Advertising and marketing budgets are commonly the first to be cut in economically tough times, however there are always good reasons to maintain investment in these areas wherever possible. So far this year, the internet has never been more relied upon to inform, entertain and keep people in touch with one another. For hospitality businesses that were forced to close their doors, it has been the only method to get information in front of customers. The good news is that a lot of online marketing can be done at little to no cost to promote your organisation and help re-build sales.

Social Media

Social media followers have appreciated regular updates on their favourite places and it’s important to remember that your online audience is following you for a reason. Local marketing is more relevant than ever as there is a growing feeling amongst consumers who want to support local businesses.

Here are a few social media post ideas to begin using now in summer 2020…

  • Remind followers of your opening times especially if these have changed
  • Advise of any new rules that have been introduced and ask customers to help you follow them
  • Show images of some of the great food and drink that you are serving again
  • Provide reassurance that you are doing everything you can to keep customers safe
  • Tell any good news stories e.g. improvements you’ve made to your premises or your food and drink offer
  • Show images in and around your business and of you and your staff. Help to build excitement around returning
  • Promote what you can. Consider limited time offers or simply raise awareness of a new item or brand that you are stocking which can help to draw in customers
  • Tell customers about any changes they may expect to see to service e.g. queuing at the bar, booking a table, how food is ordered and/or served and what staff will be doing to follow safety guidelines
  • Provide a link to your menu if it can be found online and send a reminder of any new table/food booking processes
  • Keep customers updated on any progress around regular events, offers or activities

Your website

A website is still an important online marketing tool for most hospitality businesses and one that is more commonly used by the older generations. It should still be the definitive place for customers to find out about your business with information that should always be complete, accurate and up-to-date. The downsides of websites are that they are less easy to update than social media, updates can take time and there are costs associated with hosting and updating them.

Email marketing

With the rise of social media, email marketing fell out of favour for a while, however it remains a great way to contact customers, tailor messages to groups of customers and send out promotional messages. Even people who don’t regularly use social media will have an email account so you have a good chance of your message being seen. Email packages such as Mailchimp are available to use for free (currently for up to 2,000 contacts) and have lots of great features to create eye-catching messages. Don’t forget that you must stick to GDPR legislation in the collection and usage of email addresses and make sure that customers actively opt-in to receive these kinds of marketing messages.

Websites with useful info for hospitality businesses reopening in July 2020

www.gov.uk – for official guidelines

https://www.bighospitality.co.uk/ – news, case studies and useful information on reopening

https://beerandpub.com/policies/covid-19/ – here the BBPA summarise the government’s latest advice and provide lots of helpful downloadable pdfs

https://restaurant.org/home – the National Restaurant Association has useful information including a reopening guide

 

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