A Close Look at the Different Types of Foodservice Marketing Content

To begin, let's start with a question. If your buyers are searching the web for solutions to their problems, what content is influencing them?

If you're offering a new type of combi technology, will your end users read a blog post you created? If you're selling a new type of meal delivery service, will your video be the one that gets viewed? If not, why?

The bottom line is we have to produce content in today's marketing world in order to create an impact. That's the baseline, bare bones minimum.

From there, we have different layers to the pyramid and different levels of effectiveness. Let's take a look at the different types of foodservice marketing content available today, as well as what to expect in the future.

BLOGS and WRITTEN OFFERS

Writing. It will never go away because it creates a gap that is filled by a reader's imagination. Even more important, search engines love it. As much as we enjoy imagination, in this case, the real reason foodservice businesses should all blog is for the other reasons.

When you do keyword research and find the content gaps in Google, there's an opportunity to write about the solutions your buyers need in ways that will attract them. Using best practices, marketers can both educate buyers and excite the search engines at the same time, and the goal of any piece of content is to make it into the reader's hand and then educate him.

Blogs, case studies, tips sheets, white papers. All of these content pieces can have a great impact on generating new leads and nurturing the ones you already have.

But even if you're blogging, you're not doing enough.

VIDEO and ANIMATION

Yes, it's true. The most effective call-to-action button on the web is the "play" button. Whether it's a professionally produced animation or a simple foodservice demo filmed on an iPhone, video should be central to your content strategy.

New tools like Wistia make it easy to not only publish video, but to use it to generate leads and understand more about the leads you already have. Does your three-minute video list five different benefits? With the right technology in place, you can actually see which sections of your video viewers re-watch, as well as where they're dropping off.

But in reality, even though the video era is just in it's earliest phases, Wistia is soooo early 2017. If you're just blogging and using video, you're probably closed off to the other foodservice content opportunities.

MICROSITES and "EXPERIENCES"

We're just entering a period when text, video, sound overlays, animations, and other interactive content features will be the wave of the future. Over the next few months and into the next year, look for content that is engaging in ways you've never imagined.

Interested in the old ballparks of New York City? You can take a virtual tour of the five boroughs, listen to baseball sounds, see videos, and compare the plot of land from the old Yankee Stadium to the new recreational fields there today, all in a single microsite.

Content will be an EXPERIENCE, and new tools like Ceros will make it possible. You won't just watch a video or read a blog post, you'll do both at the same time, plus a whole lot more.

And even as we enter the age of interactive engagement, sooner than later, that won't even be enough.

VR and AR

The virtual reality era has already begun in many ways. VR production companies are just now starting to create and refine their business models, balancing the content they'd like to produce versus the content that will pay the bills.

In some cases, companies may want to shoot in Africa, bringing the wild animals of the savanna into our living rooms like never before. But in reality, it might be virtual test kitchens that wind up being profitable.

In today's world, if your website isn't mobile friendly, it's pretty much useless. In the not-so-distant future, mobile friendly websites will give way to VR-friendly websites, allowing users to not just engage with foodservice companies, but to actually experience them in virtual and augmented realities.

Ready to learn more about foodservice marketing content to generate and nurture leads?

As inbound marketing experts in the foodservice industry, we guide our clients down the right content paths that have included blogging, content offers, videos, animation, and more. Over the last month, though, we've experienced some new and innovative ways to deliver content on behalf of our clients that we're excited to unveil over the coming months.

Are you blogging yet? Talk with us, and we'll help you get started. Producing video? How about taking the next step to maximize the potential of that video and implement it on a microsite or interactive experience? What about using content as part of The Pretzel Effect to close the loop on your marketing efforts?

We'd love to share our ideas and knowledge. Schedule some time to go through our free Intro to Inbound Marketing to learn more.