Your long term success as a caterer will depend on the quality of your service. No marketing or advertising scheme can keep a bad caterer in business for very long. Your food, staff and service have to be top notch. Your pricing has to be competitive.
But being a great caterer doesn’t guarantee success. You have to be a skilled marketer too.
I’ll put it to you this way. A caterer with average food but excellent marketing will out earn a great chef who is lousy at selling and promotion.
Think you have a lot of competition now? Just wait. (Actually, don’t just wait …. you’ll go broke! Take action. Learn how to promote your catering business.)
Promote Corporate Catering
Marketing a catering business is tough – you’re competing with price-cutting newcomers and solidly entrenched established businesses. But you can promote a catering business and get catering clients if you follow these tips.
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Five Tips on Marketing Your Catering Business:
- Review Your Marketing Plan. It’s time to dust off your business plan and make sure it’s still actionable and relevant. Review your stats. How many new catering customers did you bring in this year? What advertising works best for you? How can you better track your advertising to make sure you’re getting a good return? Which catering jobs are most profitable? What clients do you need to drop?
- Who Are You Competing With? You need to know who you’re up against. Who else do customers call when they’re ready to book an event? Why? What are they doing differently or better than you? This exercise can help you discover ways to bring your business to the next level. Which of your services creates the most referrals and repeat business? How can you improve it?
- Revisit price points. Competing on price alone is one of the dumbest things a caterer can do. Yet, that’s exactly the trap many fall into. Booking jobs just to keep the staff busy is bad business. Check your numbers (total costs) and make sure every job you book is profitable.
- Grow Your Offerings. Explore exciting new trends and don’t let your business become dull and ordinary like the majority of caterers. Constantly try to wow your customers and deliver more value.
- Grow Online. It’s never been cheaper or easier to promote your business using high-impact social media tools, email marketing, lead services and directories.
While it’s easier to jump online and spend loads of time blogging, Twittering and Facebooking (are those really words?) – it’s even easier to be completely overwhelmed by the amount of options and information you need to know before you even start. That’s why I wrote “More Clients Now”. This easy to read report takes away the mystery of marketing online – you don’t don’t have to be a techno-geek or pay big bucks to an agency to start getting more clients.
Catering Business Marketing – Creative Ways to Get More Clients
Creating a profitable catering business starts with a solid marketing plan. Marketing is the most important function of your business. The right marketing plan can make or break your business.
First, you must understand the needs and wants of your potential customers. You must determine the most efficient way to reach them, and persuade them to do business with you.
After you determine how you will provide superior service, you must focus on most of your energy on promotional efforts. This includes the advertising, publicity and public relations that will capture your customer’s attention and create demand for your services.
One of the most effective ways to reach out to your potential customers without breaking the bank is cooperative marketing. A wedding caterer should create alliances with wedding planners, disc jockeys, bands, limo drivers, decorators, then use, photographers, florists, designers, travel agents, bridal shops, beauty salons, tuxedo rental stores and other affiliated but noncompetitive businesses.
Create your own leads club. Organize a weekly breakfast meeting for members of your leads club. Keep the meetings short, organized and focused on sharing referrals. Work hard to create business leads for your fellow members.
Pool financial resources and create your very own wedding services directory in your local paper. You can even pool money together and produce cable and radio advertising for your wedding business group. Create a common website and phone number for inquiries.
Finally, consider organizing a bridal show using your core group to fund the cost of production. Open the bridal show to your competition as well. Remember today’s competition maybe your partner tomorrow.
Make the most of social media. Become an active blogger. Promote yourself using sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media tools. Learn all you can about how to use these very powerful and effective lead generators.
To learn how to use social media to get more catering clients, download a free copy of Brian McGovern’s “More Clients Now.”
This free report will show you how to attract all the new business you want using 10 breakthrough tools for business growth. Start marketing catering services like a pro!
For a limited time this report is available at no charge. Limited time offer, download your blueprint to catering success today. Download your free copy of More Clients Now here.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_McGovern
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Thanks for the tips Brian! We’ve had a steady flow of customers, but need many more! I’m going to check out your ebook. Thanks again!
Hi Brian,
Just wanted to say thanks for the tips and ebook.
Ness