How To Make A Sales Funnel For Restaurants [September 2025 Update]

Restaurants face unique challenges in attracting new diners, encouraging repeat visits, and maximizing customer value. A well-designed sales funnel can help restaurant owners systematically convert curious prospects into first-time diners, loyal customers, and eventually brand advocates. This guide will show you how to build, market, and implement a sales funnel specifically for your restaurant business.

If you're a restaurant owner or manager looking to increase bookings, takeout orders, and repeat business, there are several excellent platforms that can help you build effective restaurant-focused sales funnels without requiring extensive marketing expertise.

The first step to making your restaurant sales funnel is choosing the right platform. However, selecting from numerous options can be overwhelming, especially when you're focused on food quality, staffing, and day-to-day operations. Keep reading this guide to see our suggested picks and a step-by-step guide to making a sales funnel for your restaurant.

The Best Platforms For Restaurant Sales Funnels

When choosing a platform for your restaurant sales funnel, you need specific features that address the unique needs of the food service industry. The ideal platform should include reservation or order capabilities, menu showcasing, loyalty program integration, local SEO features, and mobile optimization. It should also help you collect customer data for remarketing and special promotions. Based on these requirements, we've ranked the top 5 platforms for restaurant sales funnels:

1. ClickFunnels

Get started with ClickFunnels (Free Trial) 🚀

ClickFunnels offers restaurant owners a comprehensive solution with templates that can be customized for food service businesses. Its drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create multi-step funnels that showcase your menu, collect reservation information, and build your email list for special promotions. ClickFunnels integrates with popular reservation platforms and online ordering systems while offering powerful automation features for follow-up marketing. It provides a 14-day free trial to test all features.

2. Leadpages

Get Started with Leadpages (Free Trial) 🚀

Leadpages offers user-friendly templates ideal for restaurant promotions, special events, and lead capture. Its alert bars and pop-ups are effective for promoting special offers like happy hours, tasting events, or holiday specials. Leadpages makes it easy to create lead magnets such as “VIP discount codes” or “exclusive recipes” that help build your email list while providing value to potential diners.

3. Unbounce

Get started with Unbounce (Free Trial) 🚀

Unbounce provides restaurants with highly customizable landing pages perfect for specific promotions like Valentine's Day specials, private event bookings, or catering services. Its Smart Traffic feature automatically directs potential diners to the landing page variant where they're most likely to convert based on their specific interests. Unbounce excels at creating targeted pages for different restaurant offerings and promotions.

4. Instapage

Get started with Instapage (Free Trial) 🚀

Instapage allows restaurants to create personalized landing pages for different dining experiences or customer segments. Its collaboration features make it easy for restaurant managers, chefs, and marketing teams to work together on promotion creation. Instapage's heatmap analytics help identify which menu items or offers attract the most attention from potential customers.

5. Elementor

Get started with Elementor (Free Version Available) 🚀

Elementor provides WordPress users with a flexible platform to create custom restaurant funnels. Its gallery and menu showcase features are particularly suited for highlighting your food offerings with high-quality images. The platform's free version offers sufficient functionality for many restaurants just getting started with digital marketing, with the Pro version adding features like popup builders and form widgets.

Conclusion

After evaluating multiple platforms, ClickFunnels stands out as the best choice for restaurants due to its comprehensive approach combining menu showcasing, reservation/ordering capabilities, and follow-up marketing in one integrated system. While it requires a monthly investment, the potential return through increased bookings, takeout orders, and repeat business makes it worthwhile for growth-focused restaurants.

However, if you already have a WordPress website and are working with a limited budget, Elementor's free version provides an excellent starting point with the ability to create visually appealing food showcases.

Now that we have identified our top choice, let's show you how to make a restaurant sales funnel using ClickFunnels.

How to Make a Sales Funnel for Restaurants Using ClickFunnels

Building an effective restaurant sales funnel involves showcasing your food and atmosphere while making it easy for customers to book tables or place orders. The following steps will guide you through creating a funnel that converts food enthusiasts into loyal patrons.

Step 1: Sign Up for ClickFunnels

Create your account and take advantage of the 14-day free trial to explore all features before committing.

Step 2: Identify Your Primary Conversion Goal

Determine what initial action you want prospects to take:

Make a dining reservation
Place a takeout/delivery order
Join your loyalty program
Sign up for a special event
Download a promotional offer
This will determine which funnel template to select as your starting point

Step 3: Make Your Enticing Landing Page

Add a compelling headline featuring your restaurant's unique selling proposition
Include mouth-watering food photography that showcases signature dishes
Add a brief video tour of your restaurant or chef preparing a popular dish
Include key information like location, hours, and cuisine type
Feature reviews or testimonials from satisfied diners
Add trust indicators like awards, ratings, or press features
Create a clear call-to-action that aligns with your primary conversion goal

Step 4: Design Your Reservation or Order Form

If your goal is reservations or orders:

Create a simple, mobile-friendly booking form
Include date, time, party size fields (for reservations)
Allow for special requests or dietary requirements
Add menu highlights or specials for takeout orders
Include upsell opportunities for appetizers, desserts, or beverages
Offer order customization options
Ensure secure payment processing for pre-paid events or deposits

Step 5: Build Your Offer or Lead Magnet Page

If your goal is list building:

Offer a compelling incentive like “Free Appetizer,” “Chef's Special Recipe,” or “VIP Birthday Reward”
Create a simple form requesting name, email, and birthday (for special occasion marketing)
Add an optional field for food preferences or dietary restrictions
Include a privacy statement assuring their information won't be shared
Set clear expectations about what communications they'll receive

Step 6: Design Your Thank You/Confirmation Page

After conversion:

Confirm their reservation, order, or offer claim
Provide clear instructions for next steps
Add a secondary conversion opportunity (join loyalty program, follow on social media)
Include a shareable element to invite friends
Feature upcoming events or specials to encourage additional visits
Show a map or parking information for first-time visitors

Step 7: Set Up Email Follow-Up Sequences

Create automated email sequences for:

Reservation confirmations with pre-visit information
Post-dining thank you messages with feedback requests
Special occasion reminders (birthdays, anniversaries)
Re-engagement campaigns for diners who haven't visited recently
Seasonal promotions and special events
New menu announcements or chef's specials

Step 8: Make Segment-Specific Funnels

Develop separate funnel paths for different dining occasions:

Casual dining and takeout
Special occasion celebrations
Private events and catering
Happy hour and bar promotions
Lunch specials for business crowds
Each with tailored messaging and offers

Step 9: Implement Loyalty and Retention Elements

Design systems to encourage repeat business:

Digital loyalty program with points or visit tracking
Birthday or anniversary rewards program
Friend referral incentives
VIP early access to special events or menu items
Exclusive tasting opportunities for repeat customers

Step 10: Launch, Track, and Optimize

Monitor key metrics to continuously improve performance:

Reservation conversion rates
Average order value for takeout/delivery
Email open and click rates for promotional offers
Customer acquisition cost by channel
Repeat visit frequency
Promotion redemption rates
Test different offers, images, and messaging to maximize results

By following these steps with ClickFunnels, restaurant owners can make an effective sales funnel that attracts new diners, encourages online orders, builds a valuable customer database, and increases repeat business through targeted follow-up marketing.