Marketing Your Catering Business to Corporations

Let’s say you’re holding your exciting new corporate menu in your hands. You and your team spent quite a long time getting it just right, and you’re proud of it. Or you just finished up an entire month of successful back-to-back conferences and customer appreciation events. Your inbox is full of positive feedback, and you have some great pictures that showcase your capabilities. Now is the time to put your best work out there!

Every caterer’s corporate marketing needs are different. But our advice for everyone is the same. If you want to connect with your corporate audience, go for an integrated marketing approach. This allows you to share your offerings, news and recaps through all the important channels. Let your audience see how much their businesses matter to you by presenting them with the latest and greatest of yours.

Let clients taste your menu

The best businesses are always ten steps ahead, planning that next conference, next meeting, next product show. Meals are an important factor in the decision-making process, and you want to be included. What corporate packages do you offer? What add-ons are included? What’s on your platters? How many different types of hors d’oeuvres?

Give clients a bite of your menu. Reel them in with words like “Texas BBQ buffet” or “hot breakfast.” Make sure to break down your ordering process up front in a simple and straightforward manner so when the time comes, the final decision-maker can order in the most efficient and care-free way possible.

Spark their interest with an array of content 

Share your best content. Give them tangibles—actual close-ups of previous events. Let them browse through an event spotlight or two so they can get a feel for your setup, service and what you excel at as a corporate caterer.

Or maybe they need a little inspiration before they can decide. Put together an educational piece that gives them an overview of how to plan a company picnic or retirement party so they get a better understanding of your process.

Give your corporate clients an idea of what details are important to you. Sprinkle in some party ideas. What décor, hashtags or themes are you working with? This is a great way to get that traffic flowing and eyes moving on your website.

Dedicate a website page entirely to your corporate capabilities

Does your website have a page that’s committed entirely to your corporate audience? Not everyone needs to know about what you do for your brides and grooms. Not everyone needs to know about how you cater family reunions. Consider your corporate clients’ time and lead them to a place that addresses them specifically. This way, they’re clicking through menus and reading reviews, case studies and language that solely pertain to your corporate services.

Keep them updated with a newsletter

A newsletter is a genius way to keep your corporate clients in the loop without overwhelming them. Give them little updates and snippets. Keep the information bite-size. What hot ingredient are you focused on exploring this month? Any new team members? Make the format simple and comprehensive. Include your social media profiles in your newsletter so that there are multiple opportunities for your corporate clients to explore and interact with you if they want.

Send out a quick email blast

Maybe you’re exploding with new monthly specials. You want to get the message out quickly, so what’s your go-to method of communication? An email blast is a short, sufficient way to give your corporate clients a brief, timely update and keep your name fresh on their minds.

Besides specials, there are plenty of ways to think outside the box when creating email blasts.  Consider segmenting your lists and clients by the industries. For example create a blast for accounting firms, during tax season they have around the clock catering needs.

Personalize your clients’ experiences with collateral

What sort of personalized signage and collateral have you done for a specific client? Think of something that was a big hit on social media. Take your box lunch to the next level with an Instagram-worthy design. Surprise your clients with a fun, thoughtful card. Give them pieces that are easy for people to interact with and share and that illustrate just how much you care about individual experiences.

Give your clients a break from reading and share some video

Video is king these days. And your corporate clients will thank you for sharing your information in a digestible, care-free way. It will also differentiate you from restaurant catering and remind them of your expertise. You don’t just say it, you show it.

Sprinkle a few reviews onto your website

Reviews build your credibility. They matter to your clients, who will generally take enough people’s word for it before they take the chance to get to know you on their own. Clients will pull up Yelp, Google, Facebook—anything they can get their hands on that paints a better experience of you, what you offer and what you’ve done. Why not include a few shining examples of your company on your website? People want to hear about real experiences, so share them!

Display on social media

Social media is one of your biggest cheerleaders. Post those recent event photos and spotlights. Share your idea boards. All of these social media talking points open up conversation and make your offerings more accessible to corporate clients. They’ll want an up-close view of real-life companies who have recently experienced your services.

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Connect them to your venue finder

Your corporate clients not only have to figure out which corporate caterer to go with, but they may also need a place to host their event. If you don’t have a venue finder on your website already, you may want to get on that. While clients are clicking around and getting to know your corporate menu and offerings, they may decide they want to look at your preferred and exclusive venue partners while they’re at it.

Break down info with checklists/infographics 

Clients like easy-to-digest information. Infographics and checklists are great examples of visual representations that are extremely accessible and a breeze to get through.

Infographics are straightforward; they cut through the extra fluff and don’t take up too much time to go through. And they’re fun!

People love to check things off. Why not give your office administrators another opportunity to cross things off and square them away? Put together a meeting planning checklist so they can get a look and feel for an event catered by yours truly. Help your fellow planners with some pre-planning!

There are countless ways to apply these tips to your business and help you prepare for any upcoming conferences, employee engagement meetings, retirement parties and more. Their deployment will vary depending on things like your location and your market. The sooner you start researching best practices and having these discussions, the better prepared you’ll be for upcoming corporate events.

Don’t forget: our team at nuphoriq is here to help with all of these initiatives and more. Give us a call at 847.709.2799 or contact us online to talk about your corporate marketing campaign ideas.