Skip to main content

Category

Catering and event business

Catering is the volume most restaurants can add without another location, and the one most of them have no page for. This category covers what a corporate buyer is actually looking for, why catering searches behave differently from dinner searches, how to structure an inquiry form people finish, and why response time decides more catering bookings than price does. It also covers the local event calendar and when demand really spikes. After reading it you should know whether catering is worth pursuing in your kitchen, and what has to exist before you chase it.

Start here

All twenty articles on catering and event business

In reading order rather than by date. 20 published so far, and the rest are written and scheduled. Titles without a link are not live yet.

  1. How restaurants get found for catering searches

    Restaurants get found for catering the same way they get found for dinner, with one difference: catering searches almost always land on a page, not on a map listing.

  2. Why your restaurant has no catering page and what it is costing you

    Most restaurants that do catering have no catering page. They have a line on the contact page, a phone number, and a hope that people ask.

  3. Corporate catering: what the buyer is actually looking for

    The corporate catering buyer is not looking for the best food. They are looking for the lowest chance of being embarrassed in front of their colleagues.

  4. Catering pricing pages: publish or hide

    Publish. Not a full price list, but a starting per person figure and a minimum.

  5. How to structure a catering inquiry form that people finish

    A catering inquiry form should ask six things: date, headcount, delivery or pickup, event type, contact, and anything you must know to say yes.

  6. Wedding catering searches and how they differ from corporate

    Wedding catering searches happen months earlier, involve more people, and are decided on taste and trust rather than logistics.

  7. Getting catering referrals from hotels that turn business away

    Hotels turn away catering constantly, usually because the group is too small, the date is blocked, the cuisine is outside their kitchen, or the budget is below their floor.

  8. Catering lead response time and why it decides the booking

    Catering buyers contact several caterers at once and book largely on who answers first with something usable.

  9. What a catering menu page needs that a dinner menu does not

    A dinner menu lists dishes for one person choosing for themselves. A catering menu has to answer quantity, format, service style, lead time, and what survives transport, for a person.

  10. How to rank for catering in a city you do not have an address in

    You cannot rank in the map pack for a city where you have no address, and you should not try.

  11. Off-premise catering logistics that show up in your reviews

    Catering reviews are almost never about the food. They are about arrival time, temperature, portion accuracy, missing serving utensils, and whether anyone had to call you.

  12. Building a catering calendar around the local event season

    A catering calendar is a twelve month view of when demand in your market actually arrives, built from your own order history and your city's event schedule.

  13. Graduation, holiday, and corporate cycles: when catering demand actually spikes

    Catering demand does not arrive as one busy season. It arrives as three separate cycles with different buyers, different lead times, and different price sensitivity.

  14. Catering minimums and how to state them without losing the lead

    State the minimum plainly, high on the page, in the same sentence as what the buyer gets for it.

  15. Photos that sell catering versus photos that sell dinner

    A dinner photo sells appetite for one plate. A catering photo sells confidence that you can feed a room.

  16. Turning one corporate catering client into a standing order

    Ask for the next date before you leave the first one. A standing order almost never starts with a contract, it starts with a buyer who never had to make a second decision because you.

  17. How event planners choose caterers and where they look

    Event planners start with the venue's preferred vendor list, then their own contacts, then search.

  18. Catering reviews: who leaves them and how to ask

    Catering reviews come from the buyer, not the guests. One person ordered for forty, and that one person is the only one who knows what you promised, what it cost, and whether it.

  19. What to do when your kitchen cannot take the catering job

    Say no the same day, name the reason, and give the buyer somewhere else to go.

  20. The catering numbers a restaurant owner should track

    Six numbers tell you everything: inquiries received, quotes sent, orders booked, average order value, median response time, and repeat rate.

Be honest with yourself

When this category is not your problem

If your kitchen cannot absorb a hundred covers leaving at once without hurting the dining room, do not market catering yet. The first bad corporate job costs you the account and the reviews.

And if nobody on your team can answer a catering inquiry within the hour during the day, the leads will arrive and go elsewhere. Response time is the whole game here, and it is an operations decision before it is a marketing one.

Where to go next

If you are not sure whether catering is worth chasing in your kitchen, write to eric@seod.com with your concept and seating and I will tell you honestly. Sometimes the answer is that your dining room is the better investment, and I would rather say that.

A catering page is a service page. Search visibility works it alongside the profile, citations and NAP consistency around it.

Call Eric Email Eric