Latest / The Local Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Small Business, Google Maps, and Local SEO / How a Local Pizza Place Uses Google Maps for Catering Growth
Transcript
- Lucas: So I was looking at a pizza place in Portland — Tony's Neapolitan, single location, has been open since 2018. Not a chain, not flashy. But they've been quietly turning their Google Maps listing into what's effectively a catering sales engine. Luna: Catering specifically? Not just delivery or dine-in? Lucas: Exactly. The owner, Tony Rinaldi, told me that two years ago catering was maybe two thousand dollars a month — mostly office lunches from regulars. As of last quarter, it's pushing eighteen thousand a month. And he attributes about seventy percent of that growth directly to changes they made on Google Maps. Luna: That's a nine-times increase. What were the changes? Lucas: Three specific moves. First, they restructured their Google Business Profile so the primary category stayed 'Pizza Restaurant' but they added 'Caterer' as a secondary category. Sounds minor, but it means the listing shows up when someone searches 'catering near me' in Portland. Luna: And does that actually trigger? I remember a study from last year that said only about thirty percent of restaurants even use the secondary category field. Lucas: Right, it's massively underused. Tony's had a competitor a few blocks away — same quality, no secondary category. When I tested the search 'catering near me downtown Portland' on my phone, Tony's showed up in the top three results. The competitor wasn't on the first page at all. Luna: So that's the low-hanging fruit. What was the second move? Lucas: They started using the Menu link feature — but not for their regular menu. They created a separate PDF catering menu with platter pricing, minimum order quantities, and a phone-number call to action. Then they linked that PDF in the Maps listing under 'Menu.' Luna: So instead of just having the standard dine-in menu, they curated a specific catering document. That's smart because the person searching on Maps is often on mobile, and they want to see pricing fast. Lucas: Exactly. The PDF is three pages — first page is a one-page overview with the most popular platters and prices, second page is full list, third page is a simple order form they can fill out and email back. Tony said they get about forty PDF downloads a week from the Maps listing alone. Luna: And the third move? Lucas: The Q&A section. Most business owners ignore it or just answer questions when they pop up. Tony's team actively posts their own questions and answers — like 'Do you deliver catering to offices in the Pearl District?' with an answer that says 'Yes, we deliver to all downtown and Pearl District offices with a fifty-dollar minimum order.' Luna: They're effectively writing their own FAQ and controlling the narrative. I've heard that Google sometimes pulls Q&A content into the featured snippet or even into Google Ads if the business runs them. Lucas: That's exactly what happened. Tony started running a small hyperlocal ad campaign — maybe five hundred dollars a month — targeted to a two-mile radius around the pizzeria. He used the exact phrasing from his Q&A answers as ad copy. The click-through rate on those ads was over eight percent, which is high for local search ads. Luna: So the Q&A content doubled as both organic optimization and ad copy. That's a nice closed loop. Lucas: And it's replicable for any local business. The principle is: treat your Google Maps listing not as a static directory entry but as a mini-website that you update with role-specific content. Luna: I want to ask about the photos. Did they change those too? Lucas: They did. They added about thirty photos specifically of catering setups — trays of margherita pizza, a salad platter, a dessert table with their tiramisu. The owner told me that before, most of their photos were just shots of the dining room and individual pizzas. Now, the first image in their listing is a wide shot of a full catering spread at a law firm's holiday party. Luna: That signals to a potential customer immediately: 'We do this, and we do it at scale.' Lucas: Which brings me to the metric that really surprised me. Tony started tracking where new catering customers came from. He asks every new catering client how they found him. Sixty percent said Google Maps. Of that sixty percent, more than half said they specifically searched for something like 'catering pizza delivery Portland' or 'office lunch caterer Pearl District.' Luna: So these are people who didn't know the restaurant existed before that search. It's not repeat customers discovering a new service — it's pure acquisition. Lucas: Right. And that's the part that makes this case worth talking about. A lot of small business owners think Google Maps is just for foot traffic or delivery orders. But the catering channel is wide open because most competitors aren't optimizing for it. Luna: If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used, or if you just appreciate that we keep this show ad-free and straight to the point — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these episodes. Lucas: Yeah, it's a simple model. No sponsors, no mid-roll ads, just people who find value and want to keep it going. And it genuinely makes a difference. Luna: Alright, back to the pizza. One thing I want to unpack is the role of reviews. Tony's has four point seven stars with over eight hundred reviews. Did they actively ask catering clients for reviews? Lucas: They did, but strategically. They didn't ask every single delivery customer. They focused on catering clients who placed orders over two hundred dollars. After the event, they'd send a follow-up email with a direct link to leave a Google review. About thirty percent of those clients left a review, and many mentioned the word 'catering' in the text. Luna: Which boosts the listing for catering-related keywords. Google's algorithm pays attention to review content, not just the star rating. Lucas: Exactly. Over six months, they accumulated about sixty new reviews that included the word 'catering' or 'office party' or 'corporate event.' That's a signal Google can't ignore. Luna: So the playbook is: secondary category, dedicated catering menu PDF, curated Q&A, targeted photos, and review solicitation from high-value clients. Anything else? Lucas: One more thing — they added a 'Catering' button to their Maps listing. Google allows businesses to add custom buttons that link to external URLs. Tony's button links directly to a page on their website that says 'Order Catering' with a form. That button is visible right below the business name on mobile. Luna: I didn't know you could add custom buttons. Is that a standard feature? Lucas: It's available in the Google Business Profile dashboard under 'Add buttons.' Most people don't use it because they don't know it exists. Tony found it by poking around in the settings one afternoon. He told me, and I quote, 'I spent more time figuring out the Google dashboard than I did making the catering menu.' Luna: That's both funny and a little sad. But it's a reminder that the tools are there — they're just not always obvious. Lucas: The results speak for themselves. Sixteen thousand dollars in incremental monthly revenue from a single listing optimization. That's the difference between a pizza place that survives and one that thrives. Luna: I wonder how many other small businesses are sitting on that kind of opportunity without realizing it. Lucas: That's the real question. And it's why we keep coming back to Google Maps on this show — because for a lot of local businesses, it's the most underutilized asset they have.