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Food Bloggers are some of the most resourceful and skilled marketers on the planet. Top food bloggers are masters of self-promotion and social media marketing. Most of them have bootstrapped their way to the top. It’s not uncommon for food bloggers to get hundreds of thousands of pageviews per month. That is a lot of eyes!
If you have a food or craft business, you can learn a lot of grassroots marketing lessons from food bloggers. Once you learn how to drive traffic to your website, you will have an easier time finding paying customers for your goods or services.
Here are some of the marketing techniques and strategies that successful bloggers use to build grow their audiences:
Food Bloggers Start Gangs
One of the coolest things about food blogging is the sense of community. Bloggers band together in groups in order to support and cross promote. In fact, there is a whole underground network of social sharing groups operating on every social media platform. The members of the groups work together to amplify each other because a rising tide lifts all boats.
Sometimes these gangs double as support groups where people can share their struggles and successes and learn from each other.
The key here is collaboration not competition.
Apply this to your own business:
Search facebook for groups related to your business. You can usually find them by using the keywords related to your product or service.
Food Bloggers Automate
Top food bloggers know how to prioritize their time. As such, they invest in time-saving tools and resources. These services free them up to focus on creating content and engaging with their audiences.
Apply this to your own business:
If social media management is draining you, consider using a scheduling program to save time. The idea here is to batch your social media activities so you only work on it in focused chunks. This keeps you from feeling the pressure to post all day, every day.
Food Bloggers Engage
Food bloggers make themselves available as humans. That doesn’t mean they have to overshare and spew their whole life story in every blog post, it just means that they are the face of their brands. They are accessible in a way that builds trust. They interact authentically on social media and they send thoughtful emails out to their followers.
Apply this to your own business:
Be the face of your business and engage with your clients as a human being, not a brand. Give them the chance to get to know you by sending out a regular newsletter. I recommend Convertkit for mailing list management.
Food Bloggers Diversify
Food bloggers typically have multiple streams of income. They make money from a variety of sources including advertising, services and products. The blog may be the main hub for their business, but they are really running mini-empires. This diversification is smart because it mitigates risk while increasing earning potential.
Apply this to your own business:
Brainstorm additional streams of income that you could implement that would compliment your business. Could you write an ebook or teach a workshop?
Food Bloggers D.I.Y.
Top food bloggers are self-starters. They invest time in learning a variety of skills that will save them time and money down the road. They learn the basics of graphic design and typography so they can produce their own marketing materials. They learn the basics of web design so they can build and customize their own websites. They learn the fundamentals of photography so they can take attractive photos. They are committed to personal improvement and growth.
Apply this to your own business:
Read books, take courses, attend workshops and practice, practice, practice. You may not be able to afford a graphic designer or a photographer, but you CAN afford to learn the basic yourself. Invest in your own education and you will reap the long-term benefits.
Conclusion:
Food bloggers are resourceful and innovative marketers. If you have a small food or craft business, you can use the same methods to build your brand and drive traffic to your website. These methods are low cost and easy to implement. Get started now!
