Advertising your Catering Business

 When it comes to advertising your catering business, what really is the best way to go about it and get the maximum return from your advertising dollar, especially if your advertising budget is limited to begin with?

Commonly used advertising avenues such as the local Yellow Pages, or radio and television, even if it is just a small local station, are often just too far out of the advertising budget that many catering businesses have to work with. In addition, how well this kind of investment works is almost impossible to track. A new client may very well have seen or heard your advertisement, but they will usually be more interested in discussing your delicious menu options, and will simply forget to mention how that came upon your services in the first place. To truly make the most of your catering business advertising budget you should explore another, newer alternative for advertising your catering business that is both economical and effective. After all, in order to survive and prosper in this uncertain economy, successfully advertising your catering business is crucial.

Internet “pay per click” advertising is something that you may have never considered, or even heard much about. In today’s ever changing world, the savvy businessperson should certainly consider the great power of online advertising. Thanks to the great spread of everyday Internet use by exactly the people you need to target and the power of major search engines like Google, you can target specific geographical areas for people searching basic keywords, in this case things like “food service” “party planning” or simply “catering”. Even better, online advertising lets you target the specific demographic you are seeking. By inputting such specific keywords into a search the user has already demonstrated a serious interest in the services you have to offer. Half the battle is won already.

But how does this kind of marketing really convert into great catering business advertising? Most effectively you need to direct the person who clicked on your brief little online ad to a more expansive “landing page”. A landing page is a great place to showcase your services and can impart more information than a 30 second commercial can possibly do. On this page you need to create a great and compelling reason for this potential customer, or visitor (they are “visiting” your page now) to share their basic contact information with you. You can detail all your menus and services, adding a few mouth watering images of your delicious food that will pique the visitor’s interest in your company even further. If you add a coupon for a free or discounted service in return for the visitor entering their contact information into a short online form, you should be onto a winning advertising campaign. The data from these forms is emailed to you in real time, allowing you to follow right up with these hot leads while catering and your company is still at the forefront of their minds.

This is the true beauty of using the Internet and this kind of catering business advertising is how little it costs. You will only be charged for potential customers who take the time to “click” on your ad specifically, those people who are demonstrating a real interest in your services. “Pay per Click” advertising like this really is the best and economically sensible way to make the best of your catering business advertising budget.