7 Highly Effective Growth Strategies for Your Food Business in the Digital Era

And the one that’s most underrated: connecting with micro-influencers.

In the information age, most millennials hold a voice whereby their food or drink purchases are inspired or influenced by the pictures they go through on social media.

I think it’s safe to say that digitization has touched its peak. Especially when it comes to flourishing any business or promoting any ideas, digital platforms' usage is a necessity.

The massive outreach of digital voices happening in our lives has brought about a sea change in food businesses' functioning.

The food business is no longer simply word of mouth, nor has its rooted success through television or radio channels.

The difference between those who crack the code of excelling from the ones who lag is that the former market themselves through better marketing channels, taps into digital media, and correctly utilizes social media platforms. But the majority of them are yet to reveal themselves on the social media landscape, which at present is quite negligible.

In the competitive global economy, to thrive in the business is quite challenging in the long run. Especially in food businesses, the competition has touched higher standards, is highly competitive, and has a major failure rate associated.

If you own a restaurant or any food franchise, it becomes necessary to level up the marketing efforts and leverage the digital medium's benefits. Better marketing efforts, coupled with a trust-building approach among the customers, help create a trustworthy brand.

Having met a few of my food bloggers friends recently, I have explored the major of their marketing campaigns for different outlets. This has brought me a realization that success in the food business is no more about only serving great goods; it is way beyond that.

Here, a few strategies to help you growth hack and gain traction with your food startups.

In the age of digitization, if you ignore the power of social media, you are making a big mistake. While going through the snapshots of wider food delicacies presented in platforms like Facebook or Instagram, people cannot resist their food palettes—they act on their gut, which for your food business, could mean major sales.

Brands share their best offers on food, and food bloggers are all over the social platforms circulating their experiences online. If you want to build yourself, being part of this ecosystem is mandatory.

To further expand your food business, share the different pictures of foods prepared from your kitchen doors, put up your stories frequently, make customer interaction trustworthy, genuine, and authentic. This way, your social brand will uplift positively. You will be able to connect with different influencers, millennials, and food bloggers. Trust me, and if the food comes across as well presented and of good quality, people won’t hesitate to pay you extra bucks.

Here, the key idea resides in being socially interactive.

For all of its drawbacks, the digital era has the benefit of being inducive to networking. Establishing networks and building connections has become quite easier.

Get connected with people from your industry, especially in food businesses; the association of local food bloggers and influencers helps. To expand your food market, invite them to your food chain, offer them certain discounts or food coupons, and in return, ask them to share the food experience.

Interconnections thereby compound the probability of success and establish your food brand.

This is a major growth hack. Launching a website exposes you to abundant opportunities and an entirely new market of customers. It’s one more way that food lovers can discover you.

The simple logic behind website creation rests on the fact that it makes you discoverable, integrate it with your diverse social media channels, and network a wider consumer base.

Some food entrepreneurs might find that setting up a website at the initial stages is a bit tedious. But in the end, it’s all worth the effort.

Food apps play a crucial role in expanding your business and getting you in reach of wider consumers. Every country has its different food apps.

For instance, in India, food apps like Zomato and Swiggy are dominating food markets. Getting registered on these apps helps local businesses to reach a higher customer base, as these apps deliver foods just through the press of a button and that too from the comfort of your homes.

In my experience, I have found many small food chains tap into larger profits through food apps. Also, these apps tend to be location-friendly.

Micro-influencers can be any members of our community, friends, or social groups. For example, I recently visited a food outlet based on a micro-influencer(my brother’s) recommendation. My brother had visited the food franchise, mentioned the wonderful deserts they presented. We togetherly shared our food restaurant experience on our social circles and promoted the restaurant for wider exposure.

Social paying is about proposing a system wherein people with a considerable amount of local followers on social media will help promote your food business in their social handles.

The other way around is to organize contests wherein you remain informed about how many social platforms promote your food business. This way, you can keep track of everyone who posted about you on their social media channel. After a week or so, you select a few lucky customers and offer them takeaways like — free meals or gifts.

A successful business has one fundamental rule: Give before you receive. That’s the basic value needed to be met. Give, give, and give some more.

As it turns out: the more you give, the more you receive.

Specifically, to ensure a healthy customer reach, one has to provide wider values before expecting a lot from the customers. For example, organize food festivals, provide food offers, mention takeaways. Start them offline, then go live on social media, interact with your followers, and let them know about the value you are providing. This has a higher chance of establishing a good brand name.

Engaged viewers were invited to participate in the Dunkin Hearts Love contest, share their experience and get the chance to win $10,000.

One of the biggest principles of launching any business is providing value in the lives of people. In this age of social media, one can easily add values through interactions, build connections, and share secret success mantras.

I wouldn’t say to share your secret recipes, but one can market themselves by sharing short clips of prepared food. The best platform to tap into for generating this kind of content right now is Snapchat, Instagram reels, and Tiktok. These platforms have huge organic growth and will immediately help you in drawing eyeballs.

For example:

Running a food franchise is no easy ball of a game. With highly engaged markets, rising competitions, shifts in customer choices, and, most recently, Covid-19, the food industry requires a competitive spirit to succeed.

Hence, food startups have to look into the tricks, trade, and widely explore the available tools for establishing their business.

Related posts:

A leader in cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides an extensive suite of services to help businesses and organizations of all sizes build and scale their cloud applications. From…

Travel to the Hilton Rose Hall from the Montego Bay Airport and enjoy safe, economical and friendly transportation service on the island. Best Jamaica has been the number one airport transfer…

I have a good friend who made his own dining room set. It’s a beautiful table with chairs and benches. It’s the kind of thing their family will be able to use for a long time and will always have a…