Start Your Restaurant Blog: Free Video Tutorials
January 31, 2008
I’ve been preparing new videos in our series on Restaurant Internet Marketing and just today Yaro Starak announced that he has a new website on getting a blog started.
Yaro goes to the -very- basics, showing how to start a blog. And we’re both aware that if you’re not technically inclined, some of this may even be too involved, but it’s always a good idea to know the basic process if you intend to hire someone to do it for you. Also, I know that many web designers haven’t the slightest clue about running and promoting a blog correctly, so it’s probably a good idea to keep these videos handy. When the time comes, you can refer your techie to them.
Free Video Tutorials To Help You Start Your Very Own Blog
If you are new to blogging and you need help setting up a WordPress blog, then you definitely want to check out www.becomeablogger.com.
The site currently has a series of ten videos covering:
- Why You Should Use WordPress
- How To Get Your Own Domain Name
- How To Get A Web Host
- How To Install WordPress With One Click
- How To Upload Files To Your Webhost Using FTP
- Choosing A WordPress Theme For Your New Blog
- How To Install And Use WordPress Plugins
- How To Create Your First Blog Post And Blog Page
- What RSS Is And Why You Need It
- How To Use Feedburner For Supercharging Your RSS Capabilities
Click here to read Yaro’s announcment of becomablogger.com
Video: How To Join FohBoh - The Restaurant Industry Social Network
January 18, 2008
Fohboh is the Restaurant Industry’s social network. It has a growing audience of professionals from all aspects of the restaurant business. Whether you run a restaurant, offer restaurant supply, consult restaurants, marketing, public relations, entertainment or are just an avid foodie…
Click here to join the FohBoh network absolutely free
Be sure to check out the Groups and Forums to get involved in specific interests.
Restaurant Marketing Copywriting: Testing “Starting At”, “As Low As”
January 8, 2008
Words mean a lot when marketing your restaurant. What you say will affect how people feel, think and act — even the little phrases that seem insignificant can greatly affect the success (or failure) of a marketing campaign.
I have a friend that tests E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G when it comes to marketing. He figures that if he’s spending the money, he might as well know if it’s working. That is, afterall, the key to becoming successful at it: testing. Don’t make too many assumptions when it comes to advertising and marketing… test, test test!
Take, for example, the phrases “starting at” and “as low as”.
What phrase do you think caused more people to come into my friend’s business? He wouldn’t have known until he tracked the results of two consecutive marketing campaigns. The short of it: “As Low As” pulled roughly 20% more business, and he continues to use that phrase when doing any specials from now on.
We can reason why that might have occurred: “Starting At” leaves nowhere to go but up! “As Low As” says you can get something at a low price, but there are other low-priced options too.
This is just a small example of how a seemingly-insignificant change in words on a sign can affect the amount of business we do. It shows that we need to think twice about everything that’s widely distributed, really considering what’s being said and whether it can be said better.
Restaurant Internet Marketing: Five Must-Do’s
January 8, 2008
Five Web Must Do’s: Making The Most of an Internet Web Site for Restaurants
Your restaurant’s web site should be an ultra-effective 24 hour/7 day a week sales person and marketing tool for your restaurant business. Here are five must-do’s for independent restaurateurs to help make the most of their Internet program.
Real People
One key differentiating opportunity for independent restaurants on the web is to highlight the people that make your restaurant happen. Your restaurant is filled with vibrant, colorful, exciting real people-show them off. The ownership team, executive chef and general manager should certainly have pictures and brief bios on the site. Don’t stop there though-include the whole team. Post a group picture of your kitchen team and service staff. Have a photo taken of the entire staff under your main restaurant signage out front. It’s a small thing, yet it helps shows the personality and flavor or your restaurant to folks visiting your web site. In addition, it gives pride to everyone on your staff to know that they are included on the web site.
One Thousand Words - Restaurant Photography
Great photography on a website jumps out and makes an impression. Surprisingly, many restaurant websites have no pictures whatsoever, or just a few low quality photos. Don’t make this mistake. The web is a beautiful four-color world with no real space limitations like a print ad or brochure would have. This is especially important for upscale restaurants. Show your décor, showcase key menu items, highlight the size of private event rooms. The bottom line here is to ensure that visuals on the web site effectively convey the brand image of your restaurant.
www.WhatsThatSite.com - Showcase The Restaurant Web Address
The goal, of course, in building a web site is to have customers visit it. Make sure to cover the basics like including your web site address on menus, business cards, match books and print ads. If you custom print bar napkins or other materials make sure your address is included there as well. Special print a postcard size piece for take-out and leftover bags that includes a special thank you note and includes your web site address and other contact information. Staple it right to the bag.
Do a Google search for your restaurant. This is how many folks will try to find your restaurant on the web. Hopefully your restaurant’s web site will appear towards the top of the search results. Many times, however, what you will tend to find is your restaurant’s listing in various online restaurant guides. These online directory listings often tend to drown out your real web site in the search results. Don’t fret–take a proactive step. Visit each of the restaurant guide pages in the search results. Investigate each for factual information, but beyond that make an effort to contact each relevant guide and ask them about including your web site address along with your online listing. Some will do it for free, others may look to charge.
Either way, do it. Again, this is how the majority of people find your restaurant on the web. If they see your web site link on the restaurant directory page then they will likely click through to your site–if in fact they are truly interested in your restaurant. That is the goal because now your site can sell them on why to choose your restaurant.
Stay in Touch - Email Your Restaurant Customers
E-mail offers several great ways to effectively and affordably communicate with past and potential customers. Hopefully, you are already collecting customer email addresses in your restaurant through comment forms, business cards or other means. You should also be capturing information from prospects that visit your web site by offering an email sign-up form online. Some ideas on what to send them include a monthly e-mail newsletter with tips from the chef, a recipe, event listings, menu changes, perhaps even a customer spotlight. Another email option is the reminder email.
For example, a local bar/restaurant frequently sends me a short e-mail on Thursday or Friday with happy hour and event information for the next few days. Of course it is important not to send spam email so make sure that you have permission to email these folks.
Get Committed - Maintain Your Website and Email Campaigns
Is the Mother’s Day special still listed on your website in September? Do all e-mail queries that come in get answered? Many restaurant web sites are guilty of not regularly updating their web sites or responding to emails. This is crazy and lazy. First, content on a web site is incredibly easy to change so there is no excuse here. Secondly, an email from a customer is like a phone call. That person is interested in doing business with your restaurant. Don’t ignore them, for you do so at your own peril.
This hits on a broader point and that is that many restaurants underutilize their web sites. A marketing or design firm builds the site and that is the end of it. No updates, no new content, no nothing. Avoid the pitfall of the “dead” site by dedicating someone on your team as the “web” guy or gal. Maybe it’s the owner or the GM or even a key server. The important thing is that someone is responsible on a day-to-day basis for making necessary web site updates and responding to incoming customer e-mails. At the end of the day, you’ve got to work your web site to have it work for you.
Who’s Doing It
One restaurant website that gets high marks on the must do’s is The Blue Room in Cambridge, MA - . Stylized photography is the centerpiece of the user experience and very successfully captures the feeling of the restaurant. A unique slideshow presentation contains 20 full screen photos. Five members of the restaurant team have pictures and background info including the chef, sous chef, managers, and head barkeep. Contact information is easy to find and review and includes an e-mail newsletter signup form. Full food and wine menus are available. Although music on a website can sometimes distract from the visit, the background music at the Blue Door site complements the overall experience extraordinarily well and matches up perfectly with the brand image of the restaurant. It’s just a pleasure to visit this site.
Having a website is a great thing. Having an effective website that sells for you and an Internet program that communicates with your customers is smart marketing - and will help you successfully drive new and repeat business to your restaurant. Make sure you’re implementing these five must-do’s so as to not sabotage the efforts of your Internet program. Beyond these areas get creative and have fun with the web as an important part of your marketing and sales toolbox.
Jaime Oikle is the Owner of Restaurant Report, LLC, which runs a web site and e-newsletter for owners, chefs, managers and staff of the restaurant community. You can visit the site at http://www.RunningRestaurants.com.
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