Mobile loyalty becoming 'increasingly important' for restaurants

Mobile loyalty becoming 'increasingly important' for restaurants

By Joe Lutrario and Carina Perkins, 04-Mar-2015

Mobile loyalty systems will play an increasingly important role in the restaurant industry, with operators reporting impressive figures through their use.

http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Trends-Reports/Mobile-loyalty-becoming-increasingly-important-for-restaurants

National Restaurant Association: 2015 restaurant sales to grow 3.8 percent | Finance content from Nation's Restaurant News

National Restaurant Association: 2015 restaurant sales to grow 3.8 percent 



Restaurant sales will grow for the sixth consecutive year, reaching a record high of $709.2 billion in 2015, according to the National Restaurant Association’s latest Restaurant Industry Forecast, released Tuesday.

Buoyed by a steadily improving economy, industry sales will grow by about $26 billion, 3.8 percent, or 1.5 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. That would be the strongest rate of growth in three years, according to the forecast.

“With the economy slowly improving and national employment trending upward, signs are pointing in the right direction for restaurant industry growth,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the NRA, in a statement. “Certain components of the business climate remain a challenge, accelerating industry sales in some regions and putting a damper on them in others, but the overall industry is definitely in a better place now than several years ago.”

Time Spent In Apps Up 21% Over Last Year | TechCrunch

Time Spent In Apps Up 21% Over Last Year | TechCrunch




Posted 20 hours ago by Sarah Perez (@sarahintampa)

While there may be an upper limit as to how many apps people interact with over the course of a month, new data from mobile marketing platform Localytics out this morning shows that the time spent actually using apps is increasing. In fact, the average time people spend in their apps is up by 21% year-over-year, with music, health and fitness, and social apps showing the largest increases.

The new study was based on data from Localytics’ customer base, which includes 28,000 applications installed across 1.5 billion devices. For these findings, which cover August 2013 to August 2014, the company says it multiplied the average sessions per user in app by the average session length across all apps, and then broke it down by category.

The data also backs up what we’ve already heard from other sources. For instance, Nielsen recently said consumers were now spending an average of 30+ hours per month, and had an average of 26.8 apps installed on their mobile devices, as of Q4 2013. And comScore in August reported that the majority of our digital media consumption is now taking place in apps, accounting for 52% of the time U.S. consumers now spend with digital media.

Localytics reports today that users are opening up an app on average 11.5 times per month, up from 9.4 a year ago, while app session lengths remain constant at 5.7 minutes.

Music apps have seen the greatest time spent in app increases, up 79% over a year ago, while health and fitness apps (51% increase) and social networking apps (49% increase) followed. The study says these shifts have a number of contributing factors. For example, the move away from iTunes to music apps like SoundCloud and iHeartRadio has changed consumer behavior, while mobile device hardware improvements have made them better health devices, prompting the increase in that category.

Meanwhile, social networking apps continue to see what the firm dubs “snacking” behavior, meaning it exhibits the highest number of app launches but the lowest session length.

Localytics’ goal in releasing this data is to remind app publishers and marketers that time spent in apps – the session length and number of app launches, that is – are metrics that also matter. After all, there was a bit of a hubbub earlier this year after comScore found that users simply weren’t downloading that many apps – the average smartphone user downloads 3 apps per month, it had said.

The bigger picture here is that while most users may not feel the need to constantly download and try new applications, they do spent a lot of time in those they already have installed.

Here’s why the end is near for restaurant POS terminals

Here’s why the end is near for restaurant POS terminals | Pizza Marketplace:



'via Blog this'

June 17, 2014 | by Noah Glass

I recently had the pleasure of attending and participating in the 33rd Annual Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference, where I heard fresh perspectives from restaurants, retailers, investors, analysts and service providers like me. I had the good fortune of joining top experts in a panel titled, “When, Not If: Technology Milestones for the Restaurant Industry.” The brilliant Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Nicole Miller Regan served as moderator, and Damian Mogavero, Founder andCEO of Avero, and Austen Mulinder, President and CEO of Ziosk, were my fellow panelists.

My favorite moment was when Results Thru Strategy’s Fred LeFranc asked me if I could envision a day in which mobile ordering eliminated the need entirely for POS terminals at restaurants. I thought back to a college finance course and the smart instructor who often asked us to “examine extreme examples.” After a moment of contemplation, I replied, “Yes.”

It turns out the elimination of POS might not be an extreme example after all. During the conference, Julie Krueger, Google Retail Industry Director, spoke about “Retail’s New Realities.” Julie cautioned those in the room that consumers are embracing new technologies much faster than retailers and restaurateurs. In fact, she reported, 50 percent of consumers have said they would prefer a self-service experience to a full-service experience. Krueger’s warning as well as my own experience led to my affirmative response about POS systems. Consumers are demanding self-service options, which can offer a much better experience – much faster, more accurate, and ultimately more personal than ordering from a cashier who has to re-enter a spoken order into a POS system.

A perfect example is the Five Guys app, built upon the Olo platform, which turns every customer’s smartphone or tablet into a personal POS terminal. Instead of the standard five or six POS terminals in the front of the house, Five Guys now has over 1 million customers walking around with a personalized Five Guys POS terminal in their pocket. A Five Guys customer can stand in the back of the line in the restaurant, order from the Five Guys app, and watch the order print out on the burger prep line in a matter of milliseconds (try this at your local Five Guys). The prepaid order zooms across one of the fastest APIs on the Internet, which securely pushes it down to the store’s back-of-house prep line.

Today, this process relies upon connectivity with the POS system, but that need not be the case in the future. A restaurant could store all of its menu and pricing details in the cloud and eliminate the front-of-house POS terminal entirely. In fact, what digital ordering providers like Olo store in the cloud is exactly the product availability, pricing and ordering rule-set that would enable this POS-terminal-free future.

Will POS systems go extinct tomorrow? No, they will not. But when digital ordering pioneers like Papa John’s are seeing that digital orders will come to represent 50 percent of their orders this year, we’re approaching a major industry milestone that hints at a self-service-dominated future. A recent xAd and Telmetrics study reveals that 60 percent of smartphone owners have chosen a restaurant solely with their smartphone on the go. And when comparing the impact of the smartphone in the automotive, entertainment, restaurant, and telecom industries, the study found that conversion rates are highest in the restaurant industry. The same study two years ago revealed that the top activities for consumers were around things like browsing the menu and calling the restaurant. Now more consumers are using their phones as a form of payment, and they expect ordering capabilities, too.

The self-service, digital ordering opportunity transcends counter-service. Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the National Restaurant Association's Research and Knowledge Group, shared that off-premise is the fastest-growing channel for all restaurants, with 75 percent of restaurant industry traffic now happening outside the restaurant’s four walls. Even casual dining chains can use the location-aware superpowers of smartphone technology to better gauge when to start making an off-premise order and when the customer has arrived to collect it (more information is available in our white paper, “Mobile Presence Technology,” intended primarily for QSR brands, but relevant for all restaurants). 

Krueger spoke of the retailer’s dream of an “endless aisle.” In the very near-term, off-premise sales through mobile ordering will help to realize the restaurateur’s dream of the endless dining room – whether there’s a POS terminal in that dining room or not.

Small Company? 4 Ways to Use Size to Your Advantage | Inc.com

Small Company? 4 Ways to Use Size to Your Advantage | Inc.com:



'via Blog this'



Case studies from small firms in America's heartland provide the key to winning against large competitors.

How can small companies compete and win against behemoths? According to Paul Oyer, co-author of the newly published book "Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives, and Small Business Owners," a small size isn't necessarily a handicap.

As research, Oyer and co-authors Michael Mazzeo and Scott Schaefer visited successful small companies in America's heartland and interviewed the people who ran them.  What they discovered is that successful small firms use their size to their advantage.

"It's usually assumed that big firms have the competitive advantage because they have economies of scale, can purchase at a discount, cut favorable lease deals, and so forth, Oyer explains. "The key to winning against them is differentiating yourself."

During a recent conversation, Oyer provided four ways to do this:

1. Provide better service.

OK, you already knew this one, but it's a major factor.  Large companies are all about making big numbers.  Individual customers often get the sense (correctly) that their individual needs aren't all that important in the large firm's scheme of things.

Smaller companies can reverse that equation because they're closer to the customers.  For example, a local coffee shop might compete against Starbucks by learning what individual customers typically order or by carrying locally-grown food items.

2. Specialize in high-end products.

Large companies typically go after broad markets because that's where economies of scale are most useful.  Smaller companies, however, have more freedom to offer customers unusual (and more costly) items.

In big cities, this strategy manifests itself in the boutiques that cater to the wealthy.  In small town America, however, it's more likely to take the form of a small firm that carries, for example, high-end appliances that would never be found at Walmart.

3. Appeal to a local demographic.

Large companies think in terms of serving entire countries or (if the country is large like the U.S.) an entire region.  Smaller firms, however, can position themselves as something genuinely local.

Oyer cited the example of Mugshots, a small chain deployed in Mississippi and Alabama, but what came to my mind were the family-owned Brazilian BBQ restaurants near where I live, which seem to have no problem competing against the big chain franchises.

4. Leverage your personal presence.

I don't like using the word "leverage" but in this case I think it's the mot juste.   Large firms expend a lot of time and effort trying to align the personal goals of management and employees with overarching corporate goals.

By contrast, small business owners automatically have incentives that are perfectly aligned with the company's goals. As such, the entrepreneur can provide better on-site management at a lower cost.

For example, a small jewelry store doesn't need an expensive monitoring system to prevent employee theft, because the owner is typically in the store all the time.

More posts on beating the competition:

• 7 Easy Ways to Outshine the Competition
• How to Torpedo a Competitor
• Turn a Competitor Into an Also-Ran. Here's the 4-Step Plan

5 Things To Keep In Mind Before Creating Your Business Logo – Speak Out Small Business

5 Things To Keep In Mind Before Creating Your Business Logo – Speak Out Small Business:



'via Blog this'

Do you have a logo or a brand for your little business? Making a huge logo and brand is a compelling approach to bail your business emerge in the personalities of your clients. Brand distinguishment, or brand mindfulness, is enter in winning business online and in building a solid fan base. It helps clients recall your business all the more effectively and helps them spread news about it speedier through verbal. In the event that you haven't put a ton of exertion into making a solid brand for your business, here are a couple of tips that can help you begin.

Finding A Designer

At the point when making a visual representation of your business, its best to discover somebody with experience and learning in graphic design. The most ideal approach to discover anybody in an administration industry is through personal recommendation. If someone you a designer that had an accomplishment on this kind of field, communicate wih them for they might easily help you. For those beginning starting with no outside help, the web makes it simple to skim the arrangement of specialists whom you can associate and work with from anyplace on the planet. Hunting down individuals on legitimate outline sites might additionally help in searching for the ideal individual.

Where Should It Be Used?

The size and arrangement of the logo will direct how it is utilized crosswise over diverse media. This fundamentally implies how it will "fit" on all your distinctive sorts of security such as letterheads, site, stock, shop facade, flags, print adverts and work vehicles to name simply a few. Tell your designer the principle employments of your logo and they will verify it works in distinctive sizes. Taste changes from person to person, yet considering broadly phenomenal logo outlines will push you off in the right heading. When you know where you'll utilize it, get to work and make something creative.

Hides A Great Story

Each logo recounts a story, yet an incredible logo recounts a great story. Without words, without story, without directions, a logo can pass on significance. Utilize your logo to inventively express your company's one of a kind mission, history, dreams, or any consolidation thereof. This may be attained through the utilization of a particular shade, shape, or any images, unmistakable or overall. Make your clients wonder why picked your logo to speak to your brand.

Less Is More

Your logo needs to be basic, however being direct to the point doesn't mean absence of intricacy regarding insignificant. Begin and remove all the components that confuse and clutter. Kellogg's ran with a dated typeface that was reminiscent of being old fashioned and exemplary. They didn't have to include more than that. The logo might be underpinned by the item, however the straightforwardness of the logo represents itself with no issue.

Quality For Payment

Making a logo outline regularly sets back the ol' finances a bit unmanageable. It can run in cost from $50 to $500 for a really standard online bundle, or stretch into the thousands in the event that you choose to utilize a creative logo. It then descends to particular inclination, and plan. There's no right or wrong reply. In the same way that you might select any supplier I prescribe conversing with the designer, looking at their work and looking for testimonials before committing to payment.

The Content Trifecta - 'Net Features - Website Magazine

The Content Trifecta - 'Net Features - Website Magazine:



'via Blog this'

By Tim Ash

Content marketing is all the rage, and has been for some time. From blog posts and e-newsletters to basic Web copy and lead-magnets like whitepapers and buying guides, marketers across all verticals have made content their top priority.

With online research playing an increasingly important role in many purchases, the burden has fallen to marketers to create and publish content that is easy for buyers to find, that gets shared and that ultimately leads to more conversions.

Here’s how you can start winning the content race with a strategy focused on achieving the powerful trinity of findability, shareability and convertability.

Findability

Content and SEO are intertwined. But many marketers fall into the trap of thinking that more content is always better, or that cramming a bunch of keywords into their content is going to make it easier to find on search engines. In truth, the most effective strategy for making your content search-friendly includes a combination of the following:

BE HIGH QUALITY

– Your content should be designed for a specific audience and address a topic of interest to them. More than that, it should take a unique approach to the topic and you should be able to map the topic to an exact stage in your target audience’s journey to purchase. Know exactly who you are talking to with your content and write it with the goal of moving the reader one step closer to purchase.

USE RELEVANT KEYWORDS

– Do you know what words and phrases your prospects use at each stage of the customer journey? Take a look at your content inventory and make sure those words and phrases are intelligently used throughout each asset. Your content should “answer” a searcher’s query and meet their expectations once they begin reading it.

PRODUCE MEANINGFUL INTERACTIONS

– Once a person clicks through to your content, how long do they stay there? The time they spend is an engagement metric used by search engines to assess the value of your content relative to the search term used.

STAY FRESH

– Are you constantly generating new quality content? Search engines love fresh content, and a blog that gets updated frequently with quality content will get indexed frequently too. Just as important, posting fresh material will also help build loyalty and authority.

Speaking of authority, your content efforts will be amplified when you establish Google Authorship by linking your Google+ profile with all the content you produce. Google Author Rank determines the quality of content based on the credibility or reputation of its author. The higher the credibility of the author, the higher the placement in search results.

---

5 Tools for Integrated Social Sharing

Make sharing easier with these tools available at wsm.co/sharingtools

---

Shareability

It’s impossible to talk about findability without also talking about shareability. Your content needs to be so interesting, unique, insightful or funny enough that people are literally compelled to link to it or share it. Having your content shared increases your trust and authority, and is one of the factors that contribute to better search rankings.

What makes content share-worthy? According to a study done by the NY Times called “The Psychology of Sharing,” key factors that influence sharing include:

• People need to trust you and the accuracy of the content
• in order to want to share your content.
• Content that is simple is more likely to get shared.
• Things that are funny, convey urgency, or connect people to a cause are all particularly share-worthy.

    The study revealed some interesting motivations that people have for sharing:

• To bring valuable or entertaining content to others
• To define themselves to others (by sharing things that reinforce an image they’d like to present)
• To connect with people who share their interests
• To get feedback and interact with others
• To get the word out about causes or brands

When you produce content, think about how you can tap into this insight to motivate sharing. Introduce a new or contrarian viewpoint to a hot issue, simplify something that is complex, provide solutions to common problems or shine light on a new tool or resource. Also give it an enticing title and weed out extraneous marketing fluff.

Lastly, don’t forget to make it easy for people to share your content by including share buttons for all of the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) and the option to email the page to a friend.

Convertability

Content that doesn’t lead to conversion isn’t marketing. Your content can go viral and achieve top search rankings, but if it doesn’t appeal to the right audience and lead them toward conversion, it has virtually no value to your organization.

Generating content that is optimized for conversion starts with knowing who your audience is. If you haven’t done so already, build buyer personas that detail the concerns, needs and interests customers have at every stage of the buying cycle. Know how to appeal to them, what they need, what they are searching for and what influences them. Once you understand your customers, their pain points and their decision process you can start identifying what types of content would help move people closer to conversion. 

Early on in the buying cycle, people may be more interested in a buying guide or comparison chart,
whereas people who are considering a purchase might be more intrigued by relevant case studies, product guides or tutorials. Know how to address a customer’s questions and concerns at each step along the sales funnel, and customize your content specifically to address those needs. Then, add a relevant call-to-action that gently encourages movement toward your conversion goal.

Content is central to a successful inbound marketing strategy. It’s what will generate awareness, create interest, help buyers make a decision and spur them to action. But great content that can’t be found and read is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
And equally pointless is content that doesn’t help move readers into or down the sales funnel. Challenge yourself to achieve the content trifecta by generating content that is search friendly, share-worthy and optimized for conversion.

---