A restaurant marketing plan for 2027, month by month

A restaurant marketing plan for 2027 fits on one page: three goals, a monthly budget, a calendar of the dates that matter to your guests, and a weekly routine that keeps reviews, offers and regulars moving. Below are the key 2027 dates checked against official calendars, a campaign for every month, and a template to fill in.

Looking for tactics rather than a plan? Start with our 25 restaurant marketing ideas, then use this guide to decide which ones run when.

What goes into a restaurant marketing plan?

A list of ideas is not a plan. A plan says which ideas you will run, when, who does the work, and how you will know it worked. It has four parts:

1. Goals. Three numbers you want to move this year.
2. Budget. The money and staff hours you will spend each month.
3. Calendar. One main campaign a month, tied to dates your guests already care about.
4. Routine. The small weekly jobs that keep the basics working.

Add a short scorecard and a review date, and you are done.

Step 1: How do you set marketing goals?

Start with last year’s numbers, not this year’s hopes. Pull sales by month, day and hour from your POS, plus online orders, catering orders, bookings, the size of your guest list and your count of Google reviews.

Then find your weak spots and turn each into one goal with a number and a date. Pick three at most.

Weak spot	Example goal	Measured by
Slow Tuesday dinner	Tuesday checks from 40 to 48 by 31 March	POS sales by day
Few repeat guests	30% of spring guests back within 60 days	Rewards or guest data
Thin catering	6 catering orders a month by September	Catering log
Stale reviews	8 new Google reviews a month	Google Business Profile
Small guest list	1,500 opted-in contacts by December	Email and SMS list

Give every goal an owner. “The team” is not an owner.

Step 2: How much should you budget?

There is no single right percentage. The SBA’s advice is practical: write down a complete breakdown of your marketing costs, keep tracking them, and compare them with the revenue they bring in so you know you are getting a positive return.

Build the budget from your calendar, not from a guess. Here is one way to split a monthly budget, using $1,000 as an example:

Bucket	Share	Example	What it covers
Always-on basics	40%	$400	Photos, printing, email and text tools, rewards costs
Seasonal campaigns	30%	$300	The month’s main campaign, such as Mother’s Day or Diwali
Tests	20%	$200	One new idea, such as a creator visit or a small paid boost
Reserve	10%	$100	A surprise chance, such as a local event

Two costs owners often forget:

• Free food and discounts are marketing costs. A free dessert costs its food cost every time.
• Staff hours count. Two hours a week of a manager’s time is real money.

Worked example. A Mother’s Day campaign costs $250: $60 printing, $90 for a small social boost and $100 in food cost for a free dessert. It brings 40 extra guests at $35 each, so $1,400 in sales. At 30% food cost, that food costs $420. You are left with $730 after the campaign cost and before labor. Worth repeating.

Step 3: The 2027 restaurant marketing calendar

Federal holidays below follow the OPM’s 2027 schedule. Religious dates come from published observance calendars. Islamic dates depend on the moon and can move by a day, so check with your local mosque or community groups.

Month	Key dates in 2027	Campaign idea	Main channel
January	New Year’s Day Fri 1 Jan; Martin Luther King Jr. Day Mon 18 Jan	”Regulars’ month”: bonus points on slow nights. Restart office lunch accounts as budgets reset.	Email, rewards, office visits
February	Lunar New Year Sat 6 Feb; Ramadan expected to begin around 7 Feb; Super Bowl LXI and Valentine’s Day both Sun 14 Feb; Presidents’ Day Mon 15 Feb	Game-day platters for pickup; Valentine’s dinner on Sat 13 and Sun 14; iftar dinners after sunset if your guests fast	Text, website banner, Google post
March	Eid al-Fitr around 9–10 Mar; St. Patrick’s Day Wed 17 Mar; Holi Mon 22 Mar; Easter Sun 28 Mar	Eid party trays by pre-order; open Easter brunch bookings three weeks early	Email, WhatsApp, bookings
April	Chaitra Navratri 7–15 Apr; Passover begins 21 Apr	Spring menu launch; open Mother’s Day bookings by mid-April	Email, Google post, photos
May	Cinco de Mayo Wed 5 May; Mother’s Day Sun 9 May; Eid al-Adha around 16–17 May; Memorial Day Mon 31 May; graduations begin	Mother’s Day seatings plus a take-home meal; graduation party catering	Bookings, email, text
June	Juneteenth Sat 19 Jun (observed Fri 18); Father’s Day Sun 20 Jun; graduation parties	Graduation party trays; a Father’s Day feast for the table	Catering enquiries, email
July	Independence Day Sun 4 Jul (observed Mon 5)	Cookout trays to order ahead; a summer lunch deal for quiet weeks	Pre-orders, text
August	Back to school (mid-August to early September, varies by district)	School-night family meal; teacher lunches; a school fundraiser night	Email, school partners
September	Labor Day Mon 6 Sep; offices fully back	Office catering push; game-day platters for football season	Office visits, email
October	Diwali Fri 29 Oct; Halloween Sun 31 Oct	Diwali sweets and party trays by pre-order; open holiday party bookings	WhatsApp, email, pre-orders
November	Veterans Day Thu 11 Nov; Thanksgiving Thu 25 Nov; Black Friday Fri 26 Nov	Thanksgiving pre-orders with pickup times; holiday party follow-ups	Email, text
December	Christmas Eve Fri 24 Dec; Christmas Sat 25 Dec; New Year’s Eve Fri 31 Dec	Parties, catering and New Year’s Eve	All channels

You do not need a campaign for every date. Pick the ones your guests actually celebrate, and let the rest go.

Three 2027 dates to plan around early

• Sunday 14 February. Super Bowl LXI and Valentine’s Day land on the same day. Sell game-day platters for pickup before kickoff, and steer couples to Saturday 13 February or an early Sunday seating. Presidents’ Day on Monday makes it a long weekend.
• Sunday 9 May. Families plan Mother’s Day early. In the National Retail Federation’s April 2026 survey, 63% of Mother’s Day shoppers planned a special outing such as dinner or brunch. Open bookings in April and offer a take-home meal for families who want to stay in.
• Late October. Diwali on Friday 29 October, Halloween on Sunday 31 October and the start of holiday party bookings all land together. Take Diwali orders ahead so the kitchen is not guessing. For November and December, use our holiday marketing playbook.

Step 4: What’s the weekly marketing routine?

The calendar brings the big days. The weekly routine keeps the other 300 days working. It takes about 90 minutes a week.

Day	Job	Time
Monday	Look at last week: sales by day and hour, orders, bookings, new reviews	20 min
Tuesday	Reply to every new review and ask last week’s guests for one	15 min
Wednesday	Choose or approve one offer for next week’s slowest block	10 min
Thursday	Send the weekend message to your guest list	15 min
Friday	Post a fresh dish photo to your Google profile and social pages	10 min
Sunday	Thank regulars: birthday treats and a note to guests not seen in 60 days	20 min

Three habits matter most.

Reviews. Ask every guest, reply to every review, good or bad, and fix what the bad ones point to. Our Google reviews guide has the scripts.

Slow-hour offers. Find your weakest block each week and give guests a reason to come then, without discounting your busy nights. The math is in slow-day promotions.

Regulars. Your best guests are the cheapest to bring back. A rewards program, a birthday treat and a “we miss you” note keep them coming. See loyalty program ideas, and message only guests who opted in, as our SMS and email guide explains.

What should you measure?

Keep the scorecard short enough that you actually look at it.

Number	Where to find it	How often
Sales by day and hour	POS report	Weekly
Direct online orders vs delivery app orders	Ordering reports	Weekly
New reviews and average rating	Google Business Profile	Weekly
Repeat-guest rate	Rewards or guest data	Monthly
Opted-in contacts	Email and text list	Monthly
Campaign cost vs sales it brought	Your campaign log	After each campaign

Three rules make the numbers honest:

1. Give every campaign its own code or link, so you can count what it brought.
2. Compare like with like. This Tuesday against the last four Tuesdays, this Mother’s Day against last year’s.
3. Hold a 30-minute review each month. Keep what worked, fix what nearly worked, drop the rest.

A one-page marketing plan template

Copy this into a document or notebook and fill it in this week.

RESTAURANT MARKETING PLAN 2027

Goals (max 3, each with a number, a date and an owner)
1. ______________________________  by ______  owner ______
2. ______________________________  by ______  owner ______
3. ______________________________  by ______  owner ______

Monthly budget: $______
  Basics ___%   Seasonal ___%   Tests ___%   Reserve ___%

Guests we want more of: ______________________________

Main campaign each month
  Jan ________  Feb ________  Mar ________  Apr ________
  May ________  Jun ________  Jul ________  Aug ________
  Sep ________  Oct ________  Nov ________  Dec ________

Weekly routine owner: ______  Day and time: ______

Scorecard (check weekly): sales by hour, direct orders,
new reviews, repeat rate, list size, campaign results

Monthly review date: ______   Full plan review: Dec 2027

Mistakes that sink a marketing plan

• Planning a campaign the week it runs. Mother’s Day planned on 5 May is already too late.
• Running too many offers at once. Guests remember one thing.
• Discounting your busy days. Aim offers at quiet hours only.
• Ignoring the kitchen. A campaign that floods a short-staffed Friday turns into bad reviews.
• Never writing anything down. Next year’s plan should start from this year’s results.

How WhatsTable helps

WhatsTable’s AI growth plan suggests where to focus each week. It drafts email, WhatsApp and SMS campaigns and AI offers for slow hours, and nothing goes out until you approve it. Offers pause when the kitchen gets busy. Rewards, review requests, bookings, online ordering and “Order ahead” pre-orders for holidays are built in, and it works with Clover, Toast, Square or its own POS. Pricing is $0 a month, plus 5–10% of the sales that come through WhatsTable. See AI marketing.