We all can feel the Holiday Season slowly creeping up on us. We know it’s only early October but, still being the business savvy individuals that we are, we want to get ahead of our competition and grow our private dining and catering sales this year. We know that each year we must have a competitive advantage over our competitors and must strategically think outside of the box to attract new and existing business to book their holiday parties with us.
A massive trend right now to grow sales is advertising and enticing through social media. With numerous outlets of social media readily available for us, we must try our hardest to use as many of the various sites and apps to draw the attention of our consumers. Traditional social media outlets are Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat but, we have learned that there is one source of social media that is not being utilized to its fullest potential. This is LinkedIn.
You are able to use different tactics on LinkedIn to build an online presence and generate profitable prospects. The key to using LinkedIn as a sales-generating tool is to always ask, "How can I add value?" With that mindset, you're on the right path to attracting new customers.
LinkedIn offers services and products pages within your profile so that you can highlight your offerings. This is the perfect place to highlight catering options as well as event spaces. Companies are always looking for new places to cater food in for big meetings to wow new clients or for sales meetings. They may even be looking for the next place to hold a sales meeting or a company outing. Having your information handy on your LinkedIn profile could just score your restaurant a huge corporate order!
There of course are numerous ways to to use LinkedIn to promote your catering and private dining capabilities but, to help make it simple and to the point we have identified the tope four.
1. Bounce Back Programs
A “bounce back” is a message displayed at the bottom of your receipts. Every customer receives a receipt, utilize these receipt to help drive further business. You’ve likely noticed that many of your favorite franchises utilize bounce backs, this is obviously for a very good reason – it works!
2. Create a call to action.
Don't just list your name and title in your headline. Instead, tell your network whom you have helped and how you have helped them. Explain the benefits you can provide because that's what really communicates who you are and what you do -- not a title.
3. Create an industry-specific LinkedIn group.
Forming a LinkedIn group is one of the most effective ways to get your network excited and engaged about a specific topic, all while driving traffic to your site and increasing sales.
As the group was getting off the ground, members began connecting and helping each other and brings extreme value to your brand.
4. Be active in LinkedIn's 'Question and Answers'
No matter what industry you're in, strategically participating in Questions and Answers can absolutely help boost sales.
The Q&A area is where users can post questions and get answers from others on the network. While this is an opportunity to demonstrate your industry expertise, you should tread lightly and avoid hyping your brand. Be a resource that answers people's questions without pitching your company, product or service.
