At Otter, we’re lucky to attend dozens of events every season and it’s a privilege to learn directly from leaders across our industry in workshops, sessions, keynotes and beyond. Sometimes those conversations help shape our products and strategies. And sometimes, they’re too good not to share.
This spring, we attended the Marketing Executive Group event in Chicago, right before the NRA Show. A highlight was a roundtable led by CJ Ramirez of Dog Haus, a longtime Otter customer and incredibly thoughtful marketing leader. CJ ran multiple discussions on how restaurants can better market new store openings. We’re thrilled to share some of the most practical, field-tested ideas that came out of those conversations - straight from CJ himself.
Strategies, advice, and real-world examples to plan better openings - whether you're expanding in your own backyard or heading somewhere brand new
I always tell people: a grand opening isn’t a single day. It’s a campaign. It starts the moment you sign the lease and runs well into the first three months.
At the Marketing Executive Group conference this spring, I hosted a few roundtables on the topic. It was great to hear so many practical tips. Below is a mix of what I’ve seen work, what others suggested, and what the group discussed.
Some of the big themes we kept coming back to: plan early, know your market, and focus on genuinely connecting with the local community.
Tailor your plan to the market
One thing that came up in almost every session was that no one plan fits all - your opening strategies and tactics have to match the market you’re entering. Categorizing the type of opening helps you set the right budget, expectations, and tactics.
- In-market: These are spots near your existing stores. People already know you. Your budget can focus on light brand-building and retention.
- Near-market: Adjoining areas. You’ll need a bit more awareness work, but you can lean on your existing reputation.
- New-market: Totally new territory. Nobody knows you yet. Budget, time, and strategy all need to go up to make a real introduction.
Aligning your plan to the type of market will help you define the budget, results, and tactics that will be most successful for a new store opening.
A week before opening is too late
At Dog Haus, we consider openings a 60–90 day campaign. Our “Haus Party” approach includes four stages:
- Pre-opening: Collect emails and mobile numbers through social media, landing pages, word of mouth, and incentives.
- Soft opening: Friends & Family preview, VIP nights for community leaders, and those who protect and serve our communities in uniform.
- Grand opening: Media invites, influencer visits, all-day activation, and fundraising for local non-profits.
- Post-opening: Local Store Marketing (LSM) strategy to drive traffic, build community, and boost frequency at the store level, menu and catering awareness food drops, and loyalty campaigns.
The mix of tactics in each of the four stages changes depending on the market type. For example, you may do more LSM outreach during the soft opening stage in a new market, or ramp up LSM post-opening for an in/near-market opening where you’re already well known.
Online tactics
We discussed the digital side extensively. Here are some key points:
- Claim your listings early: Google Business Profile, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Apple Maps, and Facebook location pages - get them all as soon as possible, ideally no later than 90 days before opening.
- Pre-load photos, descriptions and location information.
- Establish pre-build reputation management practices and strategies to hit the ground running.
- Build Buzz - craft a coherent campaign using social media, email, sms, community activations, and local PR (don’t forget to utilize your PR team to ensure any promotions and events are listed in community calendars).
- Fully fleshed-out location-specific landing pages are perfect for
- Collecting email and/or SMS sign-ups
- Promoting a location-specific offer
- Driving traffic to your social media presence
- Create awareness/drive adoption of your first-party app
- Giving Google relevant, crawlable content tied to your store’s name, address, and neighborhood keywords for SEO
- Email and SMS Marketing - Message frequency is important, but relevancy is key. If your messaging isn’t on brand and relevant to your guests, it will fail to engage them. Remember, email and SMS are direct and personal forms of communication. Use email for longer reads and compelling visual communication. SMS is perfect for quick bursts of information, so make these messages on-brand, short, and to the point.
In store ideas
While most of us followed a similar PR and media playbook, I did hear some great advice for in-store ideas beyond that.
- Dine Outs in store: give back while driving traffic. This is a way to create genuine relationships with individual guests and the causes they value in their community. At Dog Haus, our standard donation at these events is 20% of sales driven by the organization holding the event.
- Consider a Tap Takeover or Cocktail Promotion - Get your beverage provider partners involved with your store early in the process. Whether it’s a meet and greet with your bartenders, a curated limited-time tap list or specialty cocktail menu, or some other type of promotion, once you get people in the door to enjoy your offerings, you can start building truly lasting relationships with them.
In the field strategies
Nothing beats getting out into the community as a driver of your LSM and awareness efforts, both for your location opening and continuing community relations.
- Designate or hire an LSM representative - while we prefer our GMs to go out and build relationships, based on business volume, you may need to hire a dedicated person to handle this part of your marketing strategy initially.
- Focus on genuine relationships: consider joining the local Chamber of Commerce, meeting community leaders, and shaking hands in person.
- Food drops work. From media outlets to community centers, government offices, and local businesses and organizations, getting your product in people’s mouths will drive them to your location for more.
Measure adjust and learn
The strategies outlined above are proven, but beginning with your first guess, there are more tools and technologies to ensure your opening period, and beyond, are scalable and measurable.
- Use customer survey/feedback tools
- Use an integrated review management platform that provides insights into sentiment, team performance, quality control, etc. -Respond quickly and authentically, address any issues that might arise with individual guest interactions before they spread via word of mouth and/or across the social media environment, and review your metrics for a greater understanding of your location’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
Final thought
I always tell our franchisees that their grand opening is about the neighborhood, not the ribbon-cutting. It’s about making sure people know who you are, what you stand for, and why they’ll want to come back - the goal is to be remembered and the preferred dining option.
We’ve run over 60 location opening campaigns at Dog Haus and learn new things during each one. There’s no substitute for doing the work. Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out if you want to chat through ideas.