Scottish catering and hospitality news in Scotland

Catering in Scotland magazine is published bi-monthly with in-depth features, views and news for the Scottish catering, hospitality and tourism industry. On this page we have the latest news to keep you constantly updated on the market. On the left hand side of the page you can search our archived news which is stored monthly.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Web marketing proves a boon to restaurateurs

Despite ever-increasing demand, it is estimated that less than five per cent of restaurant bookings are made online, providing UK restaurateurs with a largely untapped opportunity to gain a significant cost-effective competitive edge over their rivals. Web bookings could account for at least 30 per cent of all reservations.

That was the clear message delivered by the speakers at last week's sell-out HCIMA Small Business Seminar, 'Web Marketing for Restaurants', held at the Bankside EC2 Restaurant in the City of London. The event was the first in a series of Small Business Seminars to be organised by the HCIMA to provide advice and guidance on the essential elements required in setting up and running a small hospitality enterprise.

All three speakers at the seminar, Olivia FitzGerald, Sales Co-ordinator of Livebookings, Chris Wood, Managing Director of toptable.co.uk, and seminar host Kelvin Macdonald, Managing Director of London-based Bankside Restaurants, warned delegates of the dangers of creating an expensive, highly technical, complex and 'flashy' website that was neither easily accessible or user-friendly.
'Though this approach might not suit everybody, when creating the Bankside website I benefited from starting simple,' said Kelvin Macdonald (right). 'I then gradually developed the site to include an online booking facility, ensuring that all the instructions for the site visitor were clearly signposted to facilitate usage. Every page should carry the restaurant's telephone number and a 'click here for bookings' link. My current, fully functional 30-page website has only cost me between £2,000 and £3,000 to create and has proved extremely successful.

The benefits to the consumer of using a well-designed and thought-out restaurant website were further reinforced by Chris Wood. 'Consumers don't want to wait for long on the telephone to find someone to take their booking,' he said. 'Reservations can be 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, not just during fixed times of the day when the restaurant is staffed. Another key advantage for restaurateurs is that having their own websites enables them to control the information on their establishments, providing immediate online access to relevant, accurate and regularly updated data about their restaurants.'

Wood outlined some basic questions restaurateurs should ask themselves when creating a website:

-What are your business objectives?
-What areas of your business need to be supported?
-Are there periods in the year when your bar trade, for example, needs a marketing boost?
-What is your budget?
-What information are you going to include on your site?
-How do you build your website?
-How are you going to drive traffic onto your site?

Wood advised using a small agency, with a good track-record for creating efficient and cost-effective websites, that employ experienced people with whom restaurateurs will enjoy working.

Wood warned that if nobody knows about your website, it is useless, so ensure when you do offline marketing that the details of your website are as prominent on your letter-heads as your telephone number.
He emphasised the need for restaurateurs to optimise their search engine options on the internet, to ensure their establishments appeared as high up the listings as possible. Offering incentives like special discounts on meals booked online was also recommended.
Olivia Fitzgerald reinforced the relevance of secure bookings: 'Customers need to see that the bookings process is secure, and reflects your current availability,' she said. 'Once their customers feel confident in the process, restaurants can expect to see the web bookings through their own sites really take off.

Olivia described Kelvin Macdonald as a model user of Livebookings, making the most of his own website and the 18 partner websites that form Livebookings' current network. 'If we look at this time last year,' she said, 'Bankside SE1 restaurant took 617 covers online through Livebookings for the month of November. Figures like this have been achieved by canny web marketing and this indicates how much other restaurants could benefit by getting to grips with web booking.'

To coincide with the event, the HCIMA has published a comprehensive free-of-charge 'Guide to Website Development', which can be downloaded at the HCIMA website

For flexible, affordable solutions for web design and search engine optimisation, visit Trinity Heriot Online Marketing

Internet marketing and web design by Trinity Heriot
Catering in Scotland : Scottish Catering, Hospitality & Tourism magazine