What’s Holding Back Your Multi-Location Restaurant?
As a marketing leader in a fast-growing, multi-location restaurant brand, you’re moving fast—focusing on growth targets, brand consistency, and staying relevant. But even with sharp instincts and a small (but mighty) internal team, there may be silent marketing challenges undermining your efforts.
You’re not alone. In fact, according to recent data, restaurants lose over $22 million annually when foundational digital marketing practices are overlooked. Let’s dig into the top five issues you may not realize you’re facing—and what to do about them.
1. Invisible in Local Search: You’re Not Where Diners Are Looking
According to SOCi’s 2023 Local Visibility Index, 64% of restaurant locations appear below the Google Local 3-Pack, significantly reducing visibility to potential diners. The brands that rank within the 3-Pack receive 126% more traffic and 93% more customer actions (calls, clicks, direction requests) than those in positions 4–10.
That’s not all—restaurant brands are virtually invisible in two-thirds of local searches, despite 90% of consumers turning to search when they have a need.
Source: SOCi Local Visibility Index 2023
What to Do:
SOCi estimates that one unanswered negative review costs a restaurant $3,000. With 59% of reviews going unanswered and 30% being negative, this adds up to $12.7 million in annual lost revenue for the average 221-location brand.
Additionally, responding to just 25% of reviews improves Google conversion rates by 4.1%.
Source: SOCi State of Google Reviews
What to Do:
3. Social Media Without Strategy: You’re Posting But Not Connecting
Despite strong presence, only 1.9% of audiences engage with restaurant brand posts, and just 0.4% qualify as high-value engagement (comments, shares, etc.).
Part of the issue is overuse of “waterfall posting”, where corporate posts are duplicated across local pages. While efficient, this tactic reduces local relevance and skews metrics, making engagement appear higher than it is. Video, proven to double engagement compared to photos, appears in only 3.2% of posts.
Source: SOCi Local Visibility Index 2023
What to Do:
The 2025 Marketing Guide emphasizes that restaurants lag behind other industries when it comes to harnessing first-party customer data for segmentation and personalization. Brands that rely on third-party delivery platforms lose access to critical insights, like ordering behaviour and visit frequency.
Collecting customer data enables segmentation by:
What to Do:
5. Loyalty Programs That Don’t Build Loyalty
A 5% increase in customer loyalty can drive profit increases of 25% to 95%. Yet many restaurants are still offering basic punch cards or one-size-fits-all discounts.
Modern programs feature:
Source: 2025 Restaurant Marketing Guide
What to Do:
When restaurant brands fail to optimize their digital visibility, reputation, and engagement, they risk losing up to $22 million annually per brand.
Marketing leaders like you can’t tackle this alone. With lean teams and high expectations, the smartest move may be to surround yourself with a fractional team of experts in SEO, local listings, social strategy, data, and performance marketing.
If you're a VP, Director, or CMO of a multi-location restaurant brand, we help you win market share without the stress of hiring and managing a massive team.
Reach out today to build your marketing dream team.