How to Grow a Catering Business: An Independent Operator’s Guide to Marketing, Menu, Execution

Why Catering Is the Independent Operator’s Secret Growth Channel

If you’ve wondered how to grow a catering business as an independent operator, this piece is for you! We often talk with independent restaurant operators who believe that catering can’t be profitable, and this is a myth we want to bust. 

Catering can add significant, high-margin revenue without opening new store locations or adding dine-in capacity. Many independent operators assume catering is too complex or resource-intensive, but it’s often more scalable than dine-in. 

With the right menu, marketing, and execution strategy, I’ve seen how catering can become a repeatable, profitable growth channel, even for single-unit operators. Read on to learn more.

1. Build the Right Catering Menu

When it comes to catering menu profitability, the key is to keep things simple but strategic. Catering leaders recommend using existing inventory to build bundles or trays that can be prepared in large batches and that will travel well. 

Switching to bundles or boxed meals can drive up your average ticket size and reduce waste in the kitchen and for the customer, which also increases profitability. 

It’s smart to include profitable add-ons as well, like desserts, beverages, and anything else that requires minimal labor while rounding out the dining experience. 

2. Invest in Marketing for Caterers to Reach Local Customers

You’re likely already promoting your catering business in some way. Consider these low-cost actions to level up your marketing (read on for details about them all):

• Pair marketplace visibility with incentives

• Solidify your online presence

• Engage with prospective customers via email and social media

• Plan and activate grassroots marketing

Pair Marketplace Visibility with Incentives

You probably hear all the time that visibility is everything, and we agree with that. Even if you rely on a marketplace delivery dispatch tool for exposure, think about adding incentives and personalization to your packaging. This can encourage customers to order directly from you in the future, which is more beneficial for long-term profitability. 

It’s best to put the flyers for reordering incentives, your menus, and personal thank you notes right inside the packaging. Since it’s all going to be sealed up anyway, it’ll keep those important communications secure. 

Online Presence

To make direct ordering easy and discoverable outside of a marketplace, you can create a simple catering landing page to promote online ordering for catering. You’ll want to be sure it’s mobile and SEO-friendly so catering customers can access it easily, because they’re looking for convenience and reliability, not just food. 

It’s a good idea to include a clear call to action on both your homepage and the catering landing page that lets people know they’ve come to the right place to order directly from your restaurant. 

Email & Social Media

Besides putting communications about direct ordering inside your packaging, you can promote it through email, business listings like Google and Yelp, and social media sites. 

Social media provides a great opportunity to show off your food and team. Your photos don’t have to be professionally staged; concentrate on authenticity and letting people see how your menu items look when they’re prepared.

(Pro-tip: The DeliverThat dashboard includes setup photos for each delivery. Download and show off!)

Social media platforms can also bolster the customer experience, too. You can reach out personally to past clients, just as a reminder that you’re there! Tag customers in photos, too, for added visibility.

Grassroots Marketing for Catering

If you have the margin to do it, sampling can be a very effective marketing tool for your careering services. Consider these low-effort options:

• Drop off a tray at a local business, school, fire department, or library

• Sponsor a lunch for a youth softball team or soccer team

• Engage in neighborhood groups or your local chamber of commerce to find businesses or organizations that may need catering in the future

There are many possibilities at the community level. Remember, you're going for visibility, so you should leave promo cards and menus out for people to take with them. Combining relationship building with easy ordering is how to get catering clients. 

3. Make Every Order Feel Like an Experience

Know this: execution is where trust is won or lost. As delivery professionals, we can tell you late deliveries, missing items, or poor presentation are going to lower your chances of future orders. To ensure accuracy and consistency across orders, make a checklist and standardize packaging, branding, and setup. Doing so will also create a more memorable, professional experience for customers. 

A red flag is when independent operators treat catering like a large takeout order. Unlike takeout, catering involves on-site setup and presentation, and your customer might not know what the end results should look like. Consider providing serving instructions and presentation tools, like tray labels, to make the job easier for the end user, whether it’s your customer or a delivery provider. When handing off a catering order to a delivery provider, be sure to spend a moment with the driver to make sure they know how to set up, who your customer is, and any other details about the order that will help them execute.

4. Measure Success by Tracking ROI and Customer Lifetime Value

Like many areas of this business, the devil is in the details. When tracking ROI, I recommend independent operators go beyond total revenue. Focus on metrics like:

• Net profit per order

• Average order size

• Repeat rate

• Refund frequency

It’s smart to be intentional about capturing customer data, too. Collect a name, company, email address, and phone number on every order to enable follow-up and re-marketing. A simple quarterly check-in or a reminder of a seasonal item that’s coming up is how to get catering clients to turn from one-time buyers into recurring accounts.

(Pro tip: DeliverThat’s integration with many catering marketplaces and catering management tools means all of your guest data is available in one central location.)

You can also use post-order surveys or thank you emails to reinforce the experience and drive retention. To build a repeatable system over time, set realistic growth benchmarks.

Catering Isn’t Just for National Chains. It’s for Growth-Oriented Independent Operators, Too.

With the right menu, marketing, and execution, you can generate more profit than you thought as an independent operator.

Partners like DeliverThat can help scale delivery capacity without added operational burden, letting you focus on food and service. Are you interested in learning more?

Schedule a demo with one of our team members to learn more about how to work and grow with us!