21 Jul How to Increase Business as A Caterer Online
Catering is one of the more profitable parts of running a restaurant. Every season, occasion, party, or holiday cannot be complete without hiring the best caterer in the market. While there is high competition among those who are running catering business, there’s always scope for Increasing Business as A Caterer Online for carving a niche or reaching relevant audiences.
Whether you have started catering from your house kitchen or from an already existing restaurant, you won’t be able to run it until you learn the marketing strategies of promoting your catering business. Therefore, to improve your catering business and to increase its profitability, you need to understand the catering business logistics beyond designing an attractive and delicious menu.
“34% of event planners spend most of their budget on catering”
- Build Referrals and Focus on Word-of-Mouth:
Have you ever wondered what makes an event successful?
The most popular thing discussed after any event is invariably food . Great food adds to the vibe and can make an event more memorable. People say good or bad things about food rather than anything else. Showing that caterers represent an event more than an event itself.
To make a strong referral chain, you have to ask your clients to refer your services with those who need them. Make sure to attempt to influence guests who are enjoying your catering services. You can do this by placing an advertisement flyer or business card near buffet or bar. This will also help you to become recognizable among people who are already availing your services.
- Pricing Strategy:
Pricing strategy is based on the market you target for providing your catering service. For example, charging $20-$25 per person will attract those people who are planning for birthday parties, family reunions, or baby showers. On the other hand, charging $100-$120 will grab those people to your service who are well-off and are planning wedding event or gala. If you’re in a niche, do some research around what your TG is willing and already used to pay- and decide if you’re going to differenciate at a premium, or be able to offer competitive rates.
- Know your marketplace:
The right strategy works in the right market place. Therefore, being a caterer, it is crucial to know your target audience. For example, where does your target audience frequent? Restaurants, cafes, private events, sports and community venues, family events, private events, or offices. Moreover, the location(city or locality) in which you are providing a catering service, what do you know about the audience present there?
In this way, knowing your target audience will bring clarity to your business goals and helps to increase your catering business’s profitability.
- Competition:
You must know the competitors who operate in the same niche as you do; whether that is the cuisine, type of restaurant or food business or other similarities. In case your competitor is giving services for wedding events, and you do too; you have to play smart. You must go out of your way in finding the gap in the market, and create your own USP. In terms of services, pricing, and definitely menu selection. This helps you to stand out of the crowd if you done properly.
- Brand your delivery vans, bike, or scooter:
This method has been used for long, and is still very effective to promote your catering service. For this, make sure that you use well-maintained and clean vans or bikes so that your logo stands out to your audience. Also, be sure to mention your phone number and website, so people may easily connect with you.
Make sure your brand identity is appealing to your ideal audience. If this is not a case, then hire a professional who can upgrade your logo and graphics and make your brand identity more appealing. Also, the most up to date colours, fonts, and ‘brand collaterals’ must be applied to brochures, shopfronts, scooters, bikes, vehicles, business cards, and any other customer touchpoint as well.
Head to our piece on The Importance of Branding for mroe
- Take professional photos:
A strong visual impact makes a big difference to market your brand in the best way. Therefore, you must hire an expert photographer to take high-quality photographs for your brochure, menus, and website. Also, figure out that how you’d like be considered by people. It is crucial to post perfect size images on your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. Make sure to use hashtags so you can get more traffic to your profiles, and then more customers for your service booking.
- Style your food:
Style your dishes in a way that they look so appealing and delicious in your photos and videos that it stimulates the senses of prospective diners in any way possible. Creating captivating food shots and bringing alive the ambience help customers when making a decision to hire a Caterer.
Here are four great ways through which you can make a strong visual impact when Marketing your Catering Business online:
- You should add ‘specials’ or feature items on your menu.
- The dishes you have chosen to promote must be highlighted in different attractive colors.
- Use colours to help your food POP! A great background, a coloured plate, a smear of a sauce. Explore references when making plans.
- The secret to excellent videos and photos is small, manageable portions.
- Booth Renting at a Trade Show:
Trade shows, fairs, festivals, farmer’s markets, and community gatherings are fantastic occasions where you can effectively promote your catering business. You can do this by distributing pamphlets or menus, and also samples to get a review from your prospective customer.
Moreover, you can check-in to events like community fundraisers, bridal fairs, or food fairs to serve your menu and let people learn about your business. Also, it is crucial that your menu must be appealing and reasonable in terms of prices; this will help bring in more customers to your business.
Preferred Vendor Venue Lists Placement:
There is number of great venues which keep a certain kind of preferred Vendor list. These events could be Banquet halls, private outdoor venues, or even event spaces. These preferred vendor lists are given to the customers who would like to hire professional (and verified) caterers for their events.
It is essential to have your brand name on the Preferred vendor list because there are such event spaces that want their clients to primarily or only choose a caterer from the list. Also, it is obvious that the preferred list must be filled with already successful caterers who are leading in the market. Therefore, see where your brand lies and try to collaborate with some established companies to make your catering business better.
If you’ve got the basics in place and need to decide what’s next, head over to our piece on Digital Marketing 101 to learn more