Introduction: What is an organic food catering service?
As health and wellness is becoming more popular, people are looking for healthier food alternatives. People don’t only want to eat this way at home, but they also want to make it a lifestyle. Additionally, due to the pandemic, there has been a rise in individuals wanting to lead healthier lifestyles. Many catering companies offer health options but to find a catering company that mainly focuses on this aspect is rare. An organic food catering service ensures that you and your guests enjoy delicious, high quality gourmet foods while remaining healthy.
Organic food catering supports farmers who invest in producing food that is free from pesticides, fertilizers and GMO (Genetically modified organism). The meat that used is also chemical and hormone free. We prepare menu’s that are of high quality food standards yet health conscious and centered on wellness. Includes: In season fruits and vegetables, organic meat, dairy. This industry is valued at $56.4 billion.
Why is a digital marketing strategy needed for such a business?
“A digital marketing strategy describes a series of actions that use online marketing channels to achieve various goals. Channels can include owned, paid, and earned media. A digital marketing action plan allows you to build and launch your online marketing strategy with success.”
A digital marketing plan is required for this business as they target a niche audience. Such an audience need not only to know that they exist, but where to look and find them. By creating a digital marketing strategy, you ensure that this is done successfully with measurable outcomes.
Diet Plan
Before you start . . .
Before you start you need to evaluate your business and its current digital footprint. If you have already had existing social media platforms, it may be useful to check their analytics. This can help you get information such as the demographics that are interested in your business, the posts that gain the most attention and engagements, which times are your audience most active, and your product or service sentiment. These insights are beneficial in understanding your audience preference, what works or doesn’t works and what you would need to implement in your strategy.
Each platform comes with its own feature than provides insights and analytics:
- Facebook insights
- Instagram Insights
- Twitter Analytics
- Pinterest Analytics
- LinkedIn Analytics
- Youtube Analytics
You can also use third party tools that will provide more metrics that offer more depth and insight into your accounts. There are free and paid social media analytics tools. Those that are paid for may offer more data. Depending on your budget, you can use free or paid social media analytical tools:
Free social media analytical tools
Paid social media analytical tools
After checking the statistics, it’s essential to establish what you would like to achieve from digital platforms and plan the necessary steps you can take them.
Meal Prep
These steps will help to inform and guide your strategy. However, you will need to establish your goals and objectives to maximize on your strategy and to make it as specific as possible. A good strategy plan will include short and long term goals and about 2-3 main goals with 3-5 supporting goals.
In order for an organic catering company to succeed they need for people to know about them, they need to constantly be in touch with their audiences and update them on their menus, they also need leads.
A good digital marketing strategy will provide direction and a clear overview of what you want to achieve. It will also show how you are competing against other businesses in your industry.
Goals should follow the SMART method which is:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time specific
Below we will list the 3 main goals then break up the supporting goals into long and short term goals.
Three main goals:
- Brand awareness & Visibility
- Customer engagement and interaction
- Leads and conversions
Short term goals (6 months):
Brand visibility
- Get at least 500 followers/Likes on each platform
- Become active on at least two social media platforms
- Post three times a week
Customer engagement and interactions
- Set up an email subscription on website
- Get atleast 10 email subscribers
- Establish a relationship with audience by finding their “hangout’ spots on social media
Leads and conversions
- Generate web traffic through content
- Get at least 10 page visits
- Invest in PPC advertising
Long term goals (6 months to 1 year):
Brand visibility
- Facilitate customer reviews or testimonials
- Create Google Ad Campaign
- Content Marketing
Customer engagement and interactions
- Become an information hub by creating conversations around your industry
- Create engaging and interactive content
- Run a competition
Leads and conversions
- Create a valuable and relevant website
- Invest in SEO
- Get atleast 10 conversions
How will you know if this is being done succesfully?
Key Performance Indicators are where you can quantify your success. This will enable you to see if the strategy is working or if there are parts you will need to change. Here are the KPI’s we will use to measure:
- Visitors per day/month
- Leads per dy/month
- Conversion rates
- Qualified leads
- Click through rates
- Return on Investment: Conversion rates & Cost per conversion
Who are you speaking to….
Audiences:
Audiences are a fundamental part of any business and knowing who is likely to be interested in your services, their patterns and what they would specifically look for in your services is crucial. Understanding your audiences will help you be more efficient and cater to your audience needs. It will also help you create a great customer experience with your brand. Audience data is one of the best advantages of digital marketing as it offers more depth and insight compared to traditional methods. To understand your audience, you need to know who is interested in your services and why.
According to research, this buyer persona aligns with a typical audience for organic catering services:
- Parents
- Health – conscious individuals
- Individuals who gym
- Youth (18 -30) & Middle aged group (35 – 60). Middle aged group most likely to afford your services
Method: Lets create a healthy digital marketing strategy
This strategy will mostly explain the terms mentioned in the goals section and will offer guidelines and suggestions on how to use them to maximize your digital footprint.
1 . Research your competition
The first thing you want to do is have enough information on how your competition utilizes digital platforms. You should also find information of how others in your industry generally brand themselves on these platforms. This research will help you to find gaps in your industry that your business can fulfill and also remain competitive. These are the questions you can ask during your research:
- How do your competitors present themselves on social media?
- What do your competitors typically include in their website?
- What is the norm in your industry around digital platforms?
- What is your competition not doing that you can offer as a unique selling point?
- What kind of keywords are your competitors using?
- What successful campaigns have you seen them do?
2. Social media
Social media is a great tool to keep in touch with your audience, analyse their lifestyle patterns and maintain close interactions with them. Each social media platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. Below we will focus on the main three platforms, it is advisable to start with these then you can branch off to others.
Twitter: Mostly textual but great for keeping up with conversations around your industry
Facebook: A mixture of visual and textual. Has a large population, however it may take longer for your page to get attention.
Instagram: Great for visual content such as videos and photos. Does not allow for much text.
Content is key….
But knowing what kind of content to post on which platform goes a long way. As an organic catering business, we suggest that your main focus should be on visual content. And your main platforms should be Instagram and Facebook. Here are some suggestions for the kind of content you can post:
- Pictures of your events
- Close up pictures of your food
- Videos showing food prep
- Informational posts on organic products
- Educational posts on health and wellness
More tips:
- Post frequently
- Interact with others. Be part of important conversations in your industry.
- Engage with customers in an appropriate tone
- Try and create an experience for your customers with your content.
3. Google services
Google offers many services that are advantageous to your business. Having your business on google is essential to create credibility and trust around your business as many users use it as a search patform to look up products or services that they would like to use. Here are some features you should focus on to get the most out of Google services:
- Google My Business: This is like an online business card. It will help local potential customers find you and can include reviews or testimonials from previous customers. It will also give details such as your business website, address, and phone number.
- SEO: Search engine optimization is a way to help Google find your business and rank it on its top page results when customers are looking for your services. It is therefore important to use relevant keywords in your website that they may use in their search. SEO is an organic way to rank at the top and usually takes some time, hence it’s listed under long term goals. However, once its successfully implemented, it can bring great results.
- PPC: Pay per click advertising helps your website to appear at the top of a search engine result page through an advert or campaign. This method also requires you to be well aware of the relevant keywords that your audiences use and may require a good budget to be successful. Google also provides an analytics tool to get insight into how your adverts are doing. (See analytics section)
- Your website: Your website is the most important thing on Google. You need to make sure that it’s well designed, easy to use, appealing, and provides relevant information to your audiences. If your website successfully incorporates these factors, it can also help your SEO rank higher.
- Leads and conversions: These are terms I used interchangeably in the goals section. Leads refer to content in which your audience clicked to access your website and find out more about your business. This is important to find out so you know what type of content they respond to and to focus on. Conversations refer to leads that resulted in a purchase decision. It is equally important to know what content or experience lead them to purchase so you can refine it.
- Blogging: Blogs are also a great way to help with your SEO ranking as it provides your website with the relevant keywords that your audiences use. Through blogging, you can also show your audience that you are knowledgeable about your industry. Your blogs should be fun and informational.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing can count as a point of conversion as it indicates interest. Email subscriptions are usually done on the website when your audience has interacted with your audience. Email marketing is great tool to use to personalize communication with your audience. Its also great to personally inform them about upcoming promotions or discounts you may have running at that point. Emails can be sent once a month to maintain a relationship with your audience and it will also help so that they always have your company in mind.
5. Digital Branding
It is easy to implement the things mentioned above; however you need to make sure that your brand is well represented on all these points. This means that you should be consistent in how you present your business. Pay attention to the content you use, your graphics should always be of good quality and your company colors should be the guiding theme. You should also be aware of the general tone your audience respond to and incorporate that tone into your blogs and posts.
We suggest always using pictures that are crisp and clear with bright colors. We also suggest that your general tone should be lighthearted and fun.
Written By: Poloko Mokonehatse