Digital marketing remains restaurants’ top tech priority

Restaurants want to add more digital marketing tools such as loyalty programs. | Photo: Shutterstock

Digital marketing is at the top of restaurants’ tech wish list for the second straight year.

That’s according to the newly published 2025 Restaurant Technology Outlook Report from Restaurant Business and sister publication Nation’s Restaurant News.

The survey of 550 operators from across segments revealed that 46% said they’re most likely to put their tech dollars toward digital marketing this year.

That was followed by POS systems (40%), digital ordering channels (38%) and back-of-house operations (34%). 

Those priorities remained largely unchanged from a year ago. And they pointed toward restaurants’ No. 1 goal for the year, which is to drive traffic, a goal cited by 46% of respondents. 

Plans to invest in digital marketing were particularly prevalent among fast-casual brands, where 60% cited it as their top tech priority. That compared to 52% for casual-dining brands and 44% for QSRs.

The focus on digital marketing reflects the growth of things like loyalty programs and digital campaigns that are designed to get customers to visit more often at a time when traffic has been challenging. Many restaurants have launched or revamped their loyalty programs over the past couple of years with that in mind.

But it also reflects some dissatisfaction with the digital marketing tools restaurants are currently using. More than a third (36%) of operators said they’re either somewhat or very dissatisfied with their digital marketing capabilities, and 37% said the same about their loyalty programs.

In contrast, restaurants are far happier with their POS systems (22% dissatisfied) and kitchen display systems (22%).

There also appeared to be a connection between restaurants’ dissatisfaction with their marketing tools and a dip in confidence around how they’re using customer data.

Nearly a third (31%) of restaurants said they are probably not optimizing the customer data they’re collecting. That was up 24% from a year ago. Meanwhile, 36% said they are definitely or probably making the most of customer data, down 45% compared to last year.

According to the report, this loss of confidence could be part of restaurants’ shift from “unknown knowns” to “known unknowns” as their data strategies become more sophisticated. It could also relate to the challenges with digital marketing and loyalty programs mentioned earlier.

Overall, restaurants still have a healthy appetite for technology. More than a third (34%) said the will definitely invest in tech this year, and 29% said they probably will. Just 13% said they probably or definitely would not. 

Click here to download the free report.

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