From a publicity perspective, I am all about how things look from the outside – what the customer sees before experiencing what you have to offer. These things involve; your online branding of the website and social network profiles, advertisements you place in publications, the sign on your building to the look of the carpark and entry to your venue, the front door, the décor, table and chairs, the visual appeal of the menu right down the business card you leave in the bill folder.

Do they all match? Do they provide an insight to what it is you offer? Do they represent the essence of your product? Do they reflect the quality of your product and provide an insight to what they will taste on their plate or dink in their glass?

Your logo?Superior. Classy. Strong. Stylish. Chic. What do you want yours to say about you? Has it evolved with the times and redefined itself to represent your current brand and positioning? In the end you'll be judged by the things which people remember - and your logo is one of them.

Your literature?You're working hard to develop a business based on professionalism, quality and attention to detail. This included flyers, articles, advertisements and all promotional material.  Literature now includes content on websites and promotional material you may distribute though social networks.

Your Menu

Before customers taste what you have to offer - they need to read their options first. The menu – either printed or presented at the table, written on a board or wall within the venue, will be judged whether you like it or not.

Don’t create something so fancy or hard and expensive to regularly update. Simple and straight to the point is the key and inline with how you want the customer to view your product. Fresh, clean, crisp and updated!

Fancy and creative is great as long as it can be maintained.

Business Cards?Face it. Cards get discarded. So make the biggest impact with your business cards. Pretty and different ones stand out, however there is no use making your card super pretty or colourful if your venue is simple, classy and minimalist.

Your card should reflect this too; perhaps the point of difference could be the shape or texture – to make it stand out from the others.

What does it say?

The essentials; Venue name, personal name (manager/owner) address, phone number, email

Also include yor social network contact details too – if you have them Twitter, facebook etc. (this could prompt customers to tweet and reference you while dining in the venue)

Perhaps include a small, easy to read mud map of where you are located (if the venue is hard to find)

These things all depend on the size and space you have to play with, you also do not want to overload your card with so much info it becomes a jumbled mess.