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Even small operators can now have a 'virtual marketing manager' - it just needs an internet connection.
It's a great role for someone working from home - they can bring reliability and new strength to your communication, one of the elements often lacking in smaller businesses. There's no need to make this into a full-time job, and not everything has to be done weekly. This part-time position would pay for itself in no time!
So what will this new Marketing Manager do?
- Keep the Website up-to-date. Modern sites should be editable by the owner, but it takes time, patience and some typing to keep it looking good. New photos, new events, changes to the menu and entertainment etc. If it's fresh, people will come back regularly to check the latest.
If you're launching a new business or new outlet, be well prepared with the Pre-Opening Marketing Checklist for a New Restaurant, Cafe or Bar
- Send out the Email Newsletter. Customers keep forgetting you - email and SMS remind them about your good news and latest offers. Gather the stories and information together and for most efficiency, use an online newsletter service such as Constant Contact or Aweber (see below). Monitor the response to the newsletter, checking which stories and links were the most popular.
See: 65 Interesting Topics for your Email Newsletter or Blog
- Promote News and Events in a News Diary (blog). Think of it as an interesting, informative Diary that's part of the website. At least once a week write an update about food, staff, the wine list, local events, business milestones, entertainment, gossip etc. Written in a way that's interesting to read.
See: Blogs - the Easy Way to Add a Voice to Your Website
Best Cafe and Restaurant Blogs
Fast Way to Create a Diary-Blog for a Restaurant, Cafe or Chef
- Keep up to date with trends and industry news. The easiest way to have a summary of news and updates coming to you is to use a Feed service.
See: How to keep up with the flood of useful information online
- List in Directories, and Monitor what's being said about you. Watch out for comments on review sites like Eatability, Menulog, WebMenu and TripAdvisor. If critical comments have been made, a quick and courteous response can do much to neutralise it. If it's positive, everyone needs to know!
See: Great new Google method to promote your business
Online Restaurant & Cafe Guides: Where to List in Australia
- Watch what Competitors are doing. Google has great tools for keeping track of business names when they're mentioned on the net - add key competitors and your own business. A regular inspection of other sites will keep you up-to-date on changes and innovation - smart operators don't stay still for long! Also use a free website change detection service to be automatically notified of updates on competitor websites or particular pages.
- Promote the business to groups visiting your area. By keeping an eye on tourism and event sites, you'll soon know about conferences, meetings and events in your area. Large groups make their plans months or years in advance. Invite them to eat, drink or to hold their entire meeting with you. Large hotels do this aggressively - so can you.
It's always useful to have a Professional Media Kit available for inquiries.
- Promote your Events online. Whether it's a wine dinner, new menu, apprentice award or a music festival. It's great to have a calendar on your own site, and also send the good news far and wide by adding it to Upcoming.org and Google's Calendar service.
See: 6 Free Calendar Sites to Promote your Events
How to use Google Calendar & other free tools for event management
- Promote your business with Photos and Video. As well as good photos on your website, shared sites such as Flickr and Google's Picasa Album put your happy snaps out for the world to see. People find them all over the world, and it makes a journalist very happy when they can browse your collection and select one for a story. If you have entertainers booked at your venue, many of them have video footage on YouTube - it's ready to be shown on your website or blog.
See: VIDEO: How to Create a Business YouTube Channel
Instant Promotion Videos for your Restaurant, Hotel or Club
50+ Ways to Use Photos for Business Building & Promotion
How to Create a Photo Gallery for your Website
Simple, Easy Way to Share Photos of Your Area
- Join the new Online Conversations. Even if you personally don't want an online profile, your business needs one. It won't take long to become a presence on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter - fans will come flocking. These sites need regular updating and monitoring.
See: Using Facebook to Market a Restaurant, Cafe, Hotel or Bar and
How to Use Twitter for Restaurant, Hotel & Bar Marketing
Follow Ken Burgin on Twitter.
How to measure success - KPIs for this new position:
Metrics: email circulation, unique website visitor count, frequency of web visitor return, conversion of website inquiries into visitors and bookings, number of inbound links - from other websites pointing to you.
Hiring Guidelines: computer literate and a good typists, good at finding information, multi-tasker, creative, attention to detail, comfortable with change.
The Email Marketing Service we use every week and highly recommend:
