Digital Marketing Strategy for Online Food Ordering Business

Digital marketing is no new concept, but with the continual arrival of new trends and technologies, it is evolving constantly. Everyone is aware of its importance, but without incorporating the latest trends & tactics in the digital marketing mix, a business cannot reap its maximum benefits. For online food ordering portals, digital marketing can be a great aid in promoting, as well as running the business. Their prime target customer base is tech savvy and remains constantly active on different online channels. So, it makes perfect sense for food ordering businesses to capitalize on this fact by reaching out & connecting with customers on various digital marketing channels. In this post, we will explain how online food ordering business owners can leverage the full potential of digital marketing. Let’s get going.

Start with the Basics (Search Engine Marketing)

Before anything else, you need to ensure that your website has a solid online presence and got everything needed to acquire high ranking on search engines & to attract more traffic. That’s where search engine marketing comes into the picture as a mix of SEO & PPC ads. Here is what you need to ensure in that regard:

• First of all, make sure your food ordering website has key SEO elements in place such as user-friendly URL structure, manageable meta tags, sitemaps, 301 redirecting, image alt tag, duplicate content control, etc., to be able to rank better in search engines. As the search engine algorithms have become smarter follow advanced SEO techniques to ensure the best performance of the website for the present and as well as for future.  
• Optimize your website content by including relevant keywords like “order food online”, “ online food ordering business”, “online restaurants in <location>”, “food delivery in <location>”. This will help customers to easily find you, which ultimately will also result into better ranking. Therefore typical keyword research mistakes can make the SEO efforts go in vain.
• Start a blog that allows you to produce content on regular basis. As much as people love eating, they also love reading about the recipes, nutritious value, new cuisines, etc. Besides, a blog will also allow you to target relevant keywords & attract traffic to your website.
• For PPC, use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to choose the right keywords. The keywords should relate to what people are searching for.
• When running a PPC ad campaign, pay special attention to negative keywords. For instance, suppose you offer food ordering service in city A, so you wouldn’t want your company name list up if a user searches for “online food delivery in city B”. Negative keywords helps in keeping the cost down by saving you from unnecessary clicks

Go Creative on Social Media

We need not repeat the benefits of using digital marketing or the importance of social media as a digital marketing channel, but with every other business active on social media, the question is how to get customers’ attention. The answer is – by being different. Social media marketers know it all – campaigns, how to run them, the frequency of updates and everything technical. Plating up a dish, presenting it beautifully, everything has been done and has been happening for a while now. So, how do you level up your social media game? Here are some food marketing ideas:

• When running an offer, let the food do the talking with the customers. Here is how McDonalds does it: “Hi, I am the crispy burger you love to eat on Sundays, how about my calorie conscious cousin, roasted chicken salad?”
• Whether you are vegetarian, non-vegetarian, or eat-anything-on-the-table-tarian, pictures of food always lead to drools. But how creatively you display them is what matters. Here is another example from McDonalds

• Other than being creative, also focus on your customers’ need. Reply to their comments and queries timely. Pay attention to their feedback. Run offers & loyalty programs exclusively on social media to solidify your presence there.
• Leveraging all these ways to promote business through social media can help to generate more leads and create a buzz around the brand.

Video Content Can Take You a Long Way

Explainer and marketing videos are effective methods to put across your brand message and to ensure it stays where it is supposed to – in your customers’ mind. Now, this may sound fun & easy, but the art of video storytelling for brand marketing is quite tough in practice. Here are some tips that will take you in the right direction and help you in creating more effective video content for marketing for food business:

• Gone are the days of generalized and explanatory narratives. Now are the times when you should introduce your product/business through storytelling with characters people can relate to. Stories that instigate feelings and imagination. Remember how KFC inspired us all with the story of Colonel Sanders?
• Convey your brand’s mission in the explainer video, since branding is not all about what you are doing today; it’s also about what you are going to be in coming years, and how you plan your roadmap to achieve that goal.
• As a food ordering marketplace, you have so much to offer through video content besides just the explainer video. You can share recipe videos, videos for the nutritious value of ingredients, and much more during marketing in food industry.
• To precisely understand every aspect of video marketing i.e. kind of videos, their length, aspect ratios and all such queries go through the complete social media video marketing guide to engage the right kind of audience.

Leverage the Power of Influencer Marketing

Nothing works like word-of-mouth marketing. Thanks to the internet, today we have an amplified version of it – influencer marketing. As mentioned earlier, people love to read about recipes & nutritious value of the food they are eating. And to cater that need, there are thousands of food bloggers active on the internet. So, as a food industry startup, you have a huge number of influencers at your disposal. Here are best ways to leverage them:

• • Tie up with popular food bloggers through a mutually beneficial business partnership. Have them add value to your own blog by writing for it and also get regularly mentioned in their blogs. These mentions can simply be part of the story they are telling and don’t have to sound like advertisement.

• A featured article about your business in a popular food industry blog or business news site can be a game changer. It might cost you a little but its ROI will also be all the more desirable.
• Always remember that customers are the biggest influencers for your business. So, don’t miss out on capitalizing their reviews, feedbacks, and testimonials. People love to share their food pictures on social media. Besides influencing other people, such user generated content can also help you level up your social media game.
• In all influencer marketing has become a new way of branding and brands are following top digital marketing experts for expertise in food industry marketing.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Email & SMS

Efficient food marketing strategies are all about sending the right message to the right person at the right time. Not all users will visit your website frequently or have your app installed. To reach out to them and inform about your offerings and details about their orders in a timely manner, email & SMS are still the most reliable means of communication. Here are some tips on effectively implementing Email & SMS in your digital marketing mix:

• • 90% of the text messages are read within 3 minutes. So, for limited period offers, broadcasting the message through SMS is a great way to reach your customers in timely fashion.
  • Emails are ideal when it comes to a long term offer, or when you need to inform customers about a future offer in advance. Make sure that email marketing software you choose comes with customizable template (such as NotifyVisitors), since look & feel of your email directly impact its click through rate.
  • Other than these, text messages & emails can also be used to send out important notifications to customers such as for order confirmation, delivery, etc. Offering such service works greatly towards customer retention.

Conclusion

While it is crucial to act on the latest trends & techniques when running the digital marketing campaign for your online food ordering business, it is equally important to keep the customers need at the center of it. Your end customers are tech-savvy, they use multiple devices, live in urban areas, have a busy schedule, prefer convenience over price, want quality food without prior planning & traveling and that too at their doorstep and in a timely fashion, and so on. Once you have outlined these factors to define the buyer persona, you will also get a clear picture of how to implement the above mentioned digital marketing practices in the most effective manner.