Catering enquiries marketing: a page, a price, a fast reply

Aug 22
3 min read

Updated: Aug 27

Introduction

Catering and private events are usually the highest-value transactions a food business handles, and the least deliberately marketed. They arrive by accident, through someone who happened to eat there.

The gap between accidental and deliberate is not large. It is mostly a page, a price and a process.

1. Catering enquiries marketing needs its own page, not a mention

Most restaurant websites bury this in a sentence at the bottom of the about page.

Someone looking for catering is running a different search from someone looking for dinner, and they are looking for different information: capacity, minimum numbers, whether you deliver, what a per-head figure looks like, how far ahead to book, and whether you have done their kind of event before.

One dedicated page answering those questions will outperform every other change you make in this area, because it is the only thing that can be found.

2. Publish indicative prices

The most resisted advice and the most effective.

Withholding price to force a conversation loses the enquiries you want most. Anyone organising an event has a budget and is comparing options; without a figure they exclude you rather than ask.

An indicative range with what it includes is enough — a per-head figure, a minimum spend, a delivery threshold. You will receive fewer enquiries and considerably more of them will be viable, which is the point.

3. Answer the logistics before the food

Menus are what you want to talk about. Logistics are what determines whether you are shortlisted.

Maximum and minimum numbers, whether you can accommodate dietary requirements, how much notice you need, whether you provide staff, equipment and crockery, whether you deliver and how far, what happens with leftovers, and how cancellation works.

Someone organising a work lunch for forty people is managing risk. The venue that visibly removes risk wins.

4. Reply within the hour, in a usable format

Reply speed matters more in this category than almost any other, because the enquirer is contacting several venues and often deciding the same day.

Have a template ready that contains the answer rather than asking for a call: the relevant menu, the price, what is included, availability, and the next step. Personalise the top two lines.

An immediate, complete reply frequently wins against a better venue that responds in two days. This is entirely within your control and costs nothing.

5. Ask your existing customers, because they organise things

Your best source of catering work is people already eating in your restaurant.

They have workplaces, families, clubs and committees. Most do not know you cater, because nobody has told them.

Practical routes: a line on the menu, a card with the bill, a mention on your email list, a note at the till. Low effort, and the enquiries arrive pre-qualified because they already like the food.

6. Target the organisers who buy repeatedly

The commercially interesting distinction: some catering customers order once, others order monthly.

Office managers, executive assistants, training providers, estate agents holding viewings, community organisations, film and event crews. These buy repeatedly on a modest budget and are far more valuable than a single large wedding.

Identify the two or three types nearest you and approach them specifically, with a sample and a price sheet rather than a general offer.

7. Photograph the delivered format, not the restaurant plate

Catering photography needs to show what actually arrives.

Platters as they are presented, the buffet laid out, the boxed individual portions, the setup in a meeting room. Someone ordering for a group is picturing the moment it lands on a table in their office.

Beautiful plated restaurant photography does not answer that, and it can raise expectations the catering format cannot meet.

8. Record every enquiry and follow up the ones that went quiet

Catering enquiries have long, irregular cycles, and most businesses lose them to silence rather than to competitors.

Log each one with the date, the event date, the numbers, the value and the outcome. Follow up once a week or two after quoting, and again a month before the event date if you never heard back.

Then follow up after any event you did cater. Repeat catering business is largely a function of asking, and the enquiry log is what makes asking possible a year later.

Conclusion

Build one dedicated page with indicative prices and answer the logistics — numbers, notice, delivery, staff, equipment, cancellation — before describing the food.

Reply within the hour with a complete answer, tell your existing diners that you cater, target the organisers who order repeatedly, photograph the format as delivered rather than plated, and keep an enquiry log so both follow-ups actually happen.