How do you promote a new restaurant before it opens?

Promotion before opening is mostly about being found and remembered. People walk past the site for months. They search your name after a friend mentions it. Each of those moments should tell them when you open. It should also tell them how to hear more.

Opening dates move. Inspections slip and equipment arrives late. So give the month, not the day, until you are sure. Google itself requires only the year and month of your opening date.

Less than you might think before the doors open. Google says creating a Business Profile is free. Your main early costs are window graphics, a banner and a sign-up page. Paid local ads and creator visits come on top.

Both run above the share an established store spends. Altametrics says the higher figure reflects zero brand recognition. Nobody knows your name yet, so being seen costs more. Tie each dollar to something you can count, such as sign-ups or bookings.

Read your franchise agreement and disclosure document first. Under federal franchise rules, Item 11 must describe the system’s advertising program. It must also say when franchisees may use their own advertising material.

Item 11 also covers advertising co-ops, and whether yours requires you to join one. If you belong to a co-op, ask what it plans for your opening. Then buy only what it does not cover. For the wider picture, see how franchisees market a location locally.

Google Business Profile lets you add an opening date up to one year ahead. Its help page says the profile shows up on Google 90 days before that date. You have to verify the business first.

Use that window. Post when the sign goes up, when the kitchen arrives and when the menu is set. Google suggests photos that follow the store “from construction to opening day.” A post can also announce the opening or share an opening-day offer.

Yes, but expect it to stay quiet at first. Yelp says it typically does not show a business in search results while it is more than one month from opening. You can still add the business once there is verifiable information about it.

Yelp suggests claiming the page and posting the opening date in its From the Business section. Do the same on Instagram and any other account you run. A guest who finds you anywhere should find the same date.

Your building is a sign that never switches off. In Toast’s survey, in-person discovery ranked second, at 30%. That counts guests who walk or drive past a location. A blank window wastes it.

Check your city’s sign rules before you order banners, because they vary. Alameda, California, needs no permit for a temporary grand opening banner. It allows one for a maximum of 30 consecutive days.

Passers-by forget a construction site unless you give them a reason to sign up. Put the same sign-up link on the window, the Google profile and your social accounts. Ask for an email address. If you want to send texts, get clear permission for those too.

Keep the list warm with short updates. Show the kitchen going in, the first test dish or the new sign. Each note reminds people the date is coming. When you set the soft opening, the list gets the first seats.

Mostly from each other. Toast asked U.S. adults how they discover new places to eat. Word of mouth came first, at 38%. Walking or driving past came next, at 30%. Map apps drew 18%, and search engine results 16%.

The top two channels cost little before opening. They reward a place people can see and talk about. Map apps and search both lean on your Google profile. That is why the profile goes up first.

Hold a soft opening before the public date. Invite your list, nearby businesses and anyone who helped with the build. Cook the real menu. The kitchen gets a rehearsal, and the first guests get a story to tell.

If friends and family post about a free meal, ask them to say it was free. Ask them to say they know you, too. An honest first post ages better than a glowing one.

Write to local food writers and neighborhood newsletters a few weeks before opening. Keep the note short. Say what is new about the place and who is behind it. Give the date and invite them to the soft opening.

Invite creators once the room works. A creator needs a full menu and staff who know the dishes. So we lean to the first weeks after you open. A few visits spread over those weeks beat one crowded night. Our one-month creator campaign plan lays the weeks out.

Ask each creator to say in the video that the meal was hosted. Sample words are in the free-meal disclosure answer. For the invitation itself, see how to invite food influencers.

A chain or franchise opening another location can also hand this part off. CreatoRain books creators from its food-creator network for those first weeks. It invites them, pays them and follows up until each video posts. It costs $300 a video, creator pay included.

The opening is the start of the hard part. For the businesses BLS followed, survival fell most in the first year. So keep giving people reasons to come back after the buzz fades.

Google’s “Recently opened” tag lasts 90 days. Use those months to post each week, answer every review and keep inviting creators. Ask happy guests for reviews, but never offer anything in return. Google’s Maps rules bar incentives for reviews.

One more habit to build early. Pair a first-visit thank-you with a second-visit offer that runs out in two weeks. That brings new guests back while you are still news.