Nowadays the thirst for profit is creating a hugely competitive market which keeps urging restaurant owners to readjust their strategies and look for the time-tested ingredients of success. In that way, a restaurant menu design is not only a pure reflection of the restaurant. It has to convey the concept of the business, to express the style of your cuisine, to endow your brand with a particular atmosphere or in other words…to give a “taste” of the restaurant itself. Thus the purpose of an excellent restaurant menu is not only to make the restaurant stand apart from the others but create enough of an impression on the client to remember it.

Things to know before designing your Restaurant Menus

Restaurant menu design is a crucial and somewhat confusing step for any business with little experience in eateries. The good menu is first and foremost the fruit of much research. It does not spring out of pure creativity. Start by examining your own financial situation and turnovers and having a closer look at your own locations and demographics.

Analyse the similarities and differences between you and your competitors. Sometimes their websites, the price range of their meals and the contents of their marketing plans represent a solid foundation for you to draw upon. Have also a chat with your own staff who is daily in touch with clients. Read also as much written sources as possible on the industry itself in order to be more able to cater to your customers’ needs. Identifying the components of the sector and differentiating your food from the others are essential points to consider.

The menu is the perfect means of communication between you and the customers. See how it can mirror your restaurant’s personality. If you want it to be wild and funny, thick and flashy menus will throw light upon the festive aspect of your place. In that sense, if the area is full of families, you can also include children menus. On the contrary, if you want it to be formal and sophisticated, craft the look of your menu so that it will be evocative of both elegance and simplicity e.g. emphasizing chic entrees.

Designing a Restaurant Menu Layout

Design your restaurant menu in order to reflect the experience of having a meal.

Arrange items in short and clear categories; appetizers, salads and soups first, main entrees, dishes, then desserts and beverages. Place your most popular items such as the chef’s specialty on key areas of the menu such as the top-left panel and stick to one or two columns.

Use powerful high-quality photographs but not many so as not to stifle the background. Generally speaking people like to see illustrations of what they will be ordering.

Colours, logos and page-positioning tools add a visual flavour to your pages. For instance, if you are planning to open a Mexican or Italian restaurant, play on the vibrancy of such colours as red, green, yellow or purple to further draw attention. Use black and white to remain in the mood of an expensive classic restaurant.

Restaurant Menu Descriptions: The purpose of descriptions is to stimulate the appetite of your customers. Describe each dish in a few words and write short sentences to mention the main ingredients (although a formal establishment would require much more information).

Do not hesitate to use ethnic names (with some explanations if needed) in order to add a touch of exoticism and captivate your guests by somewhat giving them the impression that they have just been travelling. Needless to say that encompassing geography/history/culture or just information about the chef might concur to make your restaurant even more unique.

Refreshing your menus

Profitability will only occur when you are able to assess and compare the success of each item against your competitors. This will sin doubt illuminate your strengths and weaknesses.  That is the reason why you have to update your menu at least every six months on account of that knowledge you will be collecting from different sources. Spot the best-sellers and think how you can improve, discuss or simply remove the poor performers.

Additional Tips:

• Incorporate your menus within your websites
• Review the menu in relation with prices
• Have recourse to restaurant menu designers and experts in a la carte restaurant training

The good menu is simple, easy to read, visually appealing and rightly priced.

The good menu bears the stamp of a thriving restaurateur and eventually becomes the signature of the establishment itself.

Whatever part of your hospitality business you are trying to promote, you need to know what the most effective hospitality marketing strategies are and how to communicate to your potential customers effectively. If you want to earn more revenue from your efforts with different marketing strategies, but do not have a large budget, these few different tactics and methods will help you start to see more income.

Free classified ads are a good way to get your business name out there locally and also to other markets as well. There are many different publications that are in print now that and also online listings that you can find that are free. Using the internet to list your business will be helpful to your hospitality marketing strategy because of the wide range of people that may see the advertisement. Create an ad that is clear, clean, and not too wordy to appeal to the client base that you are looking to attract.

Pull-tab posters may not be as fancy as some advertisements, but they are an effective way to connect with customers in a different and inexpensive way. Use the posters as an addition to your hospitality marketing plan and post them in places where you can reach potential clients. Office buildings and doctors offices may need lodging or services for clients and patients and by having your poster there your business will be fresh in their minds. The bottom of your poster should have the pull tabs printed and cut with clear contact information. The customer can pull one off and have it for later when they are trying to recall the name of the business that they saw on the poster.

Social media is a large factor in marketing today. It has become one of the quickest and easiest ways that you can make your presence known to many people all at one time, from your home computer. With just a few clicks you can post information about your business on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs for free. Social Media should be a large part of you hospitality marketing strategies because of how popular it is today. There are many different options for targeting specific people and customizing your ads through these channels that you really cannot afford not to use them.

Summary

If you want your business or company to seem as though it is not affected by the tough economic times, you need to stay on top of you hospitality marketing plans and strategies. The solution to being successful is by using marketing, but you have to make sure your marketing is effective and that it is reaching your target clients. Be sure to constantly evaluate your marketing plans by comparing your revenues from before a campaign and after, and you will continue to be successful.

When writing the marketing plan for your hotel you should consider a few different things that will help to make your plan effective. First you need to figure out what you want the objective of your hospitality internet marketing plan to be. What is it that you want to achieve by using online marketing? Do you want to search for new customers? Promote new services or amenities that you offer? Inform and educate your target audience about your hotel and amenities? You will need to keep your budget in mind when coming up with your marketing plan for online outlets of advertising. Knowing how much you can spend will keep you focused and make your marketing efforts more valuable.

People who own an online business and are very successful will be likely to have a marketing funnel through which they filer customers. The method of filtering out customers starts at the widest part of the “funnel” and the customers at that point represent the lower cost items or free items that are given away. As you go through the funnel to the more narrow parts you see more value through money spent and invested into higher priced items and amenities. When creating your hospitality internet marketing plan you should look at what types of services you offer and at what price points they could create a funnel effect. Do you have any plans to increase your services or amenities offered? Will the new services give you ways to fill in the missing links in the funnel for your marketing?

Being sure that you know where you are set against your competition will help you to make your hospitality internet marketing plan stronger. You should research the keywords that are related to your business to see where you appear in search results. Look at what your competitors are using on their websites and take note of where they appear in search results. You should look around at other websites to see which directories they are listed on and which of those has a link back to their site. If there is something unique that your competitors offer, try to work something similar or something that will be unique to your business into you marketing plan.

Summary

In order to have a successful hospitality internet marketing plan you will need to incorporate the plan into the business plan that you developed when you first started up your business. The marketing plan and business plan should match what your vision is for the future of your business. There will be some businesses that will be very successful from only using internet marketing, but for many businesses a good internet marketing plan will make your standard marketing stronger.

Most advertising agencies offer many communication services including creating print communications, designing brochures and ads, web design solutions, logo design, menu creation, and printing. These services are also offered by professional freelancing designers and consultants who can do the same or similar work and also charge much lesser than any organisation. Most small businesses take advantage of working with such independent contractors to build up a customer base through online and real world marketing efforts.

Website design solutions encompass a wide range of elements like graphic design, web content, search engine optimisation, and web marketing strategy. One of the key elements of website design is figuring out what the website has to accomplish – whether it is an information delivery website or a corporate website or one that demands extensive interaction with the clients. Any website can be a base for information gathering and dissemination. But when it comes to marketing businesses, websites have to deliver far more than information. For example, a business built on selling spare parts of automobiles can have a website that allows customers to search for and reserve a certain part or even purchase it online and have it shipped to them or alternatively, pick the part from a physical location after purchasing it online.

Restaurant web design is made specifically to cater to customers who are looking for a good place to eat. In fact, most people search for businesses locally and restaurants can take advantage of this fact when it comes to a website design solution. Mapping the restaurant online can be a great way to attract a new customer base. Putting sample menus and pricing on the website is another way to seek out new clients. Attracting clients by maintaining your local business status and using search engine marketing to emphasise this status has worked wonders for small businesses. Most web design firms offer these services and help local businesses thrive. Posting links on the local chambers of commerce website also helps search engine marketing efforts.

Hotels also use hotel web design efforts to ensure high occupancy rates. Whether it is business travellers or vacationers – hotel websites seek to attract customers and use online reservation systems to ensure bookings. The website design solutions for hotels include these systems as well as keywords for search engine optimisation.

Summary

Most design firms and advertising agencies are well versed with search engine marketing and website design solutions to enhance business for local small business owners. They use the tools like search engine optimisation, graphic design, keyword usage, social media and posting on local business directories to deliver high visibility for local customers. These businesses have specific requirements based on the industry – restaurants need specific website content as well as experiential marketing to promote their products and services. Hotels on the other hand need a simple website that allows users to reserve rooms for their stay, quickly and efficiently.

Most business owners will have a website that will have an outline and description of their services and products, how they assist customers and clients, and the outcomes of their services. Customers like to find businesses with sites that have content that they can download, such as articles related to the business and maybe even some audio or video content. These more complex business marketing websites will have the most relevant information to the company in order for their customers to see them as a real company doing business.

The goal of business marketing websites that have many different pages is to create a relationship with their current customers, or potential customers. Normally when a customer visits your site, they will look around quickly and then go to a new page, and they will forget about your business and message. Your site was at least viewed by them, which is better than not having been viewed at all. If you have a low viewing time for your site, it may be because visitors to your site are not sure of where to go or what they should do next. Your site should give a clear message to the visitors and the options that they have should stand out to them. By using buttons and pictures instead of only text and hyperlinks, you are ensuring that they will dig deeper into your site, spending more time finding out what your business is about.

An effective way to capture the visitors to your business marketing websites is to place a sign-up form somewhere on your homepage for your site. This way they have a clear spot where they can request more information on your business, and they will see it right away. If they have to search for this form on another page, then you may miss an opportunity to send someone, who may be a potential client, information on your business.

Business marketing websites that have only one page are designed that way so the visitors will take action once they are on the site. Usually these types of websites are used to promote a single product and will read like a sales pitch. They are very clear about what the next step of the customer and visitor should be. They can be very effective in this sense, because there is no confusion for the customer on what they should be doing.

Summary

Well written business marketing websites will be very eye-catching to a customer whether it has one page or multiple pages. Use keywords on your site that will catch on in search engine results, placing your site higher in the results, and making it more visible to potential customers. As long as you keep your design and objective easy for the customer to understand, you will keep their attention on your site and not someone else’s.

A logo is an icon or an emblem used by an organisation to convey a message or an idea. The brand is the idea or the set of values that the organisation believes in. They seek to portray this idea to the people – potential clients, employees, and the outside world at large. The brand logo comprises of a graphic representation of what drives the organisation, the values the people in that organisation choose to follow, and what differentiates them from the rest of their competitors. Although there is no monetary value attached to the logo, it is an important part of the organisation’s identity and is proudly placed on their products, websites, product manuals, office stationery, print and television ads, business cards, and wherever else there is space they can utilise.

The idea of creating a logo originated in a time when the Earth was ruled by aristocracy and divided into kingdoms. The first logos were probably imprinted on flags and coins denoting affiliation to a certain kingdom. The brand logos however first came with the industrial revolution. With the onset and development of various technologies like typography, photography, and printing, manufacturers started using advertisements to highlight the benefits of using their products. It is believed that the differentiation factor was in the brand logos they used.

Brand logos have to be identifiable, instantly recognised, and should say everything they can about the organisation behind the brand. Or should they? While today’s most identifiable and recognised logos belong to companies and political parties and even individuals, there are tens of thousands of logos which are completely unrecognised by the majority of the Earth’s population.

There are organisations that believe a logo is everything, and therefore it has to be a perfect representation of their aspirations, beliefs, values, mission, etc. If the logo is good, there is a good chance that the organisation and their products will be well received. In simpler and crisper terms, it is all about the image.

Then there are some who have a different set of beliefs when it comes to brand logos. According to this school of thought, when it comes to designing a logo, the best thing to do is to pass the responsibility to someone else. In the event that one absolutely cannot do that, the safest bet is to pick up a random object and render it on paper as cleanly and simply as possible. Leave it to the organisation to make that logo count for something.

So what is it about logos that attracts so much attention? Well, they are graphics designed specifically to attract attention. The visual element of the logo and the placement of it on the packaging, in the ads and on the rooftops is clearly designed to get maximum viewing time from the eyeballs that are seeking constant bright and shiny objects. This is the basic principle of advertising; which probably explains why most advertising companies make a big fuss when it comes to branding and logos.

Summary

Brand logos by themselves are simply cleverly manipulated graphical objects. They mean nothing until the organisation whose identity they represent does or achieves something noteworthy. This is what gives meaning to the brands and logos, and makes them instantly recognisable. There are also advertising agencies who try to do that for a living.

Business growth means that the business owner has to be an effective promoter, marketer, or advertiser for his or her brand. If you are really good, the business will have high growth. That is how the marketing campaign works. Of course, the product has to measure up to comparable quality standards of the competitors, but unless your product or service is completely unique, effective marketing is what will decide whose business stands out and grows.

Doing research and careful planning is the first step in getting your marketing campaign right. Without research, without facts – all the calculations will be skewed. Which is why marketing campaigns are not thought out in the shower.

Once the research is complete and you have got all the necessary facts in order – it is time to make the start. A great way to begin is to talk to your customers. What aspect of your service or product do they like the most? What can you do better? Ask the questions, write them down, and then ask your customers for referrals. Nothing gets more business than word-of-mouth. All the advertising and all the public relations cannot match the power of a good referral.

When it comes to advertising, think logo design, graphic design, and copy. Getting your message across is important. Doing it effectively across multiple channels involves presenting a cohesive message – one that is simple and attracts attention of the buyers. Web design is a great platform to get your message across online. In fact, one of the key aspects of any marketing campaign is the use of the web, search engine marketing, and local business marketing platforms like the Chamber of Commerce.

Restaurant owners use these platforms effectively with specialised restaurant web design designed to tempt people into trying out new culinary delights or highlighting their ambience.

Hotel owners use internet effectively by keeping the hotel web design simple and effective. The idea being that a customer who makes reservations online finds it easy and rewarding to do so repeatedly.

Sending direct mails is another approach for business to business marketing. It works wonderfully for those whose services revolve around communications and media. An email list is a similar tool that works online.

Wherever you write about your products or services, always focus on the benefits. Most businesses will talk about the latest technological features – better, newer, more colourful. What most customers would like to hear are the benefits — fresher, healthier, makes a room look bright.

Summary

Your marketing campaign is the key to your business performance. It will differentiate your business from the others who are mediocre, it will boost sales, and make cash registers ring. The campaign is not about how much money you spend, but about how many customers you reach most effectively. Use it well and you will be rewarded with higher profits and lower employee turnovers.

Focusing on the differences between web and print design, one of the foremost and crucial aspects is the kind of work a designer can expect to do. A print designer is expected to work on magazine advertisements and layouts, product design and packaging, logo design, business cards and stationery, and so on. A designer working on the web will focus on standard HTML websites, flash websites, emails, e-newsletters, banner advertising, and so on. The basic difference being with print design, the finished product is something you can hold in your hands whereas with web design, your piece will be viewed on a computer display.

One of the common elements of web and print design are clear and effective layouts. The usage of space and negative space plays a vital role in both aspects of design. The measures of the space utilised in each are different – print uses inches to measure the final product which can be a business card to a highway billboard whereas web designers use pixels to design websites. The challenge for web designers is to create web pages that look the best on all monitors sizes and resolutions.

Another aspect to consider is the use of media — static and dynamic. For example, a menu in a restaurant uses static imagery, item lists, and prices. Restaurant web design however can be dynamic with links leading to further content, flash animation and page content which is essentially static. Hotel web design is the same except that the content is dynamic in the sense that users can use websites to reserve rooms before they travel. Hotels also use a variety of brochures which are the forte of print design.

Colour is a tricky subject to deal with in both web and print design. In print, the colours on screen need to match the colours in the final output. Colour palettes and codes are very handy in print design. A “proof” can ensure that you get the desired results in print.

In web design, colours change from monitor to monitor and also with brightness and contrast settings. These are things to take into consideration – RGB shades are used for the web whereas print uses the CMYK palette.

One of the final aspects to consider is the career aspect. Print designers can expect to start as visualisers, and advance to become art directors at ad firms, package designers for manufacturing companies, or even designers at t-shirt companies. Web designers typically work in online marketing firms or technology firms.

Summary

While web and print design are essentially similar aspects of graphic design, their use of tools and their careers paths are very different. Each is a specialisation that requires skill, training and experience. In today’s job market – a ubiquitous designer with experience in both is in demand everywhere. As a freelancer, being able to offer both can be a distinct advantage with the added quality of having an impressive portfolio.

Getting the basics right from the start is very important. Sales or selling is an act of persuading a customer to exchange value for the products or service that he or she wants. It involves a purchase or a transaction taking place where goods or services are sold for money. Sales is a part of the marketing initiatives but often requires a different approach.

Marketing is the stuff that organisations do to reach out to their potential customers. From events and conferences to billboard ads, websites, brochures, print advertisements, television and radio spots, sending out press releases – this is all a part of what is called the marketing mix. Sales and marketing are both about reaching the customer. But sales is more about closing the deal, and marketing is about getting to the person who wants to make the deal.

Sales and marketing activities ideally need to go hand in hand to generate buyer interest and then convert that into the definitive action. But often, this is not how the process works. Where marketers tend to concentrate on generating leads and thereby making it easy for the sales person to close the deal, the salesperson are usually making the deals without understanding the marketing pitch. This disconnect is a recipe for potential loss of clients.

In the marketing approach, the marketer listens to what the people have to say – about the product, about its pricing, about its usability and about the competitors. The sales approach is more focused on determining the right price for the customer and what variation he or she is looking for from the standard product that the organisation is offering. Sales people generally have little or no say in product modifications and are therefore not geared towards looking for such information. This is where the sales and marketing approaches have to be aligned to ensure that the customer is heard and is also convinced that the product is right for him or her, as is.

Summary

Although sales and marketing are very similar and work towards the same results, their differences of approach can be a source of discontent. To allow the customers to have a say, the marketing team must listen. To make the sale of the product as is currently available or within slight variations, a salesperson needs to interact and convince the customer. When both the teams work together, customer satisfaction can be at an all time high.

The science of SEO came about when search engines were used to find websites and other businesses. By using certain keywords and modifying website attributes, a website could be optimised or made in a way which would lead to better page rankings on search engine results naturally. This process involved developing original web content, ensuring that the pages on websites were updated frequently, interlinking webpages and using certain keywords that a person looking for a business would use on the search engines. As the internet connected more and more people across the world, travellers searching for hotels would make their bookings online. Hotel search engine optimisation became a necessary tool across the global hospitality industry.

One of the first and most important steps to hotel search engine optimisation is website ownership. Every hotel, regardless of its size and franchise, must develop and own its website. The simple reasoning behind this is maximising generic search results. Every major franchise has its own website. Add to this a privately owned, proprietary website and one has a lethal marketing combination. It is being one step ahead of the curve. Most franchise sites lack the ability to be seen in generic search results. The privately owned website ensures that this search traffic is led to themselves and thereby to the franchise. This is the advantage that most hotel owners give up on when they rely solely on the franchise website to deliver the business.

There are other tools one can use besides SEO to drive traffic to a website. Pay per click advertising (PPC) is a tool one can use in the short term to build up traffic. This tool is a great way to boost traffic while the website gathers momentum through the hotel search engine optimisation delivering the higher page rankings on generic search results. Another tool less talked about but nevertheless as important is in-bound linkages. If the website links are displayed on many other websites like the local Chambers of Commerce, along with reciprocal links to and from popular websites, it will boost search engines results. Such a process will enhance exposure and drive visitors to the website.

Summary

The internet is a great connector – of individuals to businesses, of businesses to other businesses and vice versa. With a little bit of understanding, the hotel industry can ensure good business through tools like hotel search engine optimisation. When used wisely, it can enhance business revenue, ensure high visibility of the hotel website for a fraction of the cost that one would spend on the mass media. A little learning and spending to ensure that the website is search engine optimised can yield big gains.