en and enjoying themselves when they do. Along with people’s taste buds, there are many changes taking place in the restaurant marketing world.

If you’d like to make 2013 your most profitable year yet, here are some of the movers and shakers in our industry and how you can harness them in your restaurant marketing strategy.

Get your offers into peoples’ social media newsfeed on a Friday afternoon

Facebook has long since outgrown its past of being a virtual hangout for college students. More than 68 percent of the UK population now has a profile, accounting for 86 percent of total UK internet users. Its user base continues to mature, with 64 percent aged over 25 and 37 percent over 44. This means a large slice of your diners actively use Facebook to chat with friends, organise their social lives and make dinner arrangements. In 2013 make sure it’s your updates that popup in their newsfeed on a Friday afternoon when they do.

Build a strategy for smartphones

The spread of smartphones is arguably the biggest game changer in the restaurant marketing industry. The spread of the internet into people’s pockets is changing how they find information and where they choose to spend their money. More than half now use their smartphones to take photos of products (i.e. their dinner plates) to share with their friends, to make price comparisons and to read reviews. This means that having a mobile optimised website and a good online reputation is going to be even more vital to your restaurant marketing strategy in 2013.

Switch from deep discounting to added value

We recently posted on how the discount dining trend is on the wane. Whether it’s too many emails, poor customer service or deals failing to delight, people seem to be getting tired of chasing discounts. But before you pop open the champagne, it’s sensible to have a replacement strategy for attracting price shy diners. Our suggestion? Shift from discounts to added value.

The spread of smartphones means that diners are increasingly spontaneous. Their decision to eat at your restaurant or the Italian down the road can be influenced with the simplest of extras. This could be free desserts when four people dine, a complimentary glass of wine or a kids friendly policy. So in 2013 it’s time to get creative with your offers and replace deep discounting with added value.

Email readership is on the rise

One of the key findings of our European Dining Index was the shockingly low use of email by restaurants (less than 7 percent). This is worrying because while email, the old warhorse of marketing, might not have the bright sparkle of social media it continues to pull more than its share of business. In fact, email readership is actually on the rise. Why? Because people are using their smartphones to check their emails in those spare moments throughout the day. Open rates of email have risen 82 percent since 2011. This means that smartphones will soon (if they haven’t already) replace desktops and laptops as the platform for reading and responding to emails.

What does this mean for your restaurant’s marketing? Firstly, you can be more confident of people reading and responding to your emails. Secondly, it is vital that your emails can be read on a smartphone. If not, people won’t read them. Simple. Most email marketing providers should already be optimising your emails for mobile automatically. But it doesn’t hurt to check.

Earlier this year we published a case study of how OXO Tower sold 300 tickets costing £500 for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. They didn’t do it with a high profile advertising campaign in glossy magazines or shelling out that month’s profits on billboards. They did it using a humble email, and at very little cost. So in 2013 we hope you’ll follow their example and make email a core part of your restaurant marketing strategy.

This was the assessment of a survey of 2000 diners by SMG, which found that over half expect poor service at Christmas and nearly two thirds expect to wait longer for their meal. What’s worse is that waiting staff take a lot of the blame:

• Waiting staff forgot the orders for 40 percent of respondents
• 12 percent of diners had food dropped on them during their meal
• A fifth had to dive for cover from smashed glassware
• 65 percent said their meal was ruined by stressed out staff
• Nearly a fifth had to cope with a particularly rude waiter or waitress

I think we can all agree that waiters and waitresses have more patience than most. It comes with the territory. But they are only human, and at this time of year it’s wise to ensure they get enough time off to recharge and that they are encouraged to maintain high standards of service, no matter how hectic the restaurant gets.

The theatre of dining needs to match the quality of your food

It’s no secret that diners are becoming more sophisticated in their culinary tastes. They are becoming more demanding of the service they expect to get too.

In this day and age, diners are well aware of their power to influence others. They can now share their experiences with friends, fans and followers before they’ve left the dinner table. So ensuring you deliver customer service to match the food is now a vital part of your restaurant marketing plan for attracting and retaining customers.

Diners need to be made to feel like guests, and not just customers. And if the restaurant is a theatre, your waiters and waitresses need to perform their roles with enthusiasm, pride and good intentions. For a rundown on restaurant etiquette you can hand out to staff, check out New York restaurateur and writer Bruce Buschel’s post on 100 things restaurant staff should never do.

Attracting the next generation of waiting staff in 2013

Finding staff with the patience and depth of skills needed to work front of house is always a challenge. This isn’t helped when the next generation don’t appear to regard working in hospitality as a rewarding career.

In a survey we conducted earlier this year we found that nearly half of 16-24 year olds don’t want to pursue a career in hospitality, despite around 1 in 5 of them being unemployed. What’s more, 40 percent of them thought the work would be boring and repetitive. I think they’d only need to work one shift over Christmas to discover that certainly isn’t true!

Working in a restaurant now goes way beyond serving tables. These days staff need IT, marketing and social media skills, along with being good at dealing with the public. In 2013 maybe the restaurant industry needs to be more proactive in showing young people that working in hospitality isn’t an unskilled profession, or that it entails long hours, verbal abuse and poor pay.

Fred Sirieix from Galvin at Windows has suggested holding a National Waiters Day to promote and celebrate the job that 2.5 million people perform so diligently in this country. At Livebookings we firmly believe in service as a differentiator and a restaurant marketing opportunity. To do it well requires staff with the right attitude, skills and sense of pride in their work. So we’ll be supporting Fred’s campaign every step of the way.

People to keep spending

We’ll leave it to the economists to say whether or not we’re still in a recession. But as far as the restaurant industry is concerned, people are still eating out and spending more money when they do.

A study by Zolfa Cooper found that average spend per head has gone up 7.3 percent this year to £17.06 per person (although it could be argued that the rise is due to higher prices). Its findings were backed up by Horizon’s QuickBite survey in July, which found that people were eating out three times a fortnight, compared to twice in 2011. When you splice both surveys together, it’s clear that people are still eating out and see it as an affordable luxury. Long may it continue in 2013.

More reviews from customers

Another finding in the Zolfa Cooper study was that the average diner writes four online reviews per year. This reflects the trend of web savvy diners posting about their dining experiences and checking to see what other people think before booking a table. Reputations can be built and destroyed online, so it’s wise to keep an eye on what people are saying and to encourage diners to post a review (which they can now do before they’ve finished their dessert).

Recently, Ross Boardman from 99 Station Street posted on how to respond to the five types of online reviews. Whether it’s TripAdvisor, Twitter or Facebook, the fact is that what your diners think will be an ever more influential part of your restaurant marketing strategy. So make 2013 the year when you start to engage with the online audience and growing an online reputation to match the offline one.

A brand spanking new website

In our European Dining Index survey earlier this year we found that a third of restaurants don’t have a website. That in itself is shocking (particularly to us digital marketing types) but what’s worse is that this could mean losing out on £32,000 in revenue from lost customers! Restaurant related searches are up 17 percent year on year, with online restaurant bookings doubling in the last year alone.

So, if you haven’t already, get a website launched so you can avoid 2013 being another year sat on the digital marketing sidelines.

To give your website building plans strong foundations, here are some of our posts on web design:

Does your restaurant’s website make these mistakes?

10 reasons why your restaurant’s website must have great content

Top 8 restaurant websites

5 tools you can use to measure the effectiveness of your website

More smartphones in stockings

Another finding in our European Dining Index was that mobile bookings have trebled since last year. With many people getting new iPhones and Samsung Galaxies in their stocking this year, there will be many more diners joining the smartphone revolution. In order to profit, you need to make sure you have a mobile optimised restaurant website, that you can be found on Google Maps and that you start building up online recommendations from satisfied diners.

So those are our top four gifts we hope every restaurateur can receive from Santa this year. How about you? What’s on the Christmas wish list for your restaurant?

As with every year, the competition for customers will be intense, with discount deals and special offers going into overdrive. So to maximise your chances of filling your tables, why not put on some special events that give people an excuse to add another date to their festive calendar? Here are a few ideas:

A visit from Santa

In the run up to Christmas, why not reward kids and parents with a visit from Santa (a.k.a. your head ‘celebrity’ chef)? Children will be delighted with an early present, while parents will appreciate getting them out of the house and being able to chat with other parents. You could charge a small fee for a children’s present and a chance to sit on Santa’s knee, while your coffee sales can gain a boost on an otherwise quiet weekday afternoon.

Carol singers

What’s more festive than Christmas cake, hot spiced cider and carol singers? You could contact a local choir group to see if they fancy partnering to spread some Christmas cheer. And having some live after dinner entertainment is a great way to attract diners with an event that can truly only take place at this special time of the year.

Free glass of Christmas punch for the final Friday office crowd

The final Friday before the Christmas break is always a night of brisk trade for clubs and bars. Why let them take all the profits when you could reel in workers with a bowl of festive punch to start the evening off? LinkedIn is your friend if you want to promote your offer to local businesses. Just remember not to spam and to only post promotional messages in groups and forums where they are appropriate and welcomed.

Get busy on social media to turn your special event into a success

You might think the clock is ticking down to promote a special event. But these days you can build buzz over a matter of days using social media, as the Scotch Egg Challenge proved. So if you’re tempted to hire a Santa costume or to call in some carol singers, get Tweeting and creating events on Facebook to start building a virtual crowd that will turn into a real one over the festive season.

So why the sudden turnaround? Reports suggest it’s a combination of people getting overloaded with daily deal emails, dissatisfaction with the deals on offer and customer service issues when a good deal goes bad. People’s falling interest in discount buying can only be good news for restaurants in realigning people’s expectations of prices to a sensible rate. But should you drop discounting altogether? Or is there a middle way where you can continue to attract price conscious customers, fill your restaurant in quiet periods and boost profits at the same time?

Is it time to switch from discounts to loyalty schemes?

A Voucher Tracker survey by Horizons has found that many restaurants are switching from open ended discounts to more specific offers. Children eat for free offers are now only issued during school holidays, while 2 for 1s are being replaced with free desserts or starters with every main meal. Reducing the value of discounts is one option. Switching to loyalty schemes is another.

A survey of 2000 restaurant-goers found that nearly half of 18 to 24 year olds are more likely to visit a pub with a loyalty card offer, compared to only 25 percent of those wanting a simple discount. This is good news because, as we discussed in a previous post, loyalty schemes can turn visitors into repeat customers, whereas discount diners are rarely seen again. The Beefeater Reward Club, for example, has seen more than halfof customers with loyalty cards returning for another meal.

The perfect middle ground between discounts and standard pricing

Loyalty cards also provide the opportunity to capture data on your customers, such as their age, average spend and customer type. You can then use this information to run marketing automation campaigns, where you send more relevant offers that match the profile of each customer. So if the reports are true, and discount dining is on the decline, then loyalty schemes offer the perfect middle ground. They enable you to get customers used to paying a fair price for their dinner while encouraging them to keep coming back at the same time.

From the analytical data supplied by Google earlier this year we were able to brief a designer to display it in a way that was easy to understand at a simple glance and aesthetically pleasing to look at. For the H2 infographic we again partnered with Google. As part of an internship at Livebookings I was asked to produce the H2 infographic in house. Surprisingly, I was happy with the results that came out, with most of the focus being on the statistics.

We had a fantastic response from the last infographic with a large number of downloads, Retweets, pins and comments. It was great to have our friends over at Big Hospitality cover the news story, further sharing and reiterating with the industry the importance that online has to play in the way we operate and interact with our customers. Due to the importance this information has in shaping online marketing activity for restaurants, we have decided to track these changes on a regular basis.

2012 H2 infographic:

So what are the changes we have seen from the last infographic?
• The most searched for brand is Dominoes with pizza express and Nandos close behind.
• The growth of chicken is up 20% Y/Y
- We can see the continued popularity of chicken with Nando’s profits jumping £31.5 million to £52.9m on turnover of £374m in the year to February.
• The device that diners are using on a Friday has switched with desktop just edging out mobile.
• Fast food/Delivery chains lead the UK monthly searched for brands

What do these changes mean for restaurants today?

With fast foods chains now becoming the most searched for brands every month in the UK this may sound alarm bells for smaller, non-fast food led restaurants. This should not be the case, seeing as though we have seen some optimistic growth in 20112 for non-fast food chains.

Pub chains led an increase in turnover by 7.3% with full-service chains in second with 7.1% and casual dining chains in third with 6.8%. This is set to continue with casual chains seeing a predicted full annual growth of 4.1% in 2012 and pub chains seeing 3.1% annual growth. Although the fast food sector is still set to lead the way with a predicted 6.7% annual growth in 2012, this doesn’t spell out disaster for casual chains and pubs seeing as they do have a rather large presence in the hospitality sector.

From last year there were a number of statistics that didn’t appear this year, these include:

Changes this year:

In the past year we have seen some changes in the restaurant industry in terms of how pubs, hotels and restaurants market themselves and how they can gain competitive advantage over each other. One of the main changes I have seen is the use of mobile technology…

In 2011 almost half of UK internet users (45%) searched online using their mobile phone. 25% of people who use their mobile for internet, use it for dining. This shows that the online mobile industry is growing and has huge potential for restaurants to utilise for future growth.

Compare these stats with 2012 and the trend has continued:
• This year has seen mobile booking numbers tripling
• 6.4 million People accessed online retail this year which is a 74% Y/Y growth from May 2011

An interesting fact about mobile technology growing and becoming a major factor in the restaurant industry is that in 2014 mobiles are expected to overtake desktops in online searches.
We can link these stats to the ‘queries by time of day’ graph on the infographic. During the week it is understandable for desktop to be higher than mobile because of people in the workplace and searching online during working hours. Mobile isn’t far behind though. From doing some research into why this is I have come to the conclusion that people may be leaving work but not switching off. The results show that people just switch to mobiles in ‘out of office hours’ meaning they are searching on their mobile or tablets between the hours of 6:00pm to 11:00pm.

On the weekend mobile search far exceeds desktop search. This could be for a number of reasons but in particular I think this could be because dining out is becoming more spontaneous with people looking for places to eat on the move.

What can you do in your restaurant to attract more visitors to their website?

Writing a blog – A good idea for a number of reasons…
• Allows the customers to see a glimpse into what the atmosphere is potentially like within the hotel, pub, bar or restaurant.
• Pictures and text describing how the food is made provides an insight into what goes on behind the scenes when they order their food. With people becoming more conscious about where and how their food is made this would be content that would interest them.
• By writing blogs it can potentially improve the companies SEO. By adding new and rich content to the website this in turn can bring more traffic to their site.

Some restaurants allow “guest blogging”. This is where you would invite somebody from outside of the business to write up an interest piece on their experience at your restaurant, or something topical that people visiting your website would find interesting. It could be a farmer of fisherman describing their typical day and introducing the produce found on your menu. Alternatively it could be one of your chefs sharing a step-by-step guide on making one of your signature dishes.

Here are 3 different examples of restaurants that write their own blogs:
• http://www.theship.co.uk/
• http://www.nopi-restaurant.com/
• http://bloodandwasabi.com/

What changes are occurring in restaurant search that you should be aware of?

Changes to PPC

PPC stands for Pay per Click. Companies use this when they want to direct traffic onto their website. The advertiser pays the publisher which is usually a website owner every time the advert is clicked. This differs with search engines (such as Google) where the advertisers bid for a keyword.

The use of PPC has increased over the years and with that competition has also increased. This can lead to increased Cost per Click. Seeing as the internet is going more mobile, advertisers and websites alike will need to compensate for this. Here are three changes which can allow this to happen:
• Mobile specific Ads – By having mobile specific adverts they can target a certain audience with a degree of ease. They need to be optimised for a mobile phone just like a mobile website would.
• Call extensions – By adding call extensions it allows the user to directly contact the advertiser on their mobile by clicking the link with the phone number on.
• Location extensions – In short this is using Google maps. Most phones that can access the internet these days can also access Google maps. It allows the user to quickly see the where abouts of the good or service from their mobile device from simply clicking the address.

Development in SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is the process which makes a website more visible in a search engine. In other words, how high up on Google search it appears. The better the SEO the higher up in Google the website will be.

Why is it important and how has it developed:
• Having good SEO makes it easier for search engines to find the website.
• It allows customers to find relevant information about your business.
• By optimising SEO it makes your website more relevant to the searches your target market are likely to make and brings in relevant customers likely to book a table with you.

There are a number of ways in which SEO has changed to allow you to get your business to the top of the local restaurant searches.
• One way is to create a Google places page. This is a great way to be found on Google, free of charge. Seeing as 97% of consumers on a smartphone search for local businesses it isn’t a bad idea to create a page
• Keep an eye on review pages that link to your website – is a good idea to monitor and respond to online comments, good and bad
• Placing links from external websites to your website can also help increase your local searches placing

Finally, I have put together three top tips for identifying consumer behaviour on your website:
1. See what people are currently doing on your restaurant’s website – Look at Google Analytics so you can identify trends on your website and anticipate what could happen next
2. Keep checking back on theblackboard.net for the latest trends – Stay up to date on what is changing and when. You don’t want to fall behind and let the changes sneak up on you and catch you out.
3. Decide on what changes you want to act upon – With so many new social media channels and changes to optimisation, pick the ones that will have the biggest impact on visitor numbers. Google Analytics have some easy to follow tutorials to get you started on the basics.

Marketing automation revolves around being able to put customers into groups and then to send them messages that match their interests and preferences. If messages are more relevant they are more likely to be read and responded to. Sales go up as a result.

With restaurants welcoming in many different types of customers, it’s worth considering how marketing automation can be added to your restaurant marketing strategy.

Marketing automation in action

An example of marketing automation could be how Amazon displays products that match your previous purchases or searches. Say, for example, you’ve been checking out the latest range of expensive headphones for Christmas. Amazon can then use your browsing history to send you marketing emails customised to feature its latest headphones deals, along with cross sells like MP3 players and stereo speakers.

You may have noticed that when you visit websites like The Guardian that the adverts match products or other websites you’ve visited. This is marketing automation in action.

But how can I use marketing automation in my restaurant marketing?

Being able to display photos of dishes on your website that match each visitor’s individual taste buds might still be a few years off. But when discussing ‘marketing automation’ what we are really talking about is customer segmentation. And the tools to deliver messages customised to match different types of customers are very much available.

To get started you need to be able to divide your customers into groups based on categories such as the amount they spend, the type of customer (e.g. local businesses, families, students) or which deals they are most likely to be interested in (for ideas on how this can be done, check out this case study on how OXO Towers sold 300 tickets for a special diamond celebration through clever use of their database).

You can then use this information to send email campaigns customised for each different group. This could include messages to promote your restaurant as a meeting place to business customers, anniversary reminders to couples and afternoon discounts to students.

Marketing automation tools

In order to harness marketing automation in your restaurant marketing strategy you will need software that enables you to segment your customers into groups. Here are a few options:

Granburys Sales Builder – Specially designed for restaurants, this enables you to consolidate your visitors into different email groups to grow loyalty, rapport and reservations. It also integrates with POS devices to feed customer spend and frequency into your database.

Dotmailer – The free Express account gives you 500 free email credits and the ability to add 5000 contacts. Should you exceed this then you can simply upgrade to a paid account to grow your campaigns along with your customer numbers.

Octanehq.com – Slice and dice your customers into specific groups to target with Octanehq driven email campaigns. Octanehq also enables you to easily add fields for segmenting your customers into waifer thin slices and raise the targeting and relevancy of your messages.

Profunnel – Along with email marketing, you can use Profunnel to create and track your social media marketing efforts to get a real grasp on the ROI of having all those Facebook fans and Twitter followers. You can request a free demo to find out whether Profunnel can help improve responses to your messages and harness the power of marketing automation.

Here are four tools you can use to survey your customers and to get ideas for improving your restaurant’s marketing:

1. Survey Gizmo

If you’ve taken our advice and been busy building up an email list, you can easily survey your customers whenever you want. But if you’d rather spend time front of house than wading through everyone’s responses, Survey Gizmo can do all the hard work for you.

Survey Gizmo enables you to send surveys by email, or via social media. You can even embed surveys in your website if you like. Survey Gizmo’s real time reporting then enables you to analyse the results with charts and graphs so you can see at a glance what your customers think.

You can try out Survey Gizmo on a free 15 day trial to see what valuable gems you can gleam on how you can improve your services and increase bookings.

2. 4Q

Do you ever wonder what people think when they visit your website? Can they find the information they need, do they like the way it’s designed or is there any barriers that stops them booking a table? Now you can easily find out with 4Q which enables you to plant surveys directly on your home page.

Improving website conversion and bookings is a never ending task. With 4Q you can remove some of the guesswork and find out what visitors think and what will entice them to visit in the real world.

3. Google Chat

A more open ended alternative to 4Q is to add a Google Chat box to your website. Visitors can then ask you open ended questions or respond to a question you pose them on the website. Google Chat could also be used as a customer service tool to answer any questions without them having to wait for you to email them back. The only drawback is that someone will need to keep an eye on any questions that come through, because visitors might not be impressed if their questions are simply ignored.

4. Social Media polls

If you’ve built up Facebook fans and Twitter followers then why generic cialis online not start a two way conversation by asking them some questions? Installing the Facebook Poll app enables you to add polls and surveys to your fan page. Another option is Twtpoll, which costs £5.60 per month but can be used to post surveys on Twitter, in Facebook, Google+ and even in LinkedIn so you can gauge customer satisfaction levels in many different corners of the social web.

Making improvements to your website needn’t be like throwing mud at a wall to see what sticks. With modern analytics tools you can track and measure what people are doing to the last click. You can see which pages are most popular, which drive people to book a table and which pages they simply ignore. This gives you clues on what improvements you can make to keep visitors engaged for longer and to increase the chances of them visiting in the real world.

Here are five tools you can use to measure and improve your website’s performance and grow your online bookings:

1. Google Analytics

The granddaddy of website analytics continues to be arguably the best analytics package on the market. And the best part is that it’s completely sans gratis.

You can use Google Analytics to see your website’s bounce rate (which is the percentage that turn around and head back out the door without visiting any more pages), your top exit pages, most popular pages and the internet searches that lead to your website. All of this is valuable information for making improvements and keeping visitors engaged for longer.

You can find out more about how to use Google Analytics in this post.

2. Google Content Experiments (previously called Google Website Optimiser)

Earlier this year Google integrated its popular Google Website Optimiser tool with Google Analytics. Now called Content Experiments, this valuable tool (also free!) enables you to run up to five different versions of a page at the same time. This enables you to easily test which version leads to the most email signups, click and bookings, so you can make continuous improvements based on what your visitors think rather than guesswork.

To get started, click on ‘Content’ in Google Analytics, then ‘Experiments’. You can then set a goal you want visitors to achieve and decide what percentage of visitors you’d like included in the test. Tests take two weeks to complete and can be an invaluable way of increasing conversions and bookings through making improvements to your copy, layout and the impact of your website’s pages.

3. Crazy Egg

Do you ever wonder what people actually click on when visiting your website? Crazy Egg lets you find out. Used by eBay, Amazon, Dell and 50,000 other businesses,KissMetrics, on the other hand, enables you to track the activity of each and every visitor to your website.

You can see what path visitors take before they book a table, such as which pages they visited, which website they came from and the steps they went through before placing a booking. This enables you to better understand the journey individual customers take and which elements of your website tip curious visitors into diners, such as a your ‘About’ page or video presentation.

4. ClickTale

Used by Groupon to improve conversions, ClickTale enables you to actually watch and replay what people are doing when they visit your website. You can watch how they navigate your pages, the route they take to find information and which pages cause them trouble. In addition, you can also get analytics on how people fill in query or personal information forms, so you can see which fields take too long to fill in, which get left blank and which cause them to fill in the form altogether.

ClickTale is available on a free plan for recording up to 400 page views a month, which should be enough to get some clues on how you can make improvements to your website.

5. KissMetrics

Most analytic tools focus on the big numbers, rather than individual visits. KissMetrics, on the other hand, enables you to track the activity of each and every visitor to your website.

You can see what path visitors take before they book a table, such as which pages they visited, which website they came from and the steps they went through before placing a booking. This enables you to better understand the journey individual customers take and which elements of your website tip curious visitors into diners, such as a your ‘About’ page or video presentation.

Analytic tools enable you to watch and improve the journey to booking a table

The tools outlined in this post can all help you to make incremental improvements to your website. Available either free or on a free trial, you can use to them to watch what path your visitors take before booking a table. You can then work on making improvements that make their journey quicker and easier, and watch your bookings grow as a result.

1. Prezzo

We think the Prezzo site is a great example of how to create a central portal for a restaurant chain. It underwent a facelift last weekend, and now has a much heavier focus on online bookings, while still making it easy to find your nearest Prezzo restaurant. They also make great use of social media, with a Twitter feed and prominent Facebook link, along with giving you the option to subscribe by email to get their latest deals. But once you delve in further the real USP is revealed: reasonably priced meals in elegant settings. Prezzo also targets the profitable family market with kids entertainment packs – a topic we posted about recently.

2. Rockfish and Grill

Visiting the Rockfish and Grill’s website is like stepping into a seafood empire. Along with opening times and menus, you can order fresh fish from them directly along with buy Mitch Tonks’ book. Another way this restaurant stands out is its ‘Eat fish with’ app, which is both helpful and reinforces their passion for seafood. To keep upping the trust factor, you’ll also find reviews, Mitch’s blogs and Tweets and news of the latest awards added to their prize catch mantelpiece.

3. New Street Grill

This website earns top marks for having a booking form prominently on the home page. You need more reasons? Ok, well, this proudly British grill restaurant’s website also has strong copy that emphasizes the quality of its steaks and its glossy images give it a distinct personality.

4. Moro

This website features a mixture of background images and a navigation menu slap bang in the middle of the screen. Delve a bit deeper and you’ll discover how Moro was born from its two chefs’ love of Southern Mediterranean food, and how the beginnings of an empire were born. They also get bonus points for their cook book, which has sold 100k copies, no doubt shifting a few on their welcoming website.

5. The Ship

Regular readers will remember The Ship from their highly effective use of Twitter to promote their Scotch Egg Challenge last year. It’s clear these guys are no slouches in the marketing department when you visit their website. As you’d expect, it has a scrolling Twitter feedback, prominent social media links and brilliant implementation of our online booking tool. They also have an active blog packed with recipe ideas, feedback from diners and foodie reviews. Their website’s photos, many of which look as though they were taken from inside a goldfish bowl, also reflect the fun atmosphere you can expect on a visit to The Ship by the Thames.

6. Alimentum

This Michelin Guide listed restaurant has won many awards, and not it has another accolade to add to the list after making our top eight. We chose Alimentum for their excellent mobile website, which loads quickly, features prominent social media sharing options and packs in its latest news along with an up-to-date menu and smooth navigation.

7. The Factory House

We love the understated tone to this website, with a design that is bang on in cheap car insurance quotes reflecting their branding and builds intrigue in what you can expect to find at The Factory House. While not large, the website has everything it needs, with menu, booking options and address details all one click away.

8. The Avalon

This website welcomes you with an inviting slideshow of the restaurant and it also gets top marks for its promotional video. It’s packed with information, such as reviews, where it gets its name from, sports events they’re showing and the latest news presented in the form of uniquely designed monthly vouchers. If you fancy a free meal, why not register to become a ‘Mystery Diner’, and tour the five other restaurants in their chain.

So that’s our top eight. Which restaurant websites would you add to the list (feel free to nominate your own)?

In the US there are already apps for customizing food orders, setting up bar tabs and for sending diners messages when their table is ready. On this side of the pond, we aren’t far behind with a wave of apps that will help us to fill more tables and put customers more in control.

Here is a rundown on a few of the different types of smartphone apps getting downloaded right now:

QikServe Mobile ordering – QikServe was launched to a lot of fanfare in the UK last year. Described as ‘the waiter in your pocket’, once synced with your POS system, diners can scan QR codes at their table to get a menu so they can place orders and pay for them from their smartphone. We’ve posted on mobile ordering systems before, and while we think they are going to be a big trend for fast, casual operators, they won’t replace the face to face experience diners expect in a fine dining, or even a midrange, restaurant.

Wagamamas – Is the fast food service in your restaurant not, well, fast enough? Then maybe you should take a look at Wagamama’s app which enables people to order and pay for their food order before they’ve even arrived.

McDonalds – Who’d have thought McDonalds customers would be so eager to know what goes into their Big Macs? By all accounts, the McDonalds app has been a ‘whopping’ success, notching up one million downloads and now used by 10 percent of its customers to get nutritional information and to try to watch their waistlines.

The Good Food Guide – There’s now an abundance of mobile apps for searching for restaurants on a growing list of criteria. Few, however, have the pedigree behind them of The Good Food Guide. Along with average prices for a la carte menus, you can search for restaurants based on cost, cuisine and cooking quality score. It’s expensive, but then The Good Food Guide’s buyers aren’t known to quibble on price.

Great Burger Kitchen (GBK) – Eating out is meant to be fun, so GBK have created an app that poses diners challenges in exchange for rewards. Think you can handle extra jalapeños on your burger? Then you might be worthy to claim the ‘Fireface’ badge. Been to GBK in four different cities? Then you can claim the Traveller badge after ordering a Kiwi Burger to celebrate.

Rockfish Seafood App – The guys at Rockfish prove you don’t need to be a big chain to have your own smartphone app. Their seafood app features videos and tips on how to prepare, cook and eat 40 different species of fish.

Fifteen – A mobile payment system need not be complicated. Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant enables visitors to view an itemised bill then split or pay the full amount in a few simple steps using the Paythru system.

Bookatable – Packed with 1000s of restaurants in the UK, Europe and the US, our Bookatable App lets you search for restaurants, find the best deals and, unsurprisingly, book a table.

We are only on the crest of the wave for how smartphone apps are changing the restaurant marketing industry. They can be used to simplify the ordering process and free waiting staff from processing credit card transactions. Apps can also be a USP to build your brand and attract more diners.

Hopefully some of the apps outlined in this post have given you some ideas on how you can harness them in your restaurant marketing strategy, or even started your brain ticking over on creating one of your own.

Celebrity chefs can weld a lot of influence on people’s eating choices. Their recipes and recommendations have been lined to surges in sales of eggs, goose fat and Fray Bentos pies (thanks Delia!) over the years, so it’s clear that having a celebrity chef in the kitchen can be a valuable USP.

How am I supposed to get my chef their own TV show?

Getting your chef on the box in front of millions every week would certainly be a great boon. But there are plenty of chefs out there without media training that are finding ways of boosting their profile through the restaurant marketing opportunities online. When many chefs put down their spatula they now pick up their smartphone to Tweet, post videos and interact with customers.

Scott and Levi (a.k.a. Scott Levi), are two young chefs that have emerged from under Jamie Oliver’s wings and have now set up their cooking utensils in the Cavendish Square. It’s clear from their website that they’ve have learned a lot more from Jamie than just cooking. ‘Flavour by Scott Levi’ (FLTV) is a monthly show in which they demonstrate how to recreate dishes along with the ideal wine and music (hey, it’s their show) to accompany it.

Another case study example is the Rockfish Grill. Its mastermind chef Mitch Tong, the ‘fishmonger of the 21^st Century’, is the driving force behind the restaurant chain’s passion for fresh seafood. After trawling the website for a few seconds you’ll find Mitch’s blog, series of books and even his mobile app for finding the best way to eat seafood. Mitch’s positioning at the core of Rockfish gives the restaurant a unique story and identity which can help to reel in more diners looking for the best fish in town.

How can we start promoting our chef?

There are many ways you can promote your chef which don’t require a slot on Channel 4. Feature them prominently in your image gallery, while they’re cooking or just looking important. People will want to know what their inspirations or why they love cooking, so get them blogging and talking about their influences and offering expert advice.

Other options include cookery classes, giving talks at local events on foodie topics or live cooking demonstrations. Putting your chef in the public eye will help to grow awareness about their expertise and will subconsciously make diners feel that they aren’t just buying the food in the plate but also the passion that went into cooking it.

A study by Econsultancy reported that 78% of marketers believe the ROI for email marketing is ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. This is unsurprising, as studies show that 90% of online consumers check emails once a day and 77% say it is their preferred method for receiving permission based promotional marketing. Stats like these prove it is a valuable channel to drive business to your restaurant.

The beauty of email marketing is that it can be used for any number of reasons; to promote a new menu, event or simply to drive covers during your quietest times. The ease of which emails can be sent means a lot are sent without being properly thought through. An average email user receives 147 emails a day of which, even with spam filters, 19% of these are considered ‘graymail’ (unwanted newsletters etc.) However, with a 75% increase from 2005 to 2010 in the time spent reading commercial emails and diners now spending 30% of their time reading them (View from the digital inbox 2011, Merkel), there is still plenty of scope to increase revenue this way.

Before sending an email to your database, work out what you want to get out of sending the email. Do you want to promote a special event, new menu, drive covers at specific times or just increase brand awareness? It is important to set targets before you send your emails, so you can work out what works best.

When writing the text for the email, the most important thing is relevance. From the subject line to the sign off, you need to grab the diners’ attention and encourage them to act. Do not inundate your diners with boring and irrelevant information. There are two important ways to achieve this; first by personalising the text and second by segmenting your database. Adding personalisation to the text in the email will give the reader the impression that the email has been produced specifically for them. Personalising the email is easier if you have your database segmented. There is no point in promoting an offer to fill tables during the quieter times at the beginning of the week to a customer that visits occasionally when on holiday. Try and work out why your diners visit your restaurant; be it with friends, family or for business. This will then not only help you drive interest for certain menus or events, it will give you an insight into your diners so you can target your business to cater for what they are interested in.

Secondly and no less importantly, remember the context in which your email will be read. Consideration needs to be given to the time of day you send the email out. During the day a lot of the emails will be opened in a work environment, and a significant proportion will be read on a smartphone, whilst on the move. In these instances, your email will not only be fighting competition from the inbox but also against external distractions. For this reason, emails tend to be acted upon immediately or not at all. You need to create a sense of urgency with your writing and use time-limited offers to encourage action before the email gets forgotten or deleted. Studies show that people read slower on computer screens and enjoy it less. This makes it more important that the text is concise, with a succinct introduction about the content of the email and a clear call to action to increase the likelihood of them acting on your email. People on the move are unlikely to do more than scan read an email, so make sure the goal of the email is translated into a benefit for the reader in the first few lines, to keep them concentrating. Remember the 2 word hook rule; make the first couple of words in the subject line, email title, beginning of each paragraph, sub-headings and call to action attention grabbing, to keep the reader engaged.

Top tips for email marketing
1. Make your email stand out with an attention grabbing subject line, but remember certain words and punctuation (e.g. free and the use of multiple exclamation marks) increase the likelihood of the email being caught by a spam filter.
2. Make the writing clear, succinct and concise.
3. Use a time-limited offer to encourage immediate action.
4. Send targeted emails to the different segments of your database.
5. Use an attractive template design that reflects the style of your restaurant.
6. Think about the layout. Have a clear call to action in the header and make sure the hook of the email is at the top so it is visible if the email isn’t opened fully.
7. Make the email relevant by personalising the text and sending it to a targeted audience.
8. Think about the time you send the email. Don’t send your email on a Sunday so it gets lost in a full inbox when workers return to the office on a Monday morning.
9. Set clear objectives for what you want to achieve from the email and use these to benchmark the success of future emails you send out.

Finally, don’t forget to link to your website, twitter and Facebook account to encourage brand loyalty and wider awareness on social media.

Restaurants Spaghetti House, Fire & Stone and DSTRKT London as well as pubs The Ship, The Jam Tree and Renaissance Pubs are all prolific in engaging with their customers through Facebook. The age old question still remains however – how much time should you spend on these social media channels, and how do you measure the return on investment?

Here at Livebookings HQ we have always preached the importance of using these social media channels to engage with your customers. They are online, so you should be too. With the recent release of Facebook timeline a new opportunity has arisen for you to get more from your Facebook – online bookings.

Livebookings has always given you the tools needed to take online bookings from your Facebook page – the release of Facebook timeline however brings a new opportunity to display your online bookings offerings. Whether you have previously taken bookings through Facebook using Livebookings or are new to the game, here is how you can add your online booking tool to your Facebook fan page:

NOTE: If you are not a customer of Livebookings, and would like to add an online bookings tool to your Facebook fan page, click here.

2ND NOTE: Livebookings customers – you will need your customer ID. This can be found on the top of your invoices. Alternatively, drop us a call on 020 7199 4300.

1. Adding the online bookings app

You will be taken to the following page where you are prompted to Add static HTML Page

Lunch grows with people’s appetites

Lunch is now worth nearly £15bn, which is 35 percent of the entire foodservice sector. It has grown 3.3 percent since 2009 in step with people’s lunchtime appetites. You only have to look at the rise of Pret a Manger, EAT and the other high end lunchtime chains to know that lunchtime habits are evolving.

Offer a healthier alternative to fast food

So how you can profit from people’s lunchtime appetites? QuickBite research found that food quality was the biggest factor when deciding where to eat. This reflects how people’s expectations of the eating out experience continue to grow. It’s no coincidence that gourmet fast food restaurants, serving gourmet hotdogs, burgers and sliders, are popping up all over the place as people look to get a higher quality bang(er) for their buck.

Second on the list is price. Keeping costs down at lunchtimes is vital because many people are attracted to restaurants by vouchers and meal deals so they can stretch their dinner money. You also have to think about meals or takeaway snacks that are quick to prepare and healthy to eat so that diners can be in and out within an hour.

Targeting the business crowd

If your restaurant is in a high traffic area then wheel out the chalkboard to let people know that ‘lunch is served’. If not, it can be wise to target the local offices for customers that would like to have somewhere to go and have money to spend.

You can find more tips on targeting the business crowd in this post, but a quick few pointers are to build a presence on LinkedIn, to promote lunch time deals to the after work drinks mob and to try and get to know secretaries and other people who can influence where people go to refuel at lunchtimes.

As always, Twitter is the restaurant marketer’s best friend and Facebook continues to be a key way people make lunchtime plans. So get engaging to profit from the growing lunchtime market.

Your website’s design is also like a picture. You can pay a designer to provide you with an elegant website frame and design, but you still need to fill it with engaging content that builds excitement and tickles people’s taste buds. Only then will people take the next step of visiting your restaurant in the real world.

There’s a saying in marketing circles that ‘content is king’. Here are ten reasons why this is true in the restaurant marketing world:

1. Visitors have the attention spans of goldfish – If your content isn’t interesting, engaging or arrests attention then visitors are only a mouse click away from backing out the door and looking elsewhere
2. People wont book if they don’t know where you are or when you open – Opening times, phone number and location should be easy to find, particularly considering the number of diners visiting on mobile screens and most likely looking to find your restaurant in the local vicinity
3. Your website is a reflection of your personality – Whether you offer upmarket fine dining or are more family friendly, your content should be pitched to appeal to your target customer and the sort of dining experience they can expect. The style of writing and tone should reflect your restaurant’s personality, concept and what differentiates you from the competition
4. Google gobbles up content – Content is the currency with which Google trades to push you further up the queue in its rankings. The key is to update content regularly (ideally in a blog), to subtly drop in your keywords and to build links from other relevant sites (more on SEO in this post).
5. Online booking tool – The pace of life never slows, and people are getting used to the convenience of booking holidays, hotels and hairdressers online. The same applies to restaurants. So make it simple for them to put their name down for dinner with a prominent online booking tool (like ours!).
6. Visitors eat with their eyes – Mouth watering images of dishes can be your best salespeople. They can trigger lust in the taste buds of visitors nursing a dry tasting sandwich while sat in the office. Images also have ‘share-ability’ that can spread links to your website onto social media sites, like the fast rising Pinterest
7. Increase conversions – Studies have shown that online bookings can skyrocket through making improvements to your website. We’ve discovered this ourselves while studying the improvements in conversions on the Bookatable website. High quality images and an enticing description were found to have a direct impact on the numbers that book.
8. They want to see your goods – The main reason for diners visiting your restaurant is, of course, to eat. Dedicate a whole page to your menu and include a link for visitors to download and forward on to their friends. It’s important to keep your menus updated if you offer seasonal variations – you wouldn’t want to be displaying cottage pie and beef stew in the middle of summer.
9. Visitors want to know what’s happening now – If are a prolific tweeter then display your tweeter feed on the homepage of your website. The new and fresh content shows diners there is a personality behind your restaurant brand and you are a sociable folk enticing diners into the restaurant.
10. People don’t just visit your website – Millions of people now use third party sites, like Bookatable, for reviews and to get an impression of a restaurant. So it’s a good idea to make sure your listing is up-to-date and has high quality photography that entices people in.

On the subject of photography…

New look for your Bookatable restaurant page!

One of our primary objectives for Bookatable is to deliver as many covers as possible to our restaurant customers. To enhance your restaurant page and to help drive covers for you, we need to display engaging content that will appeal to your potential diners. In order to support this objective, please send us some images of the following:

• At least 1 photo of your restaurant
• Images of food/dishes, restaurant interior and exterior
• In landscape format as a j.peg file
• Minimum of 650 x 450 pixels

Please email images to contentuk@livebookings.net