How to Grow Your Customer Base Through Meal Prep Business Marketing?

Preparing delicious meals and delivering them to customers is a whole other experience. Meal prep businesses don’t just delight customers with home-styled food, but also satisfy their souls when serving healthy meals. There are a lot of meal prep companies and with time, they are increasing in number as customers have started ordering food through a meal prep delivery service.

A survey by Hunter shows that 54% of consumers in the US cooked more food than before, and 22% went for prepared meal kits more often. The reason why more people have started turning toward pre-cooked meals is the availability of homemade food in just a few clicks instead of wasting time and money at a restaurant. Many millennials prefer to cook or order healthy food at home rather than go for unhealthy food served at restaurants. A meal prep company is all they need in order to enjoy fresh food delivered to their doorstep.  

So, if you already have such a business, but don’t know how to grow your customer base through meal prep business marketing, this blog will help you get started!

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Why Should You Have a Marketing Plan for Your Meal Prep Business?

The significant growth seen in the meal prep industry has brought people with an online meal prep business to the forefront of marketing their services. As per a Statista report, the worldwide revenue of meal kit delivery services is expected to reach USD 7.6 billion in 2024. 

So having a marketing strategy in place will help you ride the wave of food delivery business trends of 2024. When you have a business model that works on the necessary areas of customer satisfaction, it can turn potential customers into loyal ones. 

Let’s look at a few reasons why marketing is important when providing meal prep services online.

  • Covering specific demographics

    A crucial point in increasing your customer base is understanding the demographics you can cater to or expand towards. Knowing the regions from where people order meal kits through a meal prep business online will help you grow beyond the locality you’re currently serving. A meal prep website and marketing strategy will help you understand this. 

  • Attracting new customers 

    Attracting new customers for meal prep business marketing

    Although people are done with meal planning and wish to save time by ordering them through a meal prep business, they are always curious about what differentiates you from another prep business. The more you promote your business, the more target customers you attract. 

  • Tough competition

    As you know, more and more meal prep businesses are making their way into the market. So you need a business idea that can make you stand out. While traditional methods may work a little, marketing strategies when executed properly will shoot up your business growth like never before.

How to Get More Customers for Your Meal Prep Delivery Business

In a world of digitization and growing competition, an actionable plan is key to stand out and deliver an incredible customer experience. Moreover, it shouldn’t be a static plan that you make once. You need to regularly update it by analyzing the areas of improvement and needs of your ideal clients.

If you are stuck with low order volume and wondering how to market a meal prep delivery business, you may need to dig into all the details. While you may have a website developed, a meal prep software, or a specialized app to take online orders, you still need to work on the below factors to really grow your meal prep business:

  • Conduct a situational analysis

    Conduct a situational analysis to get more meal prep customers

    A SWOT analysis, i.e., finding out the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, can help you pinpoint the areas you need to work on. 

    It lets you identify your competitors and gives insights into their strengths, weaknesses, and operations. This analysis will help you determine what’s making them grow and give your meal prep business a competitive edge.

  • Create a profile to understand your target market

    As we saw earlier, knowing your potential customers’ needs and demographics can go a long way toward understanding them. Check out things like the restaurants and the type of cuisine they like to eat, along with characteristics like their age, profession, and income level. This will help you plan the menu and price list accordingly. 

  • Buying Motivation

    It is crucial to know why customers prefer to buy meals online rather than prepare them themselves. Are they occupied with busy routines, looking for healthy lifestyle menus, checking out promotional offers, or wanting to savor a scrumptious meal? Based on the answers, you can design your menu to fit everything in one place. 

5 Essential Tips to Take Your Meal Prep Business to the Next Level

Now that you have everything in place and are ready to deliver mouth-watering meals to your customers, let’s get into “Show-time.” 

Here are the tips that’ll multiply your orders and bring your meal prep business into the Spotlight:

  1. Referral reward

    When someone suggests your meal prep services to a friend, family member, or colleague, it automatically targets those people. So utilize this opportunity by offering a great experience and a reward or a discount they can offer you when referring you. You can also ask your relatives and friends to spread awareness of your business through social media platforms.

  2. Google search optimization

    SEO for meal prep business marketing

    Let’s say you have added your services to Google, but your name isn’t appearing when people search for a meal prep service on it. This means that your page isn’t correctly optimized in the search engine. To get visibility across your target customers, ensure that your SEO techniques are well-applied. 

  3. Social media marketing 

    People spend a lot of time searching for offers and discounts on Facebook and Instagram. So, it is crucial that you have a page on these social media channels. Along with engaging with your customers, you can also place advertisements to reach your target customers. Showcasing yourself through regular updates, offers, and behind-the-scenes posts is a good way to build trust. 

  4. Email marketing 

    Email marketing for meal prep business marketing

    The main purpose of this age-old strategy is to target customers based on their email IDs collected while they sign up or register for your services. You would have seen many websites asking for emails to register and get discounts for first-time visitors. This is a perfect way to fetch customer data for sending promotional emails!

    While email marketing, focus on what would make them open the email so it doesn’t go into the SPAM folder. An eye-catching subject line and a message that generates an undeniable motivation to order from you would be a great way to go.

  5. Marketing with text or WhatsApp messages 

    This one may seem to be going nowhere, but when it comes to marketing, why leave an option? These texts are a way to be “seen” by customers, given that you are sending crisp messages that are adding some value. Along with text messages, businesses also use WhatsApp marketing to generate more revenue. The more channels you use to market your business, the more possibility of conversion. 

Make Time-sensitive Meal-kit deliveries with Routes Optimized through Upper

As a meal prep business owner, it is extremely important to provide the best food ordering experience to your buyers. The hassle of focusing on your business when you have a tonne of buyers waiting for their orders can be frustrating. 

With Upper, you can schedule unlimited deliveries and find optimized routes with less time and effort. No matter what the number of food deliveries is, it directs your drivers to the most efficient routes.

Here’s how Upper maximizes food deliveries and customer experience:

  1. Optimizes routes instantly

    You don’t need to waste time on manual work when you can find cost-effective routes in a few seconds. In case of a driver’s unavailability, it lets you auto-assign routes to another one instantly. With only a few clicks, you can organize route plans in advance and leave the back-office workload to rest. This route planning solution simplifies your logistics and streamlines your operations.

  2. Sends real-time notifications to meal-kit buyers

    Why keep your customers waiting or doubtful about their deliveries? With this feature, you can alert your customers with automated notifications so they can be prepared to receive their orders. Customers will receive notifications through email or text, as per their preference. 

  3. Collects electronic proof of delivery for successful orders

    You can always rest assured that your customers are getting timely deliveries. Drivers can make notes, collect e-signatures, click photos and even add notes for every order they deliver. It boosts customer experience and accountability as everyone remains informed about the parcel. 

Explore more about how Upper can reduce the paperwork by signing up for a 7 days free trial today!

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Starting a meal prep business for the first time? Or already running the one? In any case, leave your route planning job to Upper. Explore the fastest routes and deliver hot-served meals in under minutes.

FAQs

Like any other business, a meal prep business also has its own share of challenges, though they are less. Along with logistics and management across the kitchen, keeping the customers interested in buying your meals will need attention. A lot of motivation goes into eating healthy diets, especially for someone who has it for several days.

You can surely start a meal prep delivery business if you love cooking, have the right kitchen supply, equipment and delivery drivers. When you register for the business and follow the marketing strategies we mentioned above, you are all set to start delivering food.

As per Statista, Blue Apron, the meal kit delivery company generated a revenue of around 470 million U.S. dollars in 2021. But it will depend on the time, business idea, strategies and other factors to see how any other meal prep business makes.

Conclusion

Being a delivery business owner that satisfies customers with healthy and tasty meals, you want to ensure you use the time efficiently. It doesn’t just take a freshly prepared meal with a garnished and well-packed parcel for a meal prep business to succeed. And if you haven’t already started with this exciting and delightful food delivery business, this may be the right time to start. 

With Upper by your side, you can relax about the route planning and dispatch of meal kit orders as it makes managing deliveries buttery smooth! It will simplify your daily delivery operations, reduce costs, and enable a rich experience for both your delivery drivers and customers. Take the 7 days free trial of Upper Route Planner to make deliveries on time and start planning routes on the go.

Author Bio
Rakesh Patel
Rakesh Patel

Rakesh Patel, author of two defining books on reverse geotagging, is a trusted authority in routing and logistics. His innovative solutions at Upper Route Planner have simplified logistics for businesses across the board. A thought leader in the field, Rakesh's insights are shaping the future of modern-day logistics, making him your go-to expert for all things route optimization. Read more.

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