sustainablemrk

Sustainable, Affordable Marketing Solutions

[sustainablemrk]

Sounds sinister but it’s something that restaurants have known forever... word of mouth is key and it’s now online. Friends sharing with friends may be harder to track but they have the strongest impact. By creating content that is easy to understand, relatable, with a clear call to action, you’re making yourself more “share worthy”. Make sure your posts are clear, your profile is easy to understand with all the essential info, and your website is up to date. To learn more about #darksocial and how SustainableMrk and @torontocommon can help contact us at [email protected]. #digitalbeyonddesign #socialmediamarketing #onlinemarketing #wordofmouthmarketing

[sustainablemrk]

For the average restauranteur this may sound defeating but it’s actually an opportunity. For too long restauranteurs mostly chase the same low hanging fruit. The people that look to try new things. Which is actually just one segment of the population. What @torontocommon targets are the habit formers. People that make their decisions carefully, need a little push to try but because they need that extra effort, they’re more likely to stick to what they know. Not only do we lower the risk of trying with competitive, all in one pricing, but we also offer a larger variety of regular menu items which means guests become more familiar with your menu. While there’s definitely a group of restaurant hoppers out there, there’s also a lot of safe and steady customers. The great thing about Toronto Common is you don’t have to choose. Use your off-peak nights to bring in new faces and keep your busy nights as is. To learn more about Toronto Common send us an email at [email protected]. #restaurantmarketing #digitalbeyonddesign #marketing101 #winningnewbusiness (at Toronto, Ontario)

[sustainablemrk]

The first part is spot on, the second, not so much 😂. Likes are a poor measure of social media success if your goal is driving traffic to store and sales... not because people want to make you feel bad, but because they don’t want to think too much about posts. We’ve worked with many business that have lots of likes but are unable to convert likes into store traffic. The main reason being that most people tend to like what they know, what’s safe, and what’s socially acceptable. Their followers will see their likes and they don’t want to be judged. However, safe posts are poor motivators of sales as they are usually safe because they’ve been posted in different variations a million times. A girl holding a cup of coffee with a plant somewhere in the background is a safe photo to post but tells the viewer very little about the business. If the user is scrolling quickly it’s an easy like but it’s also not very memorable. And while more likes may often seem better, it can skew valuable feedback you could be getting from your social media engagement on what your real audience is interested in and values. A small audience of real customers can often be far more valuable because their engagement tells you what they’re willing to buy and can help determine what to invest in. False likes can make analyzing that data more difficult. To learn more contact us for our January social media workshops. #digitalbeyonddesign #socialmediamarketing #marketing101 #restaurantmarketing

[sustainablemrk]

@torontocommon has over 7,000 followers on instagram (all organic) and just under 400 on Facebook (also all organic) but when it comes to driving immediate traffic to our website and ticket sales Facebook still comes out ahead. Numbers can be deceiving on social media. Instagram is great for building awareness. People like to browse Instagram for ideas but because you cannot click on links, and information is limited, and we’ve found it to be a poor driver of immediate sales tho we often see people follow us on Instagram or check Instagram to get an idea of what we do. It’s important not to only invest in one channel and accommodate for multiple forms of engagement. Luckily Instagram easily populates to other services including Facebook. #dontputallyoureggsinonebasket #numberscanbedeceiving #socialmediamarketing #marketing101 #digitalbeyonddesign

[sustainablemrk]

What do @torontocommon events and Star Wars have in common? Both have been known to sell out months in advance. We have seen some of our events sell out as early as 3 months before the event date. In today’s highly volatile business environment, steady and predictable is one way to mitigate risk and plan for growth, especially when our events are designed to attract new business instead of repeating the same customers with more and more over the top and costly events. Repeating the same event, designed to give new customers a great first experience is a great way to ensure a steady group of new business each month. Contact us at [email protected] to learn more. #digitalbeyonddesign #marketing101 #restaurantmarketing #newbusiness (at Toronto, Ontario)

[sustainablemrk]

Food and Wine jokingly attributes this to the pumpkin spice latte but as we’ve mentioned before, this brand has one of the most robust loyalty programs in the industry. Incentivizing everything from products customers should try, time of visit, number of visits, amount of spend, and who you visit with. Incentive based marketing has one of the highest returns on investment in the industry and it’s based on sound marketing principles, not just guessing, following or starting the latest trend. What behaviour strengths your business and what are you doing to encourage and attract that behaviour #loyaltymarketing #habitforming #marketing101 #changingconsumerbehaviour #incentivebasedmarketing #digitalbeyonddesign (at Toronto, Ontario)

[sustainablemrk]

What is changing consumer behaviour and how does it work? Changing behaviour often gets a bad rap, it sounds manipulative, it sounds controlling but really it's mostly about giving the right people what they want in a way that's manageable for your business. Not everyone will take you up on the offer but if the offer is setup correctly, those that do are worth the investment. Sometimes that's a repeat visit, sometimes it's an increased spend but rather than blanketing an offer to everyone regardless of behaviour, this type of marketing rewards the behaviour you're seeking. #marketing101 #digitalbeyonddesign #digitalmarketing #loyaltymarketing #socialmediamarketing

[sustainablemrk]

@foodandwine magazine confirming what we long suspected. Restaurants need to stop playing hard to get and start thinking of creative ways to be more accessible while minimizing costs and risks. Whether you like it or not, the average customer is simply busier and has more choice than ever before. All that choice means while a hard to get table may have a certain allure, our day to day lives just do not have the time for exclusivity, especially if you're a higher-end restaurant catering to a more affluent clientele. Being accessible while maintaining brand quality can be done and needs to be done because executives, working professionals, influencers, and just about everyone these days is being asked to do more in a day with less than ever before. And the audience with both time and money to chase tables is getting smaller and smaller. This Food and Wine magazine article (http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/what-do-when-you-cant-get-reservation) is tell their audience ways to circumvent the system but we think restaurants need to be smarter about their systems. #restaurantmarketing #marketing101 #knowyouraudience #digitalmarketing #digitalbeyonddesign

[sustainablemrk]

Location, location, location! Tip for all those marketing with Instagram stories, adding location to your posts can increase your views. Location tags are being added to larger feeds. For example this post was tagged with the specific location for Boxcar Social Riverside but was added to the Toronto Story feed. Not all location tags show up in feeds, Instagram is clearly using some form of algorithm but we've seen Toronto Story, as well as Canada Story and some area specific feeds as well. We're hoping they'll even eventually add geo targeting... if they're not already 🤔 For more info on industry tips, changes, and strategy visit sustainablemrk.com. #digitalmarketing #digitalbeyonddesign #instagrammarketing #instagramstories #socialmediamarketing (at Boxcar Social)

[sustainablemrk]

Rain, hail, tornado 😳 not to mention other events on the same day. People often think Toronto Common is starting with small events hoping to go big but the truth is we've worked on many big events and realized that there was an opportunity for small, regular events focused on bringing those really interested in your business to your door. We love large events, and have a lot of respect for everyone who puts them on but we wanted to remove some of the risk and costs and allow for more niche events. Contact us for more info on @torontocommon and how we can help grow your business.

[sustainablemrk]

There's more to advertising on the internet and social media then just putting something online largely in part to the volume of content that now exists online. We've seen time and again that it's no longer enough to just be seen even by the right audience, there needs to be a clear incentive and call to action. Building awareness without a call to action is a drop in the ocean in today's content rich world. @torontocommon sees great results with search optimization for one reason.l, we offer great incentive. Viewers search Whisky, they find a time sensitive, guaranteed great value, easy to plan event designed to minimize hesitation. If they cannot make the first event there are 3 others and since the items are regular menu items, they can always go on their own at regular price if the timing doesn't work. Check out the full Atlantic article at http://theatln.tc/2rLzvUy and contact us for more info on how we can help your business grow. #digitalmarketing #digitalbeyonddesign #PullMarketing #contentcreation #socialmediamarketing #socialmediamarketingtips

[sustainablemrk]

Can you afford to set aside one table a month for giving new customers a great experience? @torontocommon creates events designed to win new customers with great events that are about the food and drink, not the hype. And since each event is designed around your business and every ticket is a paid ticket (no free tickets), you know each guest is a paying customer. All we need to do is make it a little easier with a great offer and pricing strategy, our clear and transparent copy and photos, easy to search and find web strategies, regular social media and email marketing. #PullMarketing #digitalmarketing #digitalbeyonddesign

[sustainablemrk]

Freelance Directory

We understand that not every business has the resources to manage their marketing internally and sometimes it’s easier to hire someone to do it for you then to learn and manage it yourself.

Sustainablemrk is happy to help facilitate that with both consulting, project management and our NEW Freelance Directory.

The Freelance Directory is a quick and easy way to find local freelancers in Graphic…

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Graphic Designer - Alejandra

Graphic Designer – Alejandra

I’m Alejandra, a Toronto-based designer, illustrator and video game enthusiast. I graduated from OCADU in 2015 with a Bachelor’s in Design and am currently freelancing as a Graphic Design professional. My skills include designing logos, corporate identity, branding, packaging, brochures, presentations and advertisements. I also have an arts background that includes storyboarding, illustration,…

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[sustainablemrk]

The unicorn frappucino was NOT a brilliant marketing campaign, it's everything wrong with modern, pseudo marketing. The problem with Starbucks is not that people don't know who they are, or that people don't see them on Instagram. Without personal judgement and simply looking at their position in the market, the issue is that people have stopped seeing them as a good coffee place, see them as not cool, too commercial, and some see them as basic. They're accessible, they're convenient, they're pretty consistent, but people who enjoy coffee and know coffee, do not see them as good coffee and prefer more independent coffee shops. Starbucks has said they'd like to be seen as more than coffee but the unicorn frappucino is so far from all their regular menu options and is only available for such a short period of time that they're not building a new customer base for anything else either. The unicorn frappucino basically reaffirmed the view that Starbucks goes for gimmicks, is mostly sugar, uses artificial flavours and colours, appeals more to kids, and is more marketing than product. Have they done the market research to determine that message was worth it? Do they have more products like this down the line that made them want to associate with this messaging? Maybe? It's hard to say what the plan is down the road without being in the room but if your business is thinking of creating a unicorn anything, think about what message you want to send, not just how many people will see it or if it will look cool on Instagram. https://www.facebook.com/theglobeandmail/videos/10155199894863904/ #brandintegrity #marketing101 #digitalbeyonddesign #digitalmarketing #socialmediamarketing (at Toronto, Ontario)

[sustainablemrk]

Is playing it cool hurting your business? Sometimes it's better to just be yourself 😊 If you're busy great but if you're pretending... people who want to eat at busy places are attracted to the idea of hard to get tables but they're also the first to notice when you're not busy because that's why they came. A hard to get table can be an attraction but it can also be a deterrent. If you're booked solid then great, but if you're pretending just remember you could be losing customers on both ends. Those who don't want the hassle of getting a table so they don't bother and those that went through the hassle cause they wanted to be in a hot new restaurant only to find it wasn't as hot as they thought. It could be this person happened to arrive on a one-off bad night, and we all know no-shows and cancellations are common in the biz but also a good restaurant should not be focused on making tables seem hard to get. Relying too heavily on reputation over substance can hurt even the best restaurants.

[sustainablemrk]

Save time and energy with #RSSemails on mailchimp. Our weekly newsletter pulls our events and announcements from the week automatically into an email template and is still our largest ticket sales generator. Feeds like Instagram and Facebook are great but we see at least 50 times more ticket sales from an email then social media. We comply with all Canadian legislation on emails (CASL - Canada's Anti-Spam Law) and can help your company do the same. #digitalmarketing #digitalbeyonddesign #emailmarketing #CASL #onlinemarketing