Ten years ago, being a food influencer was not as mainstream as it is now. Thanks to social media and the Internet, a lot of people can now become food influencers as easily as possible.
The temperature of influencer marketing is now on the rise due to the major success that it has commanded over time. According to MediaKix, 89% of marketers say influencer marketing ROI is as good or better than other marketing channels.
If that’s not convincing enough a statistic, 65% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2019.
Why is food influencer marketing so popular?
It’s not surprising that the global food industry is worth trillions of dollars and continues to expand tremendously. Why?
Everyone eats food. The food market commands attention and recognition. It’s a reasonable move for influencers to leverage this opportunity, creating a career out of it, while helping both local and global food brands increase their ROI.
The popularity of food influencer marketing has everything to do with the way the majority of people relate with others. People love people. They’re more inclined to patronize a restaurant or food brand if it was recommended by a friend rather than an intrusive advert.
Brands have always sought more ways to be human and connect with customers on a personal level. Brand strategists and marketers constantly find new ways to bridge the gap and directly influence the buying decisions of customers by infusing that human factor.
Being a food influencer enables you to change people’s perception of a brand, persuade them to try out a new restaurant or fast food place, and can even make them happy advocates. That’s how much being an influencer matter.
Great. But what does a food influencer do?
There’s a fashionable side to being a food influencer. The jobs description comes with eating at different restaurants, trying new entrees, traveling to different countries, experiencing new cultures and sampling local cuisines — all the glamorous and fun experiences that follow being an influencer.
While this is all true it takes working and great planning skills to make it out as a trusted food influencer.
1. Planning
When you decide to become a food influencer, it instantly translates to you having a personal brand. And like any brand, you should take the work seriously. This entails planning and organizing the content that you want to share on your page or blog.
This also involves having a list of restaurants or fast food joints that you want to try out and keeping notes on them. It doesn’t have to be a pedantic affair but it should give you a clear blueprint of the content that would go up each week or each day.
So whether you’re eating out with your friends, or going alone, you need to make know if you would create content at that time or not.
2. Brand partnerships/ambassadorship
Another really exciting route to take is being a brand ambassador. There’s a lot of opportunities out there for food influencers. A brand ambassador typically makes $20,000 – $58,000 annually working with local brands. For international brands, you can earn up to $73,000 on average, judging from ZipRecruiter.
Being a brand ambassador doesn’t just mean you become the face of the brand. You become the representative of the brand, so you have to embody the values, ethics, and corporate identity. It also entails being the voice on important occasions. When there are the latest and important announcements, corporate events, new campaigns, you typically would be engaged in some or all of it—depending on the scope of the project .
Ambassadorship can sometimes be restrictive of an influencer’s personality. That’s why it’s necessary to choose a brand that is in alignment with your values and identity.
3. Affiliate Marketing
As we’ve established earlier, food influencers go a long way to influence people’s buying decisions. Some of what you’ll be doing is affiliate marketing or becoming a brand ambassador.
With Affiliate marketing, you can monetize your page or blog to earn a certain percentage, every time someone purchases a product with your affiliate link. Using platforms such as Amazon Associates, which helps you earn from programs and purchases, or Swoop, an affiliate company specifically made for food blogs.
How do you become a food influencer?
1. Pick the right platform
Instagram is one of the major platforms that the majority of food influencers use because of how visually appealing it is. Facebook and Pinterest are also great platforms to utilize especially because of SEO ranking.
Alternatively, you can use a blog as well. This enables you to grow your following and always keep your audience engaged. By sending weekly emails to both new and existing audiences, you can keep them informed about updates and new offers you might have.
Having a mix of both social media and a blog is an effective marketing strategy for your brand. This enables you to draw more followers from social media platforms and website visitors to increase your reach.
2. Be passionate. Be authentic.
Chances are that if you’re reading this, you have a good interest in the magic of the culinary arts. Even though being an influencer should be treated as a job, you should still have fun while doing it.
Be as human as possible. People crave connections. If your audience can connect to your unique personality (whether quirky, reserved or otherwise), they can trust you. This helps your brand thrive.
3. Send out proposals
Sometimes brands don’t find you—you find them. Mostly, when you’re starting out and trying to build a tangible following, you have limited chances of attracting big brands that would be willing to sign you as an ambassador. That’s the reason why you would have to send proposals to secure a spot for the brands that align with your values.
Conclusion
- The global food industry keeps expanding. More marketers are subscribing to influencer marketing as it proves more effective than traditional marketing methods.
- There are various affliate platforms that enable food influencers to monetise their amazing content.
- You can increase your brand value by growing your following and audience engagement. Using other platforms such as emails, blogs, in addition to popular social media channels helps your brand grow steadily.
- Being a food influencer means developing a personal brand that stands out from the crowd. That takes planning, consistency, creating great content that engages audiences. Don’t forget to be authentic and have fun while at it.
