Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's webinar. I'm your host, Ryan, and I'm delighted to be back for another episode of our Headbox revenue series dedicated to putting the revenue into your venue. For those of you who are new here, welcome.

And I hope you learned lots of new insights today on a very exciting topic, mastering brand visibility.

With countless venues striving for attention online, standing out and gaining visibility can be a significant challenge. Breaking through the noise and capturing the audience's attention requires strategic and innovative approaches. So a statistic from Synup claims that fifty two percent of online brand discovery happens in public social feeds, and we'll be sharing our insights on how to stand out from the crowd and create that buzz for building brand awareness without spending huge amounts of money on promotion.

And for those of you not familiar with Synup, they're a local, location intelligence tool that helps businesses with their local marketing, discovery, engagement.

I'll likely reference more stats throughout and majority of them come from Synop. Just wanted to be upfront where that data is coming from. So before we start, if you haven't already, please add any questions you have into the chat. Our team, back there, they're on hand, to try and answer as many as possible during the session. And if we have time, we'll try and discuss some of them, on camera at the end. As always, we'd love to see where you're tuning in from. So snap a pic of your setup, post it on LinkedIn, or Instagram and please ensure you tag Headbox.

To provide insights and expertise on today's discussion, I'm thrilled to be joined by two industry experts who will share their valuable knowledge and experiences with us. First we have Asti, founder of Invited.

So that's a platform that connects influencers with hospitality venues. Thank you very much for joining us, Asti.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah. Of course. We are also joined by Ellie, Head of Sales and Events at Exhibit Bars and Mama Dough restaurants. So welcome, Ellie.

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Yeah. Thank you both, so much for joining us today. So let's jump right in. We can see that many businesses are leveraging social media platforms to promote their brand.

Yet some still struggle to truly stand out in the digital landscape.

In your opinion, what do you think are the misconceptions about organic marketing? And how can businesses avoid falling into these traps?

Yeah. Absolutely. So I think the biggest misconception is that people think it's you're just gonna put a post up and it's just gonna blow up overnight.

In reality, it takes a lot of time. It is a long process.

It's about what finding what works for you guys specifically in your brand and just, you know, taking it from there. Three things that I would say are the best things to consider are your content creation, your SEO optimization, that's gonna help you so much, and the community engagement. So just making sure that you are resonating with your guests and your your portfolio. So another misconception is that people think that you should be posting every day when in fact it is always gonna be quality over quantity.

You want guests to be able to visit your social media platforms and always understand exactly what it is what your brand represents, or what it the product is that you're offering. The best way to do this is just by analyzing your metrics. So using your statistics on your social media, using your Google business, understanding exactly who your guest profile is, and making sure that you're always resonating with them specifically. And then other than that, it's just ensuring that you are just being genuine and authentic.

You know, people aren't idiots. You just need to understand that. Talk to them like people being genuine, making sure, you know, that what you're putting out there is exactly who you are and what your brand represents, I would say.

Thanks, Ali. I totally agree with you here. Forbes advisor states forty four percent of local businesses, I think it's forty four percent, rely heavily on social media to increase awareness. And, I know how much strategy and planning actually goes into building brand visibility. And it's it's a lot more than people think. There's so much to consider than just the visual side. People tend to just focus on aesthetics, but, you know, there's so much more to think about, from paid and organic marketing.

So, Asti, you're probably better to speak to this. You've done an incredible job with invited. Could you share your inspiration, behind in Invited and how it aims to bridge the gap between influencers and businesses?

Sure. So I actually set up a food account on Instagram around four or five years ago, honestly, just kind of sharing my experiences of eating out around London, very much was just a hobby with my friends kind of following me. I feel like I've always loved content creation and video editing, so kind of put a lot of effort into, the reels and things like that. So, actually had a reel go viral, back in lockdown, which helped my account grow from less than five hundred followers to over ten thousand within that year.

And then ever since that point, it kind of has just taken off. So I'm now on over forty thousand followers on Instagram and over twelve thousand on TikTok. So, essentially, when I hit the around the ten thousand mark, I started to get contacted a lot by restaurants and venues to come in for a free meal or experience in return for content on my page, which of course is amazing, you know, getting access to all these experiences, but it did just get the point where I was just getting completely overwhelmed with DMs and emails and just took a very, very long time, I would say, to arrange these collaborations when I just simply thought, you know, why is there not a a simpler solution for this?

So essentially came up with the idea of invited, essentially an an app that streamlines the collaboration process between brands and influencers across a whole bunch of different types of collaborations, whether it's just a meal or an event, or kind of a product gifting collaboration.

Yeah. Simplifying it basically for both sides, helping brands find influencers more easily, and content creators, local to them, but also helping influencers book in instantly rather than going through this kind of long process, back and forth emails really.

Five hundred to ten thousand. That's incredible. Yeah.

Thank you.

And really inspiring, kind of how you how you took that, you identified a problem with it, because some people think it is as simple as, like, I'm an influence. Okay. Here's no. There's a lot back and forth. Yeah. A lot of admin.

So really inspiring how you set up invited off the back of that.

It's also truly impressive to see how fast influencer marketing has developed, over the years. Going back to Synapse, sixty nine percent of cons, consumers, report that they trust influencers opinions and recommendations.

So it definitely shows how consumers are leading, leaning, sorry, towards, sort of a more transparent and authentic approach. Going back to your point about, you know, people aren't idiots, You know, so it's it's using the influencer to have that transparency and take that authentic approach when it comes to marketing your product or service. I know that organic reach has become more challenging to achieve with algorithms and social platforms becoming, you know, increasingly unpredictable. My Twitter is broken.

So implementing influencer marketing is quickly becoming an easy and sort of more feasible alternative. So bearing this in mind, what three strategies can businesses employ to increase their organic visibility, and engagement?

Yeah. Absolutely. So, number one, I think most important, you wanna go for your SEO optimization, so your search engine optimization.

I mean, looking looking at what so we have exhibit in Balham. We are very well known for our brunch and having a really strong happy hour. So if you were to Google best brunch in Balham exhibit, we'd be all over that.

That's the kind of stuff that you wanna be feeding into your Google business, feeding into your socials.

That way it's organically gonna come up when someone goes where's the best brunch in Balham. Great. We're gonna be there. That's that's brilliant.

Secondly is your user generated content. For instance, we have a karaoke exhibit. That's the kind of stuff that, you know, people gonna get drunk, take videos. That stuff's great for us. You know, people are going, oh, where's that venue? I love it.

That way people can really share their own experiences in the venue, and it's also just more content for your feed of of more as I was going back to you, just more authentic content, putting out there. And then other than that, it's just connecting with your guests.

So stuff like replying to reviews, replying to social media, doing polls where it's such as, like, what's your favorite cocktail? And then people can vote for their favorite cocktail, and then you can do a promo on that or do something special with that. Yeah. Those three things, I think they are they are super important to be able to connect with your guests.

Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks for, sharing those strategies. Again, like, just for those at home, SEO, UGC, that community, management Mhmm. So to speak.

You know, again, fifty one percent of consumers, make plans to visit a business after having a positive interaction with them on social media. So it really highlights that third point, the community engagement, the community management. Asti, turning to you with that in mind, what are some examples of of unique ways? I mean, Ellie Ellie mentioned karaoke.

I know I've been a sucker for, you know, food dishes where they reveal it and dry ice comes out and then you you see the dish and I think I need to I need to eat that now. And I will seriously look into going to that restaurant. So what are some other examples of unique ways businesses stand out from their competitors? And what trends as well do you see, shaping the future of influencer marketing?

Yes. I would say definitely within like the restaurant and bar space, having an Instagrammable dish or even, like, an Instagrammable interior really, really helps with the drive of, people coming to the restaurant, whether they're normal people or influencers, kind of taking photos and videos and sharing on social. In terms of kind of dishes, having, like, as you said, dry ice or like a theatrical moment, everyone's gonna get their camera out and wanna kinda post that. It's gonna boost the engagement on socials, and kinda just share share, even just within like word-of-mouth, like, everyone's gonna start talking about it. It can also help with virality as well. So once one person kinda posts, you know, maybe, you know, a sizzling brownie or something, at a restaurant and then, everyone's gonna wanna go to get that one brownie, let's just say, if it looks like incredible.

And that kind of works the same with interiors as well. If there's a really kind of specific Instagramable wall where everyone's going and taking photos by it, people will, typically maybe just go to that venue purely for that kind of area, which I think really, really helps. So making sure that, yeah, your brand or venue has, you know, kind of the aesthetics, are kind of right, for social, I would say.

Yeah. Like a customer's social journey throughout the entire venue, really. You want them phone out from the moment they walk in the door, and then throughout their entire, you know, day or night.

What about the future? So future trends, for influencers, businesses, social media engagement.

I would say in terms of future trends, what I think brands are going to be looking more into is longer term partnerships rather than like a one off kind of campaign.

I would say that using large group of influencers and using them on a consistent basis is definitely, going to drive more value than working with someone just as a one off because, there's actually a rule in marketing, which is a rule of seven, which basically states that a brand or a kind of content needs to be seen at least seven times for an action to be taken. So I definitely think that that works, but kind of aligns with influences as well. And content on social, you really need to kind of have it top of mind and you need to keep seeing it on your feed, to actually book that table and visit, rather than just seeing it once and forgetting about it.

Yeah. I love that. The rule of seven. I think too just, like, to highlight the importance, Ellie made a point earlier, you know, going back people aren't dumb, but also, like, the effort you put into your post.

It's not just, here's seven photos. Now where's my virality? Or where's my where's my my business? It's, you know, sort of seven impactful, well thought out, strategized, forms of engagement.

So I really love that. Rule of seven, for everybody at home, remember that rule of seven, with your social media strategy. Thank you. We're talking about that consistency actually.

Like, there's a good example, if you're familiar with Carousel and, the chef Thomas Straker. Mhmm. So, yeah. He's he's the guy who puts butter on everything.

So he did, multiple pop ups, like, in succession with, Carousel, and that really carved out a niche for him. And now he makes his living selling butter. And who knows, maybe we'll go back and find that there was a minimum of seven. Who we'll see.

Anyway, moving on. Ellie, can you tell us more about how important it is for business to establish a unique brand and voice, in order to stand out in today's crowded digital landscape?

Yeah. Of course. So it is a super saturated market out there. So more than anything, you just wanna hone in on your USB and find out what separates you from everyone and make sure that you are you are exactly that, making yourself unique and standing out, making sure that you you know what your brand stands for and, yeah, just make ensure you're always pushing your values that separates you from the rest.

Yeah. I mean, great point.

I think people underestimate, a strong tone of voice when it comes to communicating, with your audience. It can really make a big difference. Again, Cynap, eighty six percent of consumers say authenticity is crucial, to deciding which brands to like or support.

You know, people buy from people, they can smell it fake, they can smell when it is, you know, paid advertising, or what the case may be. I mean, obviously, a post will say this is paid advertisement, but I I feel like even without that you can you can sniff out when it's not authentic. So going back to that and sort of building that strong voice and and authenticity, I'm gonna turn to you, Asty. How does invited ensure in their influencer collaborations authenticity and transparency with, with their, you know, consumers? So what measures do you have in place to maintain trust between influencers and businesses and then ultimately the people consuming?

So I would say we actually do this kind of from both sides, from both the brands and the influencer side. So from the brand side, they're very much in control of choosing the influencers they want to work with, to make sure they kind of align with the brand and making sure the the content that they post out will be authentic. It's not just kind of like choosing someone that might have loads of followers but just doesn't really fit the brand. So I would say that's kind of one thing. But on the influencer side, I would say that we are currently only focusing on gifted collaborations so that basically means, giving the influencer a free meal or experience in return for content, not paying them, just paying them for kind of to visit.

And I would say that this really kind of drives the people who actually are interested in collaborating with a brand rather than just people and all the influencers doing it for the money, which I think, is great. And I also think that just purely because it is a gifted collab, most of the content that is shared out will be an honest, review. So we're not kind of telling the influencers to say, you know, specific wording or making it, like, a positive review, and that just might, again, as you mentioned earlier, like people can just see straight through that, on social.

So And it erodes trust.

Yeah. Exactly. So I think that, the fact that influencers experience that they have and they just share kind of bad experience that they have and they just share this back with us and we share it back with the brand and vice versa to just ensure that there's a strong level of trust there.

Yeah. You're not sending anybody to the Wonka exhibit and telling them they must say it was amazing. I mean, it was kind of amazing, wasn't it? But, that's that's great. Thank you very much. So now that we know how influencer marketing is so helpful in building brand awareness, Ellie, what initial steps or strategies would you recommend for businesses looking to venture into influencer marketing for the first time? How do they begin to identify suitable influencers and establish effective collaborations?

So, yeah, there is a fair amount to consider when you're looking at social media marketing.

First of all, you just wanna ensure you know what your goals are. Where what do you wanna get out of it? Who is it exactly you want to be speaking to? And who is it you want to be selling your brands for you as well? A big part of that is just looking at your product and looking at the demographic that that's going to resonate with. So we have all independent brands in South London, so I wanna, first of all, make sure that they're local and then it is a market that is going to be relevant to me and my product.

Yeah. What is it that you're you're offering to your guests? Is it a unique experience? Going back to karaoke earlier, is it, a specific product?

Putting butter on things, something that, you know, something that that is gonna work for both of you. And, yeah, just going back to the point that you were touching on earlier with, building relationships with the collaborators and ensuring that you can touch back with those collaborators and, you know, bring them back in for a specific product. If they've had a great time, then you can also say, oh, come back and try this special cocktail we're doing or something like that. That way you can build a relationship and even their following will understand that they're coming back again and again and that's that's somewhere that you want to be doing as well.

There are a few tools that you can use as well. So, CreatorIQ is one that we use, but perhaps that's actually something that you could maybe touch better on with Invited.

Yeah. Of course. So, I would say, yeah, with a brand kind of wanting to start out in influence marketing, Invited is a great great place to start. I'd say, if you just have no idea about whether whether you have no idea about, kind of the whole influence marketing world or if you actually have worked with influencers before, at InvITA, we've a really vetted community of creators, minimum of ten thousand followers all the way up into the millions, whereby brands can really be in control of who they wanna work with and filtering down into different niches and things like that to really make sure that they align with brand, the brand's values, and their criteria, in terms of the content that they're looking for.

Yeah. And I would say that, it's actually quite nice that brands, can kind of put offers out and creators can come forward and say that they're interested in working with them. So it's kind of the other way around rather than kind of looking through Instagram and trying to find influencers who just, again, might just have no kind of interest in working with you but might just do it either for the payment or the or the free food whereas, this is kind of the other way around, which I say is a Yeah. It's an easy easy option.

Well, and it takes away that aforementioned admin issue as well Yeah.

Exactly.

By by going to the source. That's great. It's kind of like, like the lead feed of the influencer world, which is great. So, thank you both for advice on how to get started.

Let's shift our focus to crisis management.

We've all heard the phrase, bad publicity is still publicity, but, of course, you don't wanna go out and sabotage yourself. So it's really important to important to learn how to handle criticism and manage negative publicity towards your business. So whether that's a bad review, an event gone wrong, won't go experience, a negative experience can travel just as quickly through word-of-mouth, as a good recommendation, I would argue maybe, you know, quicker.

Ellie, what would you suggest for businesses trying to navigate crisis management? How should they respond to, to it spiraling out of control, or to keep it from spiraling out of control?

Yeah. So I mean, as you say, I mean, people can argue though all press is good press, but not necessarily. You don't want your brand being recognized against something that is negative and negative feedback. You just wanna cut it off as soon as you can.

You wanna be as reactive as possible. Fifty three percent of people will want an answer within a week, and forty five percent of people will share negative reviews with other people. You know, if I go to a restaurant and have a bad experience, I will tell fifteen people. If I have a good experience, I'll tell one person.

So, you know, making sure that that word-of-mouth isn't travelling.

You just have to be honest with the guests, you know, just talk to them face to face, see what you can do just to recoup the situation. If anything is going on social media, just, you know, get it down taken down as soon as you can, basically.

Yeah. So fifty three percent expect a response within the first week. I kind of take that as like, I I come from the venue side as well, and it it just feels like the other forty seven percent want a response immediately, like Yeah. Within twenty four hours.

And then you're absolutely right just about how fast bad news travels, or bad reviews travel in this case. I know I'm guilty of, you know, you're scrolling through, and okay, you had a nice meal, you had a nice meal. Oh, you had a bad meal. Let's Yeah.

Let's focus on this for a while. Let's see the follow-up real, follow-up story, whatever the case may be. So, yeah. Great point.

Is there any other ways that businesses can grow their brand awareness and get in front of new audiences?

Yeah. Absolutely. So we work really close parties such as Headbox.

The lead feed in itself, we're able to put ourselves in front of guests and brands with people that you wouldn't normally be able to have the interaction with. So I pulled some statistics. So last year, twenty twenty three, we had four hundred and seventy connections on the lead fee, which is great. I mean, that's that's four hundred and seventy people that we wouldn't have initially been able to speak to about those things. So yeah. Absolutely.

We love it.

We've been with you guys for about three years.

Yeah. Yeah. So the four hundred and seventy, what time frame was that in?

So that was all of last year. So April twenty twenty three.

So more than one a day. That's great.

That's good, man. Awesome. Yeah. Great. So, Asty, any final advice you would like to give to someone, you know, to a business or brand starting their influencer journey, who might be watching this webinar right now?

I would say that, brands really need to kind of what deliverables to expect from influencers.

They really can't expect, you know, three reels, two TikToks, like, a whole bunch of stories as well, just for gifted collaboration because a lot of these influencers do it as a full time job. It does take a lot of time to edit, and create, you know, the great content that they share, which is obviously why they've gained a following. So I would say that if you do want to go down that route, and want, you know, really high kind of a high level of deliverable, then, then you would need to go into the paid collaborations, but, I would say that if you kind of believe in your product and the experience that you're offering, then that is enough, for an influencer to go with no kind of absolute guaranteed deliverables, but then you're probably likely to get, you know, great, exposure and content if the influencer enjoys their experience.

So I would just say, like, understanding, how influencers work because it's not just, you know, a kind of a throwaway thing. A lot of them do kind of put a lot of effort and, time into it. So they do charge, maybe quite a lot for their for their reels and, content.

Yeah. Absolutely.

I mean, it's the same, you know, like hiring a photographer and then being like, where are my photos the next day? It's kinda like, nope.

This this is something that takes time, and have patience with them because they are doing it professionally, and you know, there's a process to that. Also, you know, maybe do it seven times going back to the rule of seven, have, you know, seven different influencers come down over over a period of time. Anyway, that takes us to the end of the session.

Thank you to our lovely guests, Eli and Asti, for joining me today.

I hope all of you watching at home have enjoyed, this session and found it as insightful as I have.

We will share the recording the webinar with you this afternoon, so you can always watch back, share with your colleagues, whatever you want. We look forward to seeing you next month, for the next webinar. Have a great day.

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