A Beginner's Guide to Marketing for Caterers

A Beginner's Guide to Marketing for Caterers

Advertising, marketing and promoting your catering business is perhaps just as important as constantly monitoring the quality of food and service you provide your customers. Regardless of whether your catering company is a brand new start-up or an established business with a measurable track record, you will need to market your catering services. You may have a monopoly in your community today but sooner or later, a competitor is sure to emerge out of the wood work only to set up shop across the street from you. This white paper presents a winning marketing strategy, which you can adopt immediately without burning a hole in your pocket book. It also shows you how to preserve and sustain the momentum once your customers begin to beat a path to your door which is what we all hope will happen eventually.

Customized Marketing Plan for your Catering Company

Ever wondered how large multi-million dollar Fortune 500 companies are able to successfully articulate such impressive campaigns so much so that profits double in a couple of quarters? They hire the best marketing experts money can buy, indulge in brain storming sessions and develop a solid marketing plan, which they implement to the hilt. We are not suggesting that you hire the most qualified Harvard MBA in your city and put him or her to work. The possibility of your being able to afford such a highly credentialed professional is unlikely unless you operate a very large catering company. We may have a tentative recommendation for you. Get in touch with the most reputed business school in your area and contact its MBA marketing department. A little persistence just might help you locate a highly qualified marketing expert who might turn out to be a Harvard MBA after all. Offer to pay a reasonable fee for his or her services and watch the magic marketing mantra in action. Once you have a solid marketing plan in place, take special care to follow it and abide by its recommendations.

The Online Versus the Offline Marketing Premise

Although it is quite fashionable in today's day and age to discuss marketing purely in terms of websites, online campaigns and search engine promotions, many traditional and old-fashioned marketing strategies continue to remain very effective when explored in the broader context of marketing a catering company. A good marketing manifesto for your catering business should include a mix of online and offline elements. We have several recommendations for you in both realms. You can consider integrating them in your marketing program if they tend to appeal to you. Let us adopt a historical approach and focus first on offline strategies.

Leveraging your Personal and Professional Network

If you ever take a few moments to jot down the names of all the people you know in and around your community, the numbers will probably amaze you. Each member of your personal network—neighbors, parents of your friends, friends at church, professional service providers with whom you do business and others-- are all potential customers. A note of warning borrowed from the MLM industry. These are your friends first and then potential customers later. Volunteer to help them first with their problems and needs before you hand them your brochure. Never be pushy. When engaging in business with them, back burner your friendship temporarily and ask for a down payment like you would from any other customer. The most striking phenomena about the food business in its infinite manifestations is that it is driven almost exclusively through repeat business. Provide the best quality of service from every conceivable angle and your friends will not only return the next time they organize their wedding anniversary party, they will heartily refer you to their friends and business associates. Referrals build bridges and no business can survive without them.

Carving New Networks to Promote your Catering Business

As an entrepreneur and the owner of a small business, you are eminently eligible to apply for membership to your local chamber of commerce. A relatively unknown fact which attests to the power of chamber-of-commerce networking is that when foreign companies visit the United States looking for greener overseas pastures, their first port of call happens to be all the chambers of commerce in the targeted geographical region. You too can replicate their success with much less effort because, after all, you belong to your community. Attend as many breakfast round tables as you can along with regularly scheduled chamber meetings and special events such as historic celebrations, strategy sessions and welcome bashes for new members. Memberships to your local Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and other business civic groups can also prove helpful as long as they do not interfere with your primary role and core function of a professional caterer committed and dedicated to becoming and remaining #1.

Offline Advertising for your Catering Company

Print and broadcast has been known traditionally to be expensive. However, there are a few ways in which you can reduce if not completely eliminate advertising costs. For starters, offering to print flyers for a targeted group such as the downtown merchants association in your community or a mall shop owners association can generate excellent sales leads for you. The advantage of sponsoring printed collaterals for target groups in exchange for a few inches of advertising space is that your flyer or group announcement is sure to be read by its members. Moreover, you will save a hefty amount on postage, collation and other distribution charges, which the association's office will perform as a routine matter. Negotiate with your local cable company if you have one to run a slide or two for you in exchange for a discount on their next catered employee event such as an employee picnic or a Welcome Summer Show for customers. You will be amazed at how many people watch your local community or public access channels. Many radio stations will let you sponsor prizes on call in shows in exchange for an honorable mention. Meet with the marketing coordinators of your local radio stations over lunch and try to cultivate them. Radio stations are known to advertise and promote local businesses literally for free on their FCC license award birthdays and other select in-house celebrations. More importantly, call in. Become a known entity within your community. Success in business is more a matter of trust than a matter of garden-variety advertising.

Going Online all the Way to Promote your Catering Service

Depending on how large your community is in terms of both population and geography, advertising on the Internet can be an excellent way to promote your catering business. Many online advertising models such as Pay-per-click also known as PPC, banner advertising and affiliate marketing can be quite expensive in spite of the fact that they are almost always an excellent value for the investment. Here are a few ways to advertise your catering business on the Internet at little or no cost.

Carve an Internet Presence for your Catering Company

For your catering business, a website on the Internet is as important as a business card in your wallet. Since you will not need to transact business on the Internet and your website's content will be purely informational in nature, have a local web designing company build a static search engine friendly website for you. Provide as much information about your catering operation as possible including menus, thumbnails of past events, testimonials, picture gallery and content on what makes you unique and different. Many free or low cost online advertising opportunities tend to become inaccessible if you do not have your very own website with an independent web address also called a URL.

Geo Target Search for Caterers

Across the country, caterers are actively participating in geo target search in droves. That is a fancy term for being listed on the local results pages of search engines. Ask your web design firm to list your company on Google, Yahoo and Ming's local search results if you do not happen to be web savvy. It takes about fifteen minutes to register and the process is extremely easy.

Registering your Company on Internet Yellow Pages

Although the current online yellow pages trend hasn't exactly replaced the printed yellow pages from your local phone company, it is steadily gaining pace. You can start by registering with those Internet yellow pages websites that are free and subsequently budget for those paid websites that are extremely popular in your region. You will register according to your category (catering) and your location. Free Internet yellow pages websites include SuperPages, Yelp, Yahoo Local, InsiderPages, MagicYellow, SwitchBoard, MerchantCircle, Local . com and YellowUSA. Look them up on Google or Yahoo for their web addresses and complete information. Please remember to revisit these Internet yellow pages websites frequently to update your listings and any contact information, which needs to be modified. For these websites, create catchy advertising content that attracts a site visitor's attention immediately. The phone number you list should be one that never remains unattended because many potential customers today are using their cell phones and other mobile devices to conduct Internet searches.

Brand Building on the Internet

A certain level of online brand building for your food service company will help to promote your company. You can do so by posting on local community forums, subscribing to and participating in the discussion lists of your local school district and lending a helping hand in local civic initiatives. Any significant milestone you achieve will eventually translate into feathers for your catering cap!

Conclusion

There are really no secrets to marketing your catering company—just a little dose of initiative, a willingness to persist, and a passion to succeed. Between your unflinching initiatives, this white paper and the Harvard MBA marketing expert, you are sure to reach the number one position in your niche and stay there for long.

About Catering Supplies Depot

Catering Supplies Depot provides a full range of brand name commercial kitchen equipment including all types of catering supplies and catering equipment, commercial restaurant equipment and kitchen supplies. We carry all the top brands, provide courteous customer service and deliver nationwide in the US and Canada. To learn more you can call us toll free1-866-613-2632, or write to customerservice@cateringsuppliesdepot.com. Visit Catering Supplies Depot for the most exclusive range of catering equipment, catering supplies, restaurant equipment, restaurant supplies and commercial kitchen equipment on the Internet.