Using Social Media To Attract Customers to Your Catering Business
2017 was a landmark year for social media in: the UK had more social media users than ever before. Over 58% of the UK populations, (which is about 39 million people) used social media regularly.
Normal projections suggest that now in 2018, we are looking at over 42 million active social media users in the UK. Its’s no surprise then that businesses across the globe have are looking to the potential benefits social media can offer – apart from being largely free to use.
In 2017, Facebook proved to be the most visited social network with 67% of online adults regularly using Facebook. Facebook should no longer be considered a social media playground, because many companies use Facebook to market their business, and 74% of people admit to using Facebook for professional purposes. That being said, how effective are social media platforms within the catering industry? Should catering business invest valuable resources attracting customers via social media.
In a recent report, Business Insider showed that Millennials eat out more often than any generation, with over half of them eating out at least once a week. The Independent also reported that 16-24 year olds spend more on food than any other age group.
When you consider that 87% of 18-29 year olds actively using social media platforms, it becomes clear that catering businesses have a huge amount to gain by targeting millennial customers via social media.
In fact, according to a recent Pulse Survey by Nisbets, retailer of catering equipment, after word-of-mouth (34%), social media was considered to be the second most effective form of marketing (28%), with business websites being third at 20%.
Do believe the Facebook Hype
It won’t come as a surprise that Facebook was the most used platform by catering businesses. 52% of respondents actively use Facebook as part of their marketing strategy, which means that there is still an opportunity for you to find a new channel strategy in what is becoming an increasingly saturated high-street. If your restaurant is off the beaten path, Facebook marketing becomes essential.
Also, with ‘failing to execute on brand‘, being one of the top 10 reasons that restaurants fail, you would be crazy to to overlook the brand marketing potential of Facebook.
Facebook allows you to build your brand using features such as ‘check-in’ and reviews, both of which can be made on the platform. You can also host competitions, promote enticing new dishes, seasonal menus/events and special offers via the platform. Its a great way to build your brand. It’s actually essential because, increasingly, users want to visit a catering establishment’s social media profile before they visit the restaurant itself.
It may be not as well known as the others, but don’t forget Instagram. This platform which is used by 18% of Nisbets’ survey respondents, is a primarily visual platform making it perfect place to showcase your dishes, premises and menus. Food pictures are a crucila marketing tool and one of the main way of drawing in diners. In the UK alone, there were approximately 14 million active monthly Instagram users throughout 2017.
Twitter is the second most popular social media network for marketing catering and hospitality companies. While LinkedIn, Snapchat and Pinterest are used for marketing catering, they occupy just a small percentage of the catering industry market when compared to the big three: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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