Venue Goals: 8 Goals Every Venue Should Have
Every successful hospitality venue needs decent venue goals to aim towards.
To be a hit these goals need to be SMART. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.
Who doesn’t want their venue to be an absolute hit among the masses?
You want people to choose your venue, you want them to keep coming back and most importantly, you want your venue always buzzing with activity!
Most venue owners think – is it really possible to have a venue that’s super popular all the time?
The answer is a big yes!
As a venue owner, you face a lot of challenges – no day is alike, and you have something new to deal with every single minute.
But like every other business, budget constraints or increasing competition is a threat to venue businesses too.
The probability of the goals and objectives of your business getting washed away by these external factors is high, which is why it is always handy to have a list of goals.
This list of goals (both long and short term) would help you as a business owner to always keep your business and its objectives on track.
If you’re wondering what these goals are all about, simply sit back and read ahead, because we’ll be introducing you to some of the essential venue goals you need to create for a flourishing business.
Let’s get started and explore the 8 venues goals every venue should have:
1. Create a brand name that’s recognisable
2. Have a robust advertising model
3. Build an online presence
4. Go eco-friendly
5. Have an amazing website that converts
6. Get creative with the décor
7. Ask for feedback from customers and employees
8. Monitor your growth
1. Create a brand name that’s recognisable
A brand name isn’t all about just the font and color size – it’s more about the overall vibe of your business!
Marketing your venues and catapulting it to one of the most popular spaces in town is important – and effective branding can help you get there faster.
Why did you start out?
What was the purpose of this venue when you began with this business?
What are the objectives you decided to bring to life with this venue business?
These are some questions you need to ask yourself.
The answer to these questions is almost always the same – to provide quality services to your customers and to create a brand that’s the absolute best.
These are the very aspects you need to put into the branding of your venue.
Create a logo that’s relatable and impactful – one look at it and people should recognise what it stands for.
Pick the perfect color scheme for your logo and tagline – it should be in sync with the overall theme of your venue.
Replicate the vibe you wish to create in the interiors of your venue.
Apart from external appearances, you also need to work on things that actually add value to your brand – like quality service, a trained staff, clean interiors, and many other little things that count.
2. Have a robust advertising model
One of the main venue goals is to have a robust advertising model that a venue can follow that yields results every day of the week.
The main goal should be to have this proven model with results to back it up.
Word of mouth publicity is great, but it’s a slow process.
To improve your presence in the market, you also need to have an effective marketing strategy.
Setting aside a budget for advertisement would help boost the visibility of your venue business over time.
Merely handing over the marketing to an external agency isn’t going to help you fetch desired results.
Instead, as a business owner, you need to be invested in the curation of the marketing plan from day one.
It’s your business after all, and no one knows it better than you do.
Update yourself with modern marketing tactics so that you stay in the game always.
You cannot use outdated techniques and expect amazing results – instead, pick marketing tricks that would instantly appeal to your target crowd.
Keep the goals of your bar in mind as you chart out an elaborate marketing strategy.
You may have to rework the strategy based on the initial results you achieve, but once you get the hang of it, there’s no turning back!
You can use different platforms to bring your advertisement plan to life and let the world know why your brand is the best!
3. Build an online presence
Another goal is to have a strong online presence, knowing fore well that it’s so important to be successful in the hospitality industry.
These days, almost everyone has a smartphone loaded with a minimum of two social media apps.
That’s an amazing marketing tool right there!
There’s no other means as effective as social media, as it helps you reach and connect to your customers directly.
As you explore the world of social media to market your venue, do understand that every social media platform comes with different requirements.
You cannot implement the same strategy across all social media platforms, as it simply won’t work!
So how do we go about it?
First, learn the dynamics of different social media platforms, what works best for them and how you can optimize these platforms for your business.
Once you have a fair idea, you can then work on creating a social media strategy that blends the features and tools of social media with the aims and objectives of your business.
A platform like Instagram thrives on stunning images and witty, crisp captions, whereas Facebook allows you to be more elaborate.
Twitter on the other hand expects users to convey their content in a concise, yet effective manner.
Learning what works for every social media platform can help you optimize them to boost the reach and visibility of your business.
4. Go eco-friendly
We live in a fast-paced world and it’s a known fact that businesses don’t really care about ethics, thanks to the cutthroat competition.
But as a venue business, you can always choose to do things differently.
A lot of people are now understanding how our actions impact the environment and are on the lookout for spaces that are more environmentally conscious.
You can blend environment-friendly policies with the existing culture of your business.
This would not only help you do your bit towards the planet but also give you a unique selling point for your business.
Bringing in the change may seem a bit tough initially, but once you incorporate environment-friendly practices in your business, you will notice the positive impact your business has.
A little initial investment to incorporate eco-friendly policies in your business can fetch you amazing returns in the long run.
So, if you’ve been considering this for a while, it’s time you start working on it!
5. Have an amazing website that converts
Websites are an integral part of any business, especially in the world we now live in.
Websites are your online identity and creating an impressive one is important.
The effectiveness of your digital marketing strategies depends on how well-crafted your website is.
Your website should be a reflection of who you are as a brand.
Revolve it around the objectives and ethos of your business, and don’t forget to add in some personal touches as well.
As a business owner, only you can express what your brand is in the best possible manner.
Right from the color scheme to the content that goes up on your website, you need to get all aspects right in your venue business website.
SEO is another important tool you can use to optimize your website. SEO helps boost the rankings of your website on search engines, which in turn enhances the visibility of your business.
With the right usage of SEO tools, your website will feature right at the top of the search result rankings.
In order to maintain this ranking, you need to update it regularly – with blogs, images, videos, or any other elements you think would add value to your website.
You can also seek professional assistance to curate SEO blogs for your website.
Apart from these aspects, you also need to ensure the website is user-friendly.
Customers need to be able to figure out how to navigate through your website quickly.
Most importantly, all relevant information needs to be handy on your website (location of your venue, hiring charges, and other amenities).
A structured website displays information in a systematic, organized manner.
Do ensure your website is compatible with different devices – desktops, laptops, tablets, and even smartphones.
Most businesses don’t focus on this aspect, and they end up gaining nothing even though they have an amazing website in place.
Most people browse and book venues via smartphones, hence it’s important to have a mobile-friendly website.
6. Get creative with the décor
Working on the decor of your venue is important.
People love visiting spaces that give them an amazing experience, so ensure you offer them just what they want!
After certain intervals of time, do set aside the budget to revamp the decor of your venue. This would draw in more customers and help boost your venue.
Stick to a theme and then incorporate relevant decor elements. You can choose decor themes according to the events happening around (festivals, special holidays, seasons).
You don’t really need to splurge – you can change the look of your venue with a limited budget too!
Get to know exactly what the crowd wants and what works best for them, and go all creative with the decor.
Fresh decor every now and then will also add up to the saleable points for your venue.
People love creative spaces where they can capture Instagram-worthy shots.
They’ll definitely post the pictures on social media, which will work in favor of your business!
So even though you may have to spend a little on the decor of your venue, it’s definitely worth the effort, time, and money you put in!
7. Ask for feedback from customers and employees
Feedback is a great way to understand whether the goals you have set for your business are working or not.
It’s one of the most important venue goals you’ll set as a business (to have a great feedback model).
It would also help you work on your drawbacks. If you wish to retain customers, it’s important to let them know that their feedback is valued, and you will do everything possible to work out any issues.
Incentives are a great way to get feedback. You can offer people discounts or some other perks to get honest feedback from customers.
Apart from customers, the feedback of your employees is important, too.
This group of stakeholders works hard to ensure everything is in place and your business has a smooth, seamless workflow.
It is important to make them feel valued and consider their feedback as well.
Ask them for their frank feedback, and takedown both good aspects and the areas they feel need to be worked on.
This would help you understand what goes on behind the scenes and work up a plan to get rid of all the hiccups.
Customers and employees run your business – and their perspectives and opinions matter.
They can bring to your notice aspects you would have never thought about or considered.
Most of their feedback would be a valuable addition for you – giving you ample areas to work on.
8. Monitor your growth
Now that you’ve listed out goals for your business, it is also important to regularly keep a tab on whether they are working or not.
The results of the business strategies you’ve implemented may not be visible immediately, but over time you will notice results.
With proper mechanisms, such as software and other tools, you can understand the growth of your business from a quantitative aspect as well.
With the right tracking mechanisms, you will instantly be able to figure out if the fresh policies are yielding results the way you expected them to or not.
If yes, there’s nothing like it. If not, you need to look for areas to work on and address them immediately.
Summing up
We’ve listed a couple of goals to get you started – it’s now on you to think through different goals you can set for your business.
Setting up a business is easy, but consistently performing and delivering over longer periods can get difficult.
But when you have your venue goals and corresponding strategies listed down, it’s easier to navigate through all the challenges that come your way.
