WellSpring is a wellness company headed by founder Lloyd Graham and his son Matthew Graham who leads their Social Media Marketing and Product Optimization department. Together, they strive to offer top-quality fruits and vegetables to create 29 different raw juices on a daily basis. They use locally-grown produce from the farming community to ensure quality while supporting local infrastructure.

It was a pleasure to interview Matthew and learn how he and his father grew their business to where it is today. The company is a great example of how a strong belief can be turned into a passionate and healthy business that will not only be profitable but that will also benefit a loyal and growing customer base. 

QUESTION. Matthew, how was the idea of creating WellSpring Raw Juices born?

ANSWER. WellSpring is a brand that started two years ago when we took over a company that has been in existence for more than 20 years. My father is a vegetarian and we practice and live a healthy lifestyle, so when we saw an opportunity to take over the brand and then apply some of our expertise into improving it so that people have good nutrition, we didn’t think twice.

Until recently, we have not done any advertisement or marketing, yet we have two branches in our business communities in Kingston and there are many Jamaicans that choose to have a proper healthy diet.

For the last three, four months we have settled a little footprint. We have applied technology to our business, we have started to optimize the business in terms of getting it out and having a digital footprint so that people can access information about our products. In general, just to make it more convenient for our consumers.

Q. Did you see a trend toward vegetarian diets when you decided to start your business?

A. More than a trend. What we saw was that people were seeking healthy alternatives. We wanted to be something consistent, we wanted to be a part of a lifestyle that they live, to make it possible. More so, it is a challenge that Jamaica has been facing; it is not easy to access convenient healthy alternatives consistently. That is a problem that we seek to address by having a brand that is trustworthy with a reputation that has been built on its own with the right attention to ensure that all our products are the best quality. Our customers love us for that, so we keep that in the center of everything we do. Every single day. 

As a Christian company with the beliefs we have set in place, we just do what we feel is the right thing to do which is create a healthy lifestyle and make good from that. We believe our consumers can do the same.

Q. What makes your company different from your competitors? 

A. First, we provide the best quality. I mean, we try our best to keep the standards up, regardless of the challenges that we face in terms of access to goods, maintaining exceptional quality. 

We do a very interpersonal process with all the products that we have. Our foods are practically handpicked in order to make the best juices that we can. Everything comes from our organic farm so we can ensure our products’ quality.

Q. What do you think is the secret to your company’s success?

A. I think there are two aspects of the company that allow us to be successful. The first is that we have very good products and we are very proud to say that because we do our best in ensuring that they are the best. 

The second aspect is that we stick to our principles and we ensure that we stick to them regardless of whatever challenge we might face. That is our uniqueness. Our customers know that at the end of the day, whether it is a stormy day or a sunny day, they will get the best juices that they can get, the best healing food, proper nutrition and always an open door on a daily basis to get consistent nutritious, healthy alternatives.

Q. Based on your own experience, what is the best marketing channel to attract new clients to your business?

A. Well, this is why we got into Kolau. As I said before, we have recently had our digital footprint set up. We have our Google Business profile, our website (under construction) and we do social media promotion and marketing. 

WellSpring has been growing mostly organically because, as I said before, without paid advertising and yet we have a wide range of customers across the island. 

So, when we did start to push WellSpring out to get people to know that we are going to be more convenient, give them better products and easier access to the things we provide, then, it just naturally grew. I think it had a lot to do with how we positioned the company. 

Therefore, I think the best way to attract customers is by having an attractive digital footprint and best possible quality products.

Q. What strategy or strategies do you use on social media?

A. I call my social media strategy “life experiences.” We showcase people enjoying and utilizing our products. We showcase our farm and the things that we produce and we send our message across so our potential clients get to know we are here in different ways. On a daily basis, it is all about interaction, speaking with our customers and communication in terms of what they need and what we can provide. Customers really appreciate that. We have been growing on social media platforms so far and it is something that we are grateful for and something we want to build on.

Regarding the social media platforms we use, we have Facebook and an active Instagram account. I think Instagram is a very good platform as it is able to reach markets better than other platforms, simply because it is visual and people love to see things for themselves.

Q. Are you using a specific strategy to retain your customers?

A. To retain our customers, in terms of maintaining a good relationship with them, we have our customer relationship management platform in which we integrate our social media channels and our stores. That tool allows us to communicate with our customers, to get to know their preferences, their feedback and also allows us to provide them with a better service as they give us reviews.

We do social media ads, business cards, flyers and all that stuff but it costs a lot in terms of design, product development and product optimization. The good thing is that we have mobile apps and platforms that we are able to use, like Spot+, Canva, My Quick Video to create the content that we need. You need to offer good content as a brand because once you have the information in place, people will choose the best service and the best quality product that they find. So, what we do is provide the best quality and information so they can know what the best benefits are.

Q. What advice would you give to a startup that is in their beginning stages?

A. I would advise them to use Google and ask random questions no matter what the problem is or whatever challenge they need to overcome to ensure that their brand can be ready for the worst. I encourage anyone just to ask these questions and the answers will come in the form of information, apps or content. So, I would just appeal to anyone’s real curiosity in terms of learning and getting the right information to get their brand ready for the worst situations.

Q. Finally, what do you think will be the best way to win customers in your industry in the next few years?

A. In the next three to five years, what I can see would definitely be a phenomenon is access to goods and access to good customer service. The more convenient you can make your brand or your product, the more people come to you. And I believe the more information that we have, in terms of educating our consumers, will lead to better relationship management. All we do is done to get consumers. We want people that have healthy lifestyles so we know what it takes. People are on their phones and computers every day so if you get to them there, that is the first way to attract them to you and that is just a principle that I believe. 

All businesses should adapt and ensure that they have a proper digital footprint with their proper marketing strategy, even a basic marketing infrastructure is better than none. My father would always tell me that a push plan is better than no plan. I believe that a small plan to market your business is better than not having a plan to market it at all. So, for the next three years, I believe that special delivery services, convenience to goods and access to information will be the best ways to attract new customers to your brand.

Every week, we highlight a company from Jamaica, within the framework of the MSME Digitalization Plan, whose trajectory, achievements and experience are an inspiration to all of us. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to bring these great stories together and learn from them.

The post Interview with WellSpring Raw Juices – MSME Digitalization Plan in Jamaica appeared first on Kolau Blog.

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In an industry where it seems that innovation is only in taste, Lulu’s Ice Cream, a Miami based ice cream shop considered one of the 14 best ice cream shops in Florida, shows us that it is also possible to be innovative in the technique, making ice cream using fresh products and freezing them with liquid nitrogen.

Here, Luisa Santos, founder of Lulu’s Ice Cream, discusses what makes her ice cream shop unique and which marketing strategies allowed her to boost her business.

Luisa, you were recently named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the SBA. Why do you think you got this award?

In this process, I learned that this award has to do with the growth of the company and also what the company has given to the community. So much of what they took into account was everything we do in Miami with our team and opening our doors so that the community has a space to meet and also, as there have been two hurricanes, the programs we have done with other small businesses in the area to help as we can.

Lulu’s Ice Cream has been considered one of the 14 best ice cream shops in Florida by Florida Rentals. What makes your ice cream shop unique?

There are many differences. I think the most important one is the ingredients we use and how they’re processed. So, we have adopted a cow called Lulu that lives in Dakin Dairy Farm, the farm where we buy all our milk and cream, which is the most important ingredient. We work with farms in Homestead and The Redlands, which are two areas that are about an hour, an hour and a half [from Miami] where many tropical fruits grow. So, we have agreements with people who have farms there for local fruit.

The important thing is that we make the whole base in our store from the beginning. Everything is mixed here, no chemicals are added, nothing extra. Everything is as simple and basic as possible, and [the ice cream] is also the freshest because the base is made every day and when people ask for an ice cream, it is frozen right here [in the store], next to them.

Therefore, the quality of the ingredients and the freshness are two very important distinguishing factors and also that we freeze our ice cream with liquid nitrogen. Each serving of ice cream freezes in 30 seconds and no air is added as in most ice creams which need to freeze for about nine or eight hours. Therefore, our ice cream is much more compact which makes it possible to eat like three balls of any other ice cream in one… then you have to be careful [laughs].

Do you have a direct competitor in Miami that uses that same technique?

We have competitors who use this same way of freezing ice cream but they do not make their ice cream from the beginning. They are buying ice cream bases, which is very common in ice cream shops. Therefore, the base already has many of these chemicals like preservatives or stabilizers so they last a long time and they then add the flavor in the ice cream shop. So, there is no one who does exactly the same thing as us.

In addition, our ice cream shop is a place where the environment is taken into account: The cups are biodegradable and the spoons are made of recycled wood.

How did the idea of selling organic ice creams finish with nitrogen come about?

The idea was born because I learned how to make ice cream this way and it completely captivated me. I realized that you don’t have to do it this way but liquid nitrogen gives you the option to do it this way. It makes the ice cream fresher with the highest quality ingredients because you can freeze it instantly before delivering it to the customer. You don’t have to keep it for months, transport it… That was what caught my attention the most. I was in college studying economics—nothing to do with this [laughs]—but I was very captivated by the idea and I said, “I have to do it, I want to do it.”

We have seen that you have a strong brand image and that you have worked carefully on its design. How important is it for you to have a strong and homogeneous brand image and how have you built yours?

I have been very lucky because my two best friends work in design, so at the beginning, they helped me a lot and taught me the importance of having a solid brand image.

After learning it, we have been very strict in making everything uniform so people can know that this is Lulu’s before they know it’s Lulu’s just by looking at the colors, the logo… I think it’s important because it tells the story of our company without us having to tell it. Like anything you see in Lulu’s, like any ice cream, everything has a thought behind the decision that was made, both in the colors, the logo… and sometimes it changes and we launch new designs.

Our menu board, for example, has changed a thousand times and continues to change depending on what we want to tell and how we want to tell our story. But it is very important because people start to recognize it. It also makes the company replicable. Many people who come to the store ask us, “how many Lulu’s are there in the world?” They immediately have the idea that there isn’t only one Lulu’s.

What marketing channels do you use and which one directs the most customers to your business?

Some are more difficult to measure than others, but we are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when it comes to social media. Instagram is the channel that directs more customers to our business, currently. It’s where we have more followers because ice cream is obviously very visual, so that’s where we can best tell our story. Many people enter the store showing us their phone and saying, “I want this” and it’s an Instagram photo.

We also use a loyalty program where people use their phone to accumulate points, which has been very successful because we also give away free ice cream for birthdays and many people love that.

In fact, the articles and stories that we have organically received from other media have also helped us a lot. Then, Google, Yelp and Foursquare are very important for us because people who are geographically close to us find us there.

And what about the reviews obtained through these platforms? Are they important for Lulu’s?

Yes, absolutely. The brand is not what you want people to know about you, but what people say about your company. Then, the reviews are direct contact with our customers to understand what frustrates them, what they want to continue seeing. It’s a way to see if people are having the experience that we want to give them.

What do you do when you receive a negative review?

For us, it’s important to understand that it doesn’t matter what we believe. If that person had a bad experience, we believe that they had a bad experience and do everything we can reasonably do to improve that experience. We never try to fight with someone or tell them that something didn’t happen because if they wrote it, it probably happened. Internally, we try to understand why it happened and we communicate it to the whole team so that it doesn’t happen again. Actually, what we try to say when we respond to these reviews is that we take into account everything they tell us and that we want them to give us another chance and that we hope they will come back again to enjoy the experience we want to give them.

We have already seen that Instagram is a key piece in your marketing strategy. How do you use this social network and what kind of content works best for you?

We have realized that what works best for us is to show photos of our product, so, it’s our ice cream. Every time we try to put up another type of content, the engagement always decreases. People want to see the ice cream, they want to see the cute ice cream, then that’s what we show on this social platform.

One of the strategies we use a lot is using the content that users create when they come to the store. Many people take very nice pictures, so we ask them for permission to put them on our profile and we mention them. This has helped us a lot because it’s difficult to have content to publish all the time. We are not going to have a photographer here every week, so we use a lot of what people publish.

We’ve seen that you also show high-quality corporate videos on your digital channels. What role does the video play in your marketing strategy?

For us, these videos have been important to gain credibility when we enter meetings with much larger clients. These videos demonstrate a certain level of professionalism and allow us to show the experience we offer. Then, they transmit confidence in our ability to execute at a professional level.

How do you get your customers coming back?

We have a points program where customers leave us their phone number and we send them text messages for free ice cream on their birthdays and other promotions. Although, I think the key is to offer a very good product and experience so they want to return. If we can offer this to every customer that comes, it’s like winning a customer for life, but it’s the hardest thing to do. It’s much more difficult than any points or discounts program.

What advice would you give to a new startup?

I always say start small in the cheapest way you can to start but “start.” There are many people that spend a lot of time thinking to make everything perfect. No. I always say “start small” because there are many people who, when they start, realize that this is not what they really want to do. It’s better to realize that it’s not what you want to do at the beginning before you have invested a lot of money or a lot of time. So, my advice is to start and always, always ask for help. Never be afraid to say that you don’t know how to do something or call people you don’t know to ask for help, it’s very important.

As for marketing, my advice is to start with one channel and do it very well. Listen to your followers, understand what they want. Use it as a means of communication.

Finally, we would like you to give us a little prediction. What do you think will be the best way to gain customers in your industry in the coming years?

The best way has always been and will continue to be to offer an incredible experience. Digitally, we have the geographic limitation of people who are in a certain area or are going to visit Miami. So, for us, I think it will continue to be that people can find us on Yelp, on Google or on the platform that most people are using at that moment, that geographically places us as number one in the area.

The post Marketing for Ice Cream Shops – Interview with Lulu’s Ice Cream appeared first on Kolau Blog.

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Are you a restaurant owner who wants nothing more than a dining room full of happy customers while you field incoming calls from hopeful people looking for a coveted reservation? If so, you most likely need some new restaurant marketing ideas. In this post, you’ll find some useful marketing strategies that will help you achieve your goals.

Before starting, it’s worth noting that the restaurant industry is growing and is estimated to continue to do so without pause. Globally, it’s predicted that the annual growth rate of this industry will be 7.01 percent through the year 2022. In addition, according to AlixPartners’s research, 34 percent of consumers around the world are expected to eat out more often than they have in the last 12 months.

So, it seems that the odds are on your side. The industry grows, people want to go out to eat and the Internet gives you new channels to communicate directly with our customers. It’s time to take advantage of this opportunity to boost our business through a good marketing strategy for restaurants. To help you navigate the sometimes confusing marketing waters, four of the best marketing strategies for restaurants have been analyzed and explained here. See what fits your business and try them out when you’re ready.

#1 Design Your Menu Strategically

Your menu isn’t just a list of dishes you serve. It’s a tool that you have to know how to use to attract customers and influence their decision making. Often, the menu is what determines whether a customer stays at your restaurant and returns or goes to the competition. Here are some tips to help you create an irresistible menu:

• Less is more when it comes to the number of dishes: It’s been shown that a menu with more than four pages causes a negative effect on diners. Barry Schwartz, psychologist and author of The Paradox of Choice, says this has to do with emotions because more options make people feel indecisive, discouraged and less satisfied than fewer options. More so, a study by Patrick Spenner and Karen Freeman published by Harvard Business Review found the only catalyst for coupling is the “simplicity of decision”—when buying is simple, consumers feel motivated to do it over and over again and will even recommend it to their inner circle. If your menu is too long, try to eliminate the dishes that don’t sell well even if they’re delicious.

• Detailed descriptions of dishes lead to more sales: According to a study by the University of Illinois, the more specific your dish description is, the more money your customers will be willing to pay for it. For example, would you choose “cannelloni stuffed with a traditional meat roast, bathed in bechamel and gratinated with Emmental de Savoie cheese” or “meat cannelloni?” The detailed descriptions in the first choice stimulate the appetite more and pleases diners.

• Use your own name or family name for one of your dishes: When you write your menu use proper names or familial terms for your plates. For example, instead of writing “French toast with milk” write “Granny’s French toast.” You will be able to invoke homey feelings in the diner that can bring them a sense of comfort. This makes your French toast fell more like a ​​homemade dish instead of a commercial dish thrown together by a faceless cook in a kitchen.

• Use geographical signs to highlight the authenticity of the product: To highlight the quality of the ingredients on your plate, indicate their geographical origins. For example, if you serve a typical organic beef burger that comes from Galicia, you can write “organic Galician beef burger” on your menu followed by the other ingredients. Using this technique, your dishes will appear to be a higher quality compared to other burgers. This deemed superiority makes your customers willing to spend more money on a seemingly simple dish.

• Highlight what you want to sell: Eye tracking and heatmaps are techniques that advertising companies have been using for years to discover patterns in how people look at things—in other words, to figure out where the eye naturally goes when reading things like a menu. These studies have shown that people first look towards the center, then towards the upper-right corner and then towards the upper-left corner. This is known as “The Golden Triangle.” Based on these conclusions, it’s best to place dishes with the highest profit margin in those spots. That being said, there is another study by the University of San Francisco that questions this theory and says people usually read menus like books. To combat that possibility, you can highlight the most profitable dishes in other ways. Using resources mentioned in the previous sections, adding photographs or illustrations and using more impressive fonts or bold letters can make your profitable dishes stand out. For example:
  
  
  
  In this menu, you can clearly see how “CARNE” (meat in English) stands out above the rest and captures the gaze. If we analyze it, we can see that it’s been placed in the center—the first point where we look according to the first study. A bigger, more shocking and heavy font was also used as was a very dense illustration.

#2 Take Advantage of Special Dates to Organize Innovative Events

Dates such as Father’s Day, International Women’s Day, Bachelor’s Day, Valentine’s Day and many others are the perfect excuse to introduce something new and surprise your customers. Instead of waiting for the reservations to come in, take some initiative and organize a special event for a specific day. For example, you can change the menu or introduce something new in the operation of the restaurant for the day.

While it’s true that the most traditional strategy is designing a special menu for the occasion, you can try to go further. For example, the Labarra restaurant in Barcelona organizes a single’s night to celebrate International Single’s Day. Based on the idea of speed dating, they set up a large table and put 10 single women and 10 single men seated together with the goal of getting to know each other while also enjoying a tasting menu and a free cocktail for a price of 30 euros.

Another strategy that can help is partnering with a brand or NGO to offer more than just a menu for the occasion. For example, the restaurant J’S in Singapore manages to differentiate itself from its competition on Women’s Day not only with a special menu but also allowing customers to pay what they want. The money raised during this day goes to an association that looks after the education of disadvantaged girls. In this way, J’S customers, in addition to enjoying a nice meal, can contribute to a social cause.

#3 Advertise Your Restaurant on Google

Google puts a pay-per-click platform called AdWords at your disposal. This tool allows you to create ads that appear above and below the results of search pages. This means that you can make your restaurant’s website appear among the first results of Google every time someone searches for a restaurant in your city.

Advertising on Google can be a good marketing strategy for restaurants for several reasons:

1. Searching for restaurants through Google is common: According to Google Trends, the popularity of searches including the word “restaurant” has doubled in the last five years, almost reaching the maximum popularity value today. This makes Google a good marketing tool with great potential to reach your target audience.
2. Advertising on Google is not intrusive: Advertisements are only shown when users are looking for a solution to a particular problem. In this case, finding a restaurant. Therefore, those who see your ad on Google after conducting a search will be much more receptive than those who, for example, have seen a large billboard for your restaurant randomly during their day.
3. The cost of a campaign through AdWords is relatively low: When compared to a traditional marketing campaign through television, radio or newspapers an AdWords campaign is cheaper since you’ll only pay every time a user clicks on your ad. This makes it possible to get a higher return on your campaigns.

If you’ve never used AdWords and want to know more about how it works, check out these Google AdWords tutorials. If you don’t have time to enter the AdWords universe and you want to avoid hiring an agency or a specialist to design and optimize your campaigns, the Kolau platform is made for you. With Kolau, you can do it yourself in the easiest and fastest way. Take a look at it!

#4 Use Social Media Intelligently

Today, social media is already part of everyone’s daily lives thanks to smartphones. According to a Ditrendia report, there are 1.9 million people who access social media from their mobile.

Social platforms create more opportunities for interaction and allow you to reach people on a potentially viral level. This makes them one of the best channels to publicize a product or service while also engaging with your audience. Therefore, it’s a powerful marketing tool for restaurants that you should use to the maximum.

When it comes to social media, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the essentials. They have the largest number of active users and can offer you more advantages as a restaurant. That being said, if you don’t have the time or tools to develop and implement a good strategy for each of them, it’s better to select only one or two social platforms and focus your attention there. A careless social media profile can degrade the image of your restaurant instead of helping it. Remember, don’t bite off more than you can chew.

Developing a content strategy on Pinterest can be useful for your restaurant if your customer-base is mostly female as, according to the stats provided by the platform itself, 70 percent of their users are female. It works very well to attract traffic to your website if you have one.

Here are some practical tips you can apply when developing a social media marketing strategy for your restaurant:

• Add your social media profile information to your menu: Let your clients know that they can follow you on social media by printing your social media page names on your menu. You can even leave a little card on the table with your social media information complete with QR codes so they can find them instantly with their smartphone. This small detail can help you get more followers.

• Make daily posts showing photos or GIFs of your dishes: While it may be cliche, the eyes really are bigger than the stomach. The Max Planck Institute did a study that shows that seeing a plate of appetizing food is enough to stimulate the appetite. Using this information, posting photographs or GIFs of your best dishes on your social media profiles in the few hours before lunchtime can not only generate engagement with your followers but will also whet their appetites and make them want to go to your restaurant to taste the dish. In order for your photographs or GIFs to attract attention, make sure they are in the foreground with good light and that there is a contrast between the food and the plate.

• Run social media contests: Contests are a perfect resource for branding, publicizing your restaurant and products and expanding your fan base on social media. In addition, users often feel a strong attraction to promotions and prizes especially if the reward you offer is valuable. For example, the Nando’s restaurant chain in the United Kingdom launched a contest on Instagram and Twitter to promote its new burger called “Sunset.” To generate more engagement, they appealed to the typical pictures of dreamy sunsets that are popular on social media. Here, they invited their fans to take a picture of their Sunsets (referring to the new burger) with the hashtag #nandossunset. Everyone who participated was automatically entered into a raffle for a chance to win a 100-pound gift card to Nando’s.

• Use popular hashtags in your posts: The foodie movement is alive and makes up a large part of Instagram’s content. How many times have you seen customers taking pictures of their dishes with their smartphone? How many times have you scrolled through Instagram and found photos of irresistible dishes with hashtags like #foodporn #foodstagram #instafood or #foodie? Surely, many. Instagram and Twitter are the two social media platforms in which hashtags are the most relevant and can help you gain visibility. The key is to find those hashtags your target clientele is using and use them yourself so they can find you through your related publications. There are many pages and apps such as Hashtagify, Keyhole or RiteTag that allow you to analyze a particular hashtag and know, for example, what its popularity is, its number of impressions, likes, the languages ​​of the publications it contains, the country where they come from and related hashtags, among other data.

• Record live videos in the kitchen: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter offer tools to record live videos to showcase an event in real time. While this might not seem useful for a restaurant, live video can actually help you connect more with your followers by giving them a chance to interact with you in real time. Moreover, you get a higher scope than you do with a standard post. Facebook gives preference to live videos when it comes to showing posts in users’ news feeds. A good way to use this for your restaurant would be to show live videos of what’s happening in your kitchen and how your chef plates up or makes a dish as if it were a TV cooking show. This is interesting content for your followers that will also be able to give them a complete idea of ​​the food you serve.

#5 Invite Influencers and Bloggers to Come to Your Restaurant

For any business, achieving a large base of active followers is one of the greatest goals for their social media accounts, but it’s a process that can take time. This is doubly true if you don’t have a large budget to invest in social ad campaigns or genuine content that can become viral on its own. However, there are users who have already managed to create a large community around them, formed by users united by the same hobby or cause: influencers.

Influencer marketing has proven to be a highly profitable strategy in recent years. According to a study by Nielsen Catalina, an influencer marketing campaign reached 11 times the ROI of a standard digital campaign. Another study by Collective Bias, the leading company in influencer marketing, reveals that almost 60 percent of users have taken a review in a blog or a post on social media into consideration when making a purchasing decision with Facebook being the most persuasive channel.

If the content published by these influencers on their social media profiles is about what you offer in your restaurant and the influencer’s audience matches your target, their social media profile becomes a channel you can use to bring attention to your restaurant. This will help you gain followers and ultimately increase your sales. So, search for foodies who have a large community of fans on their social media profiles who reside in our geographical area and work with them to market your business. Here’s how to do it:

• Do research to find the most influential foodies: There are tools you can use to find relevant influencers for your marketing needs. Klear allows you to look for influencers on the main social media sites while BuzzSumo helps you find the most influential media channels and journalists who write about the topic you choose. There is also Twitonomy which helps you find influential profiles on Twitter from a specific hashtag.

• Analyze their social media profiles: Look at the number of followers and pay special attention to the engagement generated by their publications (number of likes, comments and shares they get). Try to understand their history by looking at what kind of content they publish, the type of restaurants they visit and if they have previously collaborated with other restaurants. Imagine that the influencer you’re analyzing visits your restaurant, takes pictures and makes a publication about their experience on their social profiles. Do you think your restaurant would fit in their profile? If the answer is yes and you think the impact of their publication may be beneficial, consider moving forward to the next step.

• Get in touch with them and invite them to visit your restaurant: Follow them on social media and look for a direct contact route like a private message on Instagram or Twitter. You can also opt to send them an email if they have a public address. In case they’re journalists or bloggers, you can try to contact the publication they work for and ask to be directed to that specific journalist. When writing or talking to them, tell them what you liked most about their content or what called your attention to them in the first place. You should also touch on why you think your restaurant could fit their page or column. A good idea may be to propose a breakfast meeting so they can get to know you, your restaurant and your product. However, don’t force them if their answer isn’t definite. If they agree to the meeting, you can talk to them about your ideas and continue from there.

Have you found these marketing strategies for restaurants useful? If you liked this post, you may also be interested in 7 Tips on How to Increase Reviews on Yelp, the leading page of customer reviews which is also very helpful for restaurants. Take a look at it!

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The post Marketing for Restaurants: 5 Effective Strategies to Try Out appeared first on Kolau Blog.

We interviewed Jesús Pombo, owner of Poncelet, who explains what has been the key to the success of this cheese shop and how they’ve managed to boost their business in the market.

The magazine Speciality Food selected Poncelet as one of the six best cheese shops in the world. What makes Poncelet different?

Poncelet, throughout its history, has focused on promoting the culture of artisan cheese. We’ve also become an authority on cheese maturation, promoting artisan cheese culture to the public who visits us along with the role of the cheese maturer, either in our store, restaurant or simply through our blogs and web pages. Our maturation center, an up and coming and unique enterprise in Spain, is where all of our cheeses are matured through different techniques until they reach their optimum flavor. Only then can each artisan cheese be fully enjoyed on an organoleptic level. From our maturation caves, we send the cheese to all our centers as well as to the rest of the customers, keeping them in their best condition at all times.

It’s in our store where we put all our dedication and commitment to customer service, making sure everyone who comes in is helped by our highly qualified, professional and friendly staff. Likewise, the care and dedication to the product, as well as the rest of the elements in our store, is done carefully with love and is a fundamental part of our work.

In short, what distinguishes us is the quality of our perfectly ripened cheeses accompanied by careful treatment and exceptional dedication to the visualization of the product as well as our knowledge of the cheese culture we share with all of our visitors.

What’s next for Poncelet in the next 5 years?

At Poncelet, we’re constantly evolving and looking for new farmers and artisan cheese makers that share our philosophy. As a result of our tireless work, we’ve just incorporated a new selection of unusual cheeses that both experts and “amateurs” will love. Our selection of cheeses is continually renewed and we find new and surprising techniques, new cheeses or new ways to produce high-quality cheeses. Since each time the culture and knowledge around this food are higher and more demanding, new methods come about, as well as new textures, aromas and flavors. It’s our duty to continue looking for those cheeses that make us different, as well as learn, study and experience new ripening techniques. This is what distinguishes us from the competition.

Since one of our premises is to marry tradition with innovation and modernity, we’re adapting new technological concepts to our work through different programs and computer applications. We’re providing more and more information to our clients and adjusting all the times and internal procedures to achieve greater efficiency and better performance in all aspects.  

What marketing channels does Poncelet use to gain more visibility?

Social media platforms are a fundamental tool that we think is necessary to continue to grow our business and directly interact with our clients. We also provide all the information that different media and blogs request, always trying to meet all their demands. We do our best to ensure that, in each publication, Poncelet has the image and scope it deserves.

Which is the most effective?

Currently, it’s the off-line medium, but every day this is decreasing, while the online medium grows each day.

Poncelet has a blog. What role does the blog play in your marketing strategy?

Making all the news, events, courses, tastings and the rest of our company’s activities accessible to the public through our blog is important. This keeps our clients well-informed. That’s why we have our newsletter, which is sent periodically to each of our loyal customers.

What advice would you give to a specialized food company that has problems acquiring new customers?

Firstly, you have to be clear about who you want to address, in terms of both the food you offer and in your communication with/for them. Secondly, you have to make sure the message and the story you transmit is “real.” Otherwise your clients will quickly see any inconsistencies between what you say and what you finally offer.

Now the giants of e-Commerce are entering the food sector making deliveries to homes in as little as one hour. What impact will these giants and their strategies have for specialized food stores?

With the pace of life we ​​have, it’s more than understandable that changes in plans and the creation of new events arise in a moment. That’s why we believe that, in this sense, the almost immediate online sale of food will grow quickly and we have to be prepared for it and do our part.

We always ask people to make a prediction. How do you see the specialized food sector and its immediate future?

More specialized and with a more demanding culinary culture. This is a good thing for the entire sector.

The post Marketing for Food Companies: Interview with Poncelet appeared first on Kolau Blog.

Guillermo, Pan da Moa won the 1st GASTROactitud Compromiso con la Tierra award. Why do you think your bakery won this coveted prize?

We have always strived to create a modern, yet traditional, bakery. We have been creating more avant-garde breads while making sure to always use raw, local materials like Galician flour. We also use Galician processing techniques, especially those from Santiago that follow our family tradition. I think continuing to improve while remembering where we came from and, above all, committing ourselves to creating a natural and good product with locally sourced materials helped us win the award.

What do you do at Pan da Moa that makes you different from other bakeries?

At Pan da Moa we always work with natural products. We don’t want to use any preservatives or additives in our products. We believe that unnatural ingredients have no place in the creation of our breads. I am also a perfectionist who thinks I can always do better work.

This makes me want to improve constantly and make things better, and thus offer the best possible product to our customers. All of that separates Pan da Moa from our competition in my opinion.

Does your Galician bread have special characteristics?

The main difference is the moisture in the bread. Galician bread is known for being moist instead of dry. Galician baking techniques add more moisture to the bread dough than other baking techniques. This produces a softer loaf of bread. We also use a longer fermentation process which results in quality bread that has a flaky crust and a moist crumb. Our bread can also stay fresh for longer periods of time thanks to our baking process. This may seem easy enough but it’s actually difficult because this process creates a less consistent dough that can be hard to work with.

I see that in Pan da Moa you offer cooking courses and collaborate with other entities outside of the bakery. Has the fact of doing these activities helped win customers?

Interestingly enough, people believe that if you teach others how to produce your product, people won’t come anymore because they already know how to do it for themselves. I see it differently, though. In the cooking courses, my clients have had the opportunity to get to know me better, to understand the product better, and learn how to appreciate the product as well as the bakery. Although one day they might make the bread themselves, other good things will come from that relationship including them recommending me to their friends and family. They can say that they know first hand how I prepare the food in the bakery and will attest to its quality. Overall, the courses we offer and the collaborations we do outside of the bakery help make our products known and help us win over more customers.

I have also seen that on your Facebook you have almost 5,000 followers. That is a success! What does Pan da Moa do in terms of social networking?

In Facebook, we try to make a daily publication of our daily products. We also post information on upcoming events or courses. I like to keep in touch with my clients on social networks. People like it and I think it’s important to dedicate even as little as five minutes a day to it so customers see daily activity on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

I see that on Twitter you also have more than 1,000 followers and that you constantly update your feed with the latest bakery news. Do you think Twitter helps you retain your customers?

Almost everything we post is replicated across all three social networks. I can say that the media that work best for us are Facebook and Instagram. I assume that Twitter is less influential on our business because of the age range of users. The average age range of users on Twitter is about 20 to 30 years; these are not our regular customer base. Facebook, being a more widespread and massive medium, has more of our target audience and produces more successful results.

I imagine that word of mouth is how you get most of your customers, but what other channels of communication bring in customers?

Of course, I think word of mouth is the greatest social network of all time. It’s a method that isn’t based on the age range of users or anything else. That being said, I must emphasize the vital role of social networks today. Even with investing very little time, you can get exceptional results through social media. Social networks are a window that offers a multitude of possibilities and should not be overlooked.

What do you do in Pan da Moa to gain loyalty and win customers?

Every season we think about what we can do to attract and retain customers in Pan da Moa. We have a general product chart, but we make specific promotions, too. For example, we have promotions on salty products that are made at the end of the month and that brings us excellent results. This is because, for some reason, at the end of the month customers are more likely to try new things. Another way, as I said before, are the courses we offer that allow the client to get to know another facet of our business that was previously unknown. That has also offered us excellent results in customer loyalty and growth.

Do you use any review platforms or get the reviews directly through your website?

There are clients who directly post their reviews on Google and others who come directly to Pan da Moa to congratulate us or give us their opinion. We have not really dedicated time to other media outside of the social networks or our website, therefore, Facebook and the website are our biggest sources of reviews.

What function does your website have in addition to telling your customers where they can find you?

The website discusses the philosophy of our company and our vision of the work done, apart from showing our location. The website also serves as a bulletin board for the bakery.

Do you update the website according to the time of year?

Yes, we try to update it as much as possible so that the customers know we’re active. We want them to see updates news or new products whenever they visit the site.

Have you planned to expand your business?

In our field, it isn’t easy to expand. Our products don’t last long enough to be shipped out long distances so we don’t offer that. We’re also happy with our current bakeries, at the moment. They allow us to carry the business with the philosophy that best represents us.

What advice can you give to bakeries who are having trouble acquiring and retaining customers?

The most important thing is to make the best product possible. You have to want to improve every day and not be content with the product as it stands.

Another important point is to sell the product in a different way. Don’t just sell bread. Instead, inform the customer of the nutritional properties of the products you sell. Also, make them understand that they are buying an exceptional product.

My final tip is that you don’t neglect social networks. They are an exceptional way to get new customers as well as maintaining a good relationship with your existing customers.

Finally, give me a prediction of what you think will be the best way to win customers in your industry in this next and years.

As I pointed out earlier, social networks are going to be the key to win and retain customers. Social networks yield excellent results without having to spend money. This is in addition to word of mouth, which has always been, and will continue to be, a key factor in winning new customers.

The post Marketing for Bakeries – Interview #1 Award-Winning appeared first on Kolau Blog.