The National Restaurant Association enables generation after generation of people in the restaurant industry by educating them all the way through university and making sure they’re armed with the latest information throughout their careers. 

But that’s just one facet of what the National Restaurant Association does.

Here are a few more things that the

Supporting restaurant operators by publishing guides for food safety, nutrition, and operational risks

Training food service professionals in food management, food handling, and workplace safety

Analysing and reporting trends in the food industry

Educating the next wave of culinary talent on the nuances of food industry navigation

What’s something common across all of them

Not sustainable, not manageable, and frustrating for everyone involved in the content process.

Dan

What are some of the issues Dan identified and wanted to resolve?

So how did

So all of National Restaurant Association’s content was in one place. Sales Reps still needed to sift through the content hub to find what they were looking for….. Or did they? 

Dan had structured and organized his content meticulously to make sure his team’s effort in finding the right content was minimised.

Amongst the groundwork laid to set his team up for success, Dan had ensured a diligent system of tagging and applying filters on the content pieces that were uploaded.

“I didn’t even realise how good the search function was within Paperflite… the team didn’t even need to go through the streams to find content!”

With the intricate tagging and filters set in place by Dan on Paperflite, the team was able to find content with more ease than anticipated - much to his pleasant surprise. 

National Restaurant Association’s sales reps often sent content out on a

hope and a prayer, with little indication that their previous cadence had been interacted with or even opened.

Dan knew this had to change to equip their reps better - and he

had a plan.

Once National Restaurant Association’s content was shared through Paperflite links, they were able to infer exactly how their recipients engaged with it - down to the 

page level. 

“What the Sales team likes about the Paperflite analytics is sharing a 40-page catalog with university deans and seeing what sections they’re actually interested in. 

When they’re able to see that they’re focused on a particular section, that helps inform them of what the follow-up messaging should be. So it’s better than just “Hey, I hope you looked at the catalog, and let’s get time to talk!” - they’re able to follow specifically with what they’re looking for

So I know that’s a huge piece of Paperflite they love.”

This helped the reps craft personalized and specific follow-ups in a place where they’d more often than not have to take a shot in the dark and hope for the best. 

Dan receives 3-5 emails on average per week regarding updates to food regulations across states. Every time he received them, he would simply upload the latest version of the documents into the corresponding Stream on Paperflite. 

This guaranteed that content was always up to date for all of National Restaurant Association’s teams - ensuring no outdated content was sent out (while also making sure the repositories weren’t spammed with duplicate documents.

The National Restaurant Association hosts events on a national scale that spread the word about food safety and trends in the industry.

The way they shared content during these events was very much the traditional way, with physical fliers, printed posters and documents, and sending over emails after the event. 

Dan wanted to change this, he wanted a digital transformation of their content processes during events. 

He aimed to minimise physical copies of content and make distribution of content - something that can be done instantaneously. 

How did he enable the National Restaurant Association team to do this? 

Instead of printing out content physically, they uploaded their content into Paperflite Collections and had them ready to share with their prospects. 

Once the leads were captured through iCapture scans, the National Restaurant Association team was able to share the collections with them right then - through the app. 

This ensured that relevant information was shared right when the prospect was most interested in what the National Restaurant Association team had to offer - leading to higher chances of engagement, and conversion. 

This shift helped Dan and the team to save hours of time in physically curating and editing content and having them printed out and organised for every event - the costs involved in doing so were cut down too. 

The team no longer had to stress about having to put together thousands of content pieces in order for every event. Instead, they turned toward Paperflite Collections and the digital approach to content distribution. 

We’ve been talking a lot about what happened after the content was sent out. 

But a fundamental part of how Paperflite influenced content processes within the National Restaurant Association was enabling the team to have a data-driven approach to content creation.

With the help of actionable insights based on content engagement patterns, the National Restaurant Association team was able to identify content pieces and frameworks that resonated with their audiences the best. 

“What we did this year while planning out a campaign was we had our Paperflite analytics up as we’re planning it (to see) what type of content actually resonated with them and what didn’t. Make more of the type that they like, spin-off of that, and make sure we’re not making stuff that they didn’t like. It’s been a huge tool to help us create the new content for the next campaign as we go forward.” 

This allowed Dan and the team to create a lot more of the content types that their readers wanted to consume, instead of going what they believed would work best. 

Every September, the National Restaurant Association hosts the National Food Safety Month. 

Previously, they used to create documents like Whitepapers, infographics and posters that they thought resonated with the audience and felt would have an impact. 

Since implementing Paperflite they’ve been able to analyse how well the content they create resonates with the people who’re intended to read it. 

This helped them realise, unlike how they expected engagement to be - similar across all of them - certain content pieces just seemed to be what their audiences wanted. 

The next year, they had their Paperflite analytics dashboard on hand during the content creation phase and produced more of the types of content that their audiences wanted to consume - and made sure to not create content that they didn’t seem to like. 

Dan and his team no longer had to worry about various drives, websites and YouTube channels to access content from. 

Content wasn’t scattered across different repositories, but housed within a single source of truth to be stored, organised and managed in. 

Sales reps getting overwhelmed and lost within an overwhelming amount of content was a thing of the past. With content being put into a single place, Sales reps knew they’d only need to go to one place for all the content they need. 

The ever changing food codes got a more efficient way of being kept in check. Dan was able to manage and maintain the food regulations of all the states within a single stream on Paperflite and updated the changes directly into respective documents without having to make changes and reupload everytime. 

Their physical fliers and documents turned digital - allowing them to share relevant information with prospects without any delay that previously existed. 

This saved them the stressful hours of trying to put together these massive amounts of content together for every event - and the costs involved in doing so.

Content was now being created with the audience’s preference in mind instead of guessing which types of content could resonate the most. 

Data backed changes to content strategy allows Dan and the team to create focused content that improves overall engagement. 

With Dan championing the initiative to streamline the way National Restaurant Association manages content, he championed the use of Paperflite - so much so that it had become a regular part of their lives with the team. He even made an internal onboarding presentation for every new member of his team who wanted to hop onto the Paperflite train. 

“I have sales and product people mentioning Paperflite by name and asking for Paperflite Collections for the shows they’re going to or for a specific partner.” 

Dan Chancellor, Marketing Operations Manager at the National Restaurant Association, spearheaded a comprehensive transformation in content management. Faced with content disarray and outdated processes, he harnessed Paperflite’s capabilities to streamline operations.

Dan’s first move was centralization. He unified National Restaurant Association’s content into Paperflite’s repository, establishing a single source of truth. This eradicated the confusion caused by scattered resources.

Leveraging Paperflite’s “Streams,” he meticulously organized content, enhancing efficiency and navigation. This strategic approach exceeded expectations, enabling swift content retrieval through advanced search and tagging.

Dan’s team further capitalized on Paperflite’s tracking features to personalize follow-up interactions. By understanding recipient engagement, they tailored their outreach, leading to more effective sales strategies.

Customized sharing became the norm. Instead of having to edit content based on the sharing channel, Dan’s team generated tailored links for different audiences, retaining analytics while avoiding redundancy.

In the realm of events, Dan revolutionized National Restaurant Association’s approach. QR-coded Paperflite collections streamlined content sharing, eliminating the need for laborious manual preparations and saving valuable time and resources.

Regulatory compliance received a boost through dedicated Paperflite Streams. Dan ensured that National Restaurant Association consistently aligned with the dynamic food regulations by refreshing existing documents with new updates and information, maintaining accuracy

Paperflite’s analytics played a pivotal role in content creation. Dan’s team harnessed these insights to craft content that resonated with audiences, improving overall engagement.

Dan’s adeptness at driving innovation and efficiency, combined with Paperflite’s capabilities, breathed new life into National Restaurant Association’s content strategy. 

THE TEAM

Since implementing Paperflite, the National Restaurant Association was able to send out customized links through different channels for different kinds of audiences.  

“One thing that we loved was the ability to change the links based on what you wanted to do with the content without copying the content. If we’re Email-ing you the content directly, we already know who you are and want you to get direct access to the content. 

But if we have the same content on our website, we probably want to know who you are with an email gate in the front, getting the same analytics and same information has been great.” 

Their website for the campaign - foodsafetyfocus.com - hosts their content with the help of Paperflite links, and most of the “High Value” content have Email gating attached to them so that the National Restaurant Association team can know who’s consuming them and connect with the readers ahead of time. 

This allowed Dan to let National Restaurant Association’s stakeholders know just how valuable these insights were by helping their database to be more robust and detailed instead of just seeing the number of eyeballs on every piece of content.