You know how to cater an event. Now it’s time to let everyone else know how good you are! And the first step is to reach people where they spend their time. In 2024, that place is social media. With over 2 billion active users, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, making it the perfect place for your marketing efforts. Here are six tips to promote your catering services on Instagram.
Use templates to make great graphics
Instagram is all about the visuals. In fact, you can’t even post something that doesn’t have either a video or an image attached! And with so many users, there are millions of posts uploaded to the platform every day, meaning you won’t stand out unless you post only high-quality graphics.
Of course, you’re busy being a catering rockstar every day. You probably don’t have time to design amazing Instagram graphics from scratch. Luckily, there are thousands of free catering flyer templates available online from websites like PosterMyWall.
All you have to do is find the template that best fits your brand, add your personal flair with the easy drag-and-drop editor, and you’re ready to upload to Instagram. Templates are the best way to produce eye-catching content without taking time out of your busy schedule.
Post high-quality images and videos of your food
People can’t resist a mouthwatering dish. Just imagine them scrolling through their feeds and landing on an image of your food. They’d stop immediately to book your company for their next event! But remember all that competition? Your content has to be of the highest quality.
Don’t just snap a quick cell phone picture of your food while you’re on the job. Take your time to get the perfect angle, add filters, and make adjustments to suit your unique style. The better the photos and videos, the more attention you’ll get online.
Share behind-the-scenes content
Your team isn’t just about making great food for events. You like to have fun, too! And customers respond to brands they can engage with. One of the best social media marketing strategies is to show your company’s personality with behind-the-scenes content.
Encourage your employees to take photos and videos of themselves on the job. It doesn’t even have to be related to food. Any content that showcases your team’s unique personality will humanize your brand and help your followers engage with your team. Who do you think someone would rather hire: a boring, straightforward business or a bunch of people who seem like a lot of fun to be around (and can cook, too!)?
Instagram stories are a great place to post your behind-the-scenes content. These short videos are deleted after 24 hours, making them perfect for impromptu content you might not want on your permanent feed.
Engage with your followers
Many companies forget one of the main ideas behind social media: to be social! It’s not just a one-way street; you have to actively engage with your followers. Respond to comments and direct messages (DMs) and even comment or like other people’s posts — especially if they tag your business.
This back-and-forth between you and your followers is another great way to build engagement. When people feel like they know a brand personally, they’re more likely to hire them when the need arises. So be friendly!
Run a few Instagram ads
The biggest frustration with Instagram is that only your followers see your content organically. If you want to grow your reach quickly (and you do), take out a few Instagram ads.
With Instagram ads, you pay the platform a small fee, and it’ll promote your content to an audience demographic of your choice. You can choose your target audience down to the age, gender, interest, and even location to target your perfect customers.
The best part about Instagram ads is that you can decide how much you want to pay, so it’s easy to stay on budget! You can easily get thousands of views for just a few dollars per day. Ads are a great, cost-effective way to expand your reach on social media.
Use the right hashtags
Don’t want to spend money on ads but still want to reach a larger following? Try hashtags. When you add a hashtag to a post, it gets lumped in with all the other posts using the same hashtag. Then, users can search hashtags to find related posts, even if they don’t follow the pages.
For example, you could use the hashtag #eventcatering. When someone is looking for a caterer for their wedding, they can search #eventcatering on Instagram and see all the posts using that hashtag — even if they don’t follow you. They’ll see your amazing food and instantly want to hire you for their event!
The key to choosing the right hashtag is to do your research. Find out which hashtags are trending and sprinkle them into your posts. It’s also important to remember that the more popular the hashtag, the more competition you’ll face. While if you use a less popular hashtag, you’ll have fewer views, but you won’t have the competition. That’s why most marketers use between three and five hashtags per post.
Grow your catering business with Instagram marketing
With billions of active users, Instagram is a great place to get more visibility to your catering service. However, if you want to stand out from the crowd, it’s important to create amazing graphics with templates, post only high-quality content, share behind-the-scenes footage of your team, engage with your followers, run some social ads, and use the right hashtags.
When all your Instagram marketing efforts work together, you’ll be the first call for anyone who needs a caterer at their next event!
