Starting and operating a successful catering business goes beyond serving wonderful food and carving out your niche in different catering menus. It simply involves handling regular and new clients from different social backgrounds. This is where your management skills, hospitality knowledge, and organizational tactics come in to help you attract potential clients and retain a wider customer base.
Since you understand the importance of staying ahead of the competition in the catering industry, how do you go about acquiring and handling prospective clients coming to patronize your catering services? To answer this question, you need to read through these five exceptional tips for finding a prospective client.
5 Tips to Attract More Catering Clients to your Business
Whether you are running a small business or dealing with corporate catering, your unique skills and marketing strategies will set you apart. Here are some of the best tips that you can apply to make your catering company stand out:
1. Provide Excellent Catering Services
If you have ever bought a product or paid for services because someone close to you or friends from social media recommended it, then you have an idea of what excellent catering services entail. Quite a number of consumers are ready to believe suggestions from family and friends more than advertising.
In this case, this is a perfect description of the word-of-mouth marketing strategy that you should strive to achieve. The best way to do so is through the provision of excellent customer service that leads to an exceptional experience for your clients. Providing exceptional experience can help you in the following ways:
- Attract loyal customers
- Get more referrals
Your customers’ loyalty and referrals will motivate others to come and experience your services. Ultimately, your catering sales will increase and you will have new catering clients coming for your services for the first time.
2. Take Advantage of Social Media
Apparently, the digital world is taking over as more people turn to transact online. In other words, almost everything is found online today. This makes it easy to use available search engines to connect with your customers.
To achieve this feat, you must consider establishing a digital presence to enable your customers to access your business online. The best way to establish your online presence is through social media, which is a powerful tool used by business owners to find prospecting clients.
Bear in mind that most people are increasingly turning to social media not only to connect with their friends and family members but also to look for local businesses. So, taking advantage of social media can greatly help cater to the needs of a prospective client.
3. Use Keywords Relevant to Your Services
A well-optimized webpage or social media page will undoubtedly make your catering business pop up when potential clients search for a catering service provider. This calls for the need to use an attractive profile that gives a pleasant first impression of you and your services.
The profile should clearly communicate your brand name, services, target market, and provide a link to your online menu or website. Avoid generic keywords such as caterer, food, cuisine, or dishes on your profile because too many people are already using them.
Instead, use only relevant keywords unique to your catering services. Additionally, ensure that your social media webpage stands out to showcase your catering skills and catering business in general.
4. Make Yourself Visible on Search Engines
Google processes around 5.6 billion of searches every day worldwide and most product searches online start on Google. Therefore, take advantage of this search engine to cater to a prospective client’s needs all the time.
Let Google provide basic information regarding your menu offerings and catering services. Additionally, get the help of basic Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Squarespace and WordPress to create your catering website.
But that alone is not enough. You need to go the extra mile to make your site rank higher on the first page of Google or other search engines.
5. Use Digital Signage for Better Engagement
Changing messaging and relaying information according to seasons can help you make the most out of your technology budget. For that reason, you may install digital signage at strategic locations to help you cater to your clients’ needs in real-time. Digital signage can be a cost-effective way to advertise your catering services and send persuading messages to different audiences.
Since digital signage messaging increases customer retention rates, your new business will require fewer resources and time to convey messages to your customers. Make sure to include information such as event planning, upcoming events, corporate events, and corporate catering in your digital signage content to capture the attention of a large customer base.
Final Thought
If you are looking to cater to a prospective client, make good use of the tips discussed above. Combine these tips with your marketing plan to attract potential customers to your business. Most significantly, your entire catering business needs to be impressive all the time.
