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It’s Awards season! Move over BRITs, we’re talking about award entries for business.

If you’ve ever toyed with entering awards, but haven’t quite got yourself motivated, here’s a reminder of why it’s important:

• It raises your brand profile for both potential clients and future employees
• It’s a great way of showcasing your credentials and experience
• It creates a positive talking point and shows your credibility within the sector

So when you’re ready to get going, check out our tips to get your award-winning work noticed by all the right people.

Be prepared ahead of the deadline:

• At least 2 weeks before, go through the entry process and understand what needs to be pulled together. Check if it’s online and in what formats you need to provide your entry
• Assume it will take longer. Read, and re-read the entry form – give yourself time to amend

Present your entry form professionally

• Some awards require unbranded entries, but even so, entry evidence should still be presented professionally with the overall goal to wow the judges
• Consider working with a designer or copywriter to help make your story stand out

Showcase your golden nuggets

• Big numbers will shine out – find them and put them upfront so judges want to find out more
• Keep it simple – if your story is too complex, judges will get bored, so simplify your story

Tell an engaging story

• Judges want to hear a little bit of background, understand the challenge, hear how you resolved it and see amazing results
• Where possible, bring to life results with client or customer testimonials

Keep on entering

• If you don’t get shortlisted or nominated the first time, don’t be disheartened
• Like applying for jobs, you’ll get better at telling your story. The more you enter, the more the chance of winning!

It’s been an incredibly tough year for many businesses, especially those in the hospitality sector. So now, as we emerge from (hopefully the last) lockdown, what can you do to make the most of the predicted staycation boom? Discover six things you can do now to get ready for business.

The hospitality sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. Many restaurants, hotels and sporting venues across the UK have stood empty since last December. And employment figures throughout the pandemic have continually shown it to be one of the worst-hit sectors. As of November 2020 — before the latest lockdown — 600,000 hospitality jobs were furloughed and thousands of businesses were forced to shut.

So everyone – businesses and customers alike – are excited about the arrival of May 17th. We’ve started to see some football matches taking place and the crowds really went wild to be back together.

We conducted some research on people aged 20-50, and discovered that the majority of people simply can’t wait to book holidays, be inside their favourite restaurants and just get on with life. However, there is still some nervousness and trepidation.

How do you feel about hospitality being back from May 17th?

According to www.visitbritain.co.uk the 2021 forecast is for a recovery to £61.7bn in domestic tourism spending in 2021 (up 79% compared to 2020). They are also forecasting £18.0bn in domestic overnight tourism spending (82% growth on 2020).

New research has found that 83% of British travellers would prefer a UK staycation than travel abroad this year. The vast majority (68%) want to stay in Britain this due to fears of being stranded abroad, medical issues and quarantine issues on return. And this trend is set to continue into next year, bringing a boost to the country’s hospitality sector.

So as we head into half term and the summer holidays, the UK hospitality market will be getting ready for a huge boom.

How are brands talking about opening up?

Creating the right buzz about being open and ready for business in order to generate energy and excitement needs to be balanced with a sense of precaution and realism around the situation.

We love what these guys have been doing – the tone feels right, full of energy and empathy.

However, we think that some brands have become overly functional, removing the emotion behind the ‘experience’ and have become all about rules and regulation. In terms of customer engagement, they no longer create excitement.

Six things you can start doing now to be ready for business

So what can you do to be ready for the spring/summer staycation boom? How can you be on top of things? Here are six things we recommend doing now.

1) Invest in your brand

Your brand is represented by every single touch point – from your booking system, to your menu, to the way your staff present themselves on the ‘shop floor’. So ensure you invest in this. With brand loyalty becoming harder to attain, understanding your brand and being able to communicate this to your customers becomes a priority.

2) Use imagery

Create emotion through imagery. You need to create an all singing, all dancing reflection of what you offer: the best food, service and your personality. Consider using video to showcase your venue and staff, and what there is on offer. Make what you look like on camera part of your planning.

3) Leverage your social media channels with rich content

Alongside using your fab photography, ensure that you use your social media channels to really drive engagement. Consider behind the scenes footage, staff profiles, instagram lives, competitions, polls – the list is endless but your social media is a visual representation of who you are ( and the perception that you want to create). As you open, create your own unique campaign and get customers to upload and share, to continue the great news that you are open again and what your unique offering is.

4) Be ahead of the technology

Digital ordering technology has reshaped the customer journey when it comes to ordering food. Digital ordering is here to stay and investing in your own tech infrastructure is critical. Make sure you are on top of it, and also look into how you can collect data and create or grow your email base.

5) Reinforce your safety procedures

We aren’t out of the woods yet and customers will still be wary. Make sure you are clearly communicating the dos and the don’ts, but please don’t become a record of information without the fun – we can’t wait to be back on holiday, so make us feel excited!

6) Review your Google My Business

Make sure your Google My Business page is optimised and remind customers to leave reviews when they’ve visited you. And don’t forget to monitor the comments and reply.

It’s been a tough year for many businesses. It doesn’t matter whether you are a large multinational, a high street name or a small, local business; virtually everyone has been impacted by the pandemic.

But it’s not all been bad news – and there are good reasons to be cheerful about the rest of 2021.

OnBrand have been gathering inspiring survival stories of local businesses from the past year that have all demonstrated resilience and used both strategic and opportunist marketing to their advantage.

The home and garden sector has thrived during Covid. Hot tub sales in particular have seen a rise by 1,000% and suppliers have struggled to keep up with demand. Daniel Goodchild, owner of Wicked Tubs always had a multi channel marketing approach, but his focus around outstanding customer service has created positive word of mouth around his particular offering which has proven to be a winning combination.

Other businesses have cleverly adapted, listening to what their customers wanted during lockdown and tweaking their business model to keep trading.

Adam Nathan Catering was originally an event catering business. But after events were cancelled across the board, Adam turned his attention back to the kitchen to develop a cost-effective home delivery service to his already loyal catering client base.

To support Adam’s new direction, the OnBrand social media team created ownable and disruptive content to drive engagement and reach, a social media strategy to grow his customer base beyond existing customers, and launched a paid advertising campaign.

The results already speak for themselves: a return on advertising investment of £15 revenue for every £1 spent with new orders, new customers, increased turnover and a massive increased reach and audience.

Giles Fry, owner of Snug Bar told us about how he has been using customer insight to adapt to what his clients need. Through listening to customers via their social media feedback channels as well as regular team meetings, he realised that bar food has become a huge consideration. As part of their planning for opening from end April, they have created regional and bespoke cocktail and food solutions, all managed via QR codes.

Ruffwood Pizza is another example of a business cleverly adapting to the ‘new normal’. He saw all of his corporate and wedding bookings disappear, so he adapted to create ‘pizza take away in the street’. Through the positive impact of word of mouth marketing and existing brand loyalty, the business was adapted with great success.

These are just a few of the heartening business stories we’ve been part of during the past year. And there’s more good news on the way.

Economists predict up to 50% footfall across the entire retail sector from April 2021 and UK brands such as Next, are reinvesting almost £30m into digital marketing. 2021 also sees ad spend set to be 16.6% higher than 2020 across the board, meaning market confidence is there.

There are plenty of opportunities up for the taking as we emerge from lockdown this year, and we’d love to help you make the most of them. The five keys to thriving in a rapidly changing market are:

• Brand loyalty and reputation is still a key driver for small businesses
• Find ways to listen to and stay engaged with your customers
• Think creatively, competition is harder now than ever
• Make digital marketing work harder for you
• Put innovation at the heart of everything you do

And we can help you with all of them. So please get in touch to find out how we can help you join the ranks of the Covid success stories.