You don't have to look too far on the internet, be it Google search or social media, to understand how important the food and beverage industry is.

So, when it comes to your food brand strategy, you too have decided to dive right into some digital marketing strategies – smart idea.

In this article, you will learn what types of digital marketing are out there and which ones will pay you the best.

Who uses digital marketing in the food industry?

The food and beverage industry is one of the most diverse industries, reaching a wide variety of brands and companies that operate digitally.

This range includes everyone from the world's biggest brands, to successful fast food and restaurant chains, to actual distributors and manufacturers.

No wonder, because whether they work locally or nationally, they provide essential services.

But there's a lot of attention on food items, and if you're not using digital advertising to drive traffic to your business, you'll quickly fall behind.

Why? Well, according to an industry report, more than 57% of customers now order their food from a website. You cannot opt out of the online conversation.

How digital marketing has affected the food industry and food business

Digitization of the food and beverage sector, like many others, has had a huge impact.

In fact, more than 40% of people learn about food through digital means

We're not just referring to the fact that social media sites, especially Instagram, are full of food and drink promotional posts and reviews, but beyond that are all the review sites, booking sites, and delivery services. Everything is affected.

As a result of this change, there is one form of marketing that is most important for any business, and that is digital marketing. Food and beverage brands like you need it.

If you're a food brand or business in the food and beverage industry and you're looking to invest in digital marketing, you might feel a little out of sorts.

Don't worry because we are here to help. In this post, we're going to talk about what some businesses and brands are doing to have successful digital food marketing strategies, as well as some tips and suggestions on how you can market your food brand.

How do you market a food brand?

When it comes to succeeding in such a busy industry, you may be wondering how you can put your food brand ahead of the rest and succeed.

What you need is an outstanding digital marketing strategy. If you are new to the industry in general or digital marketing, you may be wondering how to go about marketing a food brand.

You have many options, including:

• Video ads (food is very visual)
• Social networks and social media influencers
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Content marketing
• Email newsletters
• Press releases

Suggested study: Packaging design and return on investment

In this next section, we'll explore some of the above in more detail and provide actionable tips and trends to be aware of in order to successfully market your food brand digitally.

Content Marketing – Make sure your content is relevant and engaging with video and images

If you make content relevant and engaging, people are more likely to watch, read, and learn about your brand.

Food blogs are very popular as a form of content marketing right now, so it's easy to use as a platform to create and publish content regularly.

Remember that food is a visual thing, and a wall of text on a blog page won't sell a product or engage your target market as much as some high-quality images of your products.

You can go one step further and create videos that are even more engaging than images and text.

Although we will say it's important not to write content just to target specific keywords to attract Google (aka writing for robots!).

Writing for people should be your number one priority, attracting more visitors to your site and keeping them there. To increase sales and trust, you need to use content well.

Good SEO is very important

No matter what company you run or the products and services you offer, search engine optimization is critical with any digital marketing campaign.

This is by far the most effective way to consistently grow your business and sustain results. SEO involves marketing strategies that ensure search engines find your business and brand and improve your search engine rankings.

In many cases, your target customers will not know about you if you are not easily found on Google, so SEO should always be a priority.

Suggested study: How to sell your food products internationally

Social media is essential

When it comes to social media content, food is king. A lot of data and research proves this. For example, on Instagram, food and drink is the most popular topic.

When you consider that in 2019, there were 3.48 billion users with active social media accounts, and the numbers for 2020 when they come in are likely to be even higher, you can see why your brand should be on social media. be active

By active we mean more than just having an account, you need to engage and interact with your target audience and followers by posting content that is not only relevant but also aesthetically pleasing (especially on Instagram).

Use as many social media channels as you can, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even TikTok.

Instagram is considered the most popular platform with increasing number of users.

Influencer marketing is a very useful and effective form of social media marketing that many food brands are already using.

Make sure you use keywords and current interests that customers are using

Keywords are important to any successful digital marketing campaign, be it for SEO, social media hashtags or advertising.

However, in the food industry, what we have seen is that keywords related to business and brands change with prevailing trends.

Currently, customers are interested in keywords like health and sustainability as well as other related terms.

They are actively looking for environmentally friendly products.

While in the past, these keywords were quite niche, they have moved into the mainstream.

If using plastic-free and recyclable packaging, highlight any packaging reductions you've made when marketing your products and brand, if possible.

These are the most popular terms used by customers. As the focus on how food affects our lives, health and fitness has increased, any related terms are also popular keywords.

If you have food products that you promote that have specific health benefits, highlight them.

Any case studies you can cite on your website about a food product or quote from experts will also help your food marketing strategy.

Personalize content and target customers and target audiences directly

Whatever approach you take, whatever social media platform you use, and whatever other method you use to target your customers and audience, personalization is critical.

When you personalize your content and correspondence with customers, it shows that you understand them.

There is a lot of evidence to support the fact that when you use email marketing, people are more likely to read and respond to emails, i.e. emails that are specifically addressed to them. . The same is true of advertising.

This shows them that you are more than just a faceless being and that you care about them and are ready to help them.

Press release

Press releases still work if you have the right audience or a large budget. Another way to stand out in a popular publication is to make sure your story is too newsworthy to ignore.

Often what we think is newsworthy and what ends up in the inbox of busy journalists are two different things.

Make the news as interesting as possible, perhaps by focusing on a trend with interesting statistics.

Finally, make journalists work as hard as possible when publishing their stories. Don't expect them to follow you.

Avoid cheap press distributors who tend to send your story to automated, low-quality sites just for SEO purposes. Good food either costs money or takes effort to do well.

Email marketing

While this is at the bottom of the list, it's certainly not for lack of importance.

If you have a website or app, getting your loyal customers or potential customers on your email list is like gold dust.

Now you can send them special offers, interesting information, contests or marketing in any way that resonates with your audience.

People on your email marketing list are more likely to buy from you because they've already been forced to make a small commitment by giving up their email address. It's up to you to nurture that relationship.

You can do this by using an email player or autoresponder like MailChimp.

In the end, a great way to approach your new digital adventure is to pick up one or two of these strategies (depending on your budget) and expand into a new strategy once you've mastered them.

Some may work better than others for your particular product, so don't be afraid to double down on the most effective strategy for you. Alternatively, pursue other strategies as well. The digital landscape is changing as fast as the UK climate and keeping your eggs in one basket can be dangerous for your business.