A Practical Guide to Competitor Analysis For Your Catering Business

The catering industry has always been ferociously competitive. And, to thrive, you have to punch above your weight to make your business a "Big Daddy" in your area offering best-in-class catering services.

Not only you've to get on-board the popular chefs with expertise in diverse international cuisines and strengthen your customer support, but also keep a tab on your closed marketing rivals and their updated internet marketing strategies.

Competitor evaluation involves investing time & efforts in identifying & researching your competitors and gaining valuable information as a competitive advantage. It will help you craft a data-driven powerful marketing strategy to steer your catering business in the right direction.

Here's How to Do Competitive Scrutiny in Five Easy Steps:-

Step 1: Know Your Competitors

Narrow down on 3-5 market rivals in your service area using the SEO keywords you are targeting, such as "Local Wedding Caterer." Seek your known recommendations, like your friends, neighbours, or even relatives to recommend you, top-rated caterers. You can also find your neck-throat rivals in the Google SERP result page's Ads section. 

You can also hire a reliable online marketing services company to conduct a holistic competitive analysis and provide you with the most updated data for making tweaks to your marketing campaigns and drive more user engagements and sales revenue.

Step 2: Obtain Background Information

Once you've identified your competitors, the next step is to know their background details. It is imperative to understand what you are up against in size and finance.

You Must Check for the Following Data:- 

• When was the company established?
• Are there any venture capital investors?
• Any company they acquired?
• What is their revenue?
• What is their employee size? 

You'll get the answer to the first three queries on company review sites such as Yahoo Finance or Crunchbase. The former also provides the company's last year revenue data. You can know the number of employees working at a particular caterer service provider by visiting the company's Linkedin page. 

Even if your market rivals are big giants in the area, it doesn't mean you can't compete with them, you've to put in efforts & have real passion, and success will come running for you. 

Step 3: Analyze Services 

Understand what your closed market rivals offer; do they specialize in weddings or catering significant corporate events? Know what features they provide in a particular service, like the cuisines they cover, will they provide glassware? 

You can obtain all such information by thoroughly visiting their website and contacting their sales team as a potential client. 

Finally, know the pricing of their catering services, this will give you a fair idea of their approach.

Step 4: Get Familiar With Their Targeting & Positioning

It is essential to know who your competitors are targeting (target segment), and how they want their prospective clients to perceive their services (positioning). Visit their homepage, and you'll find what target audience they're more interested in. 

For instance, they attract CEOs and top managers who frequently host corporate company parties for clients and employees. Only then you'll get an idea of whether they are getting in your path. Also, check their ads history report on Ahrefs to learn about your competitor's targeting & positioning. 

Step 5: Do Some Ghost Shopping 

The best way to evaluate your market rival's is to review their services as a client.

 First, review their whole booking process. Visit the website, and follow step-by-step to make an event catering booking, and leave it, hop out in the last step. Was the process smooth? Did you encounter any technical trouble? In how many steps the booking was confirmed? All this information will undoubtedly help you improve your booking process. 

Next, is to know their sales tactics? Did they try to add more service features or upgrade to something more expensive? Do they offer discounts? Do they ask for upfront payment? Answers to these questions are invaluable to your sales & marketing department. 

Conclusion 

At Al Shan Marketing, we offer full-suite, bespoke Internet marketing services targeted to those in the catering business. We'll help you: 

• Get real leads from Facebook and Instagram.
• Make your online presence professional.
• Get found in your area. 

To know more about how our online marketing services can prove to be a game-changer for your catering business, book a consultation with our digital marketing manager today!