Promoting your Restaurant or Dining Area

Many people will be visiting your website to view your menus, your dining area and even what your food looks like. This is your opportunity to sell! We can help you do so on your website both with pictures and words. On this page are a few ideas and suggestions.

Menus

We do not usually scan menus though as download times take far too long. Very often people will want to print out your menus and as web pages do not always print that well we would normally provide an option where people can also view and download a menu in Microsoft word format. We would also remind you to place your telephone number on your menu, a simple detail but one that many forget! This is a great idea for those who may want to send that menu to friends or print it out and distribute it around the office, An example menu can be viewed here and it's word equivalent here. The latter could be saved to your hard drive by selecting "save target as" thus allowing people to easily pass on your menu to others.

Remember, if we are showing the menus in your website, to tell us when you change them as no-one likes an out of date menu! We will usually update your site the same day as the new menu is advised to us and would suggest that they are prepared on Microsoft word to give us the word copy for download.

Pictures of your Food

Do show photos of your prepared dishes but ensure they look good, A table of nibbles may look great in real life but not when on the screen! Concentrate on the detail rather than how much (Unless, of course that is your major selling point)

*Bad!	Good!
Click images for larger view

Close ups always work better than big spreads and do make sure they are sharp. The thumbnails to the right demonstrate a good and bad photo, we leave you to decide which looks best.

Pictures of your Restaurant

Each and every restaurant or bar is different and we, along with your help, will endeavour to highlight and illustrate the best features of your establishment. You are better having pictures of a full and busy restaurant rather than a room full of neatly arranged but empty tables and chairs, after all, you want to show people how popular you are! Flash Photo displays like the one below can be an attractive addition but if your website ends up with a dotted line around your gallery or any other flash presentation with the message "click to activate and use this control" when you move the mouse over it best change your web designer!

Feedback

Showing that you care and are trying hard to get even better works wonders! Why not have a feedback page especially for your diners? One client of ours gives their diners a business card with their bill (not a bad idea in itself) which gives them a link to a special webpage where they can send back their comments on the quality of the meal and the service. This makes the diner feel special and shows that you care and it also allows you to follow up complaints, improve standards of service and even build a mailing list if you wish. An example feedback form can be viewed here (please note that this form is not live!)

Mailing Lists

With a mailing list built up regular mailshots are possible to allow you to keep your customers up to date with the latest menu, special occasions and maybe your revised late license opening times! Invite people to let you have their email, either when paying the bill or by signing up via your website (the former works best!) Keep them informed what is happening and thus allowing you to keep reminding them of your existence and tempt them with those special offers. People appreciate being remembered and provided you make your contact with them enticing your efforts will be rewarded.

Advertising

Whilst the internet is without a doubt the greatest medium for advertising your establishment worldwide as well as locally a lot of good can be done with a local ad campaign or regular mailshots to your established mailing lists.

If advertising in the local press, however, do not forget to include your website address. It is amazing just how many press adverts we have seen extolling the virtues of a particular establishment and then omitting their website! After all, your website allows full colour and interaction and will always be there long after that newspaper ad has been used to light the fire.

If conducting an ad campaign you will also be able to monitor it's success by viewing the number of hits to your website and from where they came.

All our clients are provided with fully detailed webstats showing every aspect of activity on your site and these can be of great help in providing marketing guidance.

We can also setup a mailing list facility for your clients where they as well as you can add their email addresses.