M & A Rainmaker

The Britannia Inn Halkyn is a great pub that used to be run very well by Sarah and Kelly who always gave you a warm welcome to the Britannia Inn, Halkyn. Sarah and Kelly have recently left the establishment. They refurbished everywhere but  kept the original fixtures. They used to serve traditional Home Cooked food 7 days a week and had excellent Beers, Friendly Atmosphere, fantastic food and a stunning view over The Dee Estuary from the restaurant including Disabled facilities. The Britannia Inn certainly goes back to the 17th century and possibly further back. It was, prior to the building of the A55 in the 1820s, situated on the main Chester to Holyhead mail-coach road. The Britannia’s outbuildings served as the local abattoir and publicans are often described as ‘Publican and Butcher’ although more recently the description ” Rat and Snake ” has been used. It was owned from 1807 by the Dukes of Westminster, and it was virtually rebuilt by them in the 1890s. The longest serving tenants, from 1886, were members of the Vickers family and they bought the premises in 1911 when the Westminster Estate sold its properties in Halkyn. Entertainment and Forthcoming Events: Caravan Hook ups may be Coming Soon ( April 2009 – In the field that overlooks the Dee Estury )A  Children’s adventure play ground will be available by April 2009 ( not built yet ). Entertainment – karaoke 1st Saturday of every month from 9pm. live bands on every other week party nights & theme nights will be starting soon. Quiz Night every Sunday @ 8pm Cash Prizes plus many more. Sarah & Kelly have recently left the Britannia Inn, They had completely refurbished the whole bar and restaurant.

Whilst the Britannia Inn is well established the oldest inn in the area is The Glan yr Afon Inn, Milwr, Dolphin which was built in 1559, the secondyear of Queen Elizabeth the First’s reign. The Glan yr Afon Inn has an award winning restaurant, fabulous rooms overlooking the River Dee and a really friendly bar and games room area.

Internet and Traditional Marketing specialist, Claire Windley, has been shining her light around Shropshire and the U.K.  from a hill above Lightmoor near Ironbridge.

Claire’s Internet Marketing business is known as CSL Design after her initials

http://www.shantay-emerald.co.uk/netshows.html

Claire , who has ridden horses from a young age, is organising the Netley Hall Shows and Events for 2011

http://netleyhallevents.co.uk/contact.html

These shows will take place in May, July and August 2011. These are BSJA events and the second two will be filmed by Sky Sports.

Claire has created an Internet presence for Netley Hall  using, for example,  a website, blog, Facebook and Twitter page.

Claire has been trained by U.S. Inbound Internet Marketing phenomenon, Hubspot, to help her customers get found on the Internet, convert website visitors into leads and analyze the results in a continuous closed loop process.

Claire has also been providing Traditional and Internet Marketing advice to Cisco FutureLine which is one of Cisco’s key partners for the provision of communications solutions to Small and Medium Sized businesses. Shropshire is home to many rapidly growing small and medium sized companies and these companies need to expand their markets beyond Shropshire to the rest of the world.

Claire has extensive experience with the hospitality industry having guided Smith & Williamson’s British Country Inns in their marketing strategy over the last year or so and working with a number of exclusive ” gastro pubs ” and restaurants around the U.K.

Internet Marketing should not be viewed in isolation but should be part of an overall integrated marketing strategy and for that you need someone like Claire who understands all aspects of sales and marketing.

If you are looking for a dog friendly pub near Holywell, Flintshire, North Wales then try The Glan yr Afon Inn which takes dog friendliness to new levels ! Sometimes when you go in there it looks like Crufts with some fantastic dogs around. Having said that there are a lot of cross breeds such as Cavapoos  which would not be allowed into Crufts !

On Sundays the owners will often appear with little bowls of meat offcuts for the dogs ( amounts available depending on the number of freshly cooked Sunday Dinners done that day ) and on normal days there are usually dog biscuits being handed out.

Well behaved dogs are allowed in the rooms and with there being a number of breeders around you will often see people there who have come to collect their new puppies.

There are great dog walking places nearby e.g. Halkyn Mountain or along the River Dee so this is just doggie heaven really !!

For more details see The Glan’s website

http://www.glanyrafoninn.co.uk/

Yesterday I was at my pub,  The Glan yr Afon Inn in North Wales, for the review of our sales over the Christmas and New Year period.

I was online using the BT OpenZone connection that we have in the pub when I heard the manager Ian guiding in some visitors ( if you follow your Satnav rigidly to CH8 8HE you just end up going up and down the A55 forever ! ). A couple eventually arrived with a young black labrador ( who was equally welcomed in ) and explained that they were travelling from Holyhead to London had been delayed between Holywell and Holyhead ( it looked as though there was an accident or something ) and had phoned thier son and asked him to find them a place to eat using the Internet somewhere near Holywell. He had found The Glan.

This was not a surprise as we come up on many different, relevant Internet searches eg

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=pubs+in+ch8&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=pubs+near+holywell&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=restaurants+near+holywell&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

and we do so via Google maps and various other natural listings e.g. via our website itself ( which has been SEO’d to some extent ) and pub directories and social networks.

Also we now have about 40 reviews online some of which are fantastic like this one 

The Glan Yr Afon Inn, Holywell‎  By Young couple – 11 Aug 2009 Positive: Wonderful reception when we finally arrived (not until midnight!!), friendly and helpful staff. Lovely location and peaceful. One of the best places that we have stayed. …‎ www.booking.com/hotel/gb/the-glan-yr-afon-inn.en.html?…

so in many ways we expect to be found by people searching the .net but there is still great satisfaction in doing so.

When people register to stay with us we ask then how they heard of us so we know that we get a lot of people from the Internet.

The Booking.com website is a particularly useful source of customers for us

http://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/the-glan-yr-afon-inn.en.html?aid=307415;tab=4

and we registered with this booking site after a global review of what websites came up when people tried to find eg bed and breakfast in Holywell from a foreign country like the USA.

We do use more traditional forms of marketing like advertising ( in local papers and magazines ) and we have particular success with postcards that we give away in the pub and are sent to people all over the world. We put up posters regarding events that we hold.

We also have a database of customers that we have collected over the years and we use this to send email and snailmail shots out. Here’s our latest newsletter which we send out by mail, post and have available in the pub:

http://www.glanyrafoninn.co.uk/Mailshot/Glan-xmas09.html

We also have video’s on the Internet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1YGFgQHsno

an online historical society

http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&c=5300

a blogsite

http://glanyrafoninn.wordpress.com/

a Twitter page ( with 494 followers )

http://twitter.com/GlanYrAfon

and a Facebook page ( with 152 members ) 

http://www.facebook.com/chris.windley?ref=name#/group.php?gid=25701627254&ref=ts

The historical society page, blogsite, Twitter page and Facebook page all need regularly updating with fresh news and pictures.

All of this is certainly great for sales and surely makes us one of the most connected pubs in North Wales, the North West and the U.K. !!