Web Design that Brings Results – Interview with Phelan Riessen

Restaurant Web Design by NonStop Marketing

Phelan Riessen is the driving force behind the San Diego-based NonStop Marketing design and development company. Having started in the web design industry when such an industry hardly even existed, he worked with more than 1,000 companies, among which a substantial number of restaurant businesses.

According to Phelan Riessen, a restaurant website needs to play the role of a sales agent that works 24 hours a day in building your customer base. It needs to tell your story, support your brand, be finely tuned to attract the attention of search engines, be a clever marketing tool, and assist you in successfully operating your business when it comes to reservations, food delivery and events.

Well-known in the San Diego area as a web design and marketing professional that brings results, Phelan Riessen recently answered a few of our questions.

Restaurant Web Design by NonStop Marketing

Tell us about your business. When and how did you start?

My first website was built in 1996, at a time when there were only 250,000 websites. Today, there are 1.7 billion. So, you can say I was building websites before most people even knew what the Internet was. I formally started my web design business in 2008, after building a website for my T-shirt printing company at the time, as well as websites for other customers.

What type of projects do you typically do?

Client projects are very diverse, ranging from creating an online presence for non-profit organizations to business websites for e-commerce and service providers. Restaurant businesses are a big part of our client base. A website is not only a part of their branding strategy, but is essential in operating a restaurant efficiently.

Coffee Shop Web Design by NonStop Marketing

Who is your ideal client?

I enjoy working with restaurant owners because these are always fun projects. However, too often restaurant owners don’t understand the value of having a website and how essential a website is today in creating and maintaining a customer base.

Partnering with inventors who over-engineer and complicate websites much too often is another very rewarding type of project. I love helping them clean up their message and design so that their customers understand what they are buying.

What is your most successful project and why?

My most successful project is the website I created for my previous T-shirt company. It shows what happens when you put passion into building a website, and when you have creative license to try new things. When you hit this kind of home runs, it’s a lot of fun. Then Google looks your way, traffic increases, leads and orders come through, and sometimes you can’t even keep up with them.

What do you consider your edge?

We are known for our friendly service and for always being available. We have a team that works at all hours, thus the name NonStop Marketing.

Ice-cream Store Web Design by NonStop Marketing

What do you think are some marketing areas that business owners are underutilizing during today’s pandemic crisis?

First of all, every business should already be online: If they are not, they’re missing the boat. Second, business owners should make it easy for customers to buy online and should offer to deliver their products and services as touch-free as possible. Today, this is more than ever true for restaurants and other businesses in the food-service industry that want to survive.

Third, they need to build a customer list, so that they can email or send SMS messages to their clients and keep them coming back for more. Retargeting visitors with ads that follow them around the Internet until they buy is another useful trick. It is used mostly by the big companies, but it can help small businesses, too.

What are two things that most business owners can do tomorrow to start getting more customers?

Building and using their customer lists should be a priority. If they aren’t using theirs yet, they should start with sending all their customers a reminder message that simply says the company is there for them. This list can also be used to create a custom audience on Facebook, in order to target similar people using ads.

Next, they should find where their target audience is hanging out online. If they are in the restaurant business, they can create an ad for a 1 to 5 mile-radius area and target these potential customers with an enticing photo of a dish a few hours before lunch or dinner. Adding a special deal for a free drink or side order with the purchase of a main meal will enhance their chances to bring customers to their door.

Restaurant Web Design by NonStop Marketing

If you are thinking to open a new business or are in the process of rebranding and remodeling your existing business, contact us to get a free consultation from Mindful Design Consulting. Click HERE to price your project design.

Also, take a look at “Branding By Interior” e-book, the only book written on this subject at this time. It brings insight on how you can turn your business into a market-dominating competitor by using human cognitive responses.