Posts from — March 2009

At the very core of its functionality and the origin of its birth, Facebook is about connecting a face with a name. When launching on Facebook, venues have the unique opportunity to connect with and introduce their audiences to the face of their brand or company. A nightclub, bar, lounge, or restaurant Facebook page can support a variety of goals, including staff recruitment and retention of employees, audience engagement, morale building, e-commerce, branding, and awareness. But, determining how to best represent your venue on Facebook remains a challenge to those charged with the task.

What I love most about e-mail is that you can test any idea and know whether it works within 24 hours.  Thinking about bringing Roger Sanchez to your venue?  Send a test email out announcing he will soon be spinning, see how many people respond.

As a club promoter and now online marketing pro, I’ve sat at endless meetings in the past where I’ve thrown out any number of good ideas only to have the venue say, “That will never fly.”

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not making the most out of Twitter. I’m a novice at best. I’m okay with that, because in our business it’s just as important to understand the service as it is to put it to prolific use.

Whether you’re a veteran e-mail marketer or just learning the ropes, you have likely heard that segmentation tactics can deliver better results for your e-mail program because it allows you to send more targeted and relevant messages. With this more relevant messaging, you can expect to see a higher return on your e-mail investment. In fact, segmented campaigns have been shown to deliver two to five times the ROI (return on investment) of typical broadcast campaigns. The bonus ROI is reduced list churn and fewer spam complaints.

Whether you’re a big mega-nightclub or a small bar, your decisions about how you go to market must take into account a fundamental, long-term shift in our culture. It feels like this is just temporary because changes have come so quickly, but it’s not. The next consumer revolution has begun.  How will these trends affect your decision to use behavioral marketing techniques?  Let’s take a look.

Consumers Are Reevaluating

www.mansionmiami.com

It’s amazing how I still see nightclubs, bars, and lounges not taking their website seriously.  The website should be done even BEFORE your opening day!  Still, folks are struggling for Web site budget. Many venues have made this a capital expenditure after revenue is generated. Really, it’s the cost of doing business.

So the marketing should control Web site investments, but the business operation must pay for it. Nothing will have a greater effect on your company’s sales than its Web site.

When it comes to frequency and content delivery, how much is too much?  When does it negatively impact your goals?

I used to be a fan of a certain nightlife website that shared events from multiple venues, pictures and information about local trends. I liked its content so much that I signed up for its e-mail messages because I could never remember to check its site every day. As the company grew, its one e-mail became about 5 different e-mails, classified by event. In the beginning it was great; I would read the e-mails with subject lines indicating content I wanted and would often scan headlines in the others.

It’s easy to complain about customer service departments for clubs: they always seem to be less service and more of an annoyance and sometimes are even non-existent. But with so many venues struggling to keep hold of customers, I’m left wondering if they realize their customer service departments are a huge part of the problem. In this economy, you must put your best feet forward on all customer-facing fronts. Today we’ll look at some best practices for customer service, along with some good and bad examples.

As purveyors of nightlife and entertainment, your communications with potential clients and customers must be consistent.  You must build a relationship over time and provide support and drive sales. Plan your online communications so it’s integrated and consistent with the rest of your marketing. Here are six major points to consider:

1.    Target market – Define your audience as granularly as possible in terms of demographic descriptions, psychographic insights, and past behaviors to help craft relevant messaging.

Communication is any process by which information is exchanged. When you say “online communication”, most automatically think e-mail. Well, that’s not the case anymore. With e-mail overload and limited time, your consumers are often more receptive to other forms of communication that can reduce e-mail use. Therefore, nightlife and entertainment marketers must think more broadly about their digital communication strategy.

Five Forms of Digital Dialogue

As online communications evolve, so have the forms of engaging with your target market: