Archives for July 2010

How to (not) hire a marketing co-ordinator

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For many venue operators, probably the last thing on your mind is hiring a dedicated marketing resource. However if you’re ready to get more exposure for your venue, what kind of resource do you hire?

You need someone to get the basics done, right? Logo, artwork, signage, menus, comment cards… there’s a lot to get done. Once all that is done, there’s the web site – need one of those and some print ads for local media.

All in all that’s a long list of “basics”.

So let’s get your ad written for your marketing hire.

“Wanted marketing co-ordinator for new inner city restaurant. Must have a good eye for design, great ability to come up with original concepts, ability with web design desirable.”

Hang on though. The venue is nearly open so we need to get some ideas for opening night.

“Experience with event management keenly sought”.

Let’s also remember that we’re going to spend a fortune on our web site so we need to get some tracking systems in place to see if visitors are actually using the site, and why those visitors are not using our online forms to book or make an enquiry.

“Applicants must have a background in online marketing, analytics, user interfaces and conversion tracking”.

Social media? What is that? Oh twitter, facebook all of that huh? Hmmm well surely that can’t be hard, we’ll add that to the job description.

“Must be well versed in social media, to interact and represent our venue in online spaces like twitter and facebook”

Wow these comment cards we had printed are doing well, we’ve not got a stack 78cm high in the back office, better get the marketing guy to enter those into a database. Then, we’ll need a email template that looks just like our web site, so we can start sending our newsletters to our past customers. Make sure we can track who is opening and interacting with the emails so we know how successful the campaigns are.

“Experience with HTML, sufficient to create newsletter email templates, as well as 80 words per minute data entry. Good understanding of online email database and send systems, with the ability to record and analyse user behaviours”

Google.

Hmm Bing and Yahoo as well. How on earth do we get our web site listed on those?

I know. “Candidates should have at least 2 years experience in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign management”. That will do it!

Ok so this is all a bit tongue in cheek but…

There is a point to all of this and it’s this: sometimes these things are better to be outsourced. With the variety of marketing options that you need to cover consider hiring an agency that has specialist in many areas rather then trying to find one person who is (impossibly) experienced in all of disciplines that a modern business needs to be involved in.

Social Media Drives Business Results

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Social Media is a unique web experience, where users up-load content, create and share.  Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr are the flag-ship Social Media sites, but there are a host of others catering for specific niche common interests. Recent Neilsen studies have shown that Australians are the most prolific users of Social Media web-sites in the world, with over 9.9 million Australian’s using Social Media and over 20% of all time spent on-line being spent in Social Media Sites – for Australian’s that equates to over 8 hours per week! Some say Australia is the Social Media World leader!

But is social media more than sharing photos of Fluffy the cat, and what party we went to last night ? Can you harness this for your restaurant or venue ?

Most Definitley!

In Australia, over 40% of internet users are interacting with brands on-line and through social media.  Through this shared experience, the brand profile, experience and recommendations can be shaped.

How can this benefit your business ?

Creating and managing a Social Media presence can generate new and repeat business by:

  • keeping in contact with customers – getting feedback and providing responses in an area where your customers are really listening,
  • bringing in new business through authentic recommendations and shared experiences,
  • creating “sticky” customers, who feel closer to your venue through a deeper experience,
  • reinforce other marketing activities and promotions – extending the reach and duration of campaigns in the cost effective manner.

Successful restaurants will create a strong on-line presence across their web-site, integrated with a blog, and in the major social media sites (Facebook, Twitter etc).  Most importantly, you need to monitor and interact with customers regularly and consistently over time in these areas.  And in short order, you will see the benefits flowing through with increased patronage.

References and other reading: