Cumbrian Pub Food Website Startup Smashes through 300,000 Milestone in Just One Month

[Sharon]

NEWS RELEASE: Cumbrian Pub Food Website Startup Smashes through 300,000 Milestone in Just One Month



A Cumbrian couple’s unique approach to website promotion has paid dividends after they received more than 300,000 hits and thousands of visits in their first month of business.



Jon Green and Sharon Wood of enjoyyourmeal.co.uk have clocked up more than 2,500 miles driving through the Lake District in an eye-catching Robin Hood Kit Car – all in the name of spreading the word about their new pub food website. The visits have included more than 50 pubs and country fares including Ambleside Sports, Coniston Country Fair, Lunesdale Agricultural Show and Heysham Show.



More importantly, more than 30 publicans have already registered on the site to enjoy free networking benefits and help promote the best that great local pub food has to offer



Jon has been delighted with the response. He said,



“Everyone we have met and spoken to has been very supportive. With a website business it’s very tempting to hide behind your keyboard but we decided to do things a little differently and meet people face to face. We wanted to see the whites of their eyes! It’s been a hard slog but it’s proving worthwhile.



“To break 300,000 hits for a new website has exceeded our expectations. We’re ambitious and want to build the UK’s best known pub food online community. And if the response from Cumbria is anything to go by we might just be on the right track. We now need to push on and provide a service which the pub food consuming public and publicans find invaluable.”



Jon and Sharon launched the website last month after deciding to transform their passion for pub food into an exciting business opportunity. www.enjoyyourmeal.co.uk is the UK’s first website exclusively devoted to everyone who has ever enjoyed a pub meal and also the publicans who serve them. Unlike other online directory listings with telephone numbers and address details, the new website encourages a community of referrers to post opinions on their favourite pubs.



Website visitors can search the directory and choose pub food which has the best references. There’s also an online forum called ‘The Snug’ for publican and customer discussions about all the latest pub food issues.



The website has been launched in Cumbria first – with other areas in the UK to quickly follow. Publicans are encouraged to add their pubs to the site’s free listing service, and direct thousands of satisfied customers to recommend them online. And every referrer is entered into a free monthly prize draw to win £50 towards a pub meal!



More information is available at www.enjoyyourmeal.co.uk



ENDS
www.thebuzzfactory.co.uk

 

[robertt]

It could be worth checking if thats hits or unique vistors as 300,000 uniques is alot but 300,000 is meaningless :s

 

[bwglaw]

Robert it says:

they received more than 300,000 hits and thousands of visits in their first month of business

Congrats to you Sharon

Jonathan

 

[robertt]

Whoops!

Good stuff on the thousands of visitors , but why tell people 300,000 hits? Are they going to tell us the bandwidth bill as well

 

[bwglaw]

Creative marketing I think it is called...

Jonathan

 

[cjd]

I wasn't going to post this - my wife is always saying 'if you can't say something nice, say nothing at all' - but as others have brought it up, and in the spirit of continuous improvement, I'd feel I have to add a few thoughts. [Feel free to throw rocks at me too when the occasion presents itself; if we can't do it here, it were can we?]

1. This is not a press release, it's an advert and a bad one at that. Extended hyperbole, 'smahes through' 'milestone' 'just one month' is obvious puffery and has the opposite effect in me to what was presumably intended - to attract me to the site.

2. The 'hits' currency lost its value in 1997 and, worse, people now understand that it is deliberately misleading. So it has the opposite effect than that intended - it puts me off and makes me think that the rest will be just as fake.

3. o, I could go on but it all boils down to - running around and shouting loudly does not constitute good marketing. Jo Public is smarter than that and small business people are the shrewdest of the lot.

What I would have loved to hear about (in a less superlative laiden and self congratulative way) are the number of pubs there are on your site and the number of independent reviews you have of them.

After that you can tell would be advertisers and Publicans about your unique visitors number and monthly growth if you must - but until you're into the hundreds of thousands nationally - or tens of thousands by regions or county - it's not worth bragging about.

 

[robertt]

2. The 'hits' currency lost its value in 1997 and, worse, people now understand that it is deliberately misleading. So it has the opposite effect than that intended - it puts me off and makes me think that the rest will be just as fake.

Spot on

I didnt want to be so direct as I has not gone down well previously :redface:

Stating such traffic figures is a deliberate attempt to mislead people, and people are (as said above) wise to it and will have a negative effect

 

[Sharon]

Interesting comments, thanks guys!

It's been published by The Publican, The Morning Advertiser, Coca-Cola Industry News Report, our local press and two local radio stations.

Yes, it's an ad/editorial... it cost us the price of the PR guys, and we're very pleased with the coverage we had... all printed in the way it was intended... we're a start-up company looking for exposure, and we're getting it... people are loving it... unique IP figures have increased dramatically in the last week. The hits count got us in there, and cjd, we've had over 130 independent recommendations in the first six weeks... not bad for a start-up with £100 a month budget! You're welcome to submit one yourself to help add to that figure! ;o) 'After that you can tell would be advertisers and Publicans about your unique visitors number' I agree... we're not trying to get would-be advertisers or paying publicans on board at the moment, we're trying to get Joe Public to write recommendations. It would be fruitless trying to entice paying peeps whilst unique IP numbers are so low!

 

[robertt]

It would be fruitless trying to entice paying peeps whilst unique IP numbers are so low!

I thought it was abit of an innocent mistake / [SIZE=-1]naive [/SIZE], but reading that post makes it seems like it was an intentional blag - ie. you know that the 300,000 hits are meaningless but still choose to focus on it.

Whats for the next press release? Perhaps split the time the site has been live into milliseconds will give an Very Impressive Large Figure :|

All just my humble opinion etc - but seeing stuff like this circulate does nothing to enhance a company and doesnt help shift the perception of some that the internet is a bamboozlers paradise due to the lingo.

 

[robertt]

__________________
Professional Waffler

Didnt spot that - quite apt the definitions for waffer


- [SIZE=-1]pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness; "Authorities hesitate to quote exact figures"
- [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]someone who speaks or writes in a vague and evasive manner
- [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]1. nonsense; foolish, empty talk: eg, His speech was a lot of waffle. 2. indulge in aimless, vague and lengthy talk or writing.


[/SIZE]

 

[Sharon]

Lovely, supportive forum isn't it?!

 

[DuaneJackson]

Don't take it personally Sharon - they're all lovely really.

I agree that using 'hits' is deliberatly misleading, but I don't agree it's lost its currency yet. I hear it used all the time on the news and joe public is none the wiser. If you were aiming at a techie market then it'd be a mistake, but you're not so it isn't.

If a little subterfuge helps a small business get publicity then I say "great" - I'm sure no animals were harmed so I'm not going to get on my high horse about it!

Great to hear you got some good coverage from it. But I'd fire the person that wrote the title!

 

[cjd]

Interesting comments, thanks guys!

It's been published by The Publican, The Morning Advertiser, Coca-Cola Industry News Report, our local press and two local radio stations.

That's great - and this is a good start too.

we've had over 130 independent recommendations in the first six weeks...

but this is most important issue

It would be fruitless trying to entice paying peeps whilst unique IP numbers are so low!

I think you're onto something really good here; god knows we need a truly reliable, honest, consumer led, free access guide to good food in pubs and the internet is the perfect medium for it.

But I think you're getting utterly sidetracked by running around in a robin hood car (?) with balloons. That sort of stuff you hire a PR company for when you've got something to promote (if you really must).

I don't think you've done the leg work yet - I want to see every pub in Cumbria on your site with addresses phone numbers, pictures, maps info about whether they welcome children and whatever other information you can scrounge from whatever source. Dull but necessary.

Then the public will start populating your site for you and, if you build it right, it will snowball without the razzamatazz.

Trust me, the radio stuff was gone as soon as it went out and the local papers are in the guinnea pig hutch now. Those media won't run you again until you've got a new angle to sell them. Meanwhile your site is still there needing content ... go fill it!

PS I really do want you to make this work

PPS

Lovely, supportive forum isn't it?!

Yes it is. But don't expect support from a business site to be the same as support from your mum!

 

[Sharon]

Ok, tears have nearly stopped flowing...

Thanks Duane...

We're working on that bit cjd, I'm pretty sure it was you who suggested it a while back... we're still driving round to the pubs in the car though, gathering this info!!

 

[Sharon]

Over and out!

 

[mtw]

I know this thread is dated, but I've just seen it for the first time and wanted to add something that others might find informative.

I would say this release did little wrong in terms of achieving its objective. Getting in The Publican and the Morning Advertiser is perfect for them.

To get users on the site they needed profile. One way to get profile is (obviously) to get published. I can tell you now that little gets the attention of hard-pressed reporters and editors than facts and figures.

I personally wouldn't have quoted 'hits' over pages, but from what Sharon says it did the trick in this case. Quite often PR is fluff I'm afraid, but if you can get that fluff used well you're a good PR!

It doesn't really matter what we think is the real important issue about their business if the release got new users to the site and the site didn't then disappoint them.

If there are other/better angles to explore, that's all useful for the next publicity bash...

Criticising them for running around in the car seems a little off. It's pro-active and sounds like it might have made a decent picture - and a published picture story is worth loads.

Just my thoughts.

Mark

 

[Richard Glynn]

Wow. The world's full of opinions isn't it. Although I didn't expect such heated ones from a humble news release.

CJD - have you had a bad experience with a PR agency by any chance?!

Glad to hear the guys at Enjoy Your Meal are having a good experience. They're currently enjoying in excess of a ten-fold return on fees in terms of the value of the coverage we've achieved. I am also reliably informed that interest from landlords and pub food enthusiasts has increased as a consequence - which is surely the name of the game?

I'm a little bewildered by the concern over the use of the 'hits' statistic. A PR professional is paid to come up with news. Even where some people believe there may be none. We've simply used a classic PR device to generate interest. And it has worked wonderfully. The positive media coverage justifies the means.

We have a small selection of numerous positive stories appearing in Enjoy Your Meal's key local and trade press in addition to radio news items. Enjoy:

http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co...al_couple_set_up_pub_grub_rating_web_siet.php

http://www.cumberland-news.co.uk/business/viewarticle.aspx?id=405016

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?articleid=18448&categoryid=38

http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?sectioncode=7&storycode=52494

http://www.enterprisequest.com/news/2006/08/pick_of_the_pubs.html

I think Mark's got the right end of the stick.

Oh, and what's the problem with the Robin Car? The Robin Car is unique - so it makes news - and it makes a brilliant picture too:

http://www.thebuzzfactory.co.uk/html/photography_ex2.html

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

Looks to me like you're doing a fine job Richard.

OK, I dislike the refrence to hits too but has already been said it probably impresses the target audience.

It's a good looking site run by people who appear to have a passion. Well done, I'd like to see it go national.

 

[MattyB]

I'd maybe get some alt tag on your image/menu buttons.

For two reasons - firstly for seo purposes, google bot reads the alt tags of graphic links and gives weight to those keywords.

Secondly, for accessibility reasons.

For for putting accessibility, but google and with traffic comes first.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

The site looks nice, I hope it a success.

 

[peterjhale]

This was from Oct 2006 ?

 

[cjd]

CJD - have you had a bad experience with a PR agency by any chance?!

Yes several and also several good ones - more good than bad and only one bad one that mattered much.

The thread is two years old and at the time written there was no content on the site - my point was that driving traffic to an empty site using PR or any other marketing activity was at best a waste of time and money.

At the stage of development they were at, their limited resources needed to be spent populating the site not promoting it. No point sending diners to a closed restaurant.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

This was from Oct 2006 ?

yes, I missed that