What Makes Up a Foodservice Marketing Campaign?

Marketing is the fun and flashy side of your business, the creative lens that everyone out in the world gets to see you from. Each company curates their brand with marketing through their logo, product development, and all the way through to the market of their consumers. However that journey may look like from B2B or B2C businesses, marketing helps build that personal connection. So when you want to share your brand, value, products, and more you design a marketing campaign - but what exactly does a "marketing campaign" entail?

The short answer is that the possibilities are endless, especially in today's world. There are so many tools at your expense and so much technology to help you reach out to your existing audience and bring in new eyes and ears. If we had a limitless budget every campaign would go as high and wide as possible, but in the foodservice world, sometimes it's a battle to get any and all marketing expenses approved. So where do you start?

The Basics, Regardless of Budget

To begin any marketing campaign you need to define your purpose. Every plan and strategy requires an end goal, all the parts and pieces will not make a strong connection unless they all serve the same purpose. The most helpful piece of advice here that we can share is to be specific if you want to drive results. Every business wants to make more money but your goal needs to be rooted in something particular that you can measure. Measuring and reporting on your marketing results helps drive that justification and builds trust when you need to get budgeting approvals. 

Once you have your goal you can start listing out your strategy. 

Define Your Campaign Menu

Just like a great foodservice operation menu, you need to determine how you want to craft the experience with what you offer. Think of ways to attract your audience to take a taste, just like an appetizer menu, pull them in relevant content, targeted ads, and more. Get them to consider what you have to offer by engaging with the interactive content, email campaigns, great accompaniments to the main dish. Provide them with irresistible marketing meal options like events, custom consultations, or comprehensive buying guides that lead them to convert your goals into positive metrics. 

Prioritizing Campaign Pieces

Depending on your target audience, you may want a simplified menu of specific content and actions that guide them through the experience you are crafting, or you can open it up to include more to capture a larger audience. 

No matter which route you decide on, make sure the content you are investing in will work for you now and in the future. When matching your marketing aspirations to your budget, prioritizing items with this in mind will help guide those decisions. If you are doing an event, craft your marketing to make sure your activities can be used in the future as well. For instance, video is always a smart investment for marketing campaigns, if it is for an event, make sure the footage you have can also be used outside of the date-specific campaign. 

Monitor Results Before You Modify 

Take the time to see how your campaigns perform and gather data before making any changes to your processes. You can't judge the success of a menu after one day, make sure you are allotting enough time for adequate promotion and trust the process you crafted to give your audience time to make their way. 

Need help deciding on where to start and how to craft your next marketing campaign? Explore all your campaign ideas and more with the team here at TMC Digital Media!