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Email marketing has been around for years, yet many venues still find it hard to consistently produce great emails that not only keep the current patrons happy, but to get new ones also and with Facebook and twitter slowly taking over the personal communication space, email marketing is  often forgotten.  There is an art to this and it’s quite normal to have a plain text only email, be much more effective than an email filled with pictures and sounds and everything else.  With some great email platforms now available, actually doing the campaigns are easy, it’s writing the emails which many find difficult.

Because it’s all to do with the content, and the right amount of content!

Below are 7 helpful hints of putting together an awesome email.

Subject Line

1.  Possibly the most important part of any email.  The subject line is your hook and bait.  So keep it very clear, and if you can, make it catchy.  Sometimes you won’t be able to do both (clear and catchy) and if this is the case, just make it clear.

 “Some exciting news Tim.  The DX Hotel is now on Facebook!  Join us now for the latest news, competitions, and giveaways”

2.  Use CTA’s (Calls To Actions).  It’s good practice to use CTAs in the subject line.  The easiest way to do this is to include verbs, doing words.  “Register Now”, “Download our Menu”, “Scan to Win” are some examples of CTAs that will entice readers to open up that email!

3.  Make it personal.  Any decent email marketing system will allow a certain level of personalization.  Provided you have captured this information in the signup process, this level of personalization can be extended on to the subject line of the email.

“Great news <firstname>!  You can now place your order from your mobile.  Download our app now for free!

Email Body

4.  Make sure the email body follows through with any promises in the subject line, as logical as it sounds, many emails focus heavily on the subject line, only to be let down by the email body.  Also make sure body of the email and the subject are written in the same tone.

5.  Try not to fill the email up with useless information and keep it short and sweet.  When I open an email and see that it continues way way down the screen, I tend to not want to read it.  A better tactic would be to quickly sum up the point you are trying to make, with a link to your website that can go into more detail.

6.  Write the email for the reader, outlining the benefits and not the features.  This means using the words “you” or “your” a lot.  There is also a fine art between distinguishing a benefit over a feature.  Have a read below for an example.

Feature:  “Our new loyalty cards mean that when you dine with us, you can simply swipe and walk straight to your table.

Benefit:  “Our new loyalty cards mean that you no longer have to wait in line for the next available table.  Just swipe, and walk straight in”

7.  You should use CTAs in your email body also.  The same as the subject line, getting people to “do” something on your email is a good tactic to use.

“buy tickets”, “book your function”, “give us a call” are all great examples of this.

And that’s about it.  7 points that we at MyGuestlist follow, whenever we send out our email marketing campaigns.  If you can go 7 for 7 on every email then brilliant, otherwise, just keep these points in mind whenever the need arises.  It will make your emails that much more targetted, effective, and will almost guarantee an increase in opens.

And we have lift off!

Welcoming the dawn of a new social era within the MyGuestlist world with the release of Part 1 of our new Social Command Centre.

We monitored, looked, studied, read, observed, tested, experimented with and carefully engineered the foundations for what we envisage by the end of it all to be by far, the most advanced and innovative social platform for the Entertainment & Hospitality industry in the whole world.

So whilst the release will be in a multi-part series, let’s take a look at what’s new to begin with in a simple, dot point, quick’n'easy to view format:

Social Networks & Organisation

* Foursquare, Facebook & Twitter Profiles/Pages can now all be integrated.
* Categorise certain profiles/pages and Facebook groups in to folders so that certain individuals can represent a different part of your venue/event (E.g Staff, Ambassadors, Partners)
* Post to your social networks when you send an email campaign
* Automatic URL shortening
* Stats on clicks, likes and comments will be available in your campaign reports

Create And Manage A Social Media Broadcast

* Update statuses of specific networks and groups
* Automatic retry if a message fails
* Schedule a series of posts to go out at different days and times
* Upload images and insert trackable links

Complete Analytics And Reporting

* Failed vs Succeeded
* Who commented
* Who liked
* Click-through rate
Direct Messages / Write On Friends’ Walls

* Conduct extensive search through friends based on gender, birthday, age, name and more
* Schedule or send right away
* Automatic retry if message fails
* Insert images / flyers

Twitter

* Set up a re-follow campaign (will follow back every time someone follows you)
* View stats about each re-follow
* Send and monitor Direct Messages

Facebook Applications & Misc

* Guestlists / VIP / Membership / Reservations / Tickets and more
* Custom Fangates
* Customise the message displayed to people who have not yet liked the page
* Submission statistics (see stats on how many times your forms are being submitted from Facebook)
* Quick Broadcast: 2 seconds to send out a quick broadcast to your social networks

Oh and did we mention that all of this is just the beginning?

It took a while to get here as we took careful consideration in designing the new Social Command Centre to be scalable and adaptable to any new emerging tech and social trends in a rapid-response approach. What this means is that we are now in a position to update social media features on a very quick “sprint-like” scale. So expect to see some damn awesome features coming up as we put ourselves in to second gear.

Congrats to Phil and the team on another amazing release. We can’t wait to see what’s next!

Today we chat with our newest team member Tony Pantano. Tony has worked in the industry for nine years both as a Venue Manager and as a Communications & Marketing Manager to the DiMattina Restaurant Group.

What’s your involvement in the DiMattina Restaurant Group?

I joined the DiMattina Restaurant Group at the ripe age of 14 & worked on Saturday nights throughout my high school. I begun drying dishes & then worked my way up to eventually become a waiter. After years of practice, mistakes, experience & weekends I was promoted to become a Restaurant Manager at DiMattina’s Restaurant & Bar for three years. Whilst undergoing that role I was studying a Media & Communications degree at Swinburne University. Post degree I took on the role with the group as the  Marketing Manager. I held that role for two years before making the move to MyGuestlist. All up I spent 9 years at the DiMattina Restaurant Group & I’m especially appreciative of the lessons learnt & the opportunities presented to me there.

What’s the best way you like to retain customers?

It’s all about relationships. I found that the best way to retain a customer is to make them feel at home, welcomed & a part of the whole experience of dining in the venue. We had a group of gentlemen who would dine every Friday at DiMattina’s & have been doing so for the past 10 years – by engaging with the group, getting to know them on a personal level & treating them with the respect they deserve they continue to return. I’m sure each restaurant group has their own group just like this. In terms of customer retention on a larger scale though, we found that loyalty programs worked especially well – we created a program where by becoming a VIP Member at DiMattina’s also provided you with rewards & incentives with the businesses around the venue. By associated the restaurant with another experience or thing to do, it makes the decision process to visit the venue regularly easier. Add a discount or incentive to this & the foundations for a good regular base is created. We would then communicate to them via the MyGuestlist product which enabled us to send specific emails to this VIP Member program at the venue.

What’s the biggest no-no you see in the industry be it operations, marketing or service?

The biggest no-no I see is probably something that has made Lygon Street exactly what it is – The Spruiker’s on the street. I believe that the Spruiker’s actually damage their brand from the outset. It appears that they have to give something away to keep up with the rest because they don’t believe in their own product.  In my opinion, if I’m getting something for free there’s always a catch – and without prejudice, because I’ve never eaten in those venues, I’d suggest that the experience isn’t necessarily up to par. If you’ve got a product that you believe in, stand firm with that belief & be proud of what you offer. After all, it’s your lively hood at stake.

What do you wish you’d known back in the early days that you now do?

That by taking a job as a dishwasher at 14 I’d still be tied & connected to the hospitality industry. Who does that?!

How do you see the industry evolving over the next 10 years?

I believe that we’ll see the bookings revolution return back to where it was. There is nothing more frustrating as a consumer than going to a venue & not being able to get a seat. I believe that the consumers will once again demand the ability to book seats in all restaurants. I have concerns for the industry surrounding the number of new venues that continue to open up on a monthly basis & unfortunately I believe that we will see large foreclosures if the cost of labour isn’t contained. I recently heard that most venues are running their wage costs at approximately 52% – whatever happened to 30% wage costs?

What is your opinion on social media and database marketing assisting the loyalty of your return customers? Do you see it as intrusive or an important part of the business?

Any program that assists you in your overall goal as an operator – to have as many patrons in your venue spending as much as possible throughout a week – is absolutely critical to the success of your business.  Having run programs for the past three years I’ve seen the value in them & the patrons have come to expect & appreciate the communication that you have with them. The customers want to know all of the relevant information as quick as possible, social media has allowed us to communcate with our patrons in a quick, efficient & timely manner. After all, as operators we’re all time poor.

What do you wish you could have or do in the industry, that you currently cannot?

Although I have not owned a business, I do feel for the business owners in the industry in this current economy.  I wish I could regulate the cost of labour to allow the businesses to operate at profitable levels & reward them for their efforts. Paying unskilled workers on a Sunday in excess of $40 per hour isn’t fair.

*The views expressed in this interview are Tony Pantano’s & are not necessarily the views of any business mentioned in this interview.

Take a look at the image below.

This is an example of what all MyGuestlist users see when somebody signs up with them using any of their online forms be it on their website, their Facebook app or their Mobile App. What happens, is that the email address from the patron, is cross-referenced against Facebook (soon to be all major Social Media platforms) and for any match, all available and corresponding information, is synced back in to your database.

This is just one step closer in our attempt to begin merging your normal traditional databases, with those same people’s information on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

The more you know, the more leverage your marketing and functions department will have when upselling, chatting or dealing with a patron.

More to come, but enjoy for now

And it’s on.

In the red corner, we have Open Rates. The metric most venue owners, marketers and promoters seem to be most interested in. Somewhat the favourite in this face-off and definitely the one most peeps will be backing.

In the blue corner, we have Clickthroughs. Technical, accurate but not as popular as their opponent and always sneaking around in the shadows without popping up to see much of the action.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Open Rates

Who is opening your emails and how many times it is being opened. Probably the most commonly queried stat in the land of email marketing.  We’ve talked before about what we can do to increase open rates in our emails but we must ask ourselves, is it really the be-all-or-make-all? Is it the sole reason why you send email newsletters/offers/updates to begin with?

No. Not quite.

Whilst from a birds-eye perspective (and over a period of time), it is certainly in your best interest to watch your open rates go up rather than down, open rates alone, are not the best way to measure how well  or how poor your email marketing efforts actually are.

Clickthroughs

If you have a call to action, that’s fantastic. If you don’t, please learn how to create an attractive offer/incentive for somebody to redeem something as well as share it to their friend/s to do the same.

Done? Cool. Now let’s analyse.

Being able to determine how many people are clicking through on your call to action is a measurement of how interested people are in seeing what you are offering or what the mechanics of the deal are. Codes and redemption techniques for this offer, will then connect the purchase with the call-to-action you had in your newsletter/s. And hence, your marketing efforts come full circle with the three concepts of Conception, Execution and Measurement.

We’d much rather you think of excellent offers, deals, and reasons for why somebody should want to commit to joining a competition, buying tickets, submitting a list or inviting a friend to something.

Facebook has just introduced an exciting new way for you to reward the fans of your pub’s, club’s, or venue’s Facebook Page.

Facebook Offers!

In a nutshell, Facebook Offers allows you to create special deals and discounts on your Facebook Page.  This offer will naturally appear on your venue’s Timeline and in the Facebook Feed of all the people that Like or Subscribe to your page.  These people are then free to Claim, Like, Comment, or Share the offer, which has the potential to increase the fan base of your page significantly.

Claiming an offer is as easy as accepting it on your mobile device, printing it out or displaying it on the screen, and simply showing up.

Facebook Offers are free to create, and at the moment are only available to certain local business pages around the globe.  The requirements to enable Facebook Offers at this stage, have not been finalised (but once they’re revealed we’ll post them up ASAP).

Coming soon to a Facebook Page near you (hopefully yours!) now would be a good time to start dusting off those “Buy 1, Get 1” deals and “50% off” discounts.  If your Facebook page is eligible for these Offers, then get ready for fan base to explode!

A great resource to start reading all about Facebook Offers.

If you’re a MyGuestlist user and have an event, concert, or festival coming up, then do we have some exciting news for you!

The MyGuestlist ticketing platform has been updated to suit even more flavours of ticketing:

• Unlimited ticket types (VIP, General Admission, Floor Only, etc)
• Discount Codes and Early Bird Tickets
• Multiple currency options
• All important Email and SMS alerts to the ticket buyer
• Promoter tracking  (can also track staff and 3^rd party ticket sales)
• And a comprehensive and easy to read reporting facility that can show you where your ticket sales are coming from, and how good the conversion rate is.

All data is captured and stored in your MyGuestlist database and if you’re familiar with the MyGuestlist iPad app, then you can use that to mark off guests as they come through the doors. Yay!

Social Media plays a huge part in the success of any event, and our ticketing platform allows you to sell tickets straight from your Facebook Fan Page or directly from your website.  So rather than pushing your patrons and punters to purchase tickets at myguestlist.com or any other third party site, you can direct them directly to your own website or Facebook Page. Awesome right?

And of course all of this is free to use! Your patrons pay the booking fee, we handle the transactions, fraud and ticketing infrastructure, whilst you get to work on promoting the event. And where better to do that than under the one roof within MyGuestlist where you can manage it all as opposed to having 3-5 different online apps performing a separate task where you waste further time in trying to consolidate all your database information amongst all these different systems.

We’re in the game of making products which are better, easier, inexpensive and seamlessly integrate-able with each other. We’re really stoked about ticketing and think we have a fantastic offering for anybody in the Entertainment & Hospitality scene around the world. Hope you enjoy using it!

For more information visit myguestlist.com/ticketing

You probably already do some birthday reminders to attract more functions to your venue or spoil your guests on their special day. It’s time to evolve that a little.

It’s not just birthdays that are important, but how your guests and patrons interact with your business. It’s great to have a tighter mode of communication between yourself and your contacts which isn’t restricted to only birthdays. So we’ve evolved the birthday reminders to be split in to three separate sections as such:

	Birthday Messages Automatically send a message to patrons who have an upcoming birthday. Select the number of days before or after the date of birth and we will automatically send the message to the patron. You can also specify if you want to send to only patrons that are in a particular database category as well as those that have a milestone birthday (eg: 18th or 21st birthday etc…)
	Signup & Welcome Messages Setup an automated message to be sent to your members when they signup. You can select the number of days after the signup date as well as limit the message to a specific database category.
	Custom Messages Have other date fields setup in your database? You can setup automated messages to be sent a specified number of days before or after the date

. This means that you might want to send Emails/SMS/MMS out:

• Before their birthday
• On the day of their birthday
• After their birthday
• On the day of their anniversary
• Just before their anniversary
• On any special date (maybe one year after their function?)
• Immediately after they have signed up
• On any other special date

You can do as much or as little as you like from all of the above and can create any combination of the above which suits your venue or event. You’re gonna love it!

That’s us, reminding you, to remind your patrons

In the final part of our series “the 5 reasons why your venue, event or brand should use social media” we touch on the often overlooked, and the most unsexy side of social media.

And it’s one of the most important and beneficial.

Now let’s get a little back story happening.  Geeks know a thing or two about this thing called the internet.  They know it’s the present, and they know it’s definitely the future, and your venue, event or brand, needs to be on the internet to not only get new business, patrons and gigs, but to be on their to satisfy your existing clientele.  In this day and age, if people can’t find you on the internet, you may as well shut up shop.  This is the reason why search engine optimisation is in such demand, it’s the reason why Google is worth billions, and it’s the reason why businesses continue to make money online.  And social media helps this, in droves.

It’s all about your Search Engine rankings, and your website is just the beginning. Want to be on page 1 of Google for “best seafood restaurant in Melbourne” or “hottest r&b nightclub in Vegas”?  With some smart website tweaking, some good consistent content AND your Social Media, this is definitely possible.

And if you don’t appear on position 1 on page 1 of Google, then having Social Media gives your venue, event or brand, another chance at standing out.  So let’s say if your rank at position 7 for “coolest pubs in Sydney” there’s a good chance that the searcher may Google your pub’s name directly.  And apart from your website (which should be the first result back) your Social Media links should be displayed also.

And if you’re totally rockin’ your Social Media presence, there’s a good chance you’ll score a visit!

Geeks rule huh?

In continuing our series “the 5 reasons why your venue should use social media” we explain why shouldn’t need to tell the world how great you are, you should let social media do that for you.

No.4.  Social Proof is the new black

People no longer rely on your website to get an accurate assessment of your establishment.  In fact, people are more and more bypassing the thousands of dollars you’ve thrown at your website in favour of reviews, comments and stories that are on websites such as Urbanspoon, Google Place, and in particular social media.

The name of this form of information is called Social Proof, and it could play a bigger role for your venue than any form of advertising  or marketing.  Underground restaurants have been known to thrive simply through good reviews on these websites, and festivals and concerts have shared the same success with comments on social media.

With little to no moderation on review websites and social media channels, good comments can sound great, but bad comments can be totally jaw dropping.  A basic inability to convey ones thoughts through to words can mean “a poor dessert” or “disappointing event” could be written as “the most disgusting mousse I’ve had” or “the worst concert I have ever attended”.

With this in mind, you need to be prepared to take the good with the bad, but what social media can do is:

1) give you an opportunity to reply and potentially diffuse the issue.  ”Sorry to hear about the mousse John, we did have some issues with refrigeration so I do apologise.  We would like to offer you a free meal so please call us to book a day and time”

2) give your fans and followers an opportunity to reply for you.  ”Hey Peter, I saw ThatPubBand at NightClubA 6 months ago.  Yesterday’s concert was tonnes better than that one, so I’m not sure what you’re complaining about”

Social Proof IS the new black.  It’s the yard stick that unfortunately you have no control over, but if you have your social media set and you’re rockin’ it, there’s a good chance that you won’t be fighting those bad comments alone.