Marketing: Tell them about it...

The internet is a great way to market your pub, but is it working for you? By Phil Mellows.

So are you happy with your pub's website? Nice picture. Bit of blurb about the oak beams and inglenook fireplace. Another pic of you and the spouse. A menu, of course. Bit of gossip about the barstaff. And does it bring you any new customers? You haven't a clue, have you?

Over the past few years you've probably felt you needed a website. Everybody else seems to have one. One of the regulars might have mentioned it, knocked you one out on the cheap. So you're on the worldwide web. Congratulations. But don't you feel there ought to be more to it?

You're right. There is. For a start, the chances of someone stumbling on dirtyduck.com (there is a dirtyduck.com and it's some strange cartoon site) when they're looking for somewhere to go for a nice pint and a meal are pretty remote. At the same time it's increasingly true that as a business you need to have a real presence on the web - that means a site that people are going to visit and use.

According to Gordon Butler, one of the founders of the Fancyapint.com pub search website, which also offers an internet consultancy service to businesses called FAP Consulting, not having a website is no longer an option.

"If you're not on the internet, why not?" he says. "Your competitors probably already are or soon will be. Increasingly for many businesses, if you're not online, you simply don't exist."

Growing numbers of pub-goers are habitually turning to the internet before deciding where to meet their mates. If you're not online, or your pub's name doesn't pop up in the search engine they're using, you could be losing customers.

And even if they do find your site, you need to close the deal, give them the information they need to make their decision - and that's what so many pub sites fail to do.

"Too often a pub's website is about vanity publicity. It's the same for almost everybody on the web, actually. But it's missing the point," says Gordon. "Before you do anything else you have to understand why someone would look at your site, and then you can work out how to drive them into your pub.

"If they're on your website you've got to assume they're already pretty close to visiting your pub. The question is, what more do you need to do to clinch it?"

Stay simple​

One common mistake is to design a site that's too fancy. "There may be too many things on there you just don't need," explains Gordon. "Flash intros and too many clicks to get to where you want to go. If you're a business nobody ever goes to your website to admire it. Clarity and simplicity is the key."

So leave out the fact that Arthur Askey once popped by for a pint and the news that the pub cat has just littered. Include basic information people need to know: how to find the place, what kind of food you do, whether you serve cask ale or vintage wines, whether you welcome children, what entertainment you've got planned.

Even if you get all that right it's only of academic interest if people can't find you in the first place, of course. You can advertise your URL - your web address - but that's really only any good for those who've already come across you. You're not making full use of the internet's reach.

There are two basic routes to being found on the web. One is through a portal site which enables users to search for a particular kind of pub in a certain area and then link through to your website.

Gordon's partner at FAP, Steve Watson, compares pub search portals with Amazon for books - although it's probably fair to say that none of them have had anything like the success of that one. Fancyapint.com has aspirations but so far it only covers the London area.

You'll rely on the portal to market itself effectively and gain a reputation among pub-goers, of course. It's interesting that, despite the global reach of the internet, the successful ones so far have focused on a locality. As well as Fancyapint, for instance, there's Pickapub.co.uk which covers Essex, although Terry Stevens at the site's founder The Pickman Group plans to branch out over the next few months.

The other route through which potential customers might find you is through one of the major search engines such as Google. Unless they already know the name of your pub - which kind of defeats the object - searching for a pub in Staines or wherever is likely to pull up a whole load of rubbish, but not your wonderful hostelry.

So it's important to know how these search engines work and make sure your site is put together in such a way that it pops up. For this, you might have to turn to an expert. But don't be bamboozled by gimmickry and web-speak. If you hire a designer tell them exactly what you want to achieve and keep control over the project. Otherwise you'll end up with a site that sings and dances but won't do a thing for your business.