Your Digital Marketing Guideline for the F&B Industry (Part 1)

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When it comes to digital marketing, the food and beverage (F&B) industry is one of the best industries to be marketed digitally — thanks to its nature of having to be visually appealing in order to attract customers. All you need are beautiful photos with great lighting, posted at key times (breakfast, lunch and dinner) with descriptive accompanying text and you’re good to go!

If you’re not quite sure how to utilize digital marketing effectively to promote your F&B business, here are some steps for you to begin (this post will be broken into two parts as it’s quite a lengthy topic to cover):

Create a blog for your business

Blogging is a great way to shed some light on and online visibility of your business. Adding a blog page to your website and posting regularly is the best way to make sure that your business shows up on the search engine results pages (SERPs) and, hence, bringing traffic to your website.

Having a blog is also a great way to introduce potential new customers to your business. Besides that, a blog will also help you create a following among strangers and convert them into customers. This is why as a business owner, you should focus on creating top-of-funnel (ToFu) content.

An example for a ToFu content is such as, when you are selling a soy-based flour to bake cookies, instead of listing down all the nutritional benefits contained in the flour; you could instead create a fun content (a short time-lapse tutorial etc.) of how to make delicious brownies using the flour. By doing this, you will be bringing attention to your product without obviously looking like you’re trying to sell it.

Share your post on Facebook and drive paid traffic to your blog

You’ve probably already learned how to boost your posts on Facebook. But did you know that you can also run ads to promote your blog posts?

Just like when you boost your Facebook posts, you may have to spend some money on advertising, but it is definitely worth it — considering the kind of audience you’re able to reach, the amount of buzz you can build for your next product launch, the leads you can generate, and the number of people you can move through your sales funnel.

Here’s how you can create a Facebook Ad to promote your blog post:

• Log on to your Facebook Page and open up the Facebook Ad Manager.
• Now click on “Create Ad”.
• You should see different ad campaign goals. Although you may want to ultimately convert your visitors into your customers, your goal here should be to drive traffic to your website. So choose “Traffic”.
• Give a name to your campaign and proceed towards setting your budget and targeting options.
• Choose a small daily budget to start with (you can increase the budget later on depending upon the performance of your ad).
• Set your targeting options depending upon whom you want to target your food product to.
• Write your ad copy, and remember to focus on giving prospects a reason to read your blog post.
• Select a featured image that relates to your blog post and captures your audience’s attention instantly.
• Write a catchy headline.
• Include a Call-To-Action (CTA) to make sure your target readers click to read your blog post.

Work with food KOLs to promote your products

One of the most successful techniques of digital marketing is for F&B business owners to get in touch with food bloggers/influencers — otherwise known as Key Opinion Leaders, KOL — and get them to promote your business and food products.

Depending on your target audience, there are a number of food KOLs who have already established a steady following of the demographics that you want to target. These KOLs also know what it takes to get to the top of the SERPs. A few kind posts from them about your product on the right blog can do wonders for your business.

Here are a few tips you can use to start working with influencers:

• Check out the social media channels and blogs of a bunch of food KOLs and choose a few that seem relevant to your product. Make sure the readers of those blogs are the audience that you are trying to target. Select the bloggers/influencers who do reviews.
• Start by writing a personalized email to the KOL. Take time to introduce yourself.
• Be helpful and respectful to the KOL and offer some publicity.
• Be unique in your approach and see what you can do to get the KOL’s attention.
• Don’t forget to ask for a quotation for their promotional service before engaging the KOL to promote your product.

Host an event and promote it on Facebook

The best way to build your social presence, boost your traffic and gain high-quality leads for your food business is by hosting an event and promoting it on Facebook. This is especially true for new businesses, however, it is also applicable for seasoned F&B businesses looking to rebrand or ‘refresh’ the public’s awareness of their presence.

Make your Facebook Ad as visual as possible by:

• Making sure the content of your ad matches the expectations of the people who click on them.
• Including a discount, offer or enticing value proposition that will make people want to click on the ad.
• Using a clear and catchy Call-To-Action.

Organize a Facebook or Instagram contest

One of the most popular ways to increase your likes, shares, interest and overall participation on Facebook or Instagram is by running a contest. This is a great digital marketing strategy for the food industry.

A suggestion for a fun Facebook/Instagram contest that will keep your customers engaged is to ask them to take pictures of themselves when they visit one of your locations or purchase one of your products and then post them on their Facebook pages using a certain designated hashtag that you give to them. Not only does this create a personal testimonial for your business, but it will also increase your sales.

If you don’t have many followers on your Facebook/Instagram page, here is a better contest idea for you to use. You can post a high-quality picture of one of your best food products and ask your audience to tell you why they love it. Offer the product to the one who gives you the best answer. Don’t forget to also ask your audience to spread the word by means of sharing your post on their timeline, and tag their friends in the process.