the boathouse, Bradford on Avon Marina

My latest project has been to help launch the newly refurbished boathouse in Bradford on Avon.

This was formerly the Beef and Barge which had closed a few months ago. Although in a prime spot looking over a marina filled with narrowboats, the pub had struggled and was in need of a major refurbishment.

Fortunately, the new owners of the nearby Widbrook Grange Hotel saw an opportunity and grabbed it with both hands!

I have worked with the hotel for some years and was asked to set up a holding page for the new pub and then a full website for launch.

Social Media Strategy

In addition, I set up their social media profiles and managed their online marketing in order to create a buzz ahead of the launch.

With a new refurbishment, there is a ready made story. I visited every few days, took photos throughout the process and posted them online. Countdowns to the reopening, 10% off vouchers and a steady release of news all helped to generate a buzz.

It was interesting and rewarding to see how the Facebook Page grew so quickly. Clearly there was a willingness amongst the local community to see the pub re-open and lots of excitement at seeing the refurbishment happen.

Within one month, we grew Facebook likes to over 1500 by the opening (way ahead of our target of 1000). Admittedly, we did spend some money on Facebook Ads but they were targeted on the core audience and the high levels of engagement proved that the adverts were working.

Twitter wasn't quite so popular. However, it did reach people (in particular local businesses and journalists), that were more active here than they were on Facebook; and so it was important to cover both platforms.

Email Marketing

I also designed their email newsletter templates and we devised a 10% off voucher to encourage sign ups. This was publicised via Facebook, Twitter and the website and succeeded in substantially growing the number of subscribers.

"Everyone knew about it"

Chris, the General Manager, reported that when they handed out flyers in the centre of Bradford on Avon a couple of weeks before the opening, everyone had heard about the boathouse reopening.

Why was the marketing activity such a success? 

Because it was a multi channel approach. It encompassed both traditional marketing and online marketing. Traditional marketing activities included:

• Banners were put up outside the pub - as it is situated on the road between Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon, it was very visible to lots of people. 
• Local press - articles were published in the Wiltshire Times, the Community website and Local Life (where they ran a competition and included a recipe from the menu).
• Flyers, with vouchers which encouraged people to try the menu in the first few weeks of opening, were handed out in town and distributed to local businesses.

This multi channel activity demonstrates that social media does not make traditional marketing redundant, but compliments it. 

The good news is that the pub was fully booked over the first weekend and continues to be very popular.

The boathouse is a welcome addition to the Bradford on Avon pub and restaurant scene and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to its successful launch.

The differences between social media platforms

It is one of life's challenges - to explain the differences between the various social media platforms. Which one should you use to communicate certain messages? How differently do people interact with each platform?

There is no right answer; there are no rules which cover all eventualities.

However, I saw this quote in today's Guardian and I thought it provided a neat summary:

"If Twitter is a lively, rambunctious public salon and Facebook a warm gathering of friends and family, LinkedIn is a group of dead-eyed, sharp elbowed junior executives in the bar of an airport Novotel at 2am after a conference, slapping themselves on the back, while scanning their peers for signs of weakness."

Ok, it may be a bit of a cynical view about LinkedIn, but I do think the Twitter / Facebook comparison is a good one.

The other point I enjoyed is "Thou shalt chill out a bit with the goddamn #hashtags." They used to help in searching for topics but they are no longer required. If you must use a #hashtag, then please use them sparingly. 

Here is a link to the Guardian article. 

Email Marketing for Mobile

A quick post today to mention a very useful article on the Econsultancy website about how to optimise your email newsletters for mobile.

The key points that the article makes are to ensure the senders name describes your organisation and the optimum length for the subject line is 45 characters.

And a bonus link! Web Designer Depot published this introduction to good email practice design yesterday.

If you would like any advice with email newsletters, I'm here to help!

The Future of Export in a Digital Age

I have been meaning to share the notes I made at a very interesting event that I attended last month in Gloucestershire.

The keynote was presented by the fascinating David A Smith of Global Futures and Foresight. He's a futurologist, which all sounds a bit mystical, but I can assure you his talk was very relevant.

As with all future predictions, there is guesswork but the trends seem reasonably likely.

Your first question may be "why am I going to something like this?" Well, half my business is now in digital marketing. My background in commerce means that my remit with clients can often expand beyond the original brief of designing a website or social media support. I have helped develop export markets for a couple of businesses in recent months. So it helps to have as wide a knowledge as possible on issues that may impact future business strategies.

Below are some interesting points made during the day. I know there are "lies, damned lines and statistics," but I think these statistics are worth thinking about when developing new strategies for your export markets.


1) "We do the old things using new technology." The point being, recent inventions are often used for existing activities, but their convenience is not established for a number of years. For example, tins were invented in 1810 but the tin opener wasn't patented until 1858!

2) Is the world economy going full circle? In 1820, China was the world's biggest economy and India was second....

3) The world middle class continues to grow. By 2020 it is estimated that 52% of the world population will be middle class. This will have a massive impact on consumption. Further more, by 2040, it is estimated that Africa will have 2bn more people in the middle class.

4) The top 75 cities in the world will generate 30% of world GDP by 2025. 40% of these cities will be in China, 13 in the USA and 3 in Europe (London being one of them).

5) 24% of people currently live in countries where Islam is the main religion. This is estimated to grow to 33% by 2050 and 37% in 2100. Are your products suitable and available in these markets?

6) The population is ageing. Mature economies will have a third of their population (up from 22%) above retirement age by 2025. In the developing world it will increase from 9% to 20%. This means we have to think about how we communicate with older people - is the font on our websites large enough for people to read?

7) Internet usage will double worldwide by 2025 - to 2.5bn people.

8) Mobile usage will surpass desktop usage this year. It's time to ensure that your website is optimised for the mobile web. At present, only 33% of websites are.... The internet and mobility will converge.

9) Consumers are changing from a transactional model to an engagement model. Social media is central to these changing dynamics.

10) Game theory and behavioural science will become more and more important. People will become more and more used to 'game playing' with retailers, service providers and Government. This shifts the dynamics to stopping telling people what to do; to encouraging them to do something. For example, in a recent test, cars were filmed speeding. All those that sped were still fined, but the difference was that the fines were shared out between all those who had not sped!


I hope that you found the above as fascinating as I did.

We have an interesting and challenging future ahead. Things will change, as they always have done, but it is those people and businesses who embrace change who will benefit most from it.

How can you use your various online marketing platforms more effectively?

With the variety of online marketing platforms available, it can sometimes be difficult to decide how best to use each one.

How do you differentiate your use of social media, your website and email marketing? How can you use them to support your overall business objectives? What function does each of them serve?

These are difficult questions to answer because the function and benefit of each platform will be different for each organisation. 

However, Econsultancy ran a recent article that provides a useful pointer.

Brand awareness

Essentially, Facebook and Twitter can be used to raise brand awareness. They can provide bite sized chunks of information or headlines that attract your customers and encourage them to engage with you and explore your proposition further. 

Facebook and Twitter not only help to attract new customers but they help build loyalty with existing customers. They can provide an ongoing conversation with them.

Interest

Your website is there as your online hub. The customer is already interested in you and is now exploring further. They want to know the detail behind you. They want to be encouraged to do something. Perhaps to buy something, to visit you, to contact you, to sign up for your email newsletter.

Loyalty

Finally, email marketing are for those customers who have built up a more loyal relationship with you. They like what they see and they will permit you access to their inbox. 

With this in mind, such loyalty deserves a more personalised approach to emails your email newsletters? But that subject is for another article!

The importance of clear objectives

When developing new business strategies, social media campaigns or new websites, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the objectives. How else can you measure the success of each new project?

And what makes a good objective?

Well, I suppose it must involve an acronym, so let's use RAM... I learned this on a course many years ago and it has stayed with me so it must have some value (to me at least)!

Objectives should be:

1) REALISTIC

2) ACHIEVABLE

3) MEASURABLE

So when I start work on a new website or social media campaign, my first question is always "what are the business objectives?"

We then prioritise the objectives and decide which are the one or two that we must focus on.

This allows us to concentrate on the key requirements of each project and ensure that we do not get sidetracked with extraneous items.

No blur, just absolute focus on what is required on delivering your core business objectives.

Thoughts on the Visit Wiltshire Tourism Forum

Yesterday, I was invited to attend the Visit Wiltshire Tourism Forum and lead two workshops on using social media more effectively.

Prior to my workshop, there was a morning session which included four interesting and insightful presentations about tourism; its value to the UK economy and how to market it more effectively.

While it is still fresh in my mind, I thought I would share some of what I learned.

a) Tourism is the UK's third largest export and it is still growing fast.

b) France and Germany provide the most visitors to our shores. Then the US and Ireland; but the US is top in terms off spend. Australia is 10th in terms of the number of visitors, but fourth for the amount they spend. See more here.

c) Here is a video called The Sounds Of Great Britain, made by Visit Britain:

d) In times of recession, people look to the safety of the past in an uncertain world, and so the power of heritage becomes stronger. An alternative name for this could be The Downton Effect (or the Brideshead Effect in the early 80's...)?

e) At least two of the presenters encouraged the use of stories as a powerful way to communicate. I'm glad they did, as I had also included a slide on the same topic for my workshop. So, we were all in agreement. People relate to stories. They remember stories.

f) Everyone was encouraged to go and visit the Library in Birmingham. I intend to.

It was an interesting day and it was great to meet so many local tourist providers excited about future opportunities.