If you’re a New Zealand business owner chances are you’ve come across many articles instructing you to improve your business website, optimise your website for search engines and jump onto social media to promote your business. But how many times do you see articles analysing real NZ businesses and practical steps you can take to make it happen. Hence we’ve written a very special article involving two well-known Auckland bars to see how effective they have made use of the web to promote their business by measuring them against 7 basic online principles that all businesses should have. While you’re reading this article we challenge you to see how your NZ business performs against these measures.
Case study: Honey Bar vs Sales St Bar
Honey Champagne & Cocktail Bar and Sales St Bar are two of our favourite Auckland bars located in Auckland’s CBD. The following table compares each of them against a set of 7 online measures which we rate out of 5. From website design, use of social media and search engine optimisation. We tally the scores up at the end and see how effective each business has performed in promoting their business online.
Note this is an independent study done for the purposes of illustrating web marketing principles and we are not in any way associated with these companies. The information in this article is presented as of the 1st of December 2009.
|
Online measure |
Honey Bar |
Sales St Bar |
|
1. Use of Keywords and Title Bars
|
Every title on every page is the same, no headings, does not highlight venue strengths
|
Page titles for major categories but missing sub categories could be more descriptive
|
|
Rating |
1/5 |
2.5/5 |
|
2. Headings/engaging content |
Opening line “Welcome to the Honey website” generic heading. Some good text on category pages |
Prominent award heading and clear site content. Lacking summary/overview text |
|
Rating |
2.5/5 |
3/5 |
|
3. Web site design – Aesthetics, ease of navigation, layout |
Splash page indicates old web design, no dynamic content, poor reflection of a great brand and venue
|
Good clean design and nice aesthetics and navigation. Dynamic content and home page could be improved |
|
Rating |
2/5 |
3.5 |
|
4. How well the website is optimized for search engines |
Almost all basics missing no unique titles, no headings, no meta description. |
Basics present but lacking unique meta descriptions, title bars too short, home page directs to two URLs. |
|
Rating |
2/5 |
2.5/5 |
|
5. How well the website is linked from other websites |
Good links from major NZ entertainment/dining sites resulting in good ranking for several keywords (Google Page Rank 2) |
Well linked for a new business in major NZ entertainment/dining sites and events well exposed (Google Page Rank 3) |
|
Rating |
3.5/5 |
4/5 |
|
Use of rich media – Photos, Videos, Audio |
Some good photos of venue. None of guests (Seen @ Honey) empty |
Some high quality photos, photo gallery of events. Could add some video or flickr/slideshow |
|
Rating |
2.5/5 |
3.5/5 |
|
Use of Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, etc |
No Twitter/Facebook page though featured on other Facebook events/pages |
Twitter, Facebook with large audiences and good use and interaction with community |
|
Rating |
2/5 |
4.5/5 |
|
Overall Rating |
15.5/35 (44%) |
23.5/35 (67%) |
Overall comments
Honey Bar
From our analysis it is clear Honey Bar needs to improve in all facets of its online promotion. Honey Bar is a top entertainment venue with Auckland’s only rooftop bar and classy interiors yet their website does not do the venue justice. They have not optimised any of their distinguishing features for search engines which would appear in popular searches such as venue hire or Auckland events. Further the design and the navigation of their website shows its age and there is no dynamic content such as events or news to keep visitors from returning. Given it is not easy to find Honey Bar's physical location and it has no visible outdoor signage it is surprising they have not put more attention on their website. With so many great features to the bar with a little effort into their website design and building a social media community they could have a great online presence too.
Sale St Bar
Sale St Bar in contrast have cleverly used social media and the web to promote their new business and as a result have been the success story of the Auckland entertainment scene for 2009. Sale St’s website looks great with a clean design and lots of photos. Part of Sale St’s success has also been their offline creative promotions such as an infamous diamond competition, top kiwi performers and designer market. All this activity makes it easy to create great online content to share with existing and new customers to invigorate their brand and create a buzz through their Facebook and twitter communities. Of course as we have identified there’s always room for improvement particularly making fresh content (e.g. events) more prominent on their website and improving their search engine optimisation.
Summary
Although our case study has focussed on the Auckland entertainment industry the same underlying principles can be applied to any industry and location. So how does your NZ business perform? Do you have a twitter account, clean website design and keyword rich headings and title bars?
We commend those NZ businesses that continually make incremental improvements to their websites and utilise social media and we have seen the impact it has made on their business. Many businesses on ‘The Kiwi Story’ have done just that by taking full advantage of the web to promote their business such as Snug as a Bug, Scamps Eco Boutique, Breastmates, Lola & Ben, NZ Art Guild and many more.
However NZ businesses have a long way to go and sadly the majority of SME business sites we see lack the basic web design principles and search engine optimisation let alone adopting any form of social media. A quick scan of equivalent businesses in the UK shows a big gap with many sites featuring video, an integrated social graph, and clean and interactive designs. All of which can today in 2009 be added at much lower costs than in the past. We challenge all NZ business owners in the New Year and new decade to open their minds to the opportunities that web technology today can bring to improve their business and look forward to the seeing the results!
