They say food is what connects people together. You might have seen memes denoting something like “When your bae was mad at you so you cooked a meal for her and she calmed down.” From the bottom of my heart, I personally appreciate people who have restaurant or catering businesses to “entertain” my stomach. When I eat, I can forget almost 70% of what I’m mad or sad about. Also, it’s true that with food, we can connect with other people. You can start a conversation like “Hey, do you know the new restaurant that just opens? I heard their paella is the best in town.” And your friend would be like, “Really? Let’s hang out!” When you are a great chef, food business can never go wrong. However, no matter how great and delicious your cooking is, you still need other aspects to grow your business. Aside from financial and management aspect, marketing is the most important part of a business that will become the key to your success. Why? Well, with so many competitors out there in the same industry, how will your target audience find you? For that reason, marketing is the crucial part in your business. After all, what is a business without buyers? With so many things to consider when planning for marketing strategies, many business owners hire professionals to do services that will help shape their marketing plan, including web services, social media services, SEO services, content services and many more. Now what I’m saying is; your catering business can succeed with many ideas for marketing. With the more developing and growing technology, internet marketing has become the main focus for target marketing because clearly, nowadays we are living in a world that almost everything is digital. Don’t worry; I’m going to tell you internet marketing ideas you can do for your catering business. Keep reading to find out!

Make a good website

Even though your business is focused on catering, you still need a website. Why? That’s because it will help your target audience who needs your catering services find you. With so many catering businesses out there, you might find it hard to be recognised by your target audience at first, especially if you are just starting out. A website can help you increase your online visibility and improve your brand awareness so that when your target audience needs your catering services, they will find you.

Learn about search engine optimisation

It is not a secret anymore that search engine optimisation, known as SEO in short, is one of the important factors in building a business. As you can’t do SEO by yourself, hiring a professional is a better approach when it comes to this. However, with so many black hat SEO services out there, you might often bump into a scammer instead of the genuine one. Therefore, I suggest that you learn about SEO first before looking for the professionals to do SEO services for you. Learning about SEO can help you identify which one is the scammer and which one is the genuine SEO specialist in a better way.

Use social media

Social media is the right place to reach as many people as possible. I know some features like ads might require payments, but those ads will eventually lead your content to specific and relevant users who might need your catering services. Aside from that, social media is another tool for communication and keeping up with your previous, current, and potential customers. Also, using social media increases your chance to be more recognised and more reliable and trusted.

Use decent and professional photography service

Food photos, depending on its quality, can increase or kill someone’s appetite. Why? Well, would you eat something that looked like it was made from someone’s puke? Even though the food itself is freshly cooked and very delicious, photography skill can decide your target audience’s next action. When I am on Instagram, I have seen this delicious looking ad about a beef BBQ near my office. Since I am always looking for culinary places on Instagram, it will automatically lead me to ads that are about culinary as well. Believe me when I say that I am attracted to the restaurants offered in those kinds of ads mainly because (from what I have seen in the photos) the photo quality of the beef makes me want to try it. Hiring a professional photographer may cost you some money, but the ROI you will get will eventually pay off.

Starting a business no matter what it is might be tough at first. However, when you are aware of where you are going with your business, topped off with your dedication in making your marketing business plan, your business will succeed as long as you believe and keep up the hard work.