How to promote a new menu: a launch plan for social media and email

To promote a new menu, start four weeks out by finalising the dishes, photographing every one and updating your allergen information. Two weeks ahead, start teasing it on social media; the week before, email your list and brief the team over a tasting. Launch with a post a day for a week, then spend the next fortnight sharing what people are ordering and asking for honest reviews.

#How far ahead should you start to promote a new menu?

Four weeks, if you can. Most of the first fortnight is quiet prep that nobody outside the kitchen sees, and it's the bit that makes the public part easy. Teasers start two weeks out, the email goes the week before, and the work carries on for two weeks after launch, which is when most of the useful posts happen.

Six weeks sounds like a lot for a menu change until you count the photo shoot, the allergen paperwork and a staff tasting. Squeezing all that into the last few days is how dishes end up launching with no photos and a team that can't describe them.

#Four weeks out: dishes, photos and allergen information

Lock the recipes and prices first. Everything else (photos, descriptions, allergen sheets, the Google menu) depends on them, and a dish that changes after the shoot means doing it twice.

#Allergens and calories

Update your allergen records as soon as recipes are final. The Food Standards Agency says that if you serve non-prepacked food you must provide allergen information for every item that contains any of the 14 allergens, either in writing or verbally with a clearly visible notice telling customers how to get it (FSA allergen guidance). Its advice is that written information backed up by a conversation works best, and it reminds businesses to consider the impact when recipes change, which is exactly what a new menu does.

If your business has 250 or more employees and trades in England, the calorie labelling rules apply as well: calories in kcal next to each item, the portion size, and the line "adults need around 2000 kcal a day" (DHSC guidance). Most independents fall well under that threshold, but small groups should check their headcount. (General information, not legal advice.)

#The photo shoot

Shoot every dish in one session, in daylight, a week or so after recipes are locked. You'll want a clean hero shot of each, a few close-ups for teasers (a glaze, a cross-section), and two or three short clips from the pass. Our phone food photography guide covers light and angles if you're doing it yourself.

#Descriptions

Write one plain line per dish that a guest could picture. "Braised ox cheek, smoked mash, pickled walnuts" tells people far more than "a hearty autumn classic". You'll reuse these lines everywhere: the menu, the captions, your Google menu and the staff briefing.

#Two weeks out: how do you tease a new menu?

Show people pieces of it. Two weeks is long enough to build a bit of interest and short enough that people haven't forgotten by the time it lands.

Teaser posts that work well:

• A close-up of one ingredient or a detail of a dish, with the launch date in the caption.
• The chef tasting and tweaking a dish, as a short clip.
• A visit to a supplier, or the delivery arriving.
• A dish that's coming back by popular demand, if one is.
• The menu card being printed or chalked up, with the text out of focus.

Two or three teasers a week is plenty in my view; daily countdowns get old fast. Give the date and say whether you're taking bookings every time.

If you're holding a launch night or a preview for regulars, set up a Facebook event now. If the preview food is free, though, don't ask those guests for Google reviews. Google's policy treats free goods or services given in exchange for reviews as an incentive, which it prohibits (Maps content policy).

#The week before: email your list and brief the team

Send the email early in the week and hold the tasting later, so the team has tried everything before the first bookings from the email come in.

#The email

Send it four to seven days before launch so people can book. Keep it short: what's new, two or three dishes with photos, the date, and a big booking button.

Only email people who've agreed to hear from you, or existing customers who qualify for the soft opt-in. The ICO says the soft opt-in covers someone who bought, or negotiated to buy, a similar product or service from you, and who was given a simple way to opt out when you collected their details and in every message since (ICO). The ICO also notes that this guidance is under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act. Our guide to GDPR and PECR for UK venues goes through it, and email marketing for pubs and restaurants covers what else to send.

#The staff briefing

Feed the team. A proper tasting, front of house included, two or three days before launch. People sell what they've eaten, and they answer allergen questions far more confidently when they've seen the dish and the sheet side by side.

#Google and your website

Update your Google Business Profile menu a few days before launch. Google's menu editor lets food and drink businesses list items with descriptions and prices, grouped into sections, and Google says changes can take 24 to 48 hours to show on Maps and Search (Google). Swap the website menu over at the same time so nobody finds the old prices.

#Launch week: what should you post each day?

One post a day, each with a single job. Here's how I'd run it:

1. Launch day: the full menu as a carousel, with the date and a booking link. Pin it to the top of your Instagram profile so it's the first thing people see (Instagram Help Centre), and publish the same on Facebook. Add a Google update post with a booking button (Google).
2. Day two: the hero dish, one photo, one line on what's in it and the price.
3. Day three: a short clip from the pass during service.
4. Day four: the story behind one dish, such as the supplier or the dish it replaced.
5. Day five: a staff favourite, in their words (with their permission).
6. The weekend: the room busy, and the dish people are ordering most, if you know by then.

Reply to every comment and question that week. Someone asking "is the pie still on?" in the comments is a guest deciding whether to book.

If you'd rather not build all six weeks of posts by hand, Venuesmith can turn one sentence about the launch into a plan covering the whole run-up and the fortnight after, which you can edit and approve in one go.

#After launch: reviews and what people are ordering

The fortnight after launch is when you get the best material, because it comes from guests.

Ask for reviews from everyone, the same way you always should. Google suggests asking customers to visit a Google review link or scan a QR code (Tips to get more reviews); a line on the bill ("Tried something new? Tell us what you thought") does the job. Google prohibits offering incentives for reviews and asking only happy customers, and UK consumer law bans fake reviews and reviews that hide an incentive, as the Competition and Markets Authority's fake reviews guidance explains.

When reviews mention the new dishes, reply briefly and by name. If someone didn't like a dish, thank them and say what you're doing about it, if anything. There are templates in how to respond to restaurant reviews.

Guest photos of the new dishes are worth reposting, with permission and credit (our guide to reposting customer photos covers the etiquette). And once you know your bestseller, post it: "The ox cheek has outsold everything since Thursday" is a better caption than anything you could write in advance.

#What should you measure after a menu launch?

Dish sales first. Two weeks in, pull the sales mix from your till and look at how each new dish is selling and what it's making you. That tells you more than any social number.

Then look at:

• Covers against the same fortnight last year, so the season doesn't mislead you.
• Your Google Business Profile performance screen, which counts menu clicks (including menu photos, links and structured menus) alongside calls, direction requests and website clicks (Google). A jump in menu clicks after launch week is a good sign people are looking.
• Instagram insights for the launch posts: views, interactions (likes, comments, saves and shares) and accounts engaged (About Instagram insights).
• Clicks on the booking button in your launch email.
• What your team heard. Ask them which dishes guests asked about and which came back half eaten.

At the two-week mark, decide which dishes stay and which need work, and tell people when something changes.