How to Grow Your Corporate Catering Business

• Date: 24 March 2020
• reading time: 4 Minutes
• Blogger: Jolene Rutherford

Image source: https://www.rawpixel.com/image/74909/free-photo-image-computer-business-office

Modern-day companies that count many employees are constantly on the lookout for a catering solution, be it for one-time events such as anniversaries, product launches, networking, or for ongoing catering for their staff on-site. Add to that, employees are becoming more demanding in terms of their diverse dietary needs, as more people are going vegan, vegetarian, or they’re switching to raw food and organic groceries. In all of that potential corporate chaos, catering companies need to rise to the challenge and provide diverse and inclusive solutions for businesses in their region.

Growing such a business can be a cumbersome challenge, one that you can tackle only with the right strategy up your sleeve. You will need to develop a plan that will help you market your catering brand to the right corporations, a sales and marketing strategy to nurture all the right leads, and of course, you’ll need to build numerous partnerships with food providers to grow your presence. Let’s go over a few key steps in your strategy that can help you establish yourself as the most trusted catering entity in your market.

Is your Budget Ready for Growth?

Catering may be an industry that’s growing, but your own budget is the only measure of your potential success. In order to add an online sales funnel and a social media strategy to expand your reach in addition to your general marketing outreach, you need proper funding. That said, you should evaluate your current financial capabilities and only then choose how to allocate the funds towards the right categories.

Perhaps it makes sense to invest more in social ads, but then again, perhaps implementing sales management software is the best way to move forward and nurture your leads into paying customers.

Expanding your Menu for Cultural Diversity

Foodies are everywhere, and when you appeal to their preferences, you’ll be able to charm many corporate leaders into signing a deal with you to provide them with regular meals for employees. With that in mind, you should consider creating dedicated menus inspired by various regions of the world, which will let you provide themed catering options for all preferences.

For example, assembling a comprehensive Chinese dishes list can help you add various delicacies to your menu with ease. Oriental, exotic meals are often favorite for companies of all sizes, especially businesses that want to impress their foreign investors, potential partners, and clients from around the world – and having their favorite food on the menu gives you that needed advantage.

Recruit the Right People

Growth encompasses many different things, one of them being your staff. With more clients waiting for your catering service, you should find reliable, long-term employees to make sure you always have someone ready to prepare the needed food, and serve it in style. Recruiting takes time, so make sure that you time your process well so that you don’t end up taking on too many catering opportunities without the staff to support such a workload.

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Branding Remains Vital

As a growing business, you know that others like you in your region can win over the spotlight merely with a better presentation. However, when you build a brand, you have the kind of advantage that no amount of advertising can trump. So, before you tackle expanding your client base, make sure that your brand identity has strong and matches your target demographic.

Finally, use your brand identity and your authentic business look and feel when you craft your campaigns, so that your catering business can stand out and establish a memorable presence.

Market Online and Offline

Although food is best sold on the spot, and when you can impress someone’s palate you can practically sign the deal right there, catering nowadays needs to be as much about digital presentation as it is about physical. That said, you should consider working with a professional photographer to capture your most divine culinary crafts, your staff, and your events.

This will help you gather ample material for promotions, brochures, flyers, on-site videos, and social media ads and posts.

Events for more Traction

While corporations love hosting a range of events, your own brand will likely remain in the background, without any intrusion or promotion on the spot. After all, you cannot steal the spotlight from the host, otherwise, you risk losing your standing in your community. The better, more refined way to achieve a powerful first impression on business owners who would benefit from your services is to set up occasional tasting events.

This is a brilliant way to help them get a better sense of what you can offer, how you can tailor-make the menu to their liking, and what it means to truly go above and beyond, not just in a culinary sense, but in staff training and presentation.

Word of mouth aside, there’s so much you can do that will help you grow your catering presence and establish a foothold in your target market. Hopefully, these simple guidelines will help you get your catering business on the right track and boost your reputation for the long haul.

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• Blogger: Jolene Rutherford
• Marketing Specialist - turned blogger at Technivorz
• Jolene Rutheford is a writer with a degree in marketing, currently writing for technivorz.com. After getting a marketing degree she has worked with startups on business and marketing development. Today Jolene lives and works in Sydney, where she has returned after graduating from college in the US and working in Asia as a marketing specialist. Interested in media and social media, digital marketing and new technology trends. Loves sharing content that can help and inform people.
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