When it comes to promoting and advertising your food or restaurant business, you need the expertise and experience of a food marketing company.
As you know, the food industry is highly competitive. Thus, it’s essential to have an edge. Whether you have a catering business, a butcher shop, a food truck, or meat processing business, you must stand out from your competition.
In today’s digital world, you need to familiarize yourself with effective food marketing strategies to make sure you thrive in the business.
In today’s post, we’ll talk about what important questions you need to ask a food marketing company before hiring them.
What is your specialty as a food marketing company?
Every marketing and advertising firm, even those that full-service companies who claim that they can do anything, has got to have a specialty.
For some firms, they are more adept in web development and content. For others, they specialize in branding and reputation management.
Figure out what your goal is for your food business and go from there.
Once you do, it would help you narrow down food marketing companies and go after one that can match your goals, needs, and preferences for your business.
What is the price of your services, and what is included in it?
There are places where you can find cheap marketing services. However, you should keep in mind that “cheap” doesn’t always translate to “good.” This fact is especially true if you want to hire an experienced food marketing company.
Determine what your advertising and marketing budget is. Then, align it with what your advertising and marketing goals are. Ask yourself what you can afford within reason.
Do you need a full advertising and marketing service, or do you have small projects over a specific amount of time you need help?
No reputable food marketing company will give you a price quote during your initial contact. If they do, that’s not a good sign. That means they are not willing to do a comprehensive analysis of your marketing needs and how to meet them.
However, a marketing company can share what the minimum price is of their services. Also, a reputable company will ask you the right questions to understand your business, come up with a strategy, and implement the plan.
How long do you work with your clients?
You will get a lot of insight when you ask this question to a food marketing company. Their answer will illustrate what type of business relationships they keep and how much they value loyalty and customer relations.
Can you show me your case studies?
Case studies are write-ups with details about a problem and the outlined solutions. Many marketing firms will showcase case studies to share what gains they made and achieved through marketing strategies.
If your potential marketing company doesn’t have case studies prepared, don’t write them off too quickly. You can still ask for references and testimonials from previous and current clients.
How will you provide reports and updates?
As a client, you will need to get reports and updates to illustrate where your advertising dollars go.
Whether it’s a weekly or monthly report, ask your marketing company what the reporting frequency is. Also, consistent monitoring and adjustments to your campaign are essential to make sure that you are getting the best out of your marketing and advertising budget.
Are there any additional fees?
Typically, a food marketing company will give you a price quote of the project fee. This price will include all the costs associated with implementing the service.
However, there are cases where there are additional services that they may bill you separately. Some of these extra services may include more content development, social media campaigns, printing, videography, lead generation, etc.
Either way, you must always have a good understanding of what these services mean, what the numbers are, and how your business can benefit from their offered services.