Marketing ideas Archives - Creative Agency Secrets

Alex Haney Photographer, Restaurant marketing tipps,

Ways to increase interest in your restaurant

27 July, 2022/0 Comments/in B2C, Marketing, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

How To Increase Interest In Your Restaurant

If you’re currently running your own restaurant establishment and want to increase the level of interest you’re getting in your business, then take a look at the following post. We’ll be listing some top tips on how to make your restaurant stand out more to the public and increase your revenue. Subjects we will cover include marketing, making changes to your menu, and how location affects your business. Keep reading to find out more.

Offer Deals And Incentives

One way to help gain more customers is to offer discounts and incentives. For example, you could run a buy-one-get-one-free offer on drinks and cocktails, or discounted meals on certain nights of the week. This will help to create a buzz around your restaurant as you’ll be offering something unique. Marketing the deals and incentives you have on offer will help to generate interest in your business and widen the audience of potential customers. If you want more of an idea of what deals and incentives will appeal to customers best, then consider running a survey through your website or social media pages. This way customers will be able to help you decide by suggesting what would appeal to them the most.

Invest In Marketing And Advertising

Well, we would say this wouldn’t we – but an ongoing programme of promotions and brand awareness is critical for long term restaurant marketing success. When it comes to generating more interest and increasing the number of customers you get, marketing and advertising are key tools to use. Whilst initially spending more money on marketing and advertisements may come at a cost, you should see it as a long-term investment in your business. As marketing can help you to target more customers and generate more business, ultimately it can end up making you more money. Good marketing strategies to use for restaurant advertisement include having active and engaging social media pages, a high-quality website, and advertising on other websites. And don’t forget Google My Business – keeping your listing up to date with new photos and post announcements weekly is really important for local marketing.

Change Up Your Menu

Part of the reason you may be seeing less interest in your restaurant is that customers have grown tired of your menu options or there aren’t enough options available. Changing up your menu can help to solve this problem and generate more interest from customers. You don’t necessarily have to make grand changes to your menu. Simply adapting the dishes you have on offer can make a big difference to the interest you get from customers. Try using high-quality ingredients such as locally sourced meats and organic vegetables. You can use this as a selling point for your menu as your customers will know they are receiving good quality food. If you’ve been running the same dishes from your menu for a while, making changes and being more innovative with your menu options can help create more interest. When you make menu changes make sure you advertise this so that your customers are aware. For example, posting images and content on your website and social media.

Redecorate Your Premises

It’s important to remember that the food your restaurant is serving isn’t the only factor that can affect the customer’s opinion of your establishment. Even if you’re serving great food, customers can be put off from coming back to your restaurant if you don’t create an overall high-quality dining experience. The way your restaurant is decorated could be off-putting for customers and make them less likely to enjoy their experience whilst being served. Especially in this day and age where people like to post about their experiences on social media, having an aesthetically appealing restaurant can help generate more interest. If you renovate your restaurant and make it a good photo opportunity, you can quickly begin trending on social media as customers post about your restaurant. This makes it more desirable to attend, meaning more customers and higher revenue.

Change Locations

The location of your restaurant business could also be leading to a lack of interest from customers. When it comes to choosing where to eat, many people need a venue to be conveniently located for a number of reasons. For example, customers might require ease of access and parking facilities. It could also be due to how you’re located in regard to other businesses. Some customers might be looking to go out for drinks before or after their meal.

If you’re in a more secluded location, this can make it inconvenient for potential customers so they may look elsewhere. If you feel your location may be holding your business back, then consider moving to a different location that could offer more benefits for your restaurant. Try and look for premises that are within your budget, but also offer you aspects that can help to boost your business. For example, premises that are located near to other points of interest or businesses but not too close to direct competition. Premises that are highly visible and that will have plenty of nearby footfall are also good options.

Ecommerce retail product coherence

3 November, 2020/0 Comments/in B2C, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

Asking the right questions is key to getting the most out of an ecommerce retail marketing adviser.

Web traffic to online store

Giving “free” advice on the Manaaki forum, I showcase where and how online retailers can improve a lot of their business without a lot of cost. One question asked was

I need help with increasing traffic through my online store on my website.

I would like to add to more products but if there is no interest on what I’ve already put up, then I’m unsure if I should proceed further.

The questions look good – but when I did basic research into the site, the other social media profiles and the product set, it was clear that the author was not asking the right questions.

Online Product Mix

This site sells a book and some note cards.

The description of the products are accurate, but not aligned to any obvious audience, nor do they connect together – why does an author sell note cards?

I did some research and I could see why – she’s an artist AND and author.

The images she creates are her social media publicity and the “experimenters mindset” she identifies with gives a clear alignment with an audience of searchers.

So far so good, but the website and the social media profiles are not aligned. There’s no connection between what she does on each and so without that logic, the customer won’t see any reason to go from one to the other. If you like her social media pictures, there’s a website selling a book = disconnect. And the reverse.

You need your product-set to have coherence – they must sit together logically. A website that sells milk and furniture doesn’t work because few people just buy those two things together.

Can you build other products which are related to your book which allow the customer to step up a “ladder” of purchases? This allows the customer to buy one thing and it’s obvious what the next thing they should buy.

This is a great test for any ecommerce store.

You need entry level products, you need larger ticket and high priced items and a pathway from one to the other. And if possible, you also need replenishables – things which can be bought over ad over again.

Let me share a way you can check your ecommerce store has a good product set and is aligned with your target audience along with the marketing you do. Read on.

Assess your competitors

Go and find websites for your 4 favourite competitors. Analyse them.

What are their websites like? What products do they sell? How are the home pages laid out?

Draw a ‘wireframe’ of their website home page and identify each block of the page and what it is – this is a photo – this is a buy button – this is a link to the top 3 products etc…. You will quickly see a pattern and a logic to a nicely designed website. You don’t need to know what the ‘rules’ of good design are – but you do need to be able to explain to a friend why you like each site.

Search for “shops / brands similar to….” and find sites you don’t know and do the same analysis.

You are trying to work out who their customers are and to answer the same questions above. Write all this down in a spreadsheet so you can compare them. Then ask a friend to check your work and see if they agree.

Now you have an idea of where your website matches up with these design rules. Make any changes you need so your site is laid out better. And who is YOUR customer? When you know your audience – re-write your website as if you are speaking to one person who is your ideal customer persona.

Online retail merchandising

After doing your website audit, now review your product mix.

Can you build other products which are related to your number one best seller which allow the customer to step up a “ladder” of purchases? So they buy one thing and it’s obvious what the next thing they should buy is. Keep the list of products short and concentrate on a range of price points as well as the ladder of purchases.

There’s a lot of work in here – pace yourself, small actions done regularly are a good way to make progress.

Read the case study answers where I suggest products to add to the range and also low cost marketing tactics for promoting the brand, head back to Manaaki.

Using Wikipedia and Quora for marketing

18 September, 2020/0 Comments/in Content Marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing ideas, SEO /by Rebecca Caroe

I recently got asked about whether Wikipedia is good for marketing. It’s a high traffic website from where backlinks could be valuable.

If you do create Wikipedia entries be aware that there are rules about businesses on the platform.

The recent history of Marketing on Wikipedia

A lot of PR agencies got publicly burned while trying to promote their clients there.
Which led to Wikipedia publishing this.
And check out the PR institute rules in the UK which followed.

Basically, don’t expect this to be an amazing source of new business.

However, I have an other option to offer you which may work.

Quora expert profile

5 Quora tips for marketing

Answering questions around your topic of expertise and interest and inspiration is definitely somewhere you can shine. It’s not open source, so nobody can edit your submissions and you can get upvoted and become an “expert” on the platform quite quickly.

The key is to start in an established niche where you are confident.
Here are 5 easy tips on writing Quora replies with a marketing slant.

Read all the other answers first and upvote / or reference good parts which you agree with
Then add your own slant which is hopefully something not already mentioned
Find something in your own published content which could be linked from your answer and which adds more detail. This is key because a skim reader won’t follow the link, but someone who is really interested will click to follow and land on your site. So you filter out the tyre kickers quickly.
If you haven’t already got something you can use from your own content write it now. Write it on your website / blog, publish it, and link it inside your Quora answer before you hit save in Quora.
Use the GA campaign link tool so you can identify traffic from that article link.
All Quora links are nofollow but real people will click on them – so they give you customers instead of immediate SERP rank juice.
Tick the box to follow the answers and get alerted when someone else joins the thread so you can come back in later if you need.

Now what’s stopping you?

Oh, and if you came here from Manaaki – welcome. You’re following exactly the technique I recommend for use on Quora.

And you can use this technique on other forums relevant to your niche. I have three which send me traffic and build my profile as an expert in new business development.

Hacking brand colours

31 July, 2020/0 Comments/in Email, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

My logo has a beautiful gradient of colours in the design.

This gives me a huge number of subsidiary colour elements which I can add into customer communications and marketing.

I did an analysis of the key colours and the “colour palette” of associated shades. You can do this by uploading your logo or using a digital colour selector tool.

Creative Agency Secrets colour palette tool

Then I made a ton of work for myself

This was a mistake – certainly.

I wrote down each colour hash on a post-it note and had it above my desk. Every time I was writing or designing, I manually wrote out the colour hash. My copying skills are all right – but the potential for a single digit error was high – particularly when I was in a rush.

And so I decided that a change was needed. Electronic copying rather than visual copy-typing was needed.

But again, having a document I had to find and open and copy and paste was a bore. You get the idea. Time consuming eh?

My big insight

I realised that my emailing programme was the place where I used these colour hashes most frequently.

And so I edited the newsletter template to include a segment where each and every colour and its associated hash is listed.

Creative Agency Secrets logo hex colours

The time saving design outcome

Now whenever I need to get the colour shade I want, I can copy it from the template block into the area where it’s needed. Remove the hash text and bingo!

The only thing to remember is to remove the block from the final email design before sending.

How to prototype marketing solutions

11 June, 2020/0 Comments/in Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

Making a big investment into solving a marketing problem is a giant challenge. The risks are huge, the investment uncertain and the outcomes are unproven.

One way to overcome these risks is to do rapid prototyping.

Rapid Prototyping needs new adherents

Today I interview Joanne Jacobs, an expert in how to use this technique.

Talking work, hacking solutions and online engagement.

Joanne is an expert in rapid prototyping as a way for solving enterprise problems / challenges. She works for Disruptors Co.

Timestamps

01:00 Learning and showing by discussion 09:00 using Jitsi.org and Crowdcast.io and Remo

11:00 Hacking for rapid prototyping – creating solutions to problems.

16:00 What is a problem worth solving? Preferably something you’ve tried and failed before. It must have a financial impact and have knock-on change benefits

17:300 ihackonline.com

20:00 How to set up contests – allow private conversations, collaboration around a screen or whiteboard. Overcome networking challenges.

Rose and thorne, bra donation, essential workers, Covid19, Lockdown marketing,

Brand repositioning post-Covid19

21 May, 2020/0 Comments/in Marketing, Marketing ideas, Recession, Strategy /by Rebecca Caroe

Are you trying to understand how your marketing needs to change?

This article sets out the themes which you can use in your own firm to help discern the new rules, the new landscape and the new markets we are now trading in.

The new marketing reality

Nothing is clear. This is obvious.

But that’s hardly helpful for us marketing people who need to keep on creating campaigns, keep on filling funnels and keep on pushing our recovery efforts after lockdown.

Signs are emerging about what consumers are interested in and where they will look favourably on brands.

I am regularly scanning the world looking for examples and inspiration of what can be done and how you can do it for your brand.

What consumers value

Top home-stay business Look After Me surveyed their audiences and found a distinct shift in sentiment.

Instead of favouring flying on holiday, most now prefer car travel; most prefer to book with local companies to “keep money in the NZ economy”, and most now prioritise accommodation “cleanliness” over price, comfort and wifi provision.

Financial and economic news website, Interest.co.nz asked its readers what they value. The answers were clear from the start – every single segment of reader who was surveyed came back with similar views. Two quotes suffice

Your people have a better understanding of fringe issues, more reliably, than any other NZ news outlet. Your reporting on these peripheral matters shows incredible strength. And that makes the world better.

With the woeful quality of NZ journalism it’s my only trusted source of financial news.

ACTION: do a survey now

Understand the new priorities

Clues about the new priorities can be found from a range of commentators. Some have been “banging this drum” for a while, others are interpreting new data.

I look to global trends as well as industry-specific experts when trying to find a pattern worth following.

Mark Carney, Central Banker, says the “The economy must yield to human values“. By this I interpret that people matter over profit and that the capitalist model of pursuing profit over all other goals is being challenged.

Retail specialist Mary Portas calls it the “Kindness Economy”.

She realised that kindness isn’t weak but strong: a foundation from which to grow a business that has truth, integrity, longevity and commerciality. As we move away from a time of rabid consumerism and ‘peak stuff,’ Mary believes we are entering a new type of economy. One built on kindness and a Triple Bottom Line: people, planet and profit – in that order. And business who organise themselves around this kinder way of behaving, will be the ones that win.

And Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, interprets apparently polarising reactions to the same situation in terms of “moral intuitions and values”. In this way, relaxing lockdown provokes both protests against restriction of liberty from social distancing and protests about growing exposure to harm by going back to work. Both can be understood from underlying moral values.

In the context of Brexit and the lockdown, he found

Remainers placed more emphasis on the value of care and the need to minimise harm, whereas leavers placed more emphasis on the value of personal liberty. When evaluating an action or a policy, remainers would ask “will this cause harm?”, whereas leavers would be inclined to ask “will something restrict our freedom?”.

The moral values of your brand now matter. The alignment and prioritisation of your internal teams across departments will be different now. Your emphasis on the planetary community needs to be interpreted into both the bottom line and operational mores.

ACTION: Review your CRM and sales / marketing alignment

What will “value” mean?

This is tough and will definitely evolve as fear of infection subsides and rises with waves of the pandemic. In New Zealand now we are feeling relatively safe – lockdown is in Level 2 and we are back at school and work. Compare our situation to Brazil or New York and value will be very different.

Here are some themes which may emerge – to what extent does your brand and business subscribe to these?

Local resilience > global efficiency
High corporate debt > riskiness of underlying equity
Will the state continue to be engaged within private commerce?
Is resilience > risk now?
How are tail risks managed?
We all understand the fear of unemployment now.
The price of everything = the value of everything, including global heating.
Economic dynamism and efficiency ≠ solidarity, fairness, responsibility and compassion

What is the new Maslow hierarchy?

Values and needs are realigning.

Now that we fully realise the deep inter-dependency of our global community, will this change our prioritisation about health, wellbeing, global supply chains and personal independence (doing what I want) compared to communal dependence (doing what WE need)?

Can we learn to trust experts again?

Will our approach to climate change (surely the biggest existential threat to our way of life) be adjusted to reflect these new values and to form a new consensus on priorities compared to risks?

What did your company do during Covid-19?

Writing the history of this period can wait for now.

Yet I am certain that the judgements will fall on brands and the public perception of where they were before and after the emergency passes will be based on “people” outcomes not “profit” outcomes.

I bet Greg Foran wishes he was still at Walmart and hiring thousands of new workers rather than at Air New Zealand and laying them off.

This will have the resonance of “what did you do in the War?” and whether you judge the outcome to be “good” or “bad” will depend to a large part on the consumer’s view of whether you were a hoarder or a generous giver; whether you laid off staff, furloughed or retained staff; whether you hoarded resources or paid over the odds to acquire over others or whether you generously supported others.

Adjust brand positioning

Once you know what values your consumers now have you can start customisation to respond to this new priority.

Rose and Thorne donate bras to essential workers

Some of these will be short-term and related to Covid19 and Lockdown – like Rose and Thorne’s Gift-a-Bra to an essential worker.

How important are these people? Very. How much do we value them? A lot. And how many do we know? Lots.

This is great marketing because it is a classic member-get-member programme aligned to the issue of the day.

theme holiday, covid19, marketing in lockdown,

Brand repositioning post-Covid19

Look After Me have taken a lead by redesigning holidays into packages that theme around hobbies and interests, that are local and have quality marks for locally owned businesses with high cleanliness scores.

Smart. Easy to understand. Aligned.

There’s a Recession too

And of course the recession is already creating new winners and losers. Take a browse through the Emergency Business Forum questions business owners are asking and their own perceptions of “need” and the consistent themes emerge

growth of online ecommerce or at a minimum a website
how do we reach our customers
fresh marketing ideas
finding distributors and stockists
learning about digital media
how to get customers to switch to online
why word of mouth doesn’t cut it any more
migrating from in person to online
starting a customer database

Part of me groans when reading these; part of me rejoices.

Blending the practical with the strategic is going to be critical in giving quality guidance and up-skilling. Yet the problem lies as much with medium as small businesses. Speedy decision making is easy for the owner-operator and will not be so easy to apply to enterprise.

Marketing after lockdown ends

24 April, 2020/0 Comments/in Marketing, Marketing ideas, SEO /by Rebecca Caroe

Post-lockdown marketing is not going to be anything like we did before. There are new constraints and new opportunities – it’s up to us to start to find what these are new.

Start preparing for Level 3 marketing

One accounting firm offered to open their ‘little black book’ to source helpful contacts among their clients
Neil Patel has written a Global SEO technical article
Find helpful topics using AnswerThePublic.com
Check for early signs about consumer sentiment post-lockdown. The new normal will not be the same, must as we might have liked to move back to what went before.

Marketing funnel improvements

21 April, 2020/0 Comments/in B2C, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

Continuing my lockdown series of mini videos for marketers.

How can we improve funnels to get more revenue per customer?

Thank you page should include an upsell
Offer a phone call to discover more and suggest solutions. This works particularly well if you are selling services. For products you could use text chat on the site.

Customer survey during lockdown

16 April, 2020/0 Comments/in B2B, Marketing, Marketing ideas, Recession /by Rebecca Caroe

Continuing our series on lockdown marketing tips – how about doing a survey of your customers?

One goal
Few questions
Allow freeform answers as well as picklists
Make a valuable offer at the end.