Summary
Discover 6 proven Ontario restaurant marketing tips to boost spring bookings, drive local traffic, and grow your revenue ahead of summer. Perfect for wineries, cafés, and resto-bars.
Looking for Ontario restaurant marketing tips that actually work? Whether you run a winery, café, or resto-bar, spring is your best shot at boosting visibility. Learning how to increase spring bookings can set you up for a sold-out summer.
One minute, you’re tweaking menus and babysitting barrel samples. The next? May long weekend is on the horizon, tourists are already Googling “Niagara wine tasting,” and your patio suddenly needs new chairs, a fresh playlist, and three more staff.
Ontario’s spring shoulder season is short but it’s gold if you know where to focus. The window where small tweaks can turn into big revenue all summer long.
Here are six strategic, easy-to-implement Ontario restaurant marketing tips to help you drive bookings, boost local restaurant traffic, and grow your bottom line before May Long.
1. Give Your Online Presence a Proper Spring Clean
If you haven’t updated your Google Business photos since snow was on the ground, it’s time.
What to fix this week:
- Google My Business – Update hours, upload at least 5 new seasonal photos, add a short post about spring events in Ontario or your patio. Keeping your listing current matters. A Google study found that 30% of restaurant-related searches lead to immediate action, 60% within the hour, and 80% eventually. Translation? A clean, updated profile helps turn searchers into customers.h
- Instagram bio – Make it painfully clear what you do and how to engage: “Outdoor patio now open | Reserve below”. Nearly 74% of people use social media when making a purchase decision, and 45% of diners scout new spots on social platforms.
- Website – Kill the old event pages and make sure gift cards, wine clubs, and booking buttons are front and centre.
- Your ‘About’ page – Yes, people read it. Especially in a local-first economy. Update it with a current photo and a real story.
The last time you Googled where to eat or drink, did you click the business with old blurry photos or the one that looked ready for this weekend? Exactly.
Smart updates like this are core to effective Ontario restaurant marketing tips that prioritize discoverability and trust.
2. Use Email to Sell Out Special Weekends like Mother’s Day
Everyone’s sending emails. But how do you know that you are doing it well?
Good email isn’t about being clever. It’s about being clear.
The Spring Email Checklist:
✅ Short subject line: Ex; “Brunch with Mom? Book before it’s gone.”
✅ 1 offer only: Don’t stack your wine club, dinner menu, and gift card push into one message
✅ 2 CTAs max: “Book Now,” “Join the Club,” “Order the Bundle”
✅ Human language: Lose the frilly fonts and “celebrate the season” fluff. Talk like a person.
63% of consumers say email is their preferred way to hear from brands, and 44% have been influenced by email marketing to make a purchase. That makes it one of the highest-converting, most underrated Ontario restaurant marketing tips available to you.
That makes it one of the highest-converting, most underrated Ontario restaurant marketing tips available to you.
Stop overthinking your email. Start showing up with an offer that feels obvious and easy to say yes to.
3. Prep Your Patio (Digitally First)
We love a power-washed patio and new table numbers, but if it’s not showing up in your digital presence, you’re missing out on local foot traffic. Restaurants that actively manage their digital presence have reported up to a 60% increase in weekend bookings and a 40% increase in website traffic driven by social media and local SEO efforts.
This is one of the most actionable Ontario restaurant marketing tips: show up online the way you want to show up in real life—fresh, timely, and welcoming.
Here’s what to do:
- Post a 6-second story of the patio being set up (people love a transformation)
- Update your reservation system to include “patio seating” as a request
- Add “Patio is OPEN 🌿” to your bio
Over half of diners (55%) turn to Google when deciding where to eat. That means if your business isn’t showing up with fresh, relevant content on Google or Instagram, you’re not even in the running. If you’re not visible, you’re not chosen
This is where seasonal patio marketing makes the difference—consistently sharing your space online helps you boost local restaurant traffic and win last-minute bookings.
4. Make It Giftable
Mother’s Day can be quite profitable if you market it right. People want to give something personal, meaningful, and ready to go and you’re already halfway there.
In 2024, 90% of Canadians celebrating Mother’s Day planned to spend the same or more than last year, despite overall participation dipping. Translation? Fewer people might be celebrating, but the ones who are? They’re ready to spend on something special.
And they’re not leaving it to the last minute either:
52% of shoppers make their Mother’s Day purchases at least a week in advance, with the biggest group shopping exactly one week out.
So what are they spending?
And more than half of all gifters are comfortably over that $50 mark
For Wineries:
- Offer 2-bottle sets (sparkling + rosé is a safe win)
- Include a printed card or handwritten tag
For Restaurants:
- Push “Gift Brunch” gift cards or prix-fixe menus
- Upsell a glass of sparkling or mocktail with every booking
- Use Stories to drop countdowns: “3 days left to reserve for Mom!”
Remember: you’re not selling wine or brunch. You’re selling an experience and the feeling of “I got you something thoughtful and it didn’t stress me out.” That’s the win and a proven way to increase spring bookings with emotional value.
5. Lean Into Local Tourism Algorithms
People don’t just discover you through word of mouth anymore. They find you through geo-optimized content and real-time search.
What works right now:
- Use hyperlocal hashtags (#NiagaraWineries, #PrinceEdwardCountyRestaurants)
- Tag your location every time you post
- Use “alt text” in IG photo descriptions to include key phrases like “outdoor wine tasting in Niagara”
- Ask guests to tag your business in Stories (and re-share them)
Google Maps photos now carry more weight in “Near Me” searches than reviews. Upload new pics weekly as part of your seasonal patio marketing strategy, consistency matters more than perfection when the goal is to boost local restaurant traffic from spring tourism.
6. Cross-Promote with Your Neighbours (and Steal Their Audience)
You don’t need a huge ad budget. You need a friend with a decent following.
Studies show that cross-promotional partnerships can boost sales by up to 27%, and brands that embrace agile, collaborative efforts grow up to 10x faster than those using traditional, siloed marketing.
Try this:
- Winery + Florist = Mother’s Day bundle
- Café + Cider House = Day-to-Night Sips Map
- Brewery + Butcher = BBQ & Beer Pack
- Resto + Pilates Studio = “Pre-Class Happy Hour” event
Local networks are working. In 2024, 30.9% of rural and small-town Canadian businesses reported higher revenues than the year before, with an average increase of 20.9% and joint promotions and partnerships were key contributors.
If Q1 felt slow, this is your moment.
You’re not just collaborating. You’re trading trust. And in marketing, trust travels faster than ads.
Final Thoughts
The sun’s out. People are booking day trips. They’re looking for places to eat, drink, celebrate, and support.
But they won’t come unless you show up.
They won’t buy unless it’s easy.
They won’t book unless they know they should.
So make a plan to:
- Clean up your presence
- Hit send on the email
- Boost the right post
- Make it giftable
- Get geo-smart
- Call up a neighbour
And then? Enjoy the sold-out Saturdays.
Use these Ontario restaurant marketing tips to show up where your customers are already looking—and make it easy for them to choose you.
Ready to crush the next long weekend?
We’re offering a number of summer-prep service packages right now with special pricing for our readers! Reach out to us and mention that you saw this blog to take advantage of our insider offers.
