How to market a new restaurant: the first 90 days

Opening night gets all the attention, but it is the ninety days around it that decide whether a new venue becomes a fixture or fades once the launch buzz wears off. Here is a practical, week-by-week plan for marketing a new restaurant or cafe in Australia, from before the doors open to the point you have a real base of regulars.

Why the first 90 days matter more than any other stretch

An established venue is mostly maintaining what already exists: a base of regulars, a history of reviews, a spot in the local Google results. A new venue has none of that. Every one of those things has to be built, and the first ninety days is when you build them or you do not. Get it right and you exit that window with a genuine base to run a business on. Get it wrong and you are marketing a struggling venue instead of launching a promising one.

That is why a new opening usually needs a heavier marketing push than an established venue, often 8% to 12% of projected revenue for these first few months rather than the leaner 3% to 6% an established venue runs on. See our full restaurant marketing budget guide for how to set the actual number.

Before you open: the non-negotiables

Do these four to six weeks out, before a single customer walks in:

• Claim and verify your Google Business Profile early. Verification can take days to weeks, and a profile with an address, hours and photos already live means you are discoverable the moment someone searches, not weeks after you open. See our Google Business Profile guide for the setup that ranks.
• Start an Instagram or TikTok account and post the build. Fit out progress, the first delivery of produce, the team, the story of why you are opening. People back a place they feel they have already watched come together.
• Start an email or SMS list before you open. A simple "notify me when we open" sign-up, on a landing page or a physical sign-up sheet if you already have foot traffic past the site, gives you a warm list to message on day one.
• Line up your opening offer. A clear reason to come in the first two weeks, a set menu, a free item with a booking, something specific, works far better than a vague "come try us".

Soft launch: work out the kinks before the real push

Run a soft launch, a quiet night or a weekend, before your full public opening. Invite friends, family, local regulars you already know, and a small group of guests rather than opening the doors to everyone at once.

• Catch problems privately. Kitchen timing, service gaps and menu issues surface fast under real covers. Better to find them with a forgiving crowd than in a one-star review during your loudest week.
• Get your first real reviews and photos. Ask soft launch guests directly for a Google review and to tag you if they post. These become your first social proof for the public opening.
• Brief the team on the offer and the story so by the time paying customers arrive, service already feels practised, not day one.

Opening week: build a base of reviews and repeat bookings

Opening week is not just about a full room once, it is about converting that room into people who come back and people who tell Google and their friends about you.

• Ask for reviews at the table, or with a simple card or QR code, while the experience is fresh. Do not wait and hope.
• Capture contact details through bookings, a loyalty sign-up, or a simple offer in exchange for an email or phone number, so opening week guests become people you can message again.
• Post daily, the room full, the dishes going out, real reactions. Momentum content in the first week does more work than the same content a month later.
• Give people a reason to come back within two weeks, not just once. A stamped card, a follow-up offer, or simply telling them about a dish or event coming up.

Weeks 4 to 12: turn a launch into a base

This is the stretch most new venues under-invest in, because the opening buzz has worn off and it feels like the hard part is over. It is actually where the business gets built.

• Keep a steady content and posting cadence rather than the daily intensity of opening week. Three to five posts a week is realistic and sustainable.
• Start replying to and requesting reviews as a habit, not just an opening-week push, so your review count and rating keep compounding.
• Launch a loyalty or repeat-visit offer once you have enough data on who is actually coming back, and lean into it.
• Review what actually worked at the 90-day mark, which channel brought real covers, and rebuild your ongoing budget and plan around that, not around what you assumed would work before you opened.

Common opening mistakes

• Starting marketing the week you open, instead of four to six weeks earlier, meaning your Google Business Profile and social presence are still cold on day one.
• Skipping the soft launch and finding service problems in public reviews instead of privately.
• All spend on opening night, nothing after, so the room is full once and quiet by week three.
• Not collecting emails or numbers during the highest-traffic weeks you will ever have, losing the easiest list-building opportunity a venue gets.
• Ignoring reviews early. Your first twenty to thirty reviews set the tone Google and new customers judge you on, so chase them deliberately in the opening weeks.

FAQ

How early should I start marketing a new restaurant?

Start four to six weeks before opening. That is enough time to get your Google Business Profile live and building early trust, build a following on social with behind-the-scenes content, and start an email list of people who want to know when you open, without so much lead time that momentum fades before doors open.

Should a new restaurant do a soft launch?

Yes, almost always. A soft launch, a few quiet nights or a weekend for friends, family, local regulars and a handful of invited guests before your full public opening, lets you catch kitchen timing issues, service gaps and menu problems privately instead of in a public review. It also gives you your first genuine reviews and photos to work with before the wider push.

What is the biggest marketing mistake new restaurants make?

Spending everything on one loud opening night and nothing on the twelve weeks after it. A big launch gets you a room full of people once. What actually builds a business is what happens after: whether you collected emails, asked for reviews, and gave people a reason to come back in week three, not just week one.