Tag : Online
Responsive Design for Restaurant & Hotel Websites - Resource Guide
Responsive website design has revolutionized the way websites are build. Great resources for hotel & restaurant websites here.
La Pizzica - What A Difference A Blog Would Make...
This is La Pizzica an Italian Deli come Apertivo Bar at night, which has got the basics and more right.
Anchor Text Linking for Hotel SEO
Most regular readers of Brightbox will know by now that links to your website help with your search engine optimisation. This article provides a little tip to help maximise the benefit of links that you develop.
Ignite At Hotelympia!
Ignite Hospitality Consultants will be exhibiting at Hotelympia from Sunday Feb 26th - Thursday 1st March.
Facebook Advertising for Hotels & Restaurants Poses Interesting Question
Recent findings from TBG show that Facebook provide a 50% discount on Facebook Ads if users are kept in-site.
Website Design Tips for Hotels, Restaurants & Bars
Welcome to Ignite's Tips Of The Week!
Double Bookings Through Your Website: Restaurant Show Presentation
Our Managing Director Paul West will be presenting with myself at The Restaurant Show next Tuesday 11th October.
Ignite Win Restaurant Website Award for BR Guest Hospitality
We've recently been awarded the International Standard of Excellence for our first American client - BR Guest Hospitality.
Hotel Consulting in the Bahamas - Internet Marketing Update
Regular readers of the Brightbox Blog may recall Michelle's articles about our month undergoing on-site consultancy in the Bahamas.
Internet Marketing - The Ignite Analysis Model
There is no denying the increasing importance of internet marketing for restaurants and hotels. The digital marketing mix is becoming increasingly complex and the tools available to engage, attract and convert customers are constantly changing and improving. It is a dynamic landscape that demands regular attention so as not to be left behind.
Local PR & Internet Advertising For Small Hotels & Restaurants
Let's say you're no larger than 50 rooms or a single restaurant that wants to ultimately become well known in you local area and surrounding counties. What Internet marketing channels and offline marketing opportunities are at your disposal to get your hotel and restaurant out there?
The Mobile Revolution
It's official. We are now in the era of the mobile phone. Smartphones, iPhones, Androids, Blackberries and the like. We all treasure our gadgets and love what we can do with them. They are just so handy aren't they? Information on travel, news, cinemas, weather and anything else you can think of is right at our fingertips. It's even there for you when all you want to do is relax a game or funny video.
SEOMG
First off, I need to state that I'm a big believer in SEO. However, recent requests have made me relook at SEO, how it's implemented and think about best practice techniques. Bear with me on this, it's going to be long one!
Online Reputation Management For Hotels And Restaurants: Getting It Right!
Online reputation management is the new buzzword in hospitality. But what exactly is reputation management and what does it entail?
Google Adwords Advantage
I've recently been working on a new Adwords account that we've inherited from somebody else. It's amazing how many people waste money on Google Adwords by not setting the system up properly. Inefficient PPC accounts are a great way to throw money away!
Crowd Force
At its soul the internet is a network of connections and this network is incredibly powerful. The speed and scope of the distribution of information in the dot-com world ensures that news spreads far and wide as quickly as it can be typed. Though this ability to distribute information can open the world's eyes to oppressive regimes and influence change for the good of humankind, it can sometimes be problematic for the hospitality operator. On the other hand, it can also be tremendously helpful and beneficial if harnessed in the right way.
Power Of Now
Marketing campaigns utilise a variety of techniques to encourage activity and to make people perform a desired action. The use of Urgency to make people act immediately is one technique that works especially well in the world of digital marketing.
Position To Win : Play It Smart To Beat The Big Boys Online
As a small hospitality business with a handful of employees and a tight budget the world of internet marketing may seem more of a challenge than an opportunity.
Paul West MIH
We're extremely proud to announce that our Managing Director, Paul West MIH, has been awarded Member level of the Institute Of Hospitality. Paul's expertise in internet marketing for hotels and restaurants is unrivalled in the UK and this award again demonstrates our standing in the hospitality industry.
QR Codes: Entering The Mainstream
After having recently seen an old episode on CSI: NY the other day I have finally discovered the QR Code (short of Quick Response Code). I would never have thought that anything would come from my addiction but since watching that episode (it was series five, episode seven entitled 'Dead Inside', in case you were wondering) I have uncovered what seems like a whole new world of communication.
Start Tweeting!
I first created an account with twitter about a year ago just to see what all the hype was about and immediately didn't get it. In fact I had my account for a full five months before I decided to give it another go. This time I did a search for web design and development, as it's of great interest to me and started following a few people. By initiating this relationship I realised people weren't only tweeting what they had for breakfast (as were my first impressions) but in fact sharing links to other interesting stuff they had found or had written themselves, namely blog articles, design resources, tutorials and the like.
Nothing Works in Isolation
Over the last few months I have been writing in this column about the various online marketing tools available to hospitality businesses and discussing how you can use these tools to drive business. In this final article in the series specific to internet marketing techniques I'll be bringing everything together to illustrate how the different communication tools interact and compliment each other.
Social Branding - Friends, Tweets & Check Ins
The world of social media has not long been with us but already it is a powerful marketing force. Word of Mouse cannot be ignored and clever hospitality operators know that this relatively new technology must be harnessed and nurtured. Social media channels can become highly useful marketing tools if you know how to use them. As with all marketing communications there are techniques you can employ to ensure they benefit your business rather than hinder it and it pays to understand how each of them work and how they interact.
E's Are Good
Hopefully that's caught your attention, because the E's I'm talking about are Email, the key communication tool that every hospitality business should be utilising on a regular basis.
You Get What You Pay For
In last month's Eat Out I discussed the art of Search Engine Optimisation and how to ensure your website is built in such a way that it is highly visible to Google. These techniques are free in the sense that once your site appears in the search results for your important keywords it doesn't cost you anything for people to find your website.
Be Seen to Be Successful
Following on from last month's article on website design for booking conversions, this month I'll be explaining how to ensure your website is as visible as possible to search engines. Marketing has evolved over the last decade as Search Engines such as Google enable you to place your business directly in front of people who are actively looking for what you provide. This is a very direct approach and is a highly cost effective way to communicate with your potential customers.
Internet Marketing for Hospitality
Regular readers of GS Magazine may remember an article about website design and the development of the gsmagazine.co.uk website. The GS site has continued to develop and now offers the GS Suppliers' Directory, a searchable online buyers' guide, and an online subscription facility for the magazine. Of course building a website is only really the first step in implementing online marketing communications. Once you have your website built you then need to ensure it is as visible as possible and drive visitors to it. This article will look at the tools available to you to ensure you reap the rewards, and the potential high return on investment, of your online presence.
Web Aware
I spend a great deal of my time on restaurant and hotel websites, assessing clients' online needs, analysing websites and implementing internet marketing techniques, and it never ceases to amaze me how many ineffective hospitality business websites there are! So over the next few editions of Eat Out Magazine I'm on a personal mission to help hospitality business owners better harness the power of internet marketing and will be providing you with a whole host of useful tips, approaches and insights on a range of internet marketing techniques.
Best Independent Restaurant Website Award 2009
We're thrilled to say the site we designed and built for YumYum Thai Restaurant has been crowned best Independent Website of the year in the annual Catersearch awards.
Beat the recession online, your guide to email newsletters
Whilst some are still dragging their feet, most in the hospitality sector are starting to see the benefits of engaging with customers online. Just like in the physical world, there are a multitude of channels, which tend to work better when working in tandem. For example, Cost Per Click (CPC) marketing is particularly effective and provides a great return on investment when your website allows you to close the sale.
How cafes can use online mediums to drive marketing & communication efforts
Do you talk and listen to your customers effectively? The answer, an obvious yes. The internet enables you to do both of these - and more - 24 hours a day, whilst running your business. It has changed the platform from which businesses can operate, but why have cafes have been slower engaging online than their counterparts?
Twitter - 21 tips on getting it right
So you've read the news (twitter, twitter, twitter), listened to the hype (twitter, twitter, twitter) and you've set yourself up an account. Now what? Let your account sit dormant and wonder what all the fuss is about? You could, but Twitter has the potential to be very powerful to the hospitality industry and in my opinion its here to stay. Not to sound cliched but the sooner you get involved with medium such as twitter the less likely you are to get left behind!
How to set up a Twitter account
It's relatively simple to set up a twitter account, but it's not always clear what you should do to get going properly. We've given a step by step guide to get you to this point. Happy twittering!
Telling, not selling
I was reading up on email newsletters today to see what works and what doesn't and something popped up that I found really interesting - partly because it's something I've always believed in but also because it's something I've reacted to in the same way.
Achieving your objectives online
Audits are useful to businesses in various ways. There's financial audits, operational audits, stock audits etc. All of them have one thing in common: they help a business run smoother, be more confident, reduce costs and maximise profits.
Online Marketing - Tools and tips no brand can be without
Having a website gives you direct access to a sizeable 1.5 billion internet users worldwide. The trouble is that simply having a site, doesn't mean you're reaching the masses, or more importantly your target market.
Writing good web copy
'Content is King!' - a phrase well used when it comes to websites; rightly so too. However, there's also the issue of how to present that royal content and I aim to look at a few methods of rolling out the red carpet for your content.
Brightbox - the Ignite blog
Online
Responsive website design has revolutionized the way website...
This is La Pizzica an Italian Deli come Apertivo Bar at nigh...
Recent findings from TBG show that Facebook provide a 50% di...
