Most event managers find themselves in the “catcher” position, waiting for leads to be pitch to you from phone calls or e-mails. This can be a stressful situation especially if you are behind in the sales forecast.

Catching Event Leads

Sure, you can use outdated outbound marketing techniques like cold calling (“hey, having a party soon?”) or direct mail that goes straight to the trash. What you need is some inexpensive and effective way to be found by people who are searching on the web for venues to have an event. The new marketing term for this is “inbound” marketing (get it? catchy)

Cold Calling for events is weird

Now I understand that you have zero control over your website and don’t have time to learn all the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) black magic. If you take a few moments to see what is available you will see that the there are a number of tools that can increase your private dining leads without you having to invest too much time or money.

Below is a brief list that I complied that I feel are inexpensive and “do able” from an event managers prospective

1. HubSpot-They are the company that created the term “inbound marketing”. While their software can be pricey they provide a ton of free material on how you can generate traffic to your website.
2. Google Adwords-This is really a no brainer. Someone does a search on “private dining in (your city here)” you should have a ad front and center. You can control the search words (called Keywords. Go to Hubspot to learn all about it) and how much you want to spend a day on the ad.
3. ConstantContact-O.K. cheating here a little as this can be considered outbound marketing but they are an inexpensive e-mail marketing tool and we integrate to them so they should be in the mix
4. Tripleseat Listing Site-Another no brainer. We list your restaurant and put a lot of SEO magic to your listing for you. Anything that extends your reach beyond your own website is a good thing.
5. Blog-This a must have. There are a number of free blogging sites out there. Some are more complicated then others so find one that is easy for you. Blogging makes a HUGE difference for web traffic. Creating content takes like 20 minutes and you only have to do it like 3 or 4 times a month. Write about anything you think will be valuable to your audience. Here is an idea to kick it off for you:”5 items you need for a terrific event”
6. Twitter-Free,easy, set one up about your private parties. Example “Had the IBM event here last night. Awesome group. Lots of fun”

Take your time, experiment, see what works for you. I am confident that if you do just one or two of the above suggestions you will see your private party leads start coming in at a good pace.

Happy Booking.

The private dining and catering business in the last two years has evolved into a critical component of a restaurants revenue mix. The private dining business represents, on average, close to 30% of the overall revenue and is much more profitable then ala carte dining. Gone are the days of restaurateurs looking at the event business as reserved only for the holiday season.  More and more operators are hiring full time sales people to book and manage private dining events. Marketing is also spending more time in generating new leads with both inbound and outbound marketing campaigns.

With the focus on sales and filling function room space comes new challenges.  Such as Who can I call? How do you capture leads? How can I close prospects faster? How do I manage my existing private dining customers? What can I do to streamline my booking planning process to allow for more time to market and sell the event space?

The current paper based process of managing and booking events is a fractured, time consuming mess that results in poor customer service, frustrated managers and lost revenue. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like salesforce.com have been in the market for years but they do not provide the necessary tools that restaurants require. Other hospitality software like Caterease, ReServe Interactive and Delphi suffer from similar problems as they were never designed for the unique needs that is the restaurant private dining business.

A recent study of restaurants using Tripleseat with a one dedicated Sales Manager averaging five events every month at a rate of $2,000 per event has shown an increase in new sales of 47% or $56,000 in event revenue in one year. Below are average results using Tripleseat:

• Tripleseat can reduce by 50% the amount of paperwork and wasted time required to book and plan an event.  The time savings resulted in more selling opportunities producing 2 additional bookings or $4,000 in new revenue
• Tripleseat tracks the who, what, where, when and why of  all your events – making it possible to cross book multiple properties, fill last-minute cancellations,solicit upcoming meetings and market towards new business. Tripleseat customers are gaining at least 12 new bookings per year for $24,000 revenue
• A recent Cornell study showed that 28% of Group Sales Inquiries Are lost, ignored or abandoned by Catering Sales Managers. Tripleseat can cut that number in half and add new leads with our Private Dining Directory website,SmartLead integration with your existing website and the Tripleseat Smartlead Facebook application. Tripleseat customers are gaining on average at least 12 additional booking per year for $24,000 in additional revenue
• Tripleseat allows restaurants to instantly cross sell properties,confirm space, dates and menus – eliminating the risk of losing business to competitors, while customers wait for your staff to research their request. Tripleseat allows you to deliver uninterrupted customers service by providing online customer information, access to past account history and more. This results in a minimum of 2 additional bookings per year or $4,000

Tripleseat, as of January 2012, has captured over 65,000 leads worth an estimated $200Million in new event business and managed $400Million in bookings. With over 2,000 users Tripleseat is delivering on the promise of helping capture new business and streamlining the booking process.

With Tripleseat, once you create a Document (Proposal/Banquet Event Order/Contract..etc.) you are able to share it with your guests via a url or a PDF. With this release, our goal was to make the web version have a more attractive design and be interactive for both you and your clients.

We have completely redesigned the process of sharing Documents and the experience for your guests.

To share any Document, simply select the Share button. This will open a dialog that lets you configure a message that will be emailed to the guests. The email will also automatically include a link them to the document through our new customer portal.

Once your customer opens the link, they will be automatically be logged into their own personal web portal where they will find all their past and future bookings, including any Documents that you’ve shared with them. Additionally, your guests will be able to review and respond to any discussions that you’ve allow them to see. All discussions automatically synced back to the booking and document within Tripleseat.

The current process for Accounts and Contacts allows you to add only the full name, e-mail address, address, and phone under a booking. To add additional information, like a second phone number, web address, or custom field required you to leave the booking and go to the Contact or Account directly. This process added additional “clicks” and, frankly, was a pain in the neck. Because the process was difficult, many of our users weren’t capturing all the juicy data related to an Account or Contact and that is not good. So, we set out to fix that.

The new update allows you to add all the details you want directly from the booking without having to leave the page and click a bunch more. It is a simple and elegant way to add details to your Accounts and Contacts.

Discussions is a private and secure area within a Booking that lets you discuss event details or documents, such as Banquet Event Orders, Contracts and Proposals, with your prospects, customers, and staff. Now you can stop trying to collaborate solely over email and start having a discussion.

• Close deals faster
• Build stronger relationships with customers
• Improve communication with internal staff and teams
• Eliminate email clutter and confusion
• Simplify the Planning Process

Does this scenario sound familiar? You book an event for 25 that is scheduled to start at 6PM with a straight forward menu. One week before the event starts the client wants to change the time to 5:30PM, have a cocktail hour, increase the number of guests to 45 and offer a choice of steak or salmon…at the same price.

So the scramble begins.

You have to alert the Chef that the menu, time and number of guests has changed and is it OK with him that you add a second entree at the last second? Next you have to run to the General Manager and let him know not to seat anyone in the room after 5:00PM and can he/she get another person to work the bar? Finally you have to break the good news/bad news to your client that you are making it happen but the price is going to be higher.

All this for a single event. What happens when you do multiple events in a single day? The amount of emails flying around to communicate a simple change or new event is mind numbing and time consuming. The checking an re-checking to see if they received the first email then confirming of the emails only to refer back to a email that was not part of the original email train. Ugghhh…

Enter Tripleseat Discussions. With Discussions, you can create a booking and/or Event Order/Proposal and share not only the details of the booking and its documents with the client but also with the staff. Need to change the attendance to from 25 to 45 and alert the Chef, General Manager, Manager on Duty and the Client? Not a problem. Simply start a Discussion within Tripleseat and your communication will automatically get emailed to all the stakeholders you’ve assign. To boot, it will be recorded in the booking’s history as a discussion point. Done and Done.

What if someone response to the email? Easy Peasy – discussions work both ways. If someone responds via email, that response will automatically be relayed back to all assigned managers and staff and recorded into the event’s discussion. No need to cut and paste or lose the email flow of the discussion.

Who They Are:

L’Espalier is often credited with being  the first independently owned restaurant to bring haute cuisine to Boston, and  doing so with a trailblazing commitment to using local, fresh ingredients from  New England. Located on Boylston Street when it opened in 1978, L’Espalier  moved to a historic Back Bay townhouse in 1982, only to return to Boylston  Street in 2008 where it currently resides adjacent to the Mandarin Oriental  Hotel.

Under Chef, Proprietor, Author and now  Farmer Frank McClelland’s stewardship, L’Espalier has consistently been rated at  the top of national and local best restaurant lists (Zagat, Boston Magazine, Frommer’s Travel Guide, Wine Spectator,  among them). The restaurant has received numerous accolades including the  “Distinguished Restaurant Award” from Mimi Sheraton, as well as being  the first New England restaurant to receive four stars from The  Boston Globe food critic, Alison Arnett. In 1996, Nation’s  Restaurant News bestowed L’Espalier with its highest honor,  inducting the restaurant into its “Fine Dining Hall of Fame.”  L’Espalier is the only independent restaurant  in New England to receive thirteen consecutive AAA Five Diamond Awards and also has earned fifteen consecutive  Mobil (now Forbes) Four-Star awards.

What They Offer:

L’Espalier’s modern architecture and elegantly appointed dining rooms provide the perfect backdrop for your special day. The three unique dining rooms afford us the ability to create a personalized setting that is both intimate and stylish.

Chef McClelland works with seasonal ingredients to create a menu befitting the special occasion, from the hors d’oeuvres to the entrées to the wedding cake; the staff at L’Espalier provides seamless service and a dining experience that will serve to enhance perhaps the most memorable of all occasions. Whether it is an afternoon Tea for the Bridal Shower, a luncheon for the Bridal party or dinner for the Wedding Reception, L’Espalier will help create an event to remember.

1. Update your listing on Tripleseat.com-Make sure your listing on our site has all the goodies like pictures and descriptions of the restaurant and rooms. Include links to your yelp and other sites. Have all  your content fresh and up to date.
2. Include your SmartLead link on all e-mails and tweets-Make sure you include your SmartLead link on all your e-mails. Make it easy for someone to do business with you and give them the best experience from the get-go.
3. Activate your Tripleseat Facebook app-When people come to your Facebook page have your Tripleseat Facebook lead app up and running. Capture leads right from your Facebook page
4. Make the SmartLead link on your website obvious-Don’t bury your SmartLead link under tons of content and under a mysterious tab on your web site. You can have the link on multiple pages like the Home page and the About Us page.  Have a catchy call to action by each location. Example: “Click here to Start Booking Your Party”. If you have a web designer have them make a snazzy button to push instead of the link.

Lead Generation

I think I am on every restaurant’s mailing list across the country and I have already received over 20 e-mails about planning my holiday party. Fortunately, if you are a Tripleseat customer getting started with your marketing is easy. Here are some tips to get the word out.

1. If you have ConstantContact already then you are ready to go. Simply turn on the integration within Tripleseat under settings and your contacts will automatically go to ConstantContact so you can start your e-mail marketing campaign
2. If you use a different e-mail marketing tool then simply go to “Contacts” under REPORTS and export the contacts you want to Excel. Once in Excel you can create direct mail pieces with address’s (aren’t you happy you took the time to get the address now?) or upload the Excel spreadsheet to your favorite e-mail marketing tool.
3. Make sure you include your smartlead link on your e-mails so people have a landing page to submit there details for their event. Don’t make people hunt down the link, make it easy
4. Go to your Tripleseat listing on Tripleseat.com and make sure your info is correct and you have added pictures and content to your listing. Sell yourself. Make it awesome.
5. Hit your Facebook fans and let your fans know they can book on your Facebook page with the Tripleseat Facebook App.
6. Kick it old school and look up ALL your past bookings from September thru December. By ALL I mean even the ones that did not book with you. Give them a call and invite them to book with you now before time runs out.

Leverage your database now and get the leg up on your competitor. Remember, the first one in..wins!