Your catering company is good at what you do - executing events, managing logistics, making food that people remember. What you're not good at is sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.
Most catering companies rely on a mix of past clients, referrals, and hoping someone finds them on Google. That works until it doesn't - you hit a slow month, your best referral source gets quiet, and suddenly you're scrambling to fill the calendar. Cold email fixes this specific problem because event planners and corporate event coordinators are actually sitting in their inboxes looking for options. They're not hiding. They just don't know you exist yet.
The trick is understanding what makes your email different for catering versus a generic outreach. You're not selling a software subscription or a consulting service. You're selling an experience that directly impacts how someone's event is remembered. That changes the entire angle.
Who You're Actually Reaching Out To
This matters more than most people think. If you send cold emails to the wrong person, none of the copy in the world will save you.
Your primary target is event coordinators at mid-size companies (100-500 employees). They're the ones who actually plan corporate events - holiday parties, client appreciation dinners, product launches, team retreats. They have a budget, they make decisions, and they change vendors regularly because they're always looking for something better or a better price.
Your secondary target is wedding planners and event planning companies that don't have an in-house catering partner. They source catering for their clients constantly. One email relationship with a planner who books 40+ events a year is worth 40 individual corporate emails.
Your tertiary target is facilities managers at hotels, conference centers, and event venues. They get asked for catering recommendations all the time and often keep a shortlist of 2-3 preferred vendors they can recommend.
Skip: small business owners planning their own events, event attendees, and HR people at very small companies who cater their own events from Costco. Your margin doesn't exist there.
The Actual Email Structure That Works
The opening line is not about you. It's about something specific you noticed about their event calendar or their company.
This is where most catering companies fail. They open with "Hi Sarah, I run a full-service catering company" or "We specialize in corporate events from 50-500 people." That's noise. Sarah gets 80 emails a day and you sound like everyone else.
Instead, reference something real about their world.
Hi Sarah - I noticed you guys host a quarterly client appreciation event based on your LinkedIn activity. I work with event coordinators like you who want better food quality than the standard corporate catering without the premium price tag.
This works because you've shown you did five minutes of research, you're speaking to a specific pain point (premium pricing with mediocre results is a real thing in catering), and you're positioning yourself as someone who understands their specific situation.
After that opening, the email should be 3-4 sentences max. Then a small proof point - something that builds credibility fast.
We handled catering for 28 corporate events last year, ranging from 30-person strategy sessions to 400-person holiday parties. A few of our clients (TechCorp, BuildCo, and Summit Advisors) have booked us 3+ times in the last 18 months, which usually means they're happy with what we do. Would you be open to a quick call next week to talk about your upcoming events and what you typically look for in a catering partner?
Notice what this does - it gives you specific numbers (28 events), it names actual clients (even if they're hypothetical for this example), and it shows repeat business. Event coordinators trust vendors who other event coordinators trust. It's the fastest way to credibility.
The close is a simple ask - a brief call to explore if working together makes sense. Not "let me know if you're interested" or "I'd love to chat about your needs." A specific, low-friction ask.
Subject Lines That Actually Get Opens
This is where catering is different from other B2B services. Event coordinators see subject lines that reference their events specifically, and they open them.
Your subject line can reference something from their calendar or something about their company's event style:
Quick question about your company retreats
Or:
Saw your holiday party recap on LinkedIn
Or if you're reaching event planners:
Alternative to [current catering vendor] for your client bookings
These aren't clever. They're direct. Event coordinators respond to emails that suggest you understand their specific job - finding and managing vendors for their events. A 35-40% open rate is normal on these subject lines. Generic stuff like "New catering option" or "Let's talk about events" will get 15-20%.
Response Rates You Should Actually Expect
With proper targeting (actual event coordinators), a solid subject line, and an email that shows you understand their world, you should see a 5-8% reply rate on your first email. Some replies will be yes, some will be "interesting but we're locked into a vendor," and some will be conversations.
The follow-up email matters more than the first one in catering. A lot of people ignore the initial email because they're not thinking about catering that specific day. A good follow-up 4-5 days later that references the first email and adds one new piece of information (a menu option, a testimonial, a photo from a similar event) will pull another 2-3% in responses.
A full sequence of 4-5 emails over 3-4 weeks should net you a 12-15% response rate if your targeting is solid. Not all responses will become clients, but your job right now is filling the top of the funnel with conversations.
Common Mistakes Catering Companies Make
Trying to do everything in one email. You don't need to explain your full menu, your pricing structure, or your capabilities in the initial email. You just need a conversation started.
Sending to the wrong person. Sending to a general company email or the business owner instead of the actual event coordinator will tank your results. The person who plans the event is the person who gets the email.
Not having social proof. Event coordinators are risk-averse. They're choosing vendors who other professionals trust. If you don't have 3-5 past clients you can reference by name (or at least by company type), you're not ready for cold email yet. Get them first - do an event or two at cost if you need to, get testimonials, then start outreach.
Making it too formal. You're not a law firm. Catering is a relationship business. Write like a person, not like you're writing a business proposal.
The Infrastructure You Actually Need
You need an email account that won't get you flagged as spam. A Gmail account works, but as you scale, a business email with proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC set up) will improve deliverability by 15-20%.
You need a list. This means identifying event coordinators at your target companies, finding their email addresses (LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Hunter.io, RocketReach, or manual research), and organizing them in a spreadsheet. For a regional catering company, a list of 300-500 target event coordinators is enough to start and see real results.
You need a simple tracking method. Use a spreadsheet or a free CRM like HubSpot to track who you've emailed, when they replied, and what the next step is. This is how you turn emails into actual booked events.
Building This vs. Having Someone Else Run It
You can absolutely do this yourself. If you have 5-10 hours a week, you can research 20-30 prospects, write personalized emails, send them out, and follow up over a 4-week period. You'll learn what resonates and get a few conversations started.
Where it falls apart is when you have a catering event to execute, a new client onboarding, and three follow-up sequences that need to go out. The work doesn't disappear. It just piles up until you stop doing it.
The gap most catering companies hit is the difference between "I can run one email campaign" and "I can run email campaigns continuously every single month and actually book the events that result from them." The infrastructure stays the same, but the volume, the consistency, and the follow-up management becomes a second job. That's where it makes sense to have someone else handle the full stack - targeting, copy, sending, tracking replies, and keeping you in the loop on warm leads.