Help me take my business to the next level

[barry.hynd]

Hi! This is my very first post with the exception of introducing myself so please be gentle!

My company Executive Lunchbox operates in Scotland. We took over the business 9 months ago and have managed to bring the business on quite a bit since. We've introduced our website at www.executivelunchbox.co.uk (Comments welcome), did some radio advertising, did some local charity work and have managed to pretty much double turnover from the previous owners.

Marketing for us needs to be local. Afterall we have geographical limits that most companies dont have. I'm struggling to develop a marketing startegy as most articles I read focus on UK wide operation etc etc.

Thoughts so far include sending a newsletter, giving free samples (the proof of the pudding is in the eating after all), reciprocal linking, direct marketing via mail shots. I need a clear vision as to what structure/strategy is best. I'm not a marketer!

[Alpha]

Sounds like a job for a Yeti.
Hopefully there should be one along very soon :D

[ajdriver]

I will test any samples you like

[elliottuk]

Hi Barry,

Just looked over your site, found it very clear and concise.

As for your marketing strategy, well Im no marketing expert but on looking over your site and finding out what services you offer, in my view, for your Corporate events and Lunchbox delivery service you could first phone business's in your area offering them free sample's, then with these send them all your details rather than just send them out. If you make contact with people first you will find they respond better.

As for your Special events and Weddings, why not try to team up with other service providers in your area to offer the full service...e.g.......Jewellers......Photographers.. ....Bridal Wear........Car Hire........even Clowns, magicians.......anyone who gets booked for special events......some of these may well have web-sites too.....and you could swap links as well.

Hope some of this helps with your marketing strategy, best of luck to you.

Ian Elliott

[adrianjohnson]

Hi Barry,

I've just checked out your web site, which is very clear and explains what you do well, but have some points to raise:

1. Change the font in the main text area. Times News Roman is the default font for everything. How about changing it to the same font as the menu on the site.

2. Change the colour of the font to black. Blue is generally used for links, especially where the background is white.

3. The main area on the home page is wider than the heading, but on other pages it's the same width.

4. Change the names of the files from numbers to words. E.g. The weddings page is 35501/index.html where it should be weddings/index.html or just weddings.html

As for marketing, there are others around here who would be better at advising than me. I think you need to put pictures of what you do on the site - have 1 picture on the home page, and then have a seperate gallery of events you've provided for. Even, have a cake made, and have your business name in the icing (or is that too cheesy!)

I know you've only just taken over the business, and so may have other priorities. If you want to chat about the things I suggested, just let me know.

Regards,

Adrian Johnson

[Rob]

Barry,

First of all well done of doubling your sales in the first 5 months! Not bad for someone who says they can't market!

I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the web site as your main marketing tool. In this line of business I would use it as a brochure. For catering your main business is going to come from referrals and pure hard slog.

After each event write a follow up letter to your client enclosing a feedback form, leaflets and business cards. Ask if they would be kind enough to refer someone who is looking for caterers to you. Picking a caterer is an important decision for a big events so a recommendation goes a long way.

One of the key reasons for requesting a feedback form, other than getting to know where to improve and to confirm what you have got right, is to collect testimonials. These are 'rave reviews' which, with the person's permission, you can use on your web site and advertising material. There is nothing more powerful than a quote saying how great your sausage rolls were! And it's free.

If you're looking for some more ideas I have just launched a new e-book, 'How to Market Your Small Business For Next To Nothing'. You can find out more at http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz/marketing_a_small_business.htm

[10 Yetis]

Hi Barry,

Hope I can help a bit...
You have already identified the most effective ways of creating new business and growing sales through mailings and alike... so a few other ideas for a marketing strategy.

1. Are you capturing where sales are coming from so you can concentrate your marketing methods on areas that work for you... i.e in the newsletter sign upon your site have a question saying "how did you hear about us"? After a while you wil see a trend forming of the marketing methods that are working best for your business and you can spend your money developing those rather than take a shot into an area that may not be as effective.

2. Are you maximising your potential to spread the word? i.e. are all your product boxes heavily branded with an eye catching logo and good strap line? This will ensure not only those using the product but also those in their immediate surrounds will notice you.

3. Send freebies to local journo's.. with a press reelase about a new service your business offers, e.g. your SMS service is very innovative, worthy of a mention in the local paper as you are a local business person moving with modern society demands.

4. Mailing out to companies is difficult as larger ones will have their own catering facilities and they won't want to lose revenue, so... maybe, hire a couple of glamourous students to flyer a shopping town centre during lunch hours (say 12-2) for a week on Monday to Friday? get them dressed up in something odd (say for example, a large bit of sushi) and it may attract media interest.

5. Do you deliver :lol: (really tempted to use the Peter Kay joke)? If so, is your delivery vehicle liveried with your message on in an eye catching fashion.

These are just a few ideas, and I can give more if you like the sound of these. It is simply a case of putting together a whole campaign of cost effective (cheap) ideas and then measuring which ones work so you can then concentrate on the winning ones.

If you want, send me a private E and we can chew over the options...

[barry.hynd]

A message of thanks to all who have kindly given me some comments so far, it's very much appreciated. I hope that I will be able to return the favour very soon.

[daveashton]

Baryy

First of all Welocme to the forum , it is always good to see more Scottish companyies join and hope become active members.

Re your questions please look at our website and if you would like an off-line chat please feel free to call

[Toast Design]

Hi Barry.

Just had a quick look over your site - it's nicely laid out and clear but a few comments to add to those already mentioned.

1. Lose the splash page - or keep it but add some metatags!!!! There are no keywords on this page.

2. There are keywords on the other pages, but they are seperated by semi-colons - these should be commas or single letter spaces only.

3. Page Titling - Make use of the 144 characters that you can have in a title tag - the actual pagename.html can be whatever, but the title tag should be packed full of keywords that are specific to the individual page

4. The pages are a little text heavy. I want to SEE what you do, not read about it. I would suggest investing in some professional photography, or spend the same amount on a decent digital camera to get GREAT shots of your food - the ones on the site are blured and lifeless (but I am sure the food isn't) so make those photos juicy and succulent!!!

5. Say more with images and bullet points/snappy text. If you want to get more business via the site, visitors will want to be drooling at the site of your food - for the private catering side of your business I would want to see some passion (the guy in the suit doesn't do it for me!).

In short, I would suggest that you get some GREAT images on the site. Food is a seriously important part of any significant event and you need to enthuse about it more! ( you may do in all of the text, but there was too much to read). You use local suppliers and grade A produce - so make some more (visual) noise about it!

Good luck!

[barry.hynd]

Hi David,

You make some valid points and i'm working at getting some better photography at the moment. With regards to the blue taskbar at the top of each page. Unfortunately I can only have one due to the limitations of my website creator. I've thought about using micro sites with different domain names to try and drive traffic to different areas of the site but this takes time and thats something that is very precious at the moment. Do you have experience of using micro sites?

The range we offer is very diverse and encompasses a whole range of products. The logistics of preparing these and getting them delivered on time is also a challenge. I very much appreciate your comments and i'm sure over the coming weeks and months you will see some welcome additions to the site.

[Toast Design]

Hi Barry,

Its not the blue task bar at the top of the page that I was commenting on - more the actual details within the HTML. Below is a snippet of code from one of Toast's websites:

----------------------------
<title>UK web design Toast web design Oxford web designers oxfordshire oxon design web site SME sites uk webdesigners uk web design</title>
----------------------------

The actual URL of this page is http://www.toastwebsites.co.uk/index.php but as you can see, the title is different and this improves search engine stuff (in theory).

Whatever, or who ever is putting together your site for you, you should be able to alter this title tag (note that is it different from the actual 'title.html' name of your page).

I wouldn't advise using micro sites for each page/section of the site as search engines such as Google will see straight through this. Toast have done micro-sites for certain companies (such as a Pub chain with the main corp site, and then micros for the individual pubs), but these are basically standalone site in themselves as well as being linked to a 'parent'site.

I am sure that there are plenty of people out there that will disagree with me, but Toast have found that good page titles do make a difference.

We could start a new topic to discuss this further!!!!

Thanks.

[barry.hynd]

Hi David,

I use a company called One and One for my website. I dont think I can change titles etc. Have you any experience of this company? If it's possible then its way above my expertise i think!

[SillyJokes]

Are you a member of any chambers of commerce, rotary or similar club?

I was thinking about personal recommendations and I would have thought that working hard at networking on a local level would definately help you create contacts.

Another thing you should do is enter some awards like the Ecommerce awards which are soon to be started this year - it can get you good coverage. There may be catering awards you could try.

Doing some sort of stunt like working with your local school to show the kids good things to put in their lunch boxes a la Jamie Oliver would get you in the paper and get you contacts with their parents.

Schools love to have input from local business community.

Or I can highly recommend making a World Record Sized thing. We made a whoopee cushion and tonight are going to be on telly in the Eastern Regional news. (anglia)


PS Further to my school packed lunch thing I have to say it is the thing I absolutely hate having to make four of them every morning. Maybe there is a market there for you to get groups of parents to put in a large order of lunches for their kids.

You could emphasis the healthy foods in it and the convenience and you could deliver straight to the school. The contract would be with the parents not the school.

God I'd love it. In fact I reckon there is possibly a whole a business right there, if the price was right.

[Words of Magic]

Hi Barry

I agree with all previous comments, would just like to add...

1)More photo's required and higher quality pictures to support relevant words on the site and to convey the image of a premier scotland catering company.Perceptions is everything in the mind of the customer.

2)Try to obtain as much testimonials from current customers/and reputable businesses as possible. The biggest single factor your potential customer is looking for is credibility.i.e. can she trust you?

3)The text to persuade people to sign up to your newsletter needs reworking. The words need to sell and full of more benefits.Its harder than ever to obtain email addresses, peoples inboxs nowadays are overflowing with inrelevant information,so a compelling reason(s) need to be put forward to obtain that "golden email address". Also you may beable to build up your own opt-in email list quicker,which will be useful when informing people of freebies, promotions, special offers, new products, services etc.

4)Any freebies you do offer, as and when mentioned, make sure your words sell. Its human nature to think something free has little value, due to the amount of free stuff floating around nowadays.

5)More sub headings is required, so its easy to scan your web pages. Each subheading should incorparate a "mini-headline".Inside the mini heading should be a strong benefit, something to arouse curiousity/self interest, pulling reader further and further into your text. Also experiment with colours i.e. Maybe your subheading could be a different colour to grab the readers attention. Words highlighed in bold could be a different colour etc...

6)Maybe some form of guarantee could be introduced, especially for special events, to remove any stress or anxiety from customers view point.


Marketing Strategy

Offline and Online communications for promoting your business.
To be honest, in order to help you develop a effective marketing strategy to meet your individual needs for your business, more information would be requiired. Whichever marketing strategy you introduce, makesure you test everything to measure which marketing campaigns are most effective.Those who dont test fly blind.

Good Luck

[RogerRoger]

I dont think radio will work.

Have you tried other methods?

[Chris Ashdown]

Delivering a free sample to all Managing directors of PLC's in your area must be the cheapest way of hitting the target, delivered to them say before ten even if they are going out for lunch they would open the box and be impressed

You have the ability mosy other catering companies do not have in that you can easily produce a meal and get it to the person who counts in a complete package

I imagine they would also go down well with outside classic music events etc

[Newcott]

I'd be more then happy to talk further if your looking down the route of some videos?

Maybe something embeded on your site or maybe a short campaigne of vids for a YouTube channel

Regards

Nick