5 Simple tips on how to promote your Food & Drink Business online

Developing a food and drink business often starts out small scale with local connections. The first time you get a product on the shelves of a local business is a wonderful thing. Then the task from there is to build that into something much bigger, this is where the online world can come in really handy. Many of us know our own business but don’t have the skills or ideas to promote what we do online. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Here is our guide to 5 simple tips on how to promote your food and drink business online 

Photos really sell 

Images of the food or drink products you create will resonate with your audience far better than the words. Think of the best images of food and drink that you have seen, and then apply this to your own brand. The top tip here is to hire a professional photographer to set this up properly and deliver the maximum benefit from your images.

Once you have the right images, then share them as widely as possible. Social media sites that rely heavily on images will really help you to reach the right marketplace. Use Pinterest to get the message out there, but Instagram is by far the best place for your images – just don’t forget the hashtags! They will help you reach the right people time after time.

Think local first

It may be tempting to look for an international market for your food and drink products but the first place you should look is locally. If you can start to build a local following, then word will spread naturally. This is a far more effective way of marketing your brand than trying to go global straight away.

The way to achieve this online is to make sure you do two main things –

1. Get your SEO targeted locally
2. Build a local audience through your activity

You should think about how to make this happen for your food and drink business. Make sure you mention your local area on your website and in your social media activity. Setting your business in the heart of your community will start you on the road to success.

Online orders may be the answer

As much as you want to start with the local area, making sure that your products are available to order online can start to open doors that you didn’t know where there. Hosted websites and online stores such as Shopify give you the option to take orders online. It takes a lot of the legwork out of the process of ordering for your customers. 

Anything you do to make life as easy as possible for your potential customers will delight them. If you accept online orders, then you can see sales come in with a lot less work for you too. Everyone wins in this situation and can see your food and drink business grow quickly. 

Content can boost success

As much as producing great images drives people to buy from you, there is still a value in the written word. Search engines such as Google love content. It helps your website to move up the rankings and connect to people looking for what you have produced.

You show that you are an authority in your field and can share the expertise you have built up. People want to know what you are doing and any new developments in your business. A blog or your website is the ideal place to share all of this information. Share this with your audience.

Social media is the place to be

For any food and drink business, the key is to find out where your potential customers hang out, then engage with them. Social media is an increasingly important way of connecting with customers for anyone involved in the food and drink industry. You should be active on the right sites to gain sales, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

And there may be others, depending on the product you sell and the audience you are trying to attract. Do your research and discover where your potential buyers spend their time. Once you know this, then speak to them in a language they engage with. You may want to look for help in this area, and there are many social media companies out there ready to boost what you do.