The use of video marketing for the food industry is a special approach to content marketing that can allow any retailer to reach users in an innovative and effective way. After all, when it comes to food, video is a winning format for many reasons, as long as you know how to do it and which channels to use.
Food video marketing is an incredibly effective marketing tool for all operators in the food sector, especially for retailers, who have a lot to learn from the restaurant industry, which in recent years has worked hard to create food that people desire, sometimes treating it as a true work of art.
However, in order to be able to use it to its full potential, marketers must be able to fully understand this new tool and how it can be used effectively.
This is also because food video marketing is just one part of a broader marketing strategy that must have very clear objectives and be built from the right combination of content and medium in order to effectively pursue them. In this post, we’ll share some food video marketing tricks and tips that you can use.
> INFOGRAPHIC – Food sector: how is the food industry changing?
The secret of food video marketing: The format
One of the most important food marketing video tricks is the right format. The fact that food video marketing is such an important lever of communication of the agri-food sector is linked to a trend, namely the growing popularity of video as a preferred format by users.
Suffice it to say that, according to Forbes, this year we have used our smartphones an average 3.7 hours a day watching mostly videos; precisely because of this, it is expected that consumption of online videos will represent 82% of the entire traffic generated on the network by 2022, an amount that would be equivalent to 15 times the time spent in 2017.
This is because people enjoy video content more willingly than any other content, especially when it comes to video content about food.
This is confirmed by the fact that the number of food-related videos has steadily increased, with impressive growth rates. In 2018 alone, the amount of food-related content on YouTube grew by 170%, making the topic permanently enter among the most searched categories on the platform and the topic most capable of generating engagement among users, especially millennials.
This format is so effective that it attracts not only the youngest, but a wide variety of users.
It has been found, for example, that 68% of “millennial moms” watch food-themed videos while cooking for inspiration, to learn a recipe, or to discover new ingredients and the best way to use them (thinkwithgoogle.com).
Going into even more detail, we discover another interesting fact that can help us understand how to make the most of videos in our marketing strategy: 69% of these millennial moms buy a product after seeing it in a video.
This leads us to highlight another reason that explains the increase of video content in marketing strategies and that makes video an essential tool for a retailer in the food sector.
People who watch a food video buy food
According to an old saying, “you start eating with your eyes.” It’s certainly true, and, as demonstrated by the data above, the same thing happens when it comes to purchasing.
Videos used on the web have remarkable conversion effectiveness. Just think that inserting a video in your landing page increases the conversion rate up to 80%, and this percentage is higher if the content is well packaged, catchy, and engaging.
This means that for the same content, a video not only captures the user’s attention better, but also encourages them to go deeper, to continue browsing and, why not, to buy.
Needless to say, this aspect makes these tools very attractive to retailers, who can build a different narrative each time, depending on the aspect they want to highlight or the type of reaction (and action) they want to achieve.
Food marketing video tricks: How can food videos be used in practice?
On closer inspection, this question can be answered in many ways, since food videos are an incredibly versatile resource that can be used differently depending on the objectives.
Also because, as mentioned above, videos are ideal for storytelling and nothing is more effective than a marketing strategy that is relevant for end-users and not simply content related to product features or offers.
After all, we mustn’t forget that food video marketing is a type of content marketing, i.e. a specific strategic approach that is based on creating and distributing valuable content, in order to attract a target audience to your website or social network, create a relationship and, ultimately, increase sales.
One of the characteristics of this approach is attention to the user. If it’s true that ” content is king,” it’s also true that it’s the user who establishes how relevant the single content is and how much it is worth dedicating time and attention to it.
For this reason, it is important to create content that is not trivial or merely functional for achieving marketing objectives. Instead, an important food marketing video trick is to make sure that the video you’re creating has a value that is immediately perceptible by the user, so that he/she watches the video because they are genuinely interested in doing so. It is precisely for this reason that users will continue to watch.
A homepage video
A first example of how videos can be used is the welcome video. These are videos that are used to welcome the customer and to introduce him/her to the brand, its values, and the services it offers.
The advantage of using a welcome video lies in the fact that such a format can be much more “inclusive” and evocative than a text or a photograph. The storytelling mentioned above can unfold in a broader and more convincing way, involving the user without making him bored.
Among other things, if this content is included in the homepage, it brings the additional benefit of improving the positioning of your site.
Videos fall into the category of so-called “engagement objects,” i.e. elements with which users can interact. For this reason, they not only improve the user’s experience of the web page but if well optimized for SEO, they allow the site to gain position in the search, emerging among the first results available.
As if that wasn’t enough, a well-conceived welcome video inserted in the homepage tends to increase the time a single user spends on the page. It also helps the site appear in the Serp dedicated to videos and, finally, it makes sharing on social networks easier and more effective.
This last benefit is not to be underestimated: When building a content marketing strategy, make sure that there is consistent communication between all the channels you decide to preside over, to strengthen your storytelling.
What if a flyer became a video?
Another interesting use of the video format is the video flyer, which is content that shows the products or purchase offers that are available from the retailer.
In fact, this type of content has been around for some time on the internet, to the point that there is a YouTube channel dedicated to this format.
Scrolling through the various elements uploaded, two aspects immediately jumpout. First, large retailers are mainly interested in this type of content, and they simply “transfer” the paper flyer to the video format, which makes it more convenient for users to watch (i.e. smartphone-friendly).
The second aspect is related to the fruition of this type of video, which often risks being too static. But in this way, an extraordinary opportunity is lost, linked above all to the fact that, as mentioned above, videos are very effective when it comes to conversion.
To make the most of this feature, you should imagine making a video flyer capable of involving the user, so that the user is not limited to being a simple passive spectator.
In this sense, Doxee Pvideo® is the right solution to make this kind of content more appealing.
A personalized flyer
Doxee Pvideo® is a product designed to create and distribute personalized and interactive videos, so that the viewing experience is memorable and relevant for all users.
All this is possible thanks to the User-Directed-Storytelling (UDS) feature that allows the user to choose the narrative path he prefers while watching.
This means that each customer will see exactly what they want and nothing more, skipping the parts they feel are irrelevant or uninteresting, instead, going directly to those that interest them most.
Doing so provides maximum personalization through maximum engagement, as each user essentially becomes the director of the video itself.
A solution like this, if applied to the monotonous video flyer, can make it a valuable tool to implement an innovative food video marketing strategy. The consumer could watch a video that doesn’t show him all the products on sale or the current offers, but invites him to indicate the product category of interest so he can see only what he is looking for.
To make this user experience even more effective, instead of publishing the videos on social networks, send them directly by email to all members of the loyalty program. There are two reasons for this.
First, this allows you to further accentuate the feeling of a highly personalized customer experience. Doxee Pvideo® also allows you to enter the name of the person to whom the video is addressed, thus modifying both the audio and graphic parts.
Secondly because, Food & Drink content has a high conversion rate if it is disseminated via email, which sometimes exceeds 10% (growcode.com).
We can, therefore, hypothesize that by disseminating highly engaging content that is naturally predisposed to make the user perform certain actions through a channel that favors conversion, business results improve significantly, and the retailer’s products and offers appear more relevant.
Influencer marketing and “how to” videos: Many recipes for food video marketing
Going specifically into the content of these videos, there are many types of products that you can create in your food video strategy.
One of the most promising involves collaboration with one or more influencers. In this case, the advantage is clear: The more the chosen personality is relevant to the target audience, the greater the likelihood that the video will go viral.
In terms of views, therefore, the choice is undoubtedly a winning one, but it is necessary to carefully construct the content. Working with an influencer does not only mean benefiting from his or her following, but also “associating” oneself with the world he or she represents.
For this reason, another food marketing video trick is to choose influencers whose values and principles are in line with those of the brand.
At the same time, it is necessary to avoid that the choice of influencer cannibalizes the product by attracting too much attention to himself: The influencer must highlight the brand, not make it disappear.
Another type of effective content that can be used in the kitchen are “how to” videos that show a viewer how to do something.
These types of videos are absolutely strategic since they are popular among food enthusiasts, making it likely that they will watch them all the way through.
In addition, this content has another great advantage: It allows you to see the retailer’s products at work, suggesting unfamiliar methods of consumption or useful combinations of purchases. And depending on how they are created, they can also be useful for consolidating the positioning that the brand wants to defend and reinforcing the storytelling created through other communication tools.
The possibilities are many, and it’s important to be very clear about your objectives so that you are building a coherent strategy. It’s also important to work with partners who can provide the most innovative digital solutions that can transform a simple video into an incredible marketing resource.
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