Lunchbox Ultimate Enterprise Catering Guide User Manual

Lunchbox Ultimate Enterprise Catering Guide

Multi-Pronged Catering Demand Generation

To scale catering revenue effectively, you’ll need a multi-pronged strategy that incorporates demand generation through various marketing channels. Whether you’re drumming up business through in-store signage or leveraging data analytics to personalize your outreach, technology will be your enabler. Let’s dig deeper into this symbiosis of marketing and technology.

On and Off-Premises Marketing

In-Store Signage

Even if your primary focus is B2B, never underestimate the power of B2C touch points. In-store signage can be an effective way to inform walk-in customers about your corporate catering services.

Bag Inserts & Stickers 

These small but impactful pieces of marketing can travel far and wide, landing in offices where decisionmakers can see them.

Local Outreach

From sponsoring local corporate events to partnerships with business-focused publications, establishing a local presence can drive demand effectively.

Pro Tip: Adopt a ‘phygital’ strategy, blending physical in-store marketing with digital components like QR codes that lead to your catering landing page.

Establishing an Online Presence

Catering Menu Accessible on Your Website

Your catering menu should be at the forefront of your restaurant’s website. Adding a direct catering ordering channel will maximize your revenue and profits from business catering.

Leverage Social Channels

Using your social channels to advertise catering is a great way to spread awareness. Investing in a food photographer will go a long way in getting eyes on your food and services. Consider posting 1x week.

Marketing to Catering Segments
 with Custom Landing Pages

Optimize your online catering marketing efforts for SEO with custom landing pages targeting each unique catering business segment.

Share User Generated Content

Encourage your corporate catering customers to share their experience on social and tag your business.
You’ll get new eyes on your business and re-sharing this content will build trust in potential buyers.

Leveraging Automated Email Campaigns

The right Marketing CRM should provide a way to send automated and segmented email marketing campaigns to catering patrons.

A few examples of popular and tested email campaigns by Lunchbox customers are:

• First Purchase Thank You Emaix
• Second Purchase Thank You Emaix
• Loyalty Reward Emaix
• Unspent Loyalty Reward Email
• Lapsed Customer Emaix
• Weekly Newslette
• Seasonal Menu Update Email

Winning Back Lapsed Guests

A study by Epsilon found that winning back
 lost customers can be up to 25% more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.

Building effective email campaigns targeting lost catering guests can not only help bring back valuable repeat customers, but is also a high ROI strategy to maintaining a healthy pipeline.

Using segmentation and an email provider, you can build dynamic lists that funnel guests into an email drip as they meet specified behaviors or qualifications.

Additionally, you can set up these campaigns so they are fully automated, triggering emails to send as soon as a customer meets the segment criteria.

For a detailed guide on how to set up a Lost Guest Email Campaign – click here.

Unlocking Actionable, Real-Time Customer Data

Understanding your customers better than your competitors is key.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are essential for achieving this, and they offer far more than just an organized list of names and contact details. With access to actionable, real-time data, enterprise organizations can scale catering sales growth with timely and relevant messaging, as well as have the means to understand what resonates with guests, and how to optimize order management to meet demand.

CRM is as much a lead management tool and sales activity tool as it is a customer database. First and foremost, it needs to be simple to learn and use, track sales activity. It should enable funnel and lead management, which includes deal progression, conversations, and have a communication hub that allows for emails directly from the CRM.”

William Holleman
Off Premises Growth Academy

Real-Time Data to Unlock Marketing Insights

Owning and Actioning on Data in Real-Time

In today’s digital age, the ability to analyze and react to new data in real- time can give you a significant competitive edge.

Adapt Your Offering

If you notice that a particular menu item isn’t doing well, you can offer a limited-time discount to boost its sales or pivot quickly to replace it.

Marketing Strategies

Real-time analytics can also inform your ad and email campaigns. If you notice a sudden spike in open rates to catering email campaigns but low  conversion, consider implementing an A/B test on your CTA to test maximized engagement.

Tech Solutions

Opt for CRM tools that offer real-time analytics dashboards and can integrate with other operational software, like your Point-of-Sale (POS)  system, Google Analytics, and online ordering suite for more seamless data flow.

Pro Tip: Pay attention to popular order combinations, and optimize upsells to maximize check averages.

Data Analytics

Beyond just knowing who your customers are, analytics provide deep insights into their behaviors, preferences, and even their pain points, helping optimize everything from marketing to order management operations.

Behavior Patterns

Monitor how often customers order, preferred ordering methods, and even what time of the day they place orders. This information can help you forecast demand and allocate resources effectively.

Price Sensitivity

Analyzing order history and combining it with external market data can help you understand how pricesensitive your customer base is. This can inform discount strategies and dynamic pricing models.

Preferences

Analytics can reveal what menu items are the most popular among various customer segments or during  specific seasons or events. This is crucial for menu optimization and inventory management.

Tech Solutions

Use machine learning algorithms to predict future behavior patterns and preferences. These predictive models can auto-segment your customer base for targeted marketing, among other things.

Sales Funnel Management

On top of customer data, a CRM is the key to managing a well-oiled sales funnel.

Use a CRM to Track:

• Sales Funnel Activity,
• Leads
• Outreach
• Deal Progress

Choosing the Right CRM for Your Business

Not all CRMs are created equal. The right CRM for a restaurant wanting to grow catering revenue and drive repeat  patrons must pull in a holistic view on the customer and provide actionable, segmental data to tailor messaging and provide a full understanding of guest trends.

Automated Email Marketing

A good CRM should help automate repetitive tasks.
Automated email marketing can help you nurture leads without manual intervention, essential to large-scale catering operations.

Customer Segmentation

Advanced CRMs allow you to segment customers  based not just on demographics but also on
behavior and engagement, enabling much more targeted marketing.

Detailed Analytics

Opt for a CRM that provides detailed analytics features, including customer lifetime value calculations, churn rates, and the success rate of your various marketing channels.

Scalability

Your CRM should grow with you. Ensure that the CRM you choose is scalable both in terms of features, pricing, and integrations.

Tech Consideration

Look for API integrations when choosing a CRM. The ability to integrate your CRM with your existing tech stack is invaluable, as it allows for seamless data transfer and real-time analytics across platforms.

In summary, CRM tools are more than just customer databases; they are sophisticated platforms that can arm you with the insights and automation capabilities to significantly scale your corporate catering business. Make sure to choose a CRM that fits your business model, can scale with you, and offers the analytics and real-time data capabilities you need to stay competitive.

Make Catering Work for You.

With Lunchbox Catering, order management is simple and efficient.

Learn more at

https://lunchbox.io/catering

References

• Catering Online Ordering System: Offer Restaurant Catering With Lunchbox
• Restaurant Guide: Email Marketing to Win Back Lost Guests
• E-Book: The Ultimate Enterprise Guide to Growing B2B Catering Sales

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