A restaurant group marketing manager fills seats on the nights that need it, using social media, email, online listings and promotions for each concept. They judge the work by covers, reservations, gift card sales and private event leads, and keep every restaurant's hours, menus and photos right online.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, full-service restaurants · BLS, May 2025
Annual pay: 10th percentile $42,500, middle half $64,790 to $158,710, 90th percentile $165,720. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Reports to
Chief Executive Officer
Department
Marketing
Schedule
Weekdays, plus nights and holidays · Openings, events and big days like Mother's Day take nights and weekends; social messages get checked on a rotation
Also called
Brand manager · Marketing and communications manager · Digital marketing manager · Marketing director
We're hiring a Marketing Manager to fill seats across our restaurants. You'll run social media, email, our websites and online listings, plan promotions around holidays and openings, and work with GMs on local events. You'll judge every campaign by covers, reservations, gift card sales and event leads, not likes.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Plan a marketing calendar for each concept: holidays, seasonal menus, events and slow nights to fill.
Keep menus, prices, hours and holiday hours accurate on our websites, Google, Yelp, reservation apps and delivery apps.
Run social media and email for each restaurant, with content from chefs, bartenders and the floor.
Sell holiday gift cards and fill the big days: Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and New Year's Eve.
Plan grand openings, menu launches and outreach to local food media.
Manage the marketing budget and outside vendors: photographers, designers and ad agencies.
Track results by campaign: covers, reservations, gift card sales and private event leads.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Post and schedule content, and answer comments and messages that need a reply.
Watch new reviews across all locations and send the serious ones to the GM the same day.
Shoot or coordinate photos of new dishes and drinks with the chefs.
Check reservation and sales data to find nights and locations that need help.
Write email campaigns and sort lists by location and guest history.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Covers from tracked campaigns: [your target].
Email list growth: [your target].
Online review volume and rating: [your target].
Gift card sales: [your target].
Private event leads from marketing: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[3+] years in marketing, with hands-on social media, email and website work.
Has run marketing for restaurants, bars or another local consumer business.
Can shoot and edit clean phone photos and short videos of food and drinks.
Comfort with Google Business Profile, Meta ads and email platforms [such as Mailchimp or Klaviyo].
Clear, short writing that matches each restaurant's voice.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience with reservation and guest data platforms [such as OpenTable, Resy or SevenRooms].
Has launched a new restaurant or concept.
Relationships with local food writers and media.
Basic design skills in [Canva or Adobe].
7. Physical Requirements
Desk and computer work, with time in restaurants shooting content and attending events.
Carry camera gear and event materials up to [25] pounds.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Central office in [city], with regular visits to each restaurant.
Some evenings and weekends for openings, events and holiday promotions.
Check social media messages outside office hours on [your rotation].
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new marketing manager gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
A restaurant group sells tables on certain nights, under several names, with liquor and gift card rules in the mix. The work is judged in seats, not followers.
Slow nights are the target
A Saturday at eight books itself. The work is a Tuesday in January, a lunch that's fading, or a new patio nobody knows about yet. The marketing manager reads reservation and POS data by restaurant and by time of day, picks the gaps, builds an offer or event for them, and counts the covers afterward.
Several brands under one owner
A steakhouse and a taco bar in the same group need different photos, words and offers. Each concept keeps its own social accounts, listings and email list, while the group shares the gift card program and one marketing calendar. The marketing manager writes in each voice and keeps the owners' name in the background unless they want it out front.
Reviews can't be bought or gated
Asking guests to name their server in a review, or pressing them to post before they leave, both break Google's rules. So do review quotas for staff, and a free dessert or discount in return for a review gets that review removed. The FTC's rule separately bans rewards that hinge on praise. Ask every table the same way, happy or not. Source: Google Maps: Prohibited and restricted content policy.
Bonus gift cards follow their own rules
Under federal rules, money on a gift card you sell can't expire for at least five years from the sale or the last time money was added. A free bonus card from a holiday deal can expire sooner. To get that treatment, the front of the card has to say it was issued for promotional purposes and show when its money expires. Print the bonus cards to match, and check your state's gift card law as well. Source: CFPB: Regulation E, 12 CFR 1005.20, gift cards.
Drink specials follow liquor law
A drink deal has to fit the state's liquor rules before it goes in an email or on a post. In Texas, the state liquor agency says happy hour prices must end at 11 p.m., two-for-one drinks are illegal at on-premise retailers such as restaurants, and coupons for alcohol aren't allowed. Other states write their own lists, so run each drink promotion past yours. Source: Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission: Alcohol marketing practices FAQs.
How much restaurant marketing managers make
Marketing managers who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $82,530 a year ($39.68 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $166,790 median for marketing managers in all industries. About 320 of the 395,240 marketing managers in that survey work for full-service restaurants.
Salaried. Where a group adds a bonus, it tends to ride on holiday gift card sales or booked private events, numbers the POS and events team can count.
Full-service restaurants
$82,530$82,530 median Middle half $64,790–$158,710 10th–90th $42,500–$165,720
All industries
$166,790$166,790 median Middle half $123,020–$216,410 10th–90th $90,260–$293,610
$0k$50k$100k$150k$200k$250k$300k$350k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Full-service restaurants
$42,500
$64,790
$82,530
$158,710
$165,720
All industries
$90,260
$123,020
$166,790
$216,410
$293,610
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Shoots food and drinks on a phone well enough to post without an agency
Writes short captions and emails in more than one restaurant's voice
Can pull a week of covers by night and location and say where the gaps are
Has spent a paid social budget and can show the reservations it produced
Gets content from chefs and GMs without pulling them away during service
Teach these on the job
Each concept's story, signature dishes and regular guests
How your reservation platform tags guests by source and visit history
Your gift card platform and any loyalty perks you run
Your state's rules on drink promotions
Who signs off on prices, offers and photos before they go out
The daily kit is a phone camera, Canva, Meta Business Suite, Google Business Profile, an email platform such as Mailchimp or Klaviyo, and the guest records in OpenTable, Resy or SevenRooms. A candidate who has pulled cover counts by source from a reservation platform can tie a campaign to seats from the first week.
Restaurant marketing manager interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
The template gives no numbers, only blanks. Set gift card and event targets against the holiday calendar, and cover targets restaurant by restaurant, since a new opening and an old favorite won't grow at the same pace.
Covers from tracked campaigns
Covers booked through a campaign's link, offer code or reservation source tag, by restaurant. Compare with the same night in earlier weeks to see whether the campaign added guests or only moved them.
Email list growth
New subscribers each month minus unsubscribes, by restaurant. Note where signups come from, such as reservations, Wi-Fi login or the website, and drop sources that bring in junk addresses.
Online review volume and rating
Track each restaurant's new reviews and star average monthly on Google, Yelp and the reservation platform. Tag every low review by cause; slow service or cold food goes to the GM and chef, since marketing can't fix it.
Gift card sales
Gift card sales by month and by channel, such as online, in the restaurant and corporate orders, from your gift card platform. Watch redemptions too, since a card used on a slow night fills a seat.
Private event leads from marketing
Event inquiries the Catering and Events Manager logs with a marketing source, such as the events page or an email. Ask the events team to record the source on every inquiry and report which ones booked.
Career path
Social media coordinatorShoots and posts for a few restaurants, often at an agency or a single venue.
Marketing managerPlans every concept's calendar and answers for covers and gift card sales.
Brand directorShapes new concepts with the CEO and culinary team before they open.
What can a restaurant do with its reservation data?
Reservation platforms keep visit history, party size, special occasions and guest notes. Use them to invite regulars to a menu preview, thank first-time guests and win back guests who haven't booked in a while. The CAN-SPAM Act, a federal law, says each marketing email must tell readers clearly how to opt out and carry your valid postal address, and anyone who opts out has to be off the list within 10 business days.
How much does a restaurant marketing manager make?
Marketing managers who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $82,530 a year ($39.68 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $64,790 and $158,710 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
How should a restaurant answer a bad review?
Reply in public, briefly, and offer to make it right offline. Don't threaten the guest. The FTC's review rule bars groundless legal threats, intimidation and false public accusations used to stop a review or get it taken down. Send the details to the GM the same day, so the fix happens in the restaurant and not just in the reply.
Should each restaurant have its own social media accounts?
In most groups, yes. Guests search for and follow a restaurant by its own name, and each concept needs its own photos and voice. A group account can carry hiring posts, gift cards and catering. The marketing manager keeps the logins for every account, so none is lost when the GM or bartender who opened it moves on.
What should a marketing manager do before a restaurant opens?
Get the basics live first: the Google Business Profile, the website page, reservations and delivery accounts, all with the right hours. Shoot the menu during training week, while the kitchen is cooking every dish. Invite local food writers and neighbors to soft-opening nights, and collect emails at every one. Hold the paid ads until the kitchen and floor can handle a full room.
How do you keep hours and menus right on every app?
Keep one master sheet of regular hours, holiday hours, menus and prices for each restaurant. When anything changes, the marketing manager updates the website, Google, Yelp, the reservation app and the delivery apps from that sheet on the same day. Check every listing before each holiday, because wrong hours send guests to a locked door.
