will critchlow_searchlove london 2013
TRANSCRIPT
Make your mark online:Local business edition
WILL CRITCHLOW
Today’s a great time to be a brand
We just launched our report on big brand content marketing
You get all the links
PR is easy
…or, as bad-pr.tumblr.com put it
‘Time to start buying food for Christmas’ says supermarket chain
bad-pr.tumblr.com
You rank for all kinds of thingsThis is [sheds]
And if you push the boundaries you get a gentle tap on the wrist (I don’t mean Argos)
Many updates seem to have reinforced this bias
Brands are how you sort out the cesspool
-- Eric Schmidt (as Google CEO)
Back in 2008
Led directly to the “Vince” update in February 2009
This is what you get when you search
“Google Vince”now
Caffeine enabled Panda and Penguin
“Brand update”
August 2010Allowing multiple listings from the same domain
What about Hummingbird?Human language = brands win (again)
The layout changes are just as bad
Dr. Pete has 114 slides of this stuff:http://dis.tl/beyond-blue-links
What’s the little guy to do?
Firstly, it’s not all rosy for the big guys
(that’s another presentation)
…and you have some advantages
Agility
Passion
Humans with deep expertise everywhere in the business
Sure. Sure. Whatever.
No. Really.
I want to tell you a story about this guy
When I met him in 2007 he was a restaurant consultant
“Keep an eye on these shining stars; you’ll be seeing a whole lot more of them”
and he’d just opened a steak place in Shoreditch
Will Beckett
The restaurant is Hawksmoor
He isn’t a client of Distilled(I wish! – here’s why)
Remember this result
Here’s that
other result
Here’s our
hero
Here’s that other resultHere’s our hero
Here’s our
hero
Many of these searches have embedded map / local
results
Will’s restaurant is the furthest one from the centre listed here
In fact, he’s subsequently opened more. He has two in this set
I said brands have the advantages building links
They’ve not done so badlyGuardianTimeOut
BloombergEvening Standard
ForbesCNN
TelegraphJamie Oliver
ZagatThe Metro
WiredHuffington Post
Tatler
I think they might have cheated
Quite simply the best steak you can get in
London
Zagat
http://thehawksmoor.com/archives/press/tag/steak
The best steak we have ever eaten
Esquire
http://thehawksmoor.com/archives/press/tag/steak
Five Stars – tremendous steaks
Time Out
http://thehawksmoor.com/archives/press/tag/steak
Oh. And…
some of the best cocktails to be found in the capital – Ask Men
If you don’t have great product, I’m not here to help
start-ups fail for the same reasons restaurants do:
Their food is bad
Paul Graham
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201309/issie-lapowsky/how-paul-graham-became-successful.html
…and yes, Hawksmoor may not be particularly “small”
or “local” any more
valued at £35mThe best article I’ve found: http://dis.tl/hawksmoor-sale
…but they were
So what’s worked for them?
Apart from this…
…and this?
Nothing about restaurants is replicable online
-- Will Beckett, Hawksmoor
Take the online offlineand vice versa
They have a book
They invite bloggers for steakIn fact, they started in 2009
Make it personal
Brand monitoring is HUGE
Will runs the Twitter account
No need for fancy tools
Of course these tools have their place, but small businesses manage without
Except in the core business
OpenTable lets them treat regulars and VIPs appropriately across multiple locations
Unsurprisingly they win
plaudits for their service
offline as wellhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/443d5068-cc34-11e1-839a-00144feabdc0.html
Expect early results if something is going to work
Most posts look like this
“431 people like this”
Photography is hugeMarketing team is now 4-strong – 1 is a photographer
Some Twitter use is similar to FB
More often it’s about 1-1 service
And conversely, relatively little engagement when it’s
not going to work
They thought Instagram would work like Facebook for photos
Apparently they saw little engagement
They have dabbled with Pinterest
They’ve tried a few things on YouTube
The Julep – 397 views
The most successful was also the cheapest
Time lapse of the opening of Air Street – 4,815 views
They have a high bar for spending money
Every £ is compared to hiring someone who can
“go to every local business and invite them in”
I have no particular reason to believe that they do this on butcher’s bikes, nor wearing cravats
We spend about £500 / month on Google and
£500 / month on Facebook
-- Hawksmoor
For this reason, evergreen works
Where do the best steaks in London come from?
Is it only Hawksmoor that can do this?
Nope. BrewDog have done a great job
They have, um, a unique sense of humour
60k views on YouTube and another 165k views on Vimeo
Fastest Growing Company in Scotland and … the
fastest growing food and drink company in the UK
-- James from BrewDog
2012 achievements
We projected ourselves naked onto the houses of
parliament
-- James from BrewDog
Real 2012 achievements
OK.Just steak and beer then?
Let’s look at Lush
She also maxed all her credit cards so she could buy paints and varnishes
to revamp the shopFrom “Cosmetics to Go” – the story of Lush
There’s a book
All kinds of visual content works
Instagram – 200k followers
All feeding into Facebook
They’ve also made video work
Just B2C?
And Server DensityFull disclosure: we’re investors
Let’s end with some tips
Find a way to invest in photography
Video helps you “scale humans”[Thanks to Chris @wistia for the example – see more here]
FiveSecondTest / FeedbackArmy
While traffic is low, use others’ networks for feedback
Give access to people(Including founders)
Qualaroo, Olark
You must have at least one ofTIME and MONEY
The founders of ponykit.co.uk fold gift vouchers into origami horses
Feed scarcity
See this on Facebook
Delight your existing customers
Build flywheels
I still really like Launchrock
To wrap up
Take the online offlineand vice versa
Make it personal
Focus on things that work immediately
Keep your high bar for spending money
Aim high
IngredientsHawksmoor
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Q3gJeCPp7Hs/TRCRCQfc3FI/AAAAAAAAApQ/9sf9djAqLgA/s1600/hawksmoor+outside.JPGhttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TODza-6pmvg/UVd8v8tk1zI/AAAAAAAAABY/PhSFKQUwPac/s1600/The+Internship+Intl+Poster.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kessop/3987243989/http://www.flickr.com/photos/texaseagle/9621931347/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/singapore2010/4916726882/http://www.flickr.com/photos/zense/1439805907/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparker/4754031315/http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcusjb/4507576159/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeegeek/3198844118/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjmartin/8869357235/
Thank you to Will Beckett for his permission to share all the juicy details