In my previous post I talked about a unique experience I had which left me wondering how venues effectively market their point of difference.   Word-of-mouth is well and good. It means you are doing it right. But why aren’t you taking it to the next level? Why not up your profits and the success of your venue by taking control of the narrative?  Are you shouting your venue’s winning features from the rooftops?  Here are H&L’s top three tips for marketing your business.

  1. WEBSITE

I continue to be amazed at how few restaurants and venues have websites.  When a friend suggests a new spot to meet for dinner I always Google the venue … I like to plan what I will order.  Usually all that appears are the Yellow Pages info and review sites.  Why aren’t restaurants controlling their own narrative?

Building and maintaining a website allows you to engage with the public well beyond the essential information like opening times and menu options.  This is your opportunity to give customers a preview of your venue’s brand and style.  You can tell your story.  You can share your passion for what you do.  You can tell your customers how you are trying to save the world by supporting the local under 12 footy team or using locally grown produce.  You can make the experience unique for your customer before they ever set so much as a toe through the door.

You can take a good website to a great one with H&L’s help.  Our top tip is to make sure your website is designed to be compatible with mobile devices.  And why not add H&L’s BooKBooK widget?  With BooKBooK you will instantly turn your website into an online reservation tool, converting browsers into paying customers.   We can show you how to favourably rank in Google searches, while you track the results of marketing campaigns and sync with your social media feeds.

  1. SOCIAL MEDIA

Enter the social media dialogue with H&L’s help.  We can work with you to build a social media footprint to grow your business.  Are you making it easy for customers to choose your venue for a great experience?  Decide on your point of difference, build a consistent brand and develop a social media campaign to match it.  H&L’s top tip – keep your content fresh with weekly or, better yet, daily posts – the key is to include images.

  1. LOYALTY PROGRAMS

H&L’s Zen Loyalty Program is at the forefront when it comes to growing your hospitality business.  Whether you are a single venue site or a multi-venue operation Zen is a sure-fire way to build loyalty.  Customers earn and redeem points quickly and easily right from your POS machine.  You can then use the metadata collected to track sales and personalise your marketing strategies.  The brilliant Zen program allows you to target the right recipients at the right time for any promotion.

As always H&L allows you to choose a solution that scales to the needs of your business and your personal preferences.  We can do it all on your behalf or give you the tools to do it yourself, … and anything in between.  Call us today to talk about how H&L can partner with you to develop marketing strategies guaranteed to grow your business.