Give your website an early spring clean

The start of the year is always a good time for a spot of navel gazing!

You probably have a website - but how many times have you checked to make sure its still perfromaing well for you?

Its always worth making sure your site is still working for you and what it is you expect from your site. For isntance, is is:

To provide an online guide to your company's services?
To offer an online corporate brochure?
To generate sales enquiries?
To provide a profile for your company on the major search engines?
To encourage visits and repeat visits to the site?
To encourage newsletter subscriptions?
To be search engine friendly?

Take a look to at your design objectives.

Does your site look slick and polished - or does it look dated?
Is it inviting? Or does it take some time and effort to navigate?
Does it use appropriate imagery?

Why not give your website an early spring clean? A new fresh look for your site could do wonders for your business.

Dining out with the Marketing Manager

The key to the success of any good restaurant is its ability to continue to attract customers. Their customers will either be new people – or those who have enjoyed the restaurant in the past. Attracting additional and increased turnover from your existing customers will be much easier than trying to attract new customers.

It is just so important to build up a database of customers and prospects which you can use to attract new business. Indeed the database is the single most crucial marketing tool you possess - but an astonishing number of restaurants and pubs fail to record their customer's details!

If you can accumulate a database of around 1000 prospects and customers you will (not should, mind!) have sufficient prospects to enable you to rely on database marketing initiatives to fill your establishment – particularly for special occasions, events and themed evenings.

Segment the database into corporate and and personal data and you can personalise the marketing messages accordingly.

Securing more data is a challenge but one that should form the basis for the bulk of your short term marketing efforts There are a number of sources of data – some more easy to generate than others - but all requiring some effort! how about:

• collating all your existing customer records, business cards etc and then segmenting into corporate and personal and into customers and prospects

• visitors to your restaurant should always be asked for their contact details – either by asking them to complete a contact card, asking them to complete a 'customer satisfaction' card, by leaving their business cards – or all three! There are opportunities to secure these details by displaying material on tables, by enclosing them with the bill and by leaving a receptacle close to the till and restaurant exit for business cards. It may become a chore for staff but it should be stressed how important it is!

• initiating data capture exercises – marketing material distributed to potential customers

• capture data at exhibitions - try exhibiting at some of your local business exhibitions

• PR exercises such as competitions can also attract details that can be added to your database

Finally, you can always look to carry out a data capture exercise to source local business details – this is something you can either do yourselves by searching local directories, websites and publications or you may wish to consider outsourcing.

Once you have your database you can then begin to market your restaurant. A regular programme of both postal and electronic communications should enable you to attract enough enquiries to help you to fill your restaurant for special promotions and events.

You can also use the database for:

• special taster events for local businesses

• open evenings

• wine tastings

• charity dinners with entertainment

• launching new or special occasion menus

The Marketing Manager has extensive experience of using both electronic and postal databases to maximise business opportunities in the restaurant sector. Why not get in touch to find out more?

Made your new year's resolution?

Have you made your New Year Resolution?

Why not make 2008 the year you start the year with a proper marketing plan for your company?

A number of organisations start the year with no real plan in place and then spend the rest of the year stumbling along making ad hoc decisions on marketing and communications activity.

The start of the year is the perfect time to plan for the forthcoming year.The early days of a New Year are usually quiet, your key staff should be refreshed after the Christmas break - and enthusiasm should be at his peak, so capture it whilst you can!

So why not celebrate the new year by examining your strategy, your positioning, your communications and your marketing priorities?

A couple of hours spent compiling a 12 month comms schedule now will bring an added dimension to your new business planning - discipline!

Why not check through your 2007 marketing results and see:

• What activities worked for you?
• How did you measure your results - if at all?
• If you can't measure results, should you repeat the exercise?
• What about your company's image? Is it tired or out of date?
• And finally, what about your online presence? Does it need a brush up?