Red’s Catering

Catering, eCommerce, Featured, Restaurant Sites

Status:
Online
Client:
PopMenu
Established:
2025
URL:
redscatering.net
Location:
NH, USA
Project Scope:
CMS Migration, Website Rebuild, Catering Funnel, Cost Consolidation

Project Overview

Unifying a Fragmented Hospitality Empire

Red’s Catering is part of a growing family-owned restaurant group managing five physical locations and three distinct concepts, including Friendly Red’s and the Vanderbilt banquet facility. However, their digital foundation was crumbling. Shackled to a cumbersome, dated WordPress site, the team relied on developers for minor edits while bleeding margins to third-party delivery apps and disjointed marketing tools like Mailchimp and iMenu.

The mission was to centralize and modernize. We needed to migrate the brand to a self-sufficient ecosystem that empowered staff to manage content instantly, consolidated five locations into one digital hub, and aggressively recaptured revenue from third-party commissions.

Challenges & Goals

The Challenges

Margin Erosion: Delivery orders routed through DoorDash and Chowly were costing the business 15% of every ticket, while redundant software subscriptions added $300+ in monthly overhead.

Operational Friction: The existing WordPress site was rigid, requiring developer intervention for simple menu updates, creating bottlenecks for a fast-moving kitchen.

Revenue Ceilings: Catering accounted for 30% of sales, yet the site lacked a self-service quote engine, forcing high-value leads into a manual game of phone tag.

The Goals

Digital Autonomy: Rebuild on a drag-and-drop CMS (Popmenu) to allow staff to swap photos and descriptions in minutes without coding.

Profit Protection: Integrate "Online Ordering" directly into the Aloha POS endpoints, eliminating third-party commissions entirely.

Funnel Optimization: Engineer a multi-step catering quote wizard to capture headcount and dietary needs, auto-tagging leads in the CRM for rapid follow-up.

Strategy & Approach

Phase 1: Discovery & Workflow Mapping

We began by interviewing location managers to map the complex workflows of a multi-concept group. This audit revealed the necessity for a Dynamic Location Selector to ensure guests could easily choose the nearest pickup spot among the five venues.

Phase 2: Elevated Brand Identity

To reflect the quality of their banquet services, we extracted a rich palette from the logo—Burgundy (#9F2834), Cream (#F3E2C7), and Gold (#C4A46D). We implemented a sophisticated typography stack using Playfair Display for headlines to give the site an elevated, events-ready feel, grounded by Open Sans for legibility.

Phase 3: The Consolidation Play

We executed a massive cost-saving migration. By moving email marketing from Mailchimp to Popmenu’s built-in tools and generating print menus internally, we eliminated redundant SaaS costs. Simultaneously, we rewrote copy to target local-intent keywords like "Windham NH wedding catering," breaking the SEO plateau.

Solutions Delivered

Area	Highlight
Catering Engine	Built a multi-step quote wizard with conditional logic that captures event details and auto-tags leads in the CRM.
POS Integration	Linked Online Ordering directly to Aloha POS, bypassing third-party fees and streamlining kitchen operations.
Visual Design	Created a cohesive visual language across Restaurant, Catering, and Banquet pages using a custom Burgundy & Gold theme.
SEO Infrastructure	Implemented `LocalBusiness` and `EventVenue` schema to dominate search results for "Merrimack Valley catering."
Cost Efficiency	Consolidated loyalty, email marketing, and menu printing into a single platform, removing $3,300+ in annual overhead.