If you’re a food company or a food manufacturer looking to nurture leads and increase sales without spending all of your marketing budgets, we have some tips for you.

In recent times, digital marketing has taken centre stage as one of the most effective marketing practices with measurable investment and results. However, it is not all about running advertisements and posting engaging content on social media.

Email marketing allows you to personalize your message, localize it to a specific region, segment your customers basis their purchase journey, and much more. Unlike other platforms, with email marketing, all of this data resides with you as well.

All of these capabilities result in Email marketing campaigns giving a high ROI and conversion rate. So, if you want your food business to grow digitally, you should look at the multiple advantages of email marketing services.

Doesn’t Burn A Hole In Your Pocket

When pitted against traditional marketing techniques, you will find that it costs next to nothing to send an email. Print media,  television commercials and sponsorships do a fantastic job promoting your products or services, but the costs are way too high.

However, one of the benefits of email marketing or an email campaign is that it is a cost-effective way of getting your message directly to your targeted audience.

Unless you hire a professional or an agency to do the job for you, the only cost you will incur is the amount spent on the internet connection. Thus, the return on investment in an email marketing campaign far exceeds its costs.

Build a Robust Email Marketing List

At the heart of every email marketing campaign is a mailing list that is up-to-date and clean, ensuring that the delivery rates remain high.

Building a healthy list requires a comprehensive lead generation system across digital marketing campaigns, landing pages, sales, third party lead vendors etc.

Effective email marketing for food companies means not only creating high-quality mailing lists but also investing in maintaining them and keeping these lists updated. This can be done by –

1. Regularly clean your list by removing people who have unsubscribed
2. Use re-engagement campaigns to gauge continued interest
3. Create segmented lists based on common purchase behaviour
4. Leverage automated or proactive mailers (e.g. welcome, sign-up emails)

The aim is to have a mailing list that has highly engaged contacts and is predisposed to consuming your content.

Saves Time & Effort

Content marketing does not just save money but also reduces the amount of time and effort that other marketing practices  may have required.

If you want your products or services to stay top of mind among your loyal subscribers, you can send out email newsletters, discounts or offers, and  even better, answer the questions they have about your products and services. Educate them and they’ll respond by becoming advocates for your business.

If you want to reap the advantages of email marketing services, you need to offer value to your subscribers. It is crucial to focus your efforts on creating eye-catching mailers and blasting them to your chosen email addresses or email list.

As far as the technical aspect is concerned, email marketing campaigns can efficiently be executed with the help of email savvy digital marketing agencies that specialize in email marketing.

Allows Creative Freedom

One of the many advantages of email marketing services is that there is no set formula for marketing emails. As a result, you get  complete freedom to represent your food business in whichever way you like through promotional emails.

You can get creative with the subject line to grasp the attention of the receivers. Moreover, a witty call to action can positively  impact your conversion rates.

Content marketing is a force to be reckoned with. You are more likely to nurture leads with fun as well as strategic emails than a  straightforward message.

Measures Conversion Rates Easily

Large-scale indirect marketing does not let you track the progress of a campaign. However, when you send out an email campaign, you  get to track every stage of that email for each receiver.

You can track whether the mail was delivered or not, which link in the copy was clicked, did somebody download a collateral you sent along with the email (brochure, e-book), etc.

Marketing tools also allow you to identify how many people received your email, how many opened it, and in some cases, you can even find out how many times an email was opened.

Improving all these metrics is paramount for success in email marketing for food companies. And here are a few things you can do to improve them –

1. A/B test every variable in your email – subject line, body copy, CTA, images etc.
2. Avoid spammy words like “free” in your subject line, and include an unsubscribe option to avoid spam filters
3. Have a clear Call to Action
4. Personalize your subject lines
5. Resend unopened emails (but only after you update the subject line!)
6. Use content that resonates with each of your segmented email lists

You can track the success of an email marketing campaign by measuring the percentage of receivers that opened the mail and how many people went on to order from your food business after receiving the promotional emails.

Helps Communicate Regularly

The food industry is highly competitive. It has become essential for food industry companies to differentiate themselves through quality email marketing initiatives.

Since sending marketing emails is very affordable, you can reach out to your email list quite often. However, you must ensure that your efforts are only seen as a “nudge” to potential customers instead of coming across as spam.

Regular email campaigns can include offers, surveys, or exciting trivia, to keep your subscriber base hooked.

(Source – Unsplash)

But through all these emails you want to build a sustainable relationship with your contacts. Email marketing in the food industry is competitive. Your competition is likely sending emails to the same contacts that you have.

You can differentiate yourself by using your email to drive engagement, open a line of communication and eventually sustain a trustworthy relationship with your contacts. This is a better and more effective approach over the long term.

Email Marketing Is Here To Stay

Email marketing is here to stay, and as a food company or manufacturer in the food industry, you should definitely hop on the bandwagon. Curate your own email list to stay in regular contact with your customers and nurture leads.

It requires little to no cost to send an email, and the return on investment is exceptional. Moreover, you can always use online tools to help you understand the process. These are just a few of the advantages of email marketing services.

Here are a few key takeaways to keep in mind when planning your next email marketing campaign –

• Your email marketing database should be clean and organized at all times. One way to segment it is by the stage of the marketing funnel.
• Aim to build a relationship with your potential customers via your email outreach, instead of keeping it transactional. Share valuable insight and encourage a conversation.
• A/B test different elements of your email to optimize for conversion
• Stay top of mind of your customers by communicating regularly with useful and actionable content.

If you want to grow as a business in the highly competitive online business environment, you need to consider employing email marketing campaigns.

We can help you just as we have helped so many other businesses. Reach out to us if you’re interested in creating effective email marketing campaigns that will help you multiply your customer base by targeting different segments of the audience.

Learn more digital marketing tips for food companies in these articles:

• Best Digital Marketing Tips for Food Companies
• Local SEO Services vs SEO for Food Companies
• How to develop a digital marketing strategy for a hotel business