There’s no shortage of ways you can market your off-premise catering services. There’s social media, content, word-of-mouth, partnerships, online marketing, offline marketing. It’s enough to make your head spin!
A question we’re often asked is “Should we use email to promote our catering services?”
The answer is absolutely yes!
A Great Way To Reach Customers
If you want to reach current and prospective catering clients you need to go where they are. And where they are is on email. It’s also most people’s preferred way to be contacted by a business.
Dramatic ROI
Not only is email marketing an effective way to meet your customers where they are, but it’s also a marketing tactic with an outstanding return on investment (ROI). Email provides the top ROI among media for acquiring and retaining customers.
Part of the reason is that email marketing is inexpensive. Take leading email marketing company Constant Contact. It offers plans starting at $15/month and includes professional email templates, email list management and reports about the performance of your emails and campaigns.
We use email to communicate with prospective, current and past clients. With segmentation with can send emails about smoothie catering to those people who noted they were interested in that catering service. It’s about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.
Analytics Let Your Improve Campaigns Over Time
Wouldn’t it be great if you knew what was working – and what wasn’t – with your marketing? Email actually tells you. When you use an email marketing tool you’ll get detailed message tracking and analytics. Data can include how many messages were sent, how many bounced, how many were opened and how many recipients clicked on message links. Even who they are. This information can help you figure out what works and what doesn’t, what days of the week and what times of day get the most engagement. You can also test subject lines to find out which work best. You can use this knowledge to tailor your email marketing to your specific audience which means more business over time because you’ll be delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.
Reminds Customers That You’re There
Email marketing done right keeps you are the forefront in the minds of your current customers and customers-to-be. This means they’re more likely to think of you the next time they need catering. On average, it takes seven touches, or contacts of a potential customer with your company, for an action to occur. When you send a marketing email, you provide customers with valuable information, but you also remind them that you’re there to meet their catering needs.
How are you using email to grow your catering business? Leave a comment below.
