Bums on Seats, the UK’s largest outsource sales agency for the hospitality industry, have recently joined forces with a wealth of industry experts to provide operators with the ultimate guide on takeaway, delivery and ‘at home’ dining.

The E-Book features advice and tips from some of the best expertise in the industry on how to best develop and market an ‘at home’ dining offer. Here we have pulled out just a few pieces of the fantastic advice provided throughout the guide:

Understand Your Offer:

The first step in creating an at home offer is giving thought to why customers visit your establishment, what elements of your menu and service are the key to visits to your restaurant, pub or café?

In the guide, the ‘Hospitality at Home’ section from Toggle shares the example of The Beer House in Sheffield – a small micropub, which had never sold beer for takeaway or delivery before closure. However, owner John Harrison realised the reason customers visited The Beer House – to explore a wide range of craft beers, guided by the pub’s expert staff – could be recreated. The Beer Box, a weekly-changing selection of beer as a nine-litre “bag in box” from companies such as Beatnikz Republic, Marble, Roosters and Arbor Ales, was born. Apply this kind of thinking to your own business to truly understand what your offer needs to be based upon.

Mind Your Menu:

KAM Media provide advice on thinking beyond the traditional ‘Friday’ night takeaway and considering new occasions and day parts to really profit from this market. New working routines, for example, are likely to mean that breakfast, brunch, lunch and even mid-morning sweet treats or ‘after work drinks at home’ are all opportunities for delivery. Day-time deliveries might mean rethinking your menu or investing in a quality coffee offer.

Delivery is already evolving from purely about “feed me now” to fulfilling a range of different consumer occasions; a gift I can buy a far-away friend, a way to celebrate a birthday or other events, such as the extremely successful Valentine’s Day offerings we saw across the industry, a new family breakfast tradition, an affordable mid-week treat, online dinner party, work from home lunch… the list
goes on.

Marketing Your Offering:

Mark McCulloch of Supersonic Inc is amongst other industry experts that provide essential guidance and tips on how to market your takeaway offering to existing and potential new customers. He breaks down the various elements of targeting and marketing to customers into three key elements:

1) Their location
Where are your customers? They’re at home and likely to be online for a large proportion of the day whether that be on a laptop working or on their smartphones.  They’re also likely to be listening to radio, music, podcasts, watching tv and films, having video conversations with family and friends and cooking at home. The advice is to think about different ways you can get your marketing message across to them in each of these areas. For example, if they’re online a lot more – use social media advertising to target people within the deliverable radius of your venue(s).

2) How they want to receive your product
Talk to customers in the local areas and see how you can best serve them. This is vital to ensure you are not simply being ‘just another option’. Also do a thorough search online and ask your network who is doing the best delivery and takeaway. This will give you a good idea on what you need to do to raise your game and win.

3) Their mindset
You may have a part of your community who have stopped drinking and are eating more healthily, or you may have a ‘screw it’ bunch who are treating every week night like a stag night. There will be people who have lost jobs, loved ones etc. All of which you need to consider within your marketing communications.

The Take Out to Help Out E-Book is free to download at bumsonseats.org/take-out-to-help-out

“Industry collaboration, as well as positive messaging and practical support, is of critical importance. We are delighted to be working with so many like-minded suppliers by offering free advice on how to ensure hospitality is able to develop a Take Out strategy that is both commercially viable and aligned with trends and consumer behaviours for the long term.” – Amber Staynings, Bums on Seats CEO