How To Write An Advertisement For A Restaurant Opening

We see the changes every year right after Thanksgiving.  Wreaths, decorations, trees, and fake presents begin to show up everywhere.  We seem them in malls, parking lots, sidewalks, and even put them up in our own homes.  Yet for all of the excitement that the yearly Christmas campaign causes, we are never told the secret of what exactly our presents will be.

Advertisement for a restaurant opening should be very similar to what we see around Christmas time.  You want to create excitement, generate mouth-to-mouth buzz, and an expectation of what is to come without giving away too much.  For the sake of this article we will assume that this is your first restaurant opening and guide you through how you should write your advertisement.

To begin with, you should have a clear idea of whom your target audience is going to be.  Your writing style will vary based on who you are trying to reach out to.  Therefore, before writing anything down, sit down with your team and review your potential client base.  Keep in mind that you may have different types of customers, and that it is ok to vary your writing based on where you are advertising (just make sure that who you are as a restaurant never changes).  For example, if there is a hospital nearby and you have picked out their employee bulletin board as a place where you will advertise, your writing should be slightly more professional then if you were advertising at a local university paper.  A way in which many restaurants will do this is by focusing on their lunches, delivery, or take-out when writing to hospitals, whereas they may focus on late night specials, their ambiance, and happy hour specials in other writings.

Once you have defined your audience, you can begin with what you will write in your advertisement.  The first thing to keep in mind is that who you are as a restaurant should be what comes across in your advertisement.  Let’s begin with your color scheme.  It should match the color scheme and atmosphere that you will have in your restaurant.  From here, we continue with the visual aspect.  There should be high-resolution pictures of what will be your signature dishes.  Keep in mind that no one has eaten at your new restaurant.  Sometimes the best writing you will do will be what you can say with a picture.

Now it’s time for the wording.  While we left the wording for last, what your customers read is what will or will not stick in their head.  Think back to the Christmas example.   You will want key phrases such as “New”,  “Coming Soon”, and words that describe you.  If you are the first Italian Restaurant in your area, make sure to point that out.  Utilize short descriptive phrases that are easy to remember.

Some last pointers in regards to your writing.  Make sure your name is visible!  Don’t let your pictures and catch phrases stand out more than your name, you do not want to confuse your customer.  Have your location, hours of operation, phone number, website, and opening date in all your advertisements.  Finally, if you have the budget, put a countdown on your ad.  You can update this number daily and even change up your ad.  Remember, keep your audience in mind, keep it simple, make sure you stand out, and generate that buzz that will have people talking about your new restaurant opening!

Article source: Contributed by RestaurantNewsResource.com, a global restaurant news distribution service.


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