8 Food Marketing Trends You Should Be Considering For Your Brand Right Now

Creating a food marketing strategy could be seen as a similar process to creating a menu. It’s a starting point from which to build on, ensuring each item in your strategy is prepared and served to the highest standard, leaving customers hungry for more.

To help you cook up some tasty content, we’ve pulled together 8 staple food industry trends that should be included in your marketing strategy if you’re looking to reach new audiences and boost brand awareness.

Trend 1: Get savvy on social

With the competitive nature of the food industry, standing out on social media can keep your brand one step ahead.

Having an active social presence is an essential ingredient for any food marketing strategy. It guides your actions, ensures your posting is effective and helps keep you on top of upcoming food industry trends.

Not only this, but posting engaging content on social allows you to grow brand awareness, build on customer connections and reach new audiences. Just ensure all messaging is consistent and inline with your brand tone of voice.

Trend 2: Encourage customers to promote your food

One popular food industry trend that has stood the test of time is featuring customer reviews in marketing. By pulling out positive comments, photos or videos, it encourages new customers to try your brand.

By using reviews in your food marketing, it instantly creates a feeling of trust and brand reputation. If you’re struggling to encourage customer reviews, try running a competition to find your biggest fan and watch the positivity roll in.

Trend 3: Create a food blog

Looking to improve your visibility online? Blogging could be your answer. It’s a relatively low-cost yet effective way of boosting your brand’s chances of getting listed on Google’s search engine results page (SERPs).

As well as driving traffic to your website, a blog also acts as a space for you to share more information behind your food brand. A study by Nielsen found 81% of Millennials are interested in knowing more about how their food is produced. Consider blog content that shares behind the scenes activity and more information about your team or the recipe for popular dishes.

Trend 4: Lights, camera, action with Facebook live

Hosting a Facebook Live or Instagram Live offers a way to instantly connect with your audience in real time. The list of topics you could focus your live stream on is endless – from promoting new food products, to introducing team members or just inviting customers to see what’s happening right now.

Live streams provide a fun, easy way to get more people aware of your food business and direct them to find out more about your brand.

Trend 5: Become influential with food influencers

Influencer marketing is becoming more popular amongst food brands, recognising the benefits micro and macro influencers can bring.

Using foodie influencers to promote or share your business, will see you exposed to new, relevant audiences and increase brand awareness.

There are many ways you can collaborate with influencers to increase your following online. Whether they feature your business in a blog, publish a sponsored social post of your food or leave a rave review for your restaurant.

Trend 6: Share a story on Instagram

Instagram users love using the Stories and Reels feature as it offers a more engaging way to share content. If you’re including Instagram Stories in your food marketing strategy, they work best when you have a business announcement, want to tease an upcoming food product or promote an event.

Create standout visual content that will make followers feel like they’re being offered something exclusive and have a little fun. Stories are a chance to upload less structured content, compared to posts.

Trend 7: Create an irresistible competition

A simple way to boost your online presence is by running an incentivised competition. You could run the competition on social channels and promote it using your blog to maximise the reach.

One simple competition idea is asking customers to like, share or leave a comment on your social post. Make sure you’re using the hashtag ‘#competition’ to keep your customers engaged and following the process.

Trend 8: Promote festive or seasonal offers

Many food brands offer customers seasonal discounts as a way of promoting their menu throughout the year. Consider how you could stand out from competition with a quirky, creative special offer.

You don’t always have to provide a discount on your food either. Other ways to connect with your customers include sharing a secret summer recipe, offering festive cooking advice from your head chef or providing exclusive access to priority bookings for loyal fans.

Ensure your brand stays up to date with the latest food industry trends, by implementing these recommendations into your marketing strategy.