How to Launch a New Restaurant: A Marketing Checklist
A great opening creates momentum that lasts months. Here's a complete marketing checklist to launch your restaurant with a bang.
Opening a restaurant is exhilarating — and terrifying. The marketing you do before day one largely determines whether you open to a buzzing, fully-booked room or to an empty one and a slow, anxious first few months. Momentum is everything at launch, and momentum is built in the weeks and months beforehand. This is your complete launch marketing checklist.
Why pre-launch marketing decides your opening
A restaurant's first weeks set the tone for everything that follows. Open busy, and you get reviews, photos, word of mouth and confidence that compound. Open quiet, and you're fighting an uphill battle with fixed costs eating your runway. The difference is almost never the food — it's whether anyone knew you were opening. Start your marketing months ahead.
Months before opening: lay the foundations
- Nail your brand — name, logo, look and feel, and the story behind it.
- Build a fast, mobile-first website with bookings built in.
- Set up and verify your Google Business Profile (do this early — verification takes time).
- Claim your social handles and start posting behind-the-scenes content — the build, the kitchen, the team — to build anticipation.
- Plan your menu and pricing, engineered for profit from day one.
Weeks before opening: build the buzz
- Run a professional photo and video shoot of the space, food and team — you'll need this content for everything.
- Start a countdown on social with teasers and reveals.
- Reach out to local press, food bloggers and influencers with invites.
- Build a launch email/SMS list ("be first to book").
- Plan a soft launch for friends, family and press to gather early reviews and iron out service before the public arrive.
Opening week: convert the momentum
- Host a launch event that creates content, word of mouth and a sense of occasion.
- Run targeted local ads to reach nearby diners with your offer.
- Encourage reviews and tags from your very first guests (this builds the social proof that fuels the next weeks).
- Post consistently — the buzz fades fast without it.
After opening: keep it going
- Don't let marketing stop the moment you're open — the early buzz needs sustaining.
- Capture every guest's details to build your audience from day one.
- Track covers and bookings, and double down on what's working.
Common launch mistakes
- Starting marketing too late (it should begin months before the doors open).
- No pre-launch list, so opening week has no warm audience to book.
- Skipping the soft launch, so service problems hit real, reviewing customers.
- Going quiet after the launch event instead of sustaining momentum.
- No professional content, so the launch looks amateur online.
Your launch action plan
- Months out: brand, website, Google profile, social handles, menu.
- Weeks out: photo/video shoot, countdown, press/influencer outreach, launch list, soft launch.
- Opening week: launch event, local ads, reviews, consistent posting.
- After: keep marketing, capture details, track and optimise.
How long until you see results?
A well-executed launch creates demand from day one — that's the whole point. The momentum you build in the months beforehand pays off immediately at opening and through the crucial first quarter.
A strong launch is one of our favourite projects. Want help opening with a bang? Get in touch.
