Big Lead Off

Now, before we even start talking about what makes for good content, there are two huge points you have to bear in mind every step of the way, no matter what platform or medium you are marketing across.

Know your audience: Who the heck buys your stuff? This is so, so important to nail down before you get started because it will have a lot of influence on how you go about promoting your product. Is your primary buyer housewives from the Midwest? Young people on the coast? Dads who grill?

Answering this question will help you down the road as you try to give your content a consistent and effective voice and tone when reaching out to your audience.

Visuals, Visuals, Visuals: Marketing food is almost strictly a visual medium. You can tell a potential buyer how delicious your food looks, but a picture is worth a thousand words and will ultimately be way more effective in convincing new customers to go with your product. Try and get them to smell your food through their screen.

So, with these principals in the back of your mind, let’s take a look at some effective methods of content marketing in the food world.

Blogging

First off, you must blog. (If you don’t have a blog… you should. I could go into it further… but I already have here, so just pop over there after you finish up here for a double-dose of marketing knowledge.) During our time working out the kinks with clients, we’ve seen a lot of success with these kinds of posts to your website.

Recipes:

Recipes are a terrific way to market your product. Not only are you providing visitors and customers something free they can come back for them time and time again, but you are showcasing your product’s versatility and uniqueness at the same time. Birds, meet stone.

Team up with chefs or food bloggers (or if you fancy yourself an Iron Chef take a crack at it yourself) to come up with not only solid traditional stand-bys associated with your products but interesting and creative ones as well. Just make sure you take plenty of good pictures.

Relevant Topics:

“Tips for the Perfect Picnic.” “How to Keep Fit in the Winter.” The beauty of food is that it can be related to a myriad of topics. Roundups like these not only inform your reader but also give you a chance to feature your product. For example: “All this talk about picnics has gotten us hungry! It’s a good thing that (your product) is perfect for picnics! Check out our online store!”

FAQs:

Establishing yourself as an authority with consumers not only gives you credibility but it creates instant value for your blog. Think of some big questions about your product that can be analyzed, discussed and answered easily and write about that. Examples could be the differences between different varieties of your product, health benefits to your product and so on. Make it sound delicious: When you blog about food it can’t be just about the facts. You need to make the food sound appetizing.

Social Media

While some forms of social media may not be ultra-important to share food on – like G+ or LinkedIn – Facebook and Twitter are basically musts. So what kind of things should you share?

Your Recipes and Blogs:

This one is kind of a no-brainer, but it needs to be said anyway. Recipes, in particular, are effective at getting reaches, likes, and shares. Someone who follows you may try the recipe and like it, would likely take the time to go back and share it with their followers. It’s also a great way to put visual advertising to work as you fill up feeds with attractive pictures of food which is bound to draw attention.

Behind the Scenes:

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes on a farm or in the factory where your food product is packaged? I know I have and I bet others have too. People like the idea of getting “behind the scenes access” and seeing what goes on behind the curtain with their products. Share pictures of your product being made – unless you’re straight up butchering raw meat, that may not play as well – or in its early stages of being harvested, baked, prepared, packaged and so on.

Videos:

You’ve no doubt witnessed the trend of short 15-second recipe videos on social media first-hand. Take advantage of the trend! Have your food bloggers or chefs take a video of crafting the recipes or even bridge the gap and shoot video of behind-the-scenes preparation. People eat this kind of stuff up, pun intended. It’s all about the visual, and you need to take advantage of a visual marketing plan.

Mix in Picture and Recipe Sites:

The cool thing about food marketing (besides the free samples) is the amount of interest ordinary people have in your product. People love to share images, how to videos and the recipes themselves. So, as you are planning out your social media don’t ignore Instagram, Pinterest and food specific sites like Yummly and Food Gawker. Are you marketing your business content correctly? Take our free marketing audit and see how you compare. If you are ready to start seeing a big payoff, we are ready to help!

**Editor’s Notes 2019**Roundpeg has had the pleasure of working with several amazing companies within the food industry that all have a great social media presence and food marketing strategies. Check out Randall Beans and Joe’s Butcher for inspiration on interesting design layouts that are clean, creative, and effective.

For more examples of what Roundpeg has to offer for your creative food marketing plan and website, check out our portfolio.

Roundpeg is an Indianapolis content marketing firm.