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If you're not already listed on Dining-OUT - read on
If you got this far then you probably are familiar with the Internet and how it is changing every facet of our lives. Internet banking led the way and today we use the Internet for everything from booking movie tickets to helping the kids with their school projects. And, whilst not everyone has the Internet yet, if you look at the profile of South Africa's internet users and the profile of the average restaurant customer, they are almost the same.
Most restaurant customers have a selection of places they frequent and are often wary about trying somewhere new. This is where Dining-OUT is changing South African eating habits.
Dining-OUT is South Africa's premier on-line restaurant guide with a unique database of restaurants and a search engine containing details of the country's top restaurants in all the major cities and towns. The popularity and usefulness of this website is clear from the more than 293,852 visitors every month. Other websites have attempted from time to time to emulate Dining-OUT’s success but none can match the quality, professionalism, size, number of visitors, restaurant detail and database search engine facilities that have made Dining-OUT an international phenomenon.
The website provides full information on all listed restaurants, including address and contact details, colour photographs, the full menu with pricing, and detailed directions with a map that can be printed out. The powerful search engine allows you to look for restaurants by criteria such as: location, food type, ambience, live entertainment, smoking section, disabled access, outside seating and many other categories. Certain restaurants on the website also feature "visual tours" which allow you to view the interior through a full 360°, to really get a feel for the restaurant.
The provision of a full menu with prices, for each restaurant, has been quoted as one of the primary reasons the public loves to use Dining-OUT. The database search facility is also the most powerful of any website in South Africa and enables diners to see only those restaurants that meet their specific criteria.
A new facility allows you to log on directly and load specials instantly, complete with photo. You can set a start date and an end date so that they are automatically unloaded when the special expires. Selecting this option creates a separate specials page for you and a button on your main page marked Specials. The Entertainment page works in the same way and allows you to list your upcoming entertainment schedule.
Go to our home page and you'll see what we mean.
When deciding on where to list your restaurant there are some important issues:
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Visitors. Last month Dining-OUT received 293,852 visitors to its website. Other sites receive as few as 12,000 visitors a month and some don’t tell you at all. You wouldn’t advertise in a magazine without knowing the circulation figures so don’t be fooled by an online restaurant guide that doesn’t show its visitor statistics.
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Hits. These are not the same as visitors. One visitor session can clock up hundreds of hits and imply popularity which may not exist. Dining-OUT stats report on visitors – real live people !
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Restaurants. Dining-OUT has over 1000 paying restaurants in its database. These restaurants include the country’s top restaurants including those located in the very best hotels. We do not list fast food outlets or list restaurants for free or without the knowledge and approval of the restaurant owner. The public will always visit the site where the selection is biggest and the data is richest which is why Dining-OUT receives more visitors than any other restaurant website.
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Partners. Dining-OUT offers the facility of “Skins”. This is a technique for supplying versions of Dining_OUT but in other company’s corporate colours and logo. Because Dining-OUT is the most professional and comprehensive Restaurant Website in South Africa, many organizations want to load versions of Dining-OUT on their own websites. This increases your visibility and brings you additional business.
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Dining-OUT Mobile. Dining-OUT was the first restaurant guide in South Africa to launch a cell phone based version of their website. It includes the full information that is on the Internet based version but has been reformatted to cater for the small screen size and limited keyboard of a cell phone. Dining-OUT Mobile also sports added features such as “click and book” which dials the restaurant so you can make bookings on the move. Most of the partners listed above have also launched or are launching the mobile version of Dining-OUT with their own corporate colours and logo.
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Partner Summary. The key point to the above is that a listing on Dining-OUT provides a free listing on all the above partner websites at no extra cost. As an Internet Strategy, Dining-OUT provides a total solution. No other internet listings on smaller, less popular restaurant guides are necessary.
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Accommodation links. Sleeping-OUT is Dining-OUT’s sister website and contains listings of over 6,900 guest houses, B&Bs, hotels, cottages and apartments. Every establishment has links to the restaurants in its vicinity (provided they are listed with Dining-OUT) sending you even more business.
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Google Earth/Maps. In conjunction with Google, Dining-OUT has ensured that your restaurant has its own satellite map that can be panned and zoomed and which shows the location of your establishment. Dining will capture your GEO coordinates for this as part of its standard service. However, Dining-OUT has gone one step further and now enables guests to see all the listed restaurants in any location on the same satellite map. By using Dining-OUT’s category filters guests can for example request to see all seafood restaurants with outside seating and live entertainment in Knysna. Immediately other restaurants are removed from the map and only those meeting this criteria are left. A click of a button will also add to the map accommodation establishments from Sleeping-OUT allowing guests to see the restaurants in the vicinity of the accommodation where they are staying.
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Search Engine Positioning. Popular search phrases such as “Cape Town Restaurants” will bring Dining-OUT at or near the top of most well known search engine results. Many other websites do not appear at all. A website that does not appear at or near the top of search engine listings such as Google will not be found by the public and your investment will be wasted. It is like buying an advert in a magazine that is not available in any of the shops.
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Restaurant Search Criteria. A true restaurant database will allow you to search using a number of facilities (outside seating, live entertainment etc) in addition to food type and location. Seeing the facilities of a restaurant only after you have opened the page is not the same as being able to search based on specific requirements. Dining-OUT allows you to only see the results that meet your specific criteria, saving time and increasing the site’s popularity with the dining public.
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Gimmicks. Be wary of internet sites that offer gimmicks in place of useful information. Whilst the odd student may like to bid for meals by auction, most diners do not. Customer comments may be ok when they are emailed directly to you but ill conceived criticism posted on a website can destroy your reputation unreasonably. Competitors posing as guests can slander your food and service. Vouchers and slips for a free coffee, a glass of wine or a discount on a meal are also not popular with up-market diners.
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Feedback. Results from any advertising are hard to measure. However, Dining-OUT can give you the number of visitors to your restaurant pages for every month you have been listed. Our visitors are nearly all genuine diners who have already made the decision to eat out and the only decision left is where to go. That’s why they use Dining-OUT.
Dining-OUT can also tell you the approximate number of telephone bookings received. In place of the telephone number on your web page there is now a button marked:
Telephone Bookings
As soon as a guest clicks to get your phone number to make a booking, the system automatically emails you advising of the booking, stating how many minutes or hours it has been since your last booking and how many page views you have had to your restaurant pages this month. You can also select to have these stats only sent monthly.
Remember that diners don’t eat alone. Each booking is normally for two, four or more guests. In January 2010 we provided restaurant owners with 26,038 table bookings. That is an average of 27 tables per restaurant for the month. With one booking usually covering your month’s subscription the ROI is 2700%. A listing with Dining-OUT is probably the best decision you will ever make for your business.
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Turnover and Profit. As a restaurant owner you know the investment in time and money that you have made into your business. The only way to recoup this investment and make the profit that is vital to your survival and growth is via the customers that come through your door. Dining-OUT has 293,852 of these customers every month, looking for a restaurant just like yours. No gimmicks, no freebies, no competitions. Our diners are looking for somewhere to eat and they want to see what your restaurant, your menu and your prices look like before they make a decision. That’s why your restaurant must be on Dining-OUT.
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Guest Book. Dining-OUT has a guest book of over 81,000 people who have registered for news and information on restaurants in South Africa. These diners are interested in local restaurants and know that the biggest database of restaurant information in the country is Dining-OUT.
Pricing (All prices quoted exclude vat.)
It should cost thousands. Magazine advertising does. PR company retainers usually do. But Dining-OUT has become the defacto standard for restaurant guides because it's effective, it's powerful and above all it's affordable.
Processing of images on computer, collection and loading of client details, scanning and loading of restaurant logo, capturing the restaurant editorial, data capturing of full menu and prices, capture and loading of GEO Coordinates to locate your restaurant on Google maps and Vehicle and Hand Held Satnav devices:
One time charge of R300.00
As above including Photograpy:
One time charge of R500.00 (only available if a Dining-OUT photographer is in your area)
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Plus
Hosting of restaurant web pages, provision of direct access website address for each restaurant, indexing and database search functions, updates to client information, menus and editorial during the life of the agreement:
Monthly charge of R350.00
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