i-candy Web Design & Development

5 Easy Steps to Launching a Restaurant Website

2010-09-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of our latest article for Restaurant Central.ca, the new website by the CRFA (Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association).

As a restaurant owner, having a web presence is mandatory. The Internet has replaced the traditional media as the main source of information for restaurant patrons. Having a website provides 24-7 marketing and is the best strategy you can employ for attracting new customers.

The following steps will provide a plan for developing an effective website. If you already have a one, reviewing these essential steps may increase its success.
1. Your Domain

The domain is the address that will be used by visitors and search engines to find your business amongst all of the other restaurant websites out there. Ideally you will choose the name of your restaurant (www.yourrestaurant.com). It is best to keep your domain name short, memorable and easy to spell. If available, secure the .com name as most individuals will default to this when typing in a domain address.

The single, most important advice on purchasing your domain is to do it yourself. Make sure that you purchase from a reputable registrar and that you have used your personal information to purchase the domain. It is important that you own your domain name and the rights to it.Your hosting company or web designer will be able to help you with choosing and registering your domain.

2. Hosting

If you liken a domain to a phone number, then hosting would be your service provider (i.e., Bell or Rogers). Once you have acquired a domain, your next step will be to choose a hosting company. Your web designer may offer hosting services or they will most certainly recommend a provider to you. Do not purchase hosting without talking to your web designer as they may have certain requirements to build your site.

3. Designer

Designing a website is a collaborative process. You and your web designer will be working closely together on this project so pick someone you like and find easy to work with. A CMS site (Content Management System) is ideal. This type of website is user-friendly and expansible, allowing for changes, updates and new functions to be added easily. Most CMS software includes a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor to allow you to easily assume responsibility for changes. Ask your designer if they provide time to teach you how to edit your website after it has been designed. Also inquire about the availability of support and maintenance packages (to manage changes if you elect not to).

4. Function, layout and content

An effective restaurant website must include the following:

•Home/landing page: This is the main page of your website, providing visitors with their first impression of your establishment. The layout should capture the essence of your restaurant.

•Menu: Provide a copy of your full menu(s). This is the number one thing your customers are looking for. Have a printable version and include prices. Exceed your customers’ expectations by providing an abundance of detail.

•Contact page: Contact form with location, telephone numbers and email address, hours of operation, map and directions.

•About page: Provide an overview of your restaurant including topics, such as the inspiration for the restaurant’s creation, how it got its name, information about the chef, recent accolades, etc.

Your site can also include a multitude of other features or functions including:

•Photo Gallery: It is recommended to provide high-quality images of the interior of your restaurant.

•Events calendar: Share upcoming events at your restaurant or within the community (an excellent way to encourage return visitors to your website).

•Recipes section: Share some of your restaurant’s recipes and your site will be very popular!

•Social media links: Advertising with Twitter and Facebook is the new word of mouth for restaurants.

•Blog: Include a blog on your site to share your ideas, thoughts, and happenings in the restaurant.

•Reservations, takeout, and gift certificates: Your site can be configured to accept online reservations, takeout orders and gift certificate purchases.

•Newsletter sign-up form: Contact your customers on a regular basis to share news of upcoming events and menu offerings. The more current and valuable information you can provide to visitors of your site, the more successful your site will be. Site visitors who feel they benefited from reviewing your site will become repeat visitors and loyal customers. Be creative — the opportunities are endless.

5. Getting your website found through Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Once you have a website, you want it to be found on popular search engines so new customers can find you. Talk to your designer about the options for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and what is included with your package. If your site has been given appropriate SEO and submitted to the search engines, you should be found on Google, etc. without having to incur additional marketing and advertising costs.

Getting a website can seem like an intimidating, overwhelming task but with the right designer, and the steps above to guide you, you will be online and attracting new patrons to your restaurant in no time.

About the author:

Melissa Pearson, web designer at i-candy Web Design & Development. For more information, visit: www.icandysites.com. Restaurant Next Door offers free listings, Internet marketing blog, social media and web design services for restaurants.For more information, visit: www.restaurantnextdoor.com.

Why Adopt Social Media Marketing?

2010-06-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

Why Adopt Social Media Marketing?
Source: Site Pro News By Sachin K Airan (c) 2010

Blogging, tweeting, friending. Odd sounding verbs, these. Not sure you'll find them in the "verb" category in the dictionary ~ at least not yet. Give them time. "Ain't" made it in, and that verb didn't have nearly the grassroots support of these three. Indeed, this triad of "new verbs" are both the result and the harbinger of the most prominent types of social networks and Social Media Marketing in the world today: personal and professional blogs (with RSS feeds so you can stay "tuned in"), Twitter (the "mini-blog" suited to the info-bites attitude and fast-forward pace of our lives in the 21st century), and Facebook (the global water-cooler).

As the Bible says of Faith, Hope, and Love, these three remain. Blogging, Twitter, and Facebook: which is "the greatest of these" remains to be seen. In the realm of the online marketplace, however, it's no contest. The winner is: all three of them. They are the leaders of the newest form of network marketing and one of the most effective: Social Media Marketing. Why is it so effective? Three reasons that are particularly attractive to small business and other entrepreneurs: low impact/annoyance factor, cost effectiveness, and a viral spread of information.

1. Low Impact (and therefore low annoyance factor) :- In the same way that email rapidly replaced telephone contact and so called "face time," blogging, Twitter, and Facebook are replacing other more traditional forms of marketing, and for the same reasons. Emailing became the norm for the "sender" of information because it was easier (both physically and emotionally) than making a phone call or meeting with someone in person. Email grants immediate completion and instant gratification: No getting a busy signal or, worse, an answering machine or voice mail inbox that required you to leave a message (wherein you might say the wrong thing and not be able to erase and re-record) and no having to carry on an unscripted conversation with someone in person (wherein the same dangers were ever present). The receiver was equally blessed by the ability to respond (or not) at his or her leisure and with the same assurance of faux pas-free "conversation." Social Media does the same for marketing by freeing the marketer to place his or her "ads" at any time, around the clock, 24/7, rather than to some PR office or publisher's schedule, while simultaneously granting the target audience the ability read/view and/or delete at will instead of having to dispose of or recycle the publication, and all for the low, low price of . . . well, nothing. Which naturally leads us to reason number 2.

2. Cost Effective ('cause it's free!) :- Well the section header pretty much says it all. You can't get much more cost effective than "free," and all of these Social Media Marketing venues are just that. Free as the air you breathe ~ which, by the way, is how many viruses spread.

3. Wherein a Virus can be Your Business's Best Friend :- Remember the "water-cooler" metaphor above? Years ago, in the traditional brick and mortar model of business, the water-cooler was the place where employees would gather to socialize during breaks, exchanging pleasantries and information, introducing the "new guy" to the old guard, telling jokes and showing off pictures of their pets or the new baby. Long after the physical water-cooler had been replaced by bottled water, "hanging around the water-cooler" remained a metaphor for the casual meetings and conversations that took place among people in the physical spaces of a business environment. Whatever the place, the close physical proximity inherent to "hanging around the water-cooler," made it equally easy to pass along a cold or flu bug with the jokes and those pictures of your little ones.

As it is in the physical world, so is it in the virtual, and it is in this way, especially, that Social Media Marketing is effective. Facebook is an especially good example of the virtual "water-cooler" inasmuch as people "meet" there and exchange information (including jokes and pictures of the fam) and provide the perfect growth environment for spreading a "virus" in the form of word-of-mouth marketing. It's little wonder, then, that adopting Social Media Marketing is a good idea for your small business. And it's kind of comforting to some of us, after all, that even here, in the virtual business world, we can find in these new fangled technologies an echo of tradition and a sense of continuity that is familiar and reassuring.

2010-05-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

Dummies Guide to Facebook Marketing

Source: SitePro News

By Martin Sejas in Web 2.0

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 years, you would know how popular and widely used Facebook is today.

Just a few short years ago, you had to encourage all your family and friends to join this social networking website (just after others convinced you to join). Nowadays, it’s rare to find someone who hasn’t got a Facebook account.

At last count, there were over 350 million users on Facebook and this number is continuing to grow. It overtook MySpace as the number 1 social networking website on the planet last year and is just behind Google when it comes to online traffic. You are then able to understand how important Facebook marketing has become for all websites.

It’s Not A Pitch Zone

The most important thing to remember about social media is that it is not a place to blatantly and endlessly pitch your product or service. If you do this, then you will not get any favours from social media users and will get largely ignored and even bad reviews.
What social media is used for is for building relationships with potential clients. There are a number of ways you can do this:

you can post helpful information (links) where you help them solve a problem
you can personally chat with them and assist them you can create content addressing the needs of users and posting it

The bottom line is that you want to be seen as genuine and helpful. This way, word can get out that you’re the real deal and before you know it, people will become interested in what you have to offer in terms of products and services.

Of course, the things you share on social networking sites such as Facebook shouldn’t be the nitty gritty stuff that you have to offer. You should share helpful information in the form of teasers that will interest people enough to ask and wonder if there’s more. Offering free stuff is great for getting attention too.

How To Market On Facebook

The great thing about Facebook is that from the outset, it has encouraged all users to use the website as a means of sharing information and marketing whatever they please. As a consequence, it has created various ways for users to do this. You are not obliged to use every single one of them but a combination of them can only improve your Facebook marketing.

Pages

This is probably the marketing tool out there on Facebook. On its website Facebook describes Pages as “a public Profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users.” It is specifically designed for promoting a business and everything it has to offer. People can then become a Fan of your page and when they do this, they let their friends know that they’ve become a Fan of your page via their News Feed. The potential for your Page to gain a lot of popularity in a small period of time is great. (i-candy note: Fans have been replaced by "Like" -visitors can choose to "Like" your page)

Of course, it all depends on the content you put out there for people to use. You need to give them a reason to become a Fan of your Page and a reason for them to keep being one.

Events

This allows to create events to be held at a certain date and time. Depending on what type of business you are, you can create one to be held locally or internationally. It can be any one of the following:

seminar – it should be introductory and free but you could promote a paid one too
webinar – an online seminar and where anyone worldwide can join
product/service launch – you may be about to launch a product or service and this is a way to gain attention

The best part about creating an event on Facebook is that it can go viral and before you know it people will be attending your event in droves.

Advertising

Finally, about a year ago, Facebook introduced an advertising service where people can put ads promoting their website or their Facebook Page and they pay per click (PPC) or impression (CPM). It works in a similar way to Google Adwords.

The best thing is that you can target your bads based on both geographical locations and social actions. For example, if you were a wedding photographer and wanted to promote your services, your ads can be set up to appear only to females between the ages of 24 and 30 and whose relationship statuses indicate they are engaged.

It must be noted, however, that Facebook Advertising is still in beta mode which only means that it will only improve in the near future.
Embrace Facebook

If you wanted to market your website online, you would be absolutely nuts not to use Facebook marketing as one of your key strategies. Just be careful not to get caught up in it too much because it can become a very time consuming activity.

2010-05-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

10 Tips for Launching your Business Blog Source: SiteProNews

Are you thinking about launching your business blog? You’re not alone. A recent study by GuideWireGroup revealed that approximately 89 percent of businesses polled use blogs as a way to communicate with their customers. In another survey, Burson-Marsteller found that 15% of Fortune 500 companies have blogs. A successful business blog can generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenue each year, with figures for large corporations typically much higher. So, business blogging is becoming a mainstream marketing tool. That does not mean, however, that blogging comes easily or naturally for many companies, their owners and employees. Blogging, like any form of content, is a commitment of time and resources – namely, you have to know how to write (or have access to good writers) and you have to maintain your blogs with fresh, original and insightful new material on a regular basis.This should not scare you away. It should, though, inspire you to learn the basics of business blogging before you turn your baby loose on the world. Planning out your bogging strategy first is a wise move, because it gives your blog a greater chance of success. Here are 10 tips for launching your business blog:
1. Identify your readers.
Before you start writing anything, make sure you understand who your target market is. This is also known as your “buyer persona”, which marketing guru David Meerman Scott defines as “…a distinct group potential customers, an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach.” Basically, you want to tailor your topics to the groups of people who are most interested in your company. Otherwise, you’re missing the mark and losing out on potential leads and sales. To identify these buyer personas, there are 3 questions you should ask yourself–

Where do your customers come from?
What type of content will be useful to them?
Where do your customers hang out online?

2. Create social media accounts.
If you haven’t already done this, register accounts with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Start with these and expand later. This is important because you need places to post links to each new blog, so that your groups, fans, and followers can read them. Posting on social media also encourages people to subscribe to your RSS feed, another great way to promote your blog.
3. Establish your social media presence.
Lay the groundwork for later blog promotion by establishing relationships with your target markets. One of the best ways to do this is through social media. Now that you have accounts started, you can go in and join forums, listen to conversations and hear what people are saying about your industry. Add thoughtful and insightful comments whenever possible. Hire employees to do this if you don’t have time, but try to contribute every once in a while if you can.
4. Determine where to place your blog.
You can either put your blog on a page within your website or give it its own domain. Your choice depends largely on your goals. Do you want the blog to be part of your site, and linked to it directly? Or do you have plans to use your blog for other purposes, such as to make money through ads or creating a secondary business from it?
A blog can help your website to rank higher, and it can also rank highly on its own. So, think about your long-term objectives when deciding where to place it.
5. Use the right keywords.
If you’re placing your business blog on a page within your site, most likely you’ll be using the same keywords for your blog that you are using for your site. If you’ve done good keyword research, then these are the keywords that reflect your business and are the search terms that people are using to find you. If your blog is separate, consider if any keyword changes need to be made. You may want to take your blog site in a different direction from your site. Again, this depends on your goals for your blog.
Incidentally, if your blog does have its own domain, you’ll want the domain name to be brandable, easy for consumers to recognize and search engine-friendly.
6. Choose a blogging platform.
You have options here. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, but you can also check out Joomla, Blogger, TypePad and others.
7. Plan your posts.
Think about the direction you want your blog posts to go in. A good way to stay on track is to start with one main topic and draft a few blogs in advance. Post them on a regular schedule and you’ll have a supply of targeted blogs that add fresh content to your site and point back to your company each week. Coming up with topics can be a challenge, but there are a lot of helpful resources on the Web if you get stuck.
8. Network with influencers.
Once you’ve got your blog started, it’s a good idea to look around at other bloggers in your industry. See what they’re doing, what they have to say, and leave insightful comments on their blogs. This kind of web networking will help you establish relationships with these people, which in turn will prompt them to help spread the word about your blog and your company. This kind of free advertising is invaluable. It connects you to credible and respected individuals within the blogosphere and markets your business for you.
9. Promote your blog.
As mentioned earlier, offering a blog subscription through an RSS feed is an effective way to promote your blog. There are other ways to get the word out, as well. Write an optimized press release, submit articles to directories that link to your blog page, submit your blogs to social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg (or set up an account with Ping.fm and have it done automatically). Make sure that you link to your blogs in your social media posts.10. Measure results.
If you’re going to take the time to blog for marketing purposes, you’ll want to know how well you’re doing, right? Since it relies primarily on the building of human relationships over time, blog ROI can be tricky to measure. But, you do have many tools at your disposal to help you determine how much or how little your blog is contributing to the bottom line.Free online tools like Google Analytics and Google Alerts provide you with information about how your customers are finding you online, and can tell you a lot about your blog page, in particular. ‘Facebook Insights’ (http://www.facebook.com/help/?search=insights) is a way to track activity on your Facebook account. Other tools are available, so look into them.
Launching your business blog is, like any project, all about preparation. If you do your homework and lay a solid foundation, your blog will produce results. Keep in mind that blogging is a form of content marketing and, as such, is primarily about building relationships with customers. So, be patient, follow these tips, and watch your business grow!