The Ledger

A weekly note on what actually keeps restaurants full.

Numbers, not opinions. One stat, one idea, one thing to try — sent every week, written by an agency that only does restaurants.

The research behind Regulars

Every stat we build the business on, in one place. Borrow them for your own specials board if you want.

65–80%
of restaurant revenue comes from repeat customers, not new ones.
Source: National Restaurant Association
~70%
of first-time restaurant guests never come back for a second visit.
Source: Restaurant industry benchmark
+25–95%
more profit from just a 5% improvement in customer retention.
Source: Bain & Co. / Harvard Business Review
26×
the lifetime value of a regular ($685) compared to a one-time visitor ($26).
Source: Bloom Intelligence
97%
of people research a local business online before ever walking in.
Source: Local search industry research
~35%
of independent restaurants even have a complete Google Business Profile.
Source: Industry audit data
89%
of people read how a business responds to its reviews, not just the star rating.
Source: BrightLocal
$36
returned for every $1 spent on email — restaurant open rates run 40–44%.
Source: Litmus / DMA
90–98%
of text messages get read within 3 minutes of being sent.
Source: Omnisend / Sakari
Preview — First Issue Coming Soon

Issue 01 — Why "Get More Customers" Is the Wrong Goal

Most restaurant marketing chases strangers. But 65–80% of your revenue is already coming from people who've eaten with you before — and roughly 7 in 10 first-timers never make it back to be part of that number.

This week: one low-cost way to turn tonight's first-timers into next month's regulars, before you spend a dollar chasing anyone new.

— The Ledger, from Regulars

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