The 2027 Restaurant Marketing Plan

In what to do in 2027 to fill tables and sell more, we covered visibility, video, reviews, catering, operations, CRM and AI. This piece puts it in order, month by month. Restaurants live and die by dates, and most of them get lost the same way: the Mother’s Day campaign starts May 1, after the good tables are already booked somewhere else. The rule for this calendar is simple: every big date gets four to six weeks of lead time.

January to March: your profile, maps, Valentine’s and reviews

January is foundation month. Pull up your Google Business Profile like a customer would and fix the hours, photos and menu. Don’t stop at Google, either. BrightLocal found Apple Maps use for finding businesses nearly doubled, from 14% to 27%, and plenty of iPhone users will find you there first. It’s also the month to remind everyone who got one of your gift cards in December to come use it. Here’s what gets you picked on the map.

Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday, February 14, 2027, so the special menu, the photos and the reservation push need to be ready by mid-January. March is for setting up the review routine that runs all year: a QR code on the check, a message after every takeout order, and a reply to every review, using the guest’s name and nothing that sounds like a template.

April to June: video, Mother’s Day and hurricanes

April has two jobs. The first is filming: one afternoon with good light gets you eight to ten short videos of the kitchen, the dining room and the team, enough for the month. The second is opening Mother’s Day reservations. In 2027 it’s Sunday, May 9. Families book early, and the best tables go first. May is about nailing that service and then asking every one of those tables for a review.

June brings Father’s Day on Sunday, June 20, plus the start of hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30 according to the National Hurricane Center. Before it starts, write down who updates your hours on Google, Apple Maps and the delivery apps, and how you’ll let customers know. A well-set-up WhatsApp account helps a lot on a storm day; here’s how to reply in minutes without being glued to your phone.

July to September: local regulars and year-end catering

July is your midyear review: which dishes are moving, which channel drove the most direct orders and which dates paid off. In the slower summer months, your marketing should talk to the people who live nearby, the ones who can come in on a Tuesday: a lunch menu, a weeknight special, an off-season restaurant program if you take part in one. August is when you go after year-end catering. It pays to reach the offices near you before anyone else does, with a clear proposal and dates.

September is the peak of hurricane season, which the National Hurricane Center puts around September 10, so your Google hours need to be accurate at all times. September 15 through October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month, a natural moment to tell the story behind your recipes and the people who cook them, in Spanish and in English.

October to December: events, Thanksgiving and gift cards

October is for filling your December private-event calendar and opening Thanksgiving orders; in 2027, Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 25. November is gift card month. In the National Restaurant Association’s 2024 survey, 59% of adults planned to give restaurant gift cards over the holidays, and 48% planned to buy them straight from the restaurant. Sell them on your website and in person, and mention them at every table. December is for serving the holidays and, once things calm down, looking back at the year and building your 2028 plan.

The rules that apply all year

Florida doesn’t have an advertising rulebook just for restaurants, but general rules still apply. Nothing deceptive: your photos show your real dishes, and your prices and promotions are the ones you actually offer. Reviews come from real customers; the FTC bans buying or faking them. An alcohol brand can’t pay for your advertising. And promotional texts and emails only go to people who said yes. We lay it all out, with citations, in Florida’s advertising rules for restaurants.

Where to start

• —Put your restaurant’s big 2027 dates on a calendar and, four to six weeks before each one, mark the day its campaign starts.
• —Look up your restaurant on Apple Maps from an iPhone and make sure the hours, phone number and photos are current.
• —Get gift card sales set up on your website before October, not in December.

A full year of dates, with the kitchen open every day, is a lot to carry on your own. At Brito we’ve worked with restaurants from Miami since 2006, in English and in Spanish, connecting marketing, video we shoot ourselves, BritoCRM and AI to sales. If your restaurant is in Miami-Dade or Broward, we’ll come see it in person; anywhere else, we meet by phone or video call. When you have a minute, take a look at how we work with restaurants.