Best Restaurant Marketing Tools

Restaurant marketing tools make it easier to grow your restaurant business by using the data you're already collecting every day from sales transactions, customer interactions, and individual menu item ordering.

Your restaurant point of sale (POS) platform may even capture helpful data from your back-end operations, such as inventory, cost recipe analysis, labor costs, and more — all of these data insights, paired with the best restaurant marketing tools, can help your restaurant reach new customers and keep existing guests coming back for more.

With so many different restaurant marketing tools on the market, it can be hard to decide which is best for your unique restaurant. In this article, we'll look at some of the best marketing tools available in 2023, and discuss the features and benefits that make them stand out in the crowded market. Choose which restaurant marketing software is the best option for your business based on the pros and cons and see if it fits your budget.

Best restaurant marketing tools

• Intuit Mailchimp
• Toast Marketing
• Rasa.io
• ChowNow
• Constant Contact
• Litmus
• MailerLite
• Moosend

Choosing the best restaurant marketing tools — what should you look for?

The best restaurant marketing tools will help your business attract new guests while keeping current guests coming back again and again. They allow you to send targeted messages to your most loyal guests using sales data and loyalty program integrations. Using the best restaurant marketing tools will help set your restaurant ahead of the competition and stay top of mind when diners in your community are looking for their next meal.

Before you read through the best restaurant marketing options available to you, consider taking a moment to determine your problem areas with the way you currently market your restaurant. Are your email marketing campaigns performing as expected? Do you wish you could reach more customers online? As you read through the pros and cons of the best restaurant marketing tools below, consider which one will help you achieve your goals and give you the type of data on your business you want to obtain.

Intuit Mailchimp

Intuit Mailchimp is an email marketing and automation platform for growing businesses. They serve over 12 million customers worldwide who are launching, building, and growing businesses through marketing technology.

Pros of Intuit Mailchimp

• Consistently rated one of the top email marketing platforms for small, and growing, businesses

• Analyzes data from half a billion emails they send every day to provide personalized recommendations for improving content, targeting, automation, and insight on how to turn emails into revenue

• Offers both a desktop and mobile app experience

• Options for both low-end users and high-end premium users

Cons of Intuit Mailchimp

• It can take time to get used to the interface and platform logic to manage audiences

• Email templates can lack flexibility and customization options

• The 2021 acquisition by Intuit has made some users unsure of where the future of the business is going

• Many of the testing and automation features are only available in the higher-tier pricing plans

Price of Intuit Mailchimp

Intuit Mailchimp offers a free plan as well as three paid plans: Essentials for $13 per month, Standard for $20 per month, and Premium for $350 per month.

Toast Marketing

Toast Marketing is a native email marketing product offered by Toast. Restaurants that use Toast's point of sale (POS) platform can connect with guests and increase repeat visits with Toast Marketing.

Pros of Toast Marketing

• Allows users to build custom email lists for different customer types, such as VIP guests, birthdays this month, catering customers, and more.

• Since Toast Marketing is native to Toast POS, users never have to export email addresses and import them into a third-party email marketing tool.

• Offers A/B tests to refine campaigns and send the most effective message.

Cons of Toast Marketing

• Only available to restaurants that use Toast POS

Price of Toast Marketing

Toast Email Marketing can be added to Toast POS for $75 per month.

rasa.io

rasa.io helps you create automated newsletters that engage customers and curate content that builds better relationships with your customer base.

Pros of rasa.io

• Newsletter automation on a weekly basis with the option to schedule and curate the content

• Personalized newsletters per customer or client, leading to more successful campaigns and open rates

• Provides insights to help you tailor special offers and discounts to both current and potential customers

• Ability to customize emails with your personal branding

Cons of rasa.io

• There's a bit of a learning curve when getting started

• The user interface can lag and freeze at times

Price of rasa.io

rasa.io offers a free two-week trial and three plan options: a Standard plan starting at $29 per month, a Plus plan starting at $140 per month, and a Pro plan starting at $499 per month. Each of these plans increases in price depending on the size of your email list and how many contacts you're emailing per month.

ChowNow

ChowNow helps you grow your customer base by helping customers connect with you online.

Pros of ChowNow

• You own your client lists and can send promotions whenever you want 

• Collects customer information for you when customers order online and interact with your business

• ChowNow Direct offers a full suite of tools from automated email marketing to branded apps 

Cons of ChowNow

• The learning curve can create a frustrating experience when getting started

• Building and implementing the app can be a lengthy and time-consuming process

• Reporting is not as customizable as other options on the market

Price of ChowNow

ChowNow Direct starts at $199 per month when signing up for a monthly subscription. If you pre-pay annually, you can receive a discounted price.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact provides small businesses the tools to simplify and amplify their digital marketing to drive sales, grow their customer base, and engage with online audiences.

Pros of Constant Contact

• Provides landing pages to help build your contact lists

• Option to set up social media lead advertisements or connect with customers through SMS text messages, email, and social media

• Can create and manage social media posts and advertisements in one place to generate leads and awareness

• Syncs and integrates with other apps and software

Cons of Constant Contact

• Limited design customization

• Extracting data from summary metrics is not as intuitive or user-friendly as other options on the market

• Inability to test A/B subject lines with automated resend features

Price of Constant Contact

Constant Contact starts at $9.99 per month for the Core plan and $45 per month for the Plus plan. They also offer a Lead Gen & CRM plan starting at $199 per month.

Litmus

Litmus is an email marketing platform that provides email optimization, personalization, and collaborative software to help you get the best return on investment (ROI) for your campaigns.

Pros of Litmus

• Pre-send campaign development support and testing

• AI-driven content recommendations for personalizing campaigns

• Provides post-send insights to optimize future content

• Allows users to preview emails as they'll appear in various clients (e.g. Gmail, Outlook, etc.)

Cons of Litmus

• It can be time-consuming to learn the system and features in order to utilize it to its full potential

• Designed with advanced email marketers in mind, so can be tricky for less tach savvy folks or smaller businesses

Price of Litmus

Litmus offers a Basic plan for $99 per month, a Plus plan for $199 per month, and an Enterprise plan with custom pricing. They also offer free trial periods.

MailerLite

MailerLiter helps businesses scale with responsive email marketing newsletters, landing pages, and websites.

Pros of MailerLite

• Ability to manage campaigns on the go with iOS mobile app

• Send and schedule personalized emails using segmentation, interest groups and multi-trigger automation workflow

• Ability to integrate with other software such as Zapier, Stripe, and Shopify

• Intuitive drag-and-drop email editor

Cons of MailerLite

• Lengthily process for setting up and learning the system, particularly automation

• The user design and experience are not as streamlined as other products on the market

Price of MailerLite

MailerLiter's plans are based on the number of subscribers you have on your email list. For 1,000 subscribers and fewer, users can use a Free plan, a Growing Business plan for $9 per month, or the Advanced plan for $19 per month. They offer custom pricing for businesses with over 100,000 subscribers. 

Moosend

Moosend is an email marketing automation software platform with lead-generation tools to help you grow your business.

Pros of Moosend

• Automation of email marketing campaigns that are beautiful and professionally designed

• Advanced segmentation features and automated repetitive tasks

• Allows you to measure your marketing success and collect data with insights to help drive decisions

Cons of Moosend

• Does not offer a free plan for beginners and the site can be difficult to navigate for those new to email marketing

• Limited email designs and templates for newsletters

Price of Moosend

Moosend offers a free, 30-day trial. Their Pro plan starts at $9 per month and increases based on the number of subscribers you have.

What’s the best restaurant marketing software for your specific business?

An integrated restaurant email marketing tool and point of sale keeps things simple.

If you're looking for integrated restaurant marketing, look no further than Toast Marketing. Built directly into the Toast all-in-one restaurant platform, Toast Marketing can help you improve customer interactions and increase repeat visits.

With automated email marketing, you can reward your regular customers, bring back guests who have not visited recently, and send welcome emails to new customers to build raving fans. Plus, automated email marketing frees up time to devote elsewhere.

Interested in learning more? Book a free demo to see why more than 74,000 restaurants love Toast.

Best Restaurant Technology Resources

• Best Restaurant Management Software
• Best Restaurant Website Builders
• Best Restaurant Food Delivery Apps
• Best Food Delivery Software
• Best Restaurant Reservations App and Software
• Best Free Restaurant POS Software