Month: November 2019

These days, it’s essential for even brick-and-mortar businesses to have an online presence. As social media is where a lot of people spend time online, it also helps to have a social media presence. But cafe and restaurant owners are chronically time-poor and busy enough trying to keep their business running smoothly day in and day out. How can we possibly find time for this?

Well, Kylie and Philip from Launch Online Solutions (Now Pink Lime Digital) are here to help. They’re the heads of a video and online marketing agency that helps businesses, mostly start-ups, beef up their online presence and audience reach. We spoke with Kylie and Philip to discuss some of their top tips for businesses who want to get online.

Get On Google Maps

The first, freest, most basic thing, is to register your business’s location on Google Maps. Having your business easily searchable on Google Maps is the easiest way to get free online advertising. Oftentimes, travellers and locals alike who’ve got a craving for coffee will search for a place nearby, and Google Maps is one of the most popular apps for this. If your business isn’t registered, then countless potential customers won’t be able to find you. Even if you’re just starting out, Google Maps comes with a ratings and reviews feature that some customers will choose to use, making it the easiest free advertising you can get.

Have The Basics

Going beyond Google Maps, it’s essential to have some level of social media presence. Kylie iterates again and again that Facebook and Instagram are the bare minimum social media essentials. Facebook has the breadth of reach and accessibility for the average consumer, and Instagram, with its focus on images, is a must-have for those in the food industry. People want to see pictures of your beautifully made meals and latte art.

It’s also essential, Kylie emphasizes, to have at least a basic one-page website containing all the relevant information a potential customer might ask for. These days it’s super cheap and easy to create a website, and no complicated embellishments are necessary. Cafes and shops that sell things in-store can get extra benefits from a website, as it becomes another platform on which to sell their products.

Develop Your Online Image

No matter how great you think your business is, customers have a lot of cafes and restaurants to choose from. They won’t necessarily go to your establishment just because you think they should. “It’s about adding value to your customers,” Philip says. Customers ask, “How are you adding value to my life?” Good marketing is all about answering this question to their satisfaction.

But it’s not so simple as just setting up an Instagram account and posting away. As with all marketing channels, it needs to be strategic. First of all, it helps to hire a professional photographer, or at least enlist the help of a talented staff member. The key is to have someone a little bit on the outside, with an eye for good shots, and an ability to create beautiful, authentic photos. Unfortunately, in most cases even the latest iPhone camera simply won’t do.

The next thing is to maintain consistency in your profile. This can range from the colour scheme to selected filters to the order in which posts go live. A unified thematic consistency helps clearly communicate what your business is about and may directly affect the kind of customers who walk in your doors – and who never shows up. This consistency applies across all social media; having a different colour scheme and logo between Instagram and Facebook will only confuse customers and, once again, serve mainly to turn them away.

Shoot Some Videos

Visual media has become plentiful and prominent in the digital age, and video even more so than photographs. It’s the fastest-growing medium of communication, and YouTube is these days one of the leading search engines. In 2020, roughly 80% of content passing through the internet will be video. “If you’re not using video,” Kylie said, “You’re not gonna get seen.” Don’t just post any old video, however: create something that tells a story and connects with the audience. Video benefits even moreso from a professional, or at least access to professional equipment and not a simple phone.

Plan Ahead

This leads us again to the original question: how can I find time for this? Well, the good news is that you don’t need to post weekly, or even monthly. Kylie and Philip recommend planning content out at least three months in advance, as things often change throughout the year, which might make a post planned far in advance odd or inappropriate. It really helps to plan ahead, and take some time out of every month, say, to brainstorm ideas and plan out the posting schedule. It often helps to get the team involved, as they may have some ideas of their own.

Of course, you can always use a service like Pink Lime Digital. Good marketers like Kylie and Philip want the client’s input, so it’s good to have some idea of what you want to communicate about your business.

Social media has only grown since its first inception, and businesses who continue to cast it aside will likely get left behind. Both locally and globally, companies that connect with their customers online often see that engagement translate offline. Whether you hire some marketing experts or do it all in-house, it pays big-time to have a social media presence.

With over 15 years marketing and sales experience, Phil Im has grown some of Australia’s biggest brands in the retail, online and multi-level-marketing industry. He also likes bad 80s rap music but we try not to hold that against him.

Kylie’s 10 year history in Coaching and online branding world means she knows what it takes to build a successful business from scratch. From video snippets to funnel design, Kylie knows how to get your customers attention, fast. You can find out more via their social channels or visit their new website at https://www.launchonlinesolutions.com/

Facebook

Instagram

You can also get in touch with Kylie and Philip via email at hello@launchonlinesolutions.com

Kylie and Philip’s Key Takeaways

1. Make sure your business is registered on Google Maps – it’s the easiest way to get some free advertising.
2. Facebook, Instagram, and a basic one-page website are the bare essentials for a decent online presence.
3. When posting on Instagram, be sure to include hashtags – this makes your posts findable by users who aren’t following you, and thus increases your reach.
4. You don’t need to post on social media every day, but do it on a regular basis – ideally three times a week – to ensure consistent customer engagement.
5. Think before you post: is it consistent with the other posts on my page? Will this communicate a value-add for the customer?
6. Video content helps create a story and connect your business with potential customers.
7. No time? No problem: schedule posts ahead of time when you can.
8. As a local business, you can take advantage of local events as an opportunity to engage with customers and potentially bring more in.
9. Don’t do it yourself if you can help it: enlist the help of some professionals, or at least a savvy employee, to put together your social media portfolio.

We here at Hospitality Talk have spoken with a lot of movers and shakers within the industry. Now we’ve finally sat down and recorded one of our many fruitful conversations, this time discussing Josh’s new book and some of the most important points that have resonated with Peter and fellow leaders in the hospitality industry.

Josh’s book, The Hospitality Survival Guide: How to Survive and Thrive in the Hospitality Industry, delves into topics that originally inspired the podcast in the first place. Running a café comes with certain sets of challenges that may not be discussed enough within the industry. Staffing and leadership issues are not unique to hospitality, but the nature of the business calls for unique solutions.

Find and Keep Good Staff

One of the biggest challenges in hospitality is finding and retaining good staff. While every café, restaurant, and bar offer a product, the experience is rarely complete without face-to-face interaction with the customer. Customers come to a café not just because of the coffee, but also because of the particular atmosphere that allows them to relax and enjoy themselves – and service plays a big part in that. In order to interact with customers effectively, Josh says, “We need to encourage people to be the best version of themselves.”

The key to this is in identifying the strengths, weaknesses, and passions of each staff member. Management and team leaders can then find ways to support staff, whether that’s through focusing on their strengths, honing new skills, or supporting their projects and passions that take place outside of work. “It’s an obligation and a duty.”

While one can identify some of these traits in an interview, it takes time to really get to know people, even if you work with them every day. One way to do this is through meetings. Meetings are a time to discuss the wins and losses, share successes and concerns, and for staff to get to know each other. Just like with personal relationships, it’s vital to catch up with employees every now and again to build and reinforce the relationship. And in the hospitality industry, good relationships between staff and management are as important as those between staff and the customer.

Attitude

Josh hires on attitude before skill sets, based on his belief that attitude is fundamental. “It’s much easier to work on skills than attitude,” he says. If someone doesn’t have quite the right skill set for the job, “a skill can be taught.” From his own experience, Josh acknowledges that it’s a lot harder to change somebody’s attitude than to teach someone new skills. Someone with the wrong attitude, no matter how skilled they are, is likely not going to get along with their colleagues. This often creates long-term interpersonal problems within staff that are difficult to resolve. Someone with the right attitude is more likely to want to build that skillset and become a better team member.

Craft a Business Motto and Customer Experience Promise

Another way to rally employees together is to come up with a business motto, and swear by it. This motto would be the kind of thing that’s put up in a place where staff can see the message every day, and managers as well as staff have to buy into it. If the leadership isn’t following the business motto, then staff members have little reason to, either.

It’s also important to define the customer experience promise. This promise outlines the expectations customers will have during their experience, as well as what is expected of the customer. The word “promise” is very deliberate here, implying a level of trust and agreement between the two parties. It creates accountability not just between management and staff, but also between staff members. As with the business motto, it’s vital for everyone, from the owners to the dishwashers, to follow through with that promise.

The hospitality industry is a tough one to get into. Josh created the Australian Café Owners Association in order to provide the much-needed support in an otherwise ultra-competitive, volatile industry. It was the entire purpose behind the book and the podcast, to share experiences and information with people to help them succeed. These tips and more are all present in the book, which is available now.

Go to Josh’s website, https://www.masterhost.com.au, and you can get the first four chapters of Josh’s book free if you hit subscribe. Or order the entire book in the website’s shop, on Amazon, or on Book Depository. You can also find it at a bookshop near you.

Josh and Peter’s Key Takeaways

• Everyone’s got a book in them, whether it’s a story, passion, or wealth of knowledge to share.

• Look for employees with the right attitude for your establishment – it’s much easier to teach new skills than to change somebody’s attitude.

• Regular meetings strengthen staff relationships and cohesion; focus on the successes as well as the challenges.

• Support employees in whatever their passions and strengths lie, even if it’s not strictly related to the job. If they feel supported at work they’re more motivated to do a better job.

• Role-play ideas with staff to rehearse how to deal with customer, team, and supplier problems.

• Outline a clear business motto, and be sure to live by that motto so that employees can follow your lead.

• Create a customer experience promise, outlining what both staff and customers should expect when at your establishment.