According to recent statistics, 1 in 5 Australians eat lunch at their desk. This means that there is a high demand for catered food. By extrapolation, your catering business should be extremely busy. The reality is less rosy – you are still trying to figure out ways to get more sales.
Competition Has Got to an All-Time High
The truth is that the average office worker has many options to choose from: fast food, traditional home cooked meals, vegan food, Italian, Chinese, Indian cuisine, etc. Your catering business is like one drop of water in an ocean. But you can stand out and get more people to order their lunch from you.
What you need to do is what all your competitors do – run Facebook™ ads for catering businesses. The social media network is one of the busiest cyber spaces in the world. Over 2.3 billion people in the world have Facebook™ accounts and are active every month. And the most active age group (29.7%) precisely matches your target customers’ demographic group: 25-34 years old.
How Can Facebook™ Ads for Catering Businesses Help You?
The most effective ad is the one that is shown to the right person at the right moment. And this is exactly what Facebook™ ads can do for your business. You can target ads to appear on the timelines of potential customers using very detailed settings. You can schedule these ads to be delivered at the exact moment when office workers are taking a break and browsing their Facebook™ pages looking for lunch ideas.
Does this surprise you? People no longer use Google for making purchasing decisions. They do not want a list of catering businesses. They want to know if their friends ordered from a specific catering place, how they rate the food and the delivery service and how many customers recommend their menu. They want to enjoy special discounts every now and then.
They cannot get all these details from a Google search – they get them on Facebook™.
Actionable Ideas for Getting More Customers with Facebook™ Ads
Now that you get the picture of how people interact with Facebook™ in searching for office lunch options, here are just a few things you can do to grow your number of orders:
1. Promote the Weekly/Seasonal Special Menu
Scarcity is a great prompt for people to hurry and take up an offer. They will not pay attention to your delicious dishes if they can always find them in your menu. But they will certainly want to try your food if they can only enjoy it this week, or for a limited time during special celebrations or seasons.
With Facebook™ ads for catering businesses, you can easily set up an ad to run for a specific period of time (days, weeks) and promote your seasonal dishes or this week’s menu. Add some mouth watering photos and your kitchen and delivery employees will be busy every day.
2. Offer Special Discounts for Group Orders
Many office workers pool their money together and buy from the same catering service. This is very convenient for everyone, because they usually enjoy a discount for large orders. Just like your competitors, you probably have some discount thresholds for group orders.
It is enough for one person in the office to see your Facebook™ ads for catering businesses. They will quickly share the offer with their co-workers and you will get a large order.
3. Target Existing Customers with Discount Coupons
You may have some customers who order food for home or for various family events. These clients can be easily nurtured to try your lunch menu at the office with a discount coupon.
By using the Facebook™ Pixel on your website and importing your list of client email addresses, you can identify these clients and create a special ad campaign just for them.
4. Target People Who Announce an Event
Many people organise a small office party for their birthday or to celebrate a promotion, retirement, etc. To help everyone interested know about the occasion, they create a Facebook™ event. And you can target them precisely for this type of behaviour.
Facebook™ ads for catering businesses can be targeted to the most refined group of people you can think of. Thus, you can select people who are organising an event, who are about to get marry, to retire, to change their job, etc. The only thing you should remember that as you add more filters, the smaller your ad audience will be.
5. Promote App Installs
If you have a mobile app for lunch orders, you should definitely use Facebook™ ads for catering businesses to get more people to install it. Ordering from an app is more convenient than going to a website or calling a telephone number.
Plus, you get to interact more with your clients through the app via push notifications announcing Happy Hours, the daily special, etc.