With UK pubs closing at a rate of more than 50 a week, one landlord can clearly demonstrate solid business analysis and targeted marketing leads to success. Having run a number of pubs in and around the Thames Valley, Trevor Johnson turned around an Arkells pub in Cheltenham and then set his sights on the Talbot Inn, Eynsham.

The pub had gone downhill under previous tenants, so when he took over in 2005, Mr Johnson knew he had a challenge on his hands but, as he explained, he could see the potential.

“I felt the ambience of the Talbot was already there. It's a good traditional English village inn, and I feel that if you have clean toilets, good beer and a good glass of house wine at a reasonable price, then you're a long way there.”

Mr Johnson considered the Talbot's location perfect for a thriving bed and breakfast trade, an important part of his strategy for a successful inn. But trade from regular local visitors is what delivers year-round prosperity.

The biggest challenge he faces is that people from Eynsham have to pass three or four other pubs to get to the Talbot Inn. It is about a mile from the village centre, close to the Swinford toll bridge.

By Mr Johnson's own admission the first three years were ‘pretty horrendous’ but finally the finance was in place, and all the permissions granted to improve the accommodation and upgrade the pub interior.

Arkells showed confidence by investing more than £500,000 and Mr Johnson put up the funds for the new fixtures and fittings.

The old garages were levelled, new rooms built and the car park was cleaned up. With the work complete in July 2008, Mr Johnson felt it was time to start attracting fresh custom to the pub.

Occasional visitors were Lynne Jones and Steve Darnell from local business marketing strategy company IRUN.

Mr Johnson said: “Steve and Lynne came in, enjoyed what I was doing here and we just started throwing ideas around.”

Eventually it was decided to run some analysis on the Talbot's figures. With cash tight, it was important for Mr Johnson to have confidence in the initiative.

Mr Darnell explained: “We said ‘look, we don’t know if you can afford it but let's sit down and take a look at where you are, where you need to be, and how much it would cost to get you there’.”

The results delivered surprises for both parties.

For Mr Johnson the analysis showed that just a 16 per cent increase in sales of food, drink and accommodation would deliver an extra £3,886 net profit each month, nearly £50,000 a year.

Armed with this knowledge, Mr Johnson felt more comfortable spending money developing relationships with customers to deliver that increase.

Inevitably in this day and age, a fresh and regularly updated website was part of the new initiative. But the key to the increase in local pub business was using e-mail alongside pen and paper.

To get contact details the Talbot ran monthly prize draws for people who put their name and e-mail address into a container, using either a form on the counter, or business cards.

This gave Mr Johnson an increasing band of people he could inform, by e-mail, of events and special offers at the pub.

“At the start of this I had virtually no way of keeping people in touch with what's happening here. Now I have nearly 600 people who are happy to receive my monthly e-mail,” said Mr Johnson.

“If you compare the best three months I had before we started with the last three months, I've doubled my trade.”

The benefit on the accommodation side is that occupancy rates are up and, as more bookings come direct through the website, commission paid to agencies is lower.

The redesigned website means special benefits for guests, such as walking permits for Whytham Woods, are right there on the first page of the website for prospective customers to see.

The surprise for Mr Johnson's partners was that helping the Talbot Inn has led to a new business initiative.

Using the Talbot as a guinea pig, IRUN now has a wealth of knowledge about the hospitality trade which it has wrapped up in a new package called The Marketing System.

Using this system the Talbot's success has already been repeated with other establishments, including a group of six budget hotels.

Mr Johnson is now working with IRUN as a consultant to develop and promote this new initiative, but if you are in the market for fresh home-cooked food, you will still find him behind the bar of the Talbot Inn.