-tested and fresh tips to help you ace marketing at your quick service restaurant and significantly improve your visibility.

QSR marketing, short for Quick Service Restaurant marketing is the process of promoting fast-food and quick service restaurants. The process includes strategies such as targeted ads, utilizing data analytics, and creating promotions to grasp client behavior and use the knowledge to attract the target audience.

A quick service restaurant is a type of food establishment that has the following characteristics: fast and convenient service, small menu with affordable dishes, and limited to no table service. A fast-food restaurant is a type of quick service restaurant.

Some examples of quick service restaurants are Subway, Wendy’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s.

Budgeting is tight for all food establishments, and you can’t afford to spend money on marketing strategies with no return on investment. If you want your QSR to succeed, try out these proven strategies:

The number one priority in your quick service restaurant marketing strategy must be to have an inviting and conversion centric online location. For this, you need a QSR website that will help you rank high in searches and will persuade customers to order.

We have the answer: the restaurant website builder from GloriaFood. In just a few minutes, with no technical knowledge, you can generate a personalized website that will be delivered to you already SEO-optimized so you can appear on the first positions in Google searches.

Moreover, the website was created to guide people to the ordering button and tempt them to order with a beautifully crafted and responsive online menu. See for yourself how easy it is to stand out online:

Do you want people to easily find your QSR when they search for places to eat on Google Maps? Then you need to optimize your Google Business Profile with:

• A link to your online menu: you can use GloriaFood’s smart ordering link to takes visitors directly to your menu so they can place an order;
• Updated working hours;
• Exact address;
• Pictures of your menu, food, interior atmosphere and exterior décor.

You can also go to your GloriaFood restaurant dashboard to analyze your profile and see if there are any opportunities for improvement.

On top of looking over the menu, what do you do when you choose a restaurant? Look at the reviews. Your customers do the same and they also look at the way you reply to online reviews to get a better feel for your business.

Here are some tips for managing online reviews:

• Reply to each review: no matter if it is good or bad, you must show each customer you appreciate the time they took to write the comment;
• Keep the same tone of voice: that you settled on when branding your restaurant. The same tone of voice you use to write adverts, social media posts and reply to comments;
• Master the art of replying to bad reviews: use this formula to make handling unfortunate reviews easier: Acknowledge the problem – Say sorry – Come up with solution. Moreover, always try to move the discussion in private where you have a better chance to change their minds.

Promotions are something that most people expect from quick service restaurant marketing. Don’t disappoint them! Potential customers choose QSRs because they view them as good value for money and offers help portray that.

Common promotion for QSRs are:

• Combo meals: with a main, side, and drink for a fixed price;
• 2+1: to attract groups to your restaurant;
• Happy hours: 10% off mains during your slow hours to encourage people to place orders during that time.

To set up these promotions and more you can use the Promotions module from GloriaFood. You can have them live, at the top of your online menu in seconds:

Offering freebies is a great way to reach a new audience and have a line of customers in your restaurant. But, to ensure you have a steady profit, you can’t give them out all the time, you have to pick some special occasions to make them count:

• Your restaurant’s anniversary: for example, a promotion where the first 10 people to visit your restaurant on its anniversary get a free dessert;
• On Children’s Day: every child that comes to your restaurant on this day gets a small free ice-cream;
• On Mother’s Day: every mother figure that celebrates this day at your restaurant gets a free lava cake.

The goal for quick service restaurant marketing isn’t just to increase visibility, but to also get more sales. Therefore, getting a big number of followers on social media and constantly engaging with them is just the first step.

Afterward, you need to convince them to visit your restaurant and place orders. This is more easily done with the smart link from GloriaFood that links directly to your menu. You can add it in:

• The descriptions on Instagram/TikTok/X (Twitter);
• The Start Order button or bio on Facebook;
• Facebook comments;
• Other social media platforms or review websites.

When you are just starting out, it can take time to organically reach people on Google and on social media. If you want to speed up the process, you can invest your marketing budget in targeted ads. You will have to:

• Select the audience: to be identical to the target audience you settled on at the beginning, so you don’t use money in vain;
• Create a compelling copy: presenting the benefits of your business and your attractive menu while inviting people to order;
• Add a link to your menu: so tempted people don’t waste time and can immediately place an order.

Influencers can be a great addition to your quick service restaurant marketing strategy if you select the right ones. Their followers trust their recommendations and you will experience an immediate increase in the number of clients after the collaboration.

Follow these tips to select the perfect influencers for your business:

• Start small: bigger influencers cost more, and you may not have the budget for them at the beginning. Focus on ones with a smaller audience that mainly talk about food in their content;
• Review their posts: to ensure they share the same values as your business and there is no problematic behavior that may affect your image;
• Look at previous collaborations: as it is a great preview for how your potential collaboration will be.

Your quick service restaurant marketing strategy must focus on both attracting new customers and getting old customers to return if you want to remain open. Email marketing is a great tool for increasing client loyalty as it keeps your business at the top of customers’ minds.

Take advantage of the Autopilot module from GloriaFood to create personalized email marketing campaigns that are segmented according to purchasing history with the goal of:

• Re-engaging customers
• Preventing cart abandonment
• Encouraging second orders

The emails contain promotions that will tempt customers to return and place another order.

We eat with our eyes first. This is especially true when it comes to marketing. To promote your restaurant and tempt people into becoming clients, you must show them your food in the best light, photographed in a way they won’t be able to resist.

Consider hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of all your menu items, so you can then use them on a variety of platforms:

• Website
• Social media
• Review platforms

Before we delve into quick service restaurant marketing strategies, you need the tools and knowledge to make your promotional efforts efficient and worth the money you invest in.

The target audience for your quick service restaurants are the people who are most likely to visit and order from your establishment. You don’t want to spend money advertising to people who are not interested in QSRs because they will never become your clients.

To identify your target market, you can:

• Do market research: with surveys and market analysis, you can pencil in the demographics, food preferences, and eating out customs of your future clients;
• Analyze your direct competitors: the people who often visit your direct competitors are the ones that are most likely to give your restaurant a try. Monitor your competitor’s online presence and visit their establishment to get better acquainted with your potential customers. For example, the target audience for a QSR can be “Busy young adults who value speed, affordability, and convenience. Looking for restaurants that offer takeout and delivery, and have delivery times faster than 30 minutes”.

Once you have a good profile of your target audience, you will use the information to target your promotional efforts to them.

Every restaurant sells food, what makes you different? Why should customers choose your QSR over others? You can answer these questions with efficient branding. By turning your restaurant into a brand, you sell more than dishes, you sell a story!

To define and create a strong QSR brand, you must:

• Choose branding items: a logo, colors, font, and other items that will stay consistent over all your marketing efforts;
• Settle on a brand persona: think of your restaurant as a person and give it a tone of voice. For example, a vegan QSR can have a brand persona defined by respect and friendliness towards every customer and the environment. The tone of voice is chipper and always invites more conversation;
• Construct a convincing USP: a Unique Selling Proposition is a short sentence that will stick in everyone’s mind. It must highlight the benefits your business provides and what makes it special. For example: “Fresh pizza, 24/7. We satisfy your hunger, no matter the hour” or “Pasta on your table in less than 15 minutes. Quality ingredients, fast preparation”.

Your quick-service restaurant marketing efforts will be easier and stronger when backed by powerful branding.

How do you know what menu items are selling best and which ones to promote to increase sales? What are your restaurant’s slow hours? Instead of guessing the answers, you can rely on restaurant data analytics to make the best quick service restaurant marketing decisions.

To get valuable all-around data about your QSR, you need:

• The GloriaFood POS system
• The free online ordering system from GloriaFood

By using the GloriaFood POS system for quick service restaurants, you get access to the following restaurant data that helps you choose the best marketing strategies:

• Property financial report: to see net sales, offered discounts, order types, cash payments, and more. With this info, you can identify your slow days and also come up with promotions that encourage more pick-up orders or online payment;

• Family Group & Menu item sales report: identify your best and worst selling categories and dishes. After you realize which menu items are usually ignored, you can then add them in promotions to encourage customers to buy them.

To further improve your marketing efforts, use the GloriaFood online ordering system to monitor the following online restaurant analytics:

• Number of new vs returning clients: so you know if you should focus more on attracting new customers or increasing the number of loyal customers;

• Promotions: which of your promotions are more efficient so you can replicate them;

• Heatmaps: identify where most of your deliveries come from. You can than target the other zones with ads to persuade people to place orders;

• Online ranking: to find out how well you rank in searches and see tips on how to improve your position.

Acing quick service restaurant marketing requires a blend of knowledge about customers and the current food market plus the best strategies to reach the target audience. To ensure your advertising is efficient, you can rely on the GloriaFood ecosystem to support your business.

What marketing strategies do fast-food restaurants use?

Some of the most common marketing strategies used by fast-food restaurant include:

• Search Engine Optimization for the website
• Adding promotions to the menu
• Social media marketing
• Encouraging online reviews
• Working with food influencers

How to promote fast food restaurants?

To promote fast-food restaurants, start strengthening your brand and getting to know your customers. Promotional strategies include promotion on social media, offering deals, accepting online orders and constantly engaging with the locals.

What is one strategy that quick service restaurants are using to increase sales?

One of the most efficient strategies to increase sales for quick service restaurants is upselling. You can do it in location by training your servers to recommend dishes. You can also do it online, with the help of GloriaFood by enabling customers to customize dishes with toppings and add-ons.