How to Market a New Restaurant: 10 Ideas

Most new restaurants only reach profitability after one to three years. If you want it to happen faster, you’d better put a lot of effort into marketing. The bottom line is this: If you want your new restaurant business to be successful, you need to know how to market a new restaurant. 

Unfortunately, most of the information out there is loaded with jargon and geared towards established restaurants or people with industry experience. That’s why you need this step-by-step restaurant marketing guide, with nine ideas that explain not only what to do but why it’s effective. 

Start building a thriving restaurant business with this guide on how to market a new restaurant.

Why a Strong Marketing Plan Is Crucial for a New Restaurant

Before you can learn how to market a new restaurant, you must learn why it’s so important. You probably drew up a business plan long before you chose a site for your new restaurant. It outlined your business goals and how you intended to achieve them. A marketing plan is a subset of the broader business plan.

A marketing plan focuses on creating awareness of your new restaurant and promoting it to potential customers. It includes the strategies and tactics you’ll use to achieve your initial marketing and also to increase your customer base and drive sales in the future.

A marketing plan gives you direction and helps you stay on track with your marketing efforts. It also helps your marketing team to determine the best way forward. A marketing plan is a strategic blueprint for success. 

How to Market a New Restaurant Online: Step-by-Step

Now that you know what a restaurant marketing plan is and why it matters, it’s time to learn how to market a new restaurant business. 

1. Do Market Research 

Before you can formulate a marketing plan, you must establish your goals. Your goals are likely something along the lines of creating awareness of your business and standing out from your top competitors. And that is where the need for market research comes in.

Why You Should Research Your Competitors

Regular customers are the bread-and-butter, pun intended, of any restaurant. But those same people your competitors attract could become your regular clientele. That means you’ll have to identify your top competitors.

Think about who your top local competitors are. These local restaurants have already done the groundwork. Their marketing successes may give you clues as to the best restaurant marketing ideas for your business.

How to Do It

The most direct competitors are restaurants serving the same target market with the same style of cuisine and/or the same service style as you. Take a closer look at how they market their businesses, particularly those who have been in business the longest. Can you implement any of their strategies? 

Just remember that every business is unique, and your marketing plan must incorporate strategies that work for you. Align your strategies with your brand identity, i.e. your brand’s unique visual elements and personality. This ensures that your restaurant is recognizable and stands out from other local businesses.

2. Online Business Listings

When people are looking for a new restaurant to try, they may ask their family and friends. But more often than not, they’re turning to online maps, business directories, and search engines for help. And the one they turn to the most is Google.

Why You Should List Your Business on Google

Google is the most frequently used search engine worldwide. Buy businesses with a Google Business Profile get priority in search results. That makes a Google Business listing a top priority for your marketing plan.

How to Do It

Go to the Google website and create a Google Business profile. Add your restaurant name and select the appropriate category that best describes your new restaurant’s services. 

Regularly check and update your Google Business Profile information when necessary, to improve your new restaurant’s local ranking. This will ensure that people searching for the type of cuisine you offer, in your location, find your new restaurant. 

3. Create an SEO-Friendly Website for Online Restaurant Marketing 

You’ve done the research, and you’ve listed your business online. If you haven’t done so yet, you’ll want to create a restaurant website. 

Remember to include important information like your physical address, contact details, business hours, and menu offerings. But wait, how will they know how to find your website? If you want to know how to market a new restaurant effectively online, you need to become familiar with search engine optimization (SEO). 

Why You Should Do It 

An online presence like a website allows you to introduce your new restaurant to the world. Include some colorful images of your delicious menu items and you’ll get people’s mouths watering. SEO improves your website’s content to fare better in search engine results so that more people see those enticing images. 

How to Do It 

Don’t know enough about website building and SEO? That’s okay. Contact a reputable content and SEO marketing agency. They can help you craft marketing campaigns across all your digital marketing channels. 

4. Leverage Social Media Platforms 

When asking how to market a new restaurant, you’ve likely heard that you should leverage social media platforms. It is much more affordable than most traditional marketing methods. 

Why You Should Leverage Social Media

The first, and for new restaurants on a tight budget, often the most relevant reason for using social media marketing, is that it is cost-effective. But engagement and convenience are also big factors in social media marketing. 

Social media is highly engaging, and where many of your potential customers already spend lots of their time. Users can also easily share posts about your new restaurant’s opening specials with their friends, colleagues, and family. 

How to Do It

Think about who your target audience is. Different age and cultural groups may respond to different marketing strategies. And the various social media channels are themselves suited to different strategies. Choose social media platforms that align with your business goals and target audience. 

To maximize your social media marketing results, choose more than one platform, such as a Facebook page and an Instagram account. 

A Facebook Business page is great for posting information like your new restaurant’s address, opening hours, and an online menu. Instagram offers marketing through photo galleries and Reels. YouTube offers you high visibility, and your potential customers high engagement, with short-form “Shorts” videos. 

As you build a base of loyal customers, you may want to encourage user-generated content or branch out with influencer marketing. These tactics are effective because your potential customers may perceive them as social proof from their peers.

5. Include Online Reviews

Every restaurant should have a reviews section on their restaurant website. As a new restaurant, there won’t be much to put there at first. But as the first customers make their way through your restaurant, the potential for positive reviews grows. 

Want to be sure of positive reviews? Read our guide on how to improve the customer experience in your restaurant. 

Why You Should Encourage Online Reviews

Positive reviews from loyal customers market your business from the perspective of customer experience. And they say a whole lot more about what new customers can expect from your business than most other digital marketing methods.

This is not only one of the best strategies for how to market a new restaurant. It is also an effective strategy for online reputation marketing and management, down the line. 

How to Do It

Don’t hesitate to tell customers about your website and social media presence and ask them to leave a review. Instruct your servers to do this if customers comment on how much they enjoyed their meal and the service.

Offline Marketing Strategies for New Restaurants

Your marketing plan should include offline marketing, too. Although most of today’s marketing strategies revolve around digital processes and online platforms, there are several tried and trusted marketing methods outside of the digital arena. 

Here are some proven effective offline marketing strategies you can use to complement your online marketing plan.

6. Event-Based Marketing

New restaurants attract new customers and widen their customer base quickly, with events. So, if you want your new restaurant to be noticed, plan a special event. This can be anything from a karaoke evening to a festive holiday party.  

Why You Should Host Events 

A special event will bring in crowds of people who might never have otherwise thought of attending your venue. But once they have experienced your stellar service and delicious menu offerings, they’ll be eager to return and tell their friends about you. 

This is one of the best marketing tactics because you don’t even have to organize the events yourself. By allowing event planners to book your restaurant for their events, you benefit from the increased exposure without too much extra effort.

How to Do It 

If you plan an event to market your new restaurant, you’ll have lots to keep track of. But you don’t have to stress about the details. Perfect Venue event management software simplifies event management, even for beginners. 

With Perfect Venue, you can schedule and keep track of events, and analyze the event data later to refine your process ahead of your next event. You can also send professional digital proposals in minutes, send emails 3x faster, and automate your more repetitive tasks. It just makes everything easier.

You can also list your venue on the Perfect Venue Marketplace to increase your visibility to those in the event planning industry.  

7. Promotions and Discounts

Offering promotions and discounts is yet another tried-and-tested method for how to market a new restaurant. A restaurant promotion is usually a time-limited offer on a specific menu item, meal add-ons, or discounted prices. These are highly effective means of bringing in more customers and boosting sales. 

Why You Should Offer Promotions and Discounts 

Special promotions and discounts offer your customers more value for their money. They will influence how they perceive your restaurant. Get it right, and you’ll form a positive relationship with them that leads to repeat business and referrals.

How to Do It

Choose a special day that most people celebrate, such as the festive season holidays or Mother’s Day. That is the ideal time to offer special promotions or discounted prices on specific menu items.

8. Loyalty Programs

Loyal customers reward you with repeat business, positive reviews, and word-of-mouth referrals. And these all go a long way to building your reputation and promoting your business. So reward these loyal customers with a customer loyalty program.

Why You Should Have a Customer Loyalty Program

Don’t think that as a new restaurant, you don’t need one. The sooner you start a loyalty program the better. You’ll attract more customers once word gets around that you have a loyalty program. Customers will always be more inclined to eat where they know their patronage is rewarded. 

You can also use contact information obtained for your rewards program as the initial database for your SMS and email marketing efforts. However, ensure that your customers have agreed to receive such marketing from your business.

How to Do It

There are many ways to incorporate a loyalty program for your new restaurant. Ask your customers interested in the program for their dates of birth, contact numbers, and email addresses. Tell them this will allow them to earn special rewards, and find out about new special offers before anyone else.

Send out an email or SMS when customers’ rewards are available. Your rewards program could offer special discounts for every tenth meal, or a free meal or dessert on their birthday. These are just examples, you should decide on rewards and perks that make the most sense for your business. 

9. Billboards and Flyers

Billboards in high-visibility areas and flyers handed out locally are still effective ways to market a new restaurant. Passers-by may decide to come to your dining establishment simply because they keep seeing your restaurant’s name in their neighborhood.

Why You Should Consider Traditional, Local Marketing Methods 

According to an article about new restaurants in the New York Times, more New Yorkers are eating near where they live. One of the chief reasons is that more and more people are turning to remote work, and working from home.

But this phenomenon is not exclusive to the Big Apple. It’s common everywhere. Regular customers are often locals, who live or work near the restaurant. And you can tap into the pool of potential regulars for your new restaurant with some traditional billboards and flyers.

How to Do It

When it comes to these traditional methods, location matters. A high-traffic area can generate thousands of views per day. However, it won’t help you if your target market is not traveling that route. Align your sign’s positioning with your target audience’s demographic profile.

Of course, you’ll have to abide by local laws for signage. But wherever possible, choose spots along high-traffic zones and commuter routes that your target market is most likely to use.

10. Tracking and Adjusting Marketing Efforts

The above steps will help you discover how to market a new restaurant most efficiently. Some will work better for you than others. And that brings us to the last step—track your marketing efforts, and adapt them when necessary. 

Why You Should Track Your Results

Your first marketing strategy may include a lot of trial and error while you figure out what the best marketing methods are for your business. But all the while, you’ll be learning valuable lessons along the way. And this is how you can refine your approach to realize the goals in your marketing plan. 

How to Do It

Perfect Venue event management software can help you identify crucial patterns and make more data-driven decisions. You’ll save time preparing reports for weekly sales meetings, too. Our event analytics feature automatically updates in real time. 

You can also set new goals, compare sales, and see how much special event revenue is confirmed or in the pipeline. All of this will indicate whether or not your marketing efforts are paying off, or not. You’ll be able to adjust your marketing plan accordingly and get the results you’re looking for.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to market a new restaurant, you just have one step left to set your business on the road to success. Get the software that makes marketing and managing your special promotions and events easier, and helps you to track your results. Get Perfect Venue software.

We’re so confident that our software can help you, we’re offering a 14-day free trial of our premium plan. So sign up today, and let’s get this party started.