Why Small E-commerce Businesses Need a Digital Marketing Agency
November 21, 2024
2022 was a roller-coaster year for the hospitality industry, with innovative ideas emerging left and right. The bounce back from covid in most countries. We had to dig deep to drive traffic this year.
Next year, we are expecting things to be not that different. So we’ve put together our Top 6 marketing trends we’re going to see for Hospitality Marketing in 2023.
There's a reason why you see an ad for the same product on your social media feed over and over again — it's effective! Most people need to see a brand 6 times before they are likely to visit your venue.
We might see e-commerce dominating the digital marketing space, but if brick-and-mortar businesses put in the same level of effort, they would see exponential results.
Make sure that you stay ahead of the game by implementing ads with a tiered approach. Firstly, brand awareness ads run to highlight the best of your space - keep your audiences super broad (except for location) and let the algorithm do its thing.
Next campaign, remarketing to the people who have seen your ad - with a call to action - potentially driving them to your Instagram page, website or menu.
The next and most crucial, remarketing to anyone who has interacted with your brand. Give them a reason to come in, discount on their meal, highlight a special event, show them a delicious cocktail that they must try. Once your ads are set up, you don’t need to give them much attention.
You can give it your all and hire someone to help you optimise, test and enhance your results. When people say the more you put in, the more you get out was referring to advertising.
There's no point in just putting up posts on social media with no regard for creativity! Take some time to plan out engaging posts that will get people talking about your brand, and it will pay off tenfold in the long run.
In today's world, it is easier than ever to create content. With the use of AI writing tools, you can generate social media captions without a lot of effort. However, just because it is easy to create content does not mean that you should do so without any regard for creativity.
If you want your audience to be engaged with your post then you need to put some time into the creative process.
Let me tell you a little story about my favourite vegan bao buns venue here in Berlin. They make the most delicious Bao Buns you’ve tasted (email me if you want the name - I’m not going to publicly shame them) - one bite and I was hooked. Next week, checked their Google My Business Page - said they were open. Checked their website for the weekly menu - said they were open. Walked 20 minutes with the flavours on the top of my tongue - closed!
You can imagine, I was pretty annoyed. Nothing was going to beat that craving. Next week, different day, we go again - the same thing. Little sign on the door that they are closed.
After the 3rd time, I swore to myself that I would never go again. The moral of the story, if they would have updated their website, I would probably still be a customer today.
Bonus points if you make sure that you have a responsive website so that new visitors from any device can explore your site quickly and easily.
Influencers are not going anywhere, but they will be less and less important. This is because content creators are becoming more and more influential.
The trend of influencer marketing is slowly changing as we see a massive rise in content creators. Influencers played their part, but let’s be real, they’re overrated.
So how do you get a content creator to come to your spot, I can tell you right now, finding them is the hardest part.
The easiest way to find content creators is to look at your competitors, who is creating those review videos for them? If you feel their vibe resonates with yours? Go ahead and ask them how they usually collab with brands. They might tell you that they charge $XX dollars or they might tell you they exchange venue vouchers for content.
Don’t be afraid to put a small budget towards this, the rewards will reap themselves. And don’t forget, word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best forms of marketing. So don’t be stingy if you love the content your chosen creator shares.
Email marketing works
You know how earlier in this article I mentioned that if e-commerce does so well because they invest so heavily into setting up their marketing? This goes for email also. Email is one of the cheapest, highest converting and most engaging ways to reach your community.
Newsletters don’t have to be boring and they don’t have to be ‘all about you. Spending 1 hour a month writing out an engaging email to your audience with a soft mention of something cool you created this month will help to keep your brand and business at the forefront of your customer's minds.
Perhaps you’re a wine bar? Send them your top 10 wine choices for the month. A restaurant, share some culinary news. A boutique hotel? Send them a top 5 list of new and exciting locations to travel to this summer.
How do you get people to sign up? Offer them something. It might be having a discount on your receipt with a QR code to sign up for 10% off the next bill. It might be a pop-up on your website.
There are many ways… But don’t fall into the trap of shameless self-promotion every month. Before clicking send, think.. would I want to read this?
You know what people love talking about more than anything else? Sh*tty service. It’s much easier to get a bad review than it is to get a good one. I definitely know the struggle. But you don’t want to be known as the place that served up something cold and didn’t care. You want to be known for the place that served up something cold, profusely apologised and gave them a discount on their bill.
But that’s not what we’re talking about here. I’m sure you’ve all be told by this amazing pulled noodle spot that is super authentic. You’ve then probably seen it posted on your social media a few times. Then you think, ooooh I want to give this spot a go. That’s how I felt about Wen Chen Noodles in Berlin. They definitely live up to the hype. What big guns can you pull out to create the same hype?
Maybe you have a signature cocktail that you can fancy up a bit with some orange peel. Totally insta-worthy!
If you’re a restaurant, you’d be surprised how a little sprinkle of fresh parsley goes a long way. Instantly prettier.
Sometimes, it’s the little things that go a long way. Next time you’re at the supplier shop and you can’t decide between the standard Ikea glasses for long drinks, and some fancy cocktail ones that might cost an extra few dollars.. Think to yourself, are people going to take a photo with these?
This is the number 1 recommendation but I wanted to save this gem for the people who got to the end of my blog.
If you have not set up, optimised or continually updated your google review, you’re missing out massively!
Google My Business is an SEO master that you need to capitalise on ASAP! The more reviews, the more keywords are added. That’s right if someone says you have amazing pasta and someone searches for amazing pasta near me, you’re going to come up.
But how do you get more google reviews? It’s as simple as asking. If you took my advice with email marketing, set up an automation that when someone signs up or redeems the discount code, send them an email a few days later for a review. Or perhaps dot your ‘share’ QR code on menus or receipts or social media.
The best part, this helps to make some great social media content (without even thinking about it).
kate@kledigital.com
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation and pay our respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging.
