Back to Basics: internet marketing

So you've sorted out your external signage, made friends with the local paper, leafleted the area and run some impressive promotions. Great. But aren't you missing a trick?

The rise of the internet has created a new channel for you to communicate with prospective customers. Seventy-one per cent of the UK adult population now use the internet, and of those who 'really enjoy a night out at the pub', 80 per cent have access to the web.

These people are using the web as a kind of giant Yellow Pages to find goods and services near to them such as 'country pub near York'. If they find your competitors before they find you, you've lost a sale. Not only that, these people are using the internet to find out more about an outlet - for example, is it child-friendly? Are walkers welcome?

So start by discovering exactly how visible your business is on the internet. Visit a search engine such as google.co.uk and type in your business name and location to see what comes up. You might be surprised just how much information is already out there in terms of customer reviews and pub fan sites.

If we already lost you at 'search engine', you need to get up to speed! For information on courses in basic internet skills call learndirect, the government's learning network, on 0800 101 901.

If you're still with us, the next question is how do you manage your business's online visibility? It isn't realistic to expect most licensees to have the spare cash or time to devote to the problem. Perhaps there is a techno-whizz on your staff who can put the necessary time into creating and managing your online presence without huge expense.

Your checklist for promoting your business online should look like this:

Website

In its most basic form, a kind of online brochure to let people know where you are, what kind of pub you are and reasons to visit you. So this should include your contact details, a map, some flattering photos, a sample menu if you are food-led, and details of upcoming events.

Like any marketing materials, this should be updated regularly. The cheapest and easiest way to do this might be to build a 'blog' using free tools from sites like blogger.com to create an online diary about what is going on at your pub, supplemented by all the essential information above on the front page of the blog.

Listings

Make sure your business and its website or blog are listed in all the local online directories. You should be able to find these by using search engines. However, be wary of any websites that want a fee for listing your details - ask for hard evidence of their effectiveness at driving business before you sign up.

Search engines

Make sure your website/blog and listings can be easily found by the search engines. Every search engine employs technology that visits websites looking for key words and ranks them according to how well they match search terms.

Of course, it's not as simple as that, with the 'rules' of search changing almost daily, but you can give yourself a head start by ensuring that any description of your business online is clear. For example, 'The Old Red Lion, a country pub near York with real cask ale'.

It's also a good idea to make sure your blog or website address is descriptive, for example oldredlionpubyork.co.uk, as this will also help you be recognised by search engines.

Paid-for search

The more techno-savvy of you may want to explore using paid-for search tools such as Google AdWords, which allow you to pay to place links to your website on the right-hand column or the top of Google's search results page.

For search terms such as 'country pub Cheshire' a click through to your website could cost you just pennies and you only pay for each click so it's very measurable and can be turned on and off. Click on 'advertising programmes' on Google's UK homepage for more information.

Internet marketing is an enormous subject, but a small investment in ensuring that your business has an effective online presence can reap enormous dividends.

Gemma Teed is a strategic planner and Chris Norton is an online media manager at Leeds-based marketing communications agency Brahm​.