You’ve bought your unit, stocked it with supplies, your recipes are at the top of their game and you’re raring to go. But where do you start? Every great business needs a top marketing strategy and we’re here to help you stand out from the crowd.
Find your niche
It’s important to know which market you’re aiming for, who your target audience is and what makes you unique. Some of the best mobile catering businesses only serve a few dishes, but they’re honed and practiced to perfection and are totally in keeping with what their customers wants. Do you want to target late-night revellers? Or are you in it for the Christmas markets? The style of your food and your branding should reflect the choices you make from the outset.
Stay on brand
Branding improves recognition, creates trust and rapport between you and your customers and generates new custom. When you’re promoting your business, either through social media or using offline materials such as leaflets and flyers, make sure you keep your branding and tone consistent.
Use social media
Social media can help you to communicate with your customers and let them know about your latest dishes and current deals. The more platforms you can get on the better.
Those working in the food industry can get away with a more tongue-in-cheek approach to social media, so go wild. You can post funny videos of your employees, retweet other businesses in your area and share local news – just make sure not to post anything offensive.
Creating your own hashtag can also be a fun and innovative way to inspire a community and allows your customers to share your brand more easily. This should be short, memorable and unique to you and if you’re going to go with it, make sure to really push it. You can have it painted on your unit, add it in all your social media posts and include it on all your printed advertising.
Competitions and promotions
Promotions are a great way to spread the word about your mobile catering business and have the potential to increase foot traffic to your unit. Think about holding special offers during slower periods, such as half-price meals between 1pm – 5pm on Mondays. You could also introduce loyalty schemes to encourage repeat custom.
You can also run competitions on social media in order to get your name out there as it’s likely that your current audience has contacts who are also in your target demographic. For example, you could encourage your audience to like, share and comment on your post to be in with a chance to win a free meal. If 50 of your followers share your post to their followers, say 200 each, you’ve then got the potential for 10,000 new people to see your company. This could develop your following and exposure exponentially in just a short period of time.
It requires hard work and commitment to establish a business and make it stand out from the crowd, but the payoff is often worth it. We can help you to protect your investment with a great insurance policy. To speak to us about how we can help, call Bennett Christmas Insurance Broker on 01444 810 444.