Hello Folks! We are serving to you today an article on digital marketing strategies for food delivery services. All of us in the pandemic have been cooking at home. But what do you do when you get bored of home food?
ORDER PLEASE!
These food delivery services create a home in our minds with their amazing marketing and advertising skills. These brands are giving us a restaurant-like food experience at home.
Consumers are now switching to solutions that simplify their lives with the increase in smartphone usage and online food delivery services. Therefore, to succeed with the marketing for your online food delivery services app, it is important to understand the preference of customers and meet them where they are with your marketing and advertising strategies.
Let’s first understand how the food delivery service business has come where it is today. Are you ready? Let’s begin.
The Rise of Online Food Delivery Services
The food industry has gone through massive changes with technological advances. Do you remember a time when you used to look at the pamphlets, dial the number, and order a pizza? Well, now you can order a lot more at home with your phones.
Technology has changed the way we communicate, spend time, and even perform our daily tasks. Start-up food delivery service brands, therefore, shifted their sole attention from marketing to digital ads with the increased use of smartphones and the rise of the economy.
In fact, online ordering popularity is on a rapid rise. As millions of consumers have shown themselves more than happy to have food delivered at the click of a button, market growth rates have skyrocketed.
Today, you can have a variety of food just the way you want with minimum charges delivered straight to your door in just a few minutes. As per a report by Statista, in 2021, revenue in the segment of online food delivery is expected to hit US$ 28,486m.
During the pandemic, food delivery brands have seen their demand accelerate, and therefore need to expand on the popularity with more digital advertising.
Also Read: What is Interactive Digital Advertising & What Makes it so Effective?
17 Digital Marketing Strategies for Online Food Delivery Services
Strategy 1) Focus on Generating Qualified Traffic (The Seamless Way)
SEO for Food Delivery Services
When you talk about food delivery service marketing, one of the most common ways to generate traffic is through Google.
Google is the place where people are looking for the exact service that you’re offering. That’s why the traffic that is sent to a website through Google is generally highly qualified in nature.
Additionally, Google SEO is a great free way of building your brand awareness on the internet in an organic way. With the help of a strong Google presence, you will be quickly able to reach a pool of customers looking for a food delivery service.
When it comes to search engine optimization of your website, one thing that plays a very crucial role is the security you offer to your customers.
It’s a no-brainer that customers won’t pay to any online service that is not taking all the necessary steps to ensure the safety of their customers. SSL is one of those factors that determine how trustworthy your website is. Google’s algorithm also prefers a website that has an SSL certificate.
If you still don’t have a certificate, you can get your SSL from here.
Related: How to Use Google My Business for Local SEO? A to Z Guide
Strategy 2) Do Google Search Advertising The Seamless Way
Google Ads for Food Delivery Services
You can move one step ahead like Seamless and use Google ads.
Google SEO when combined with Google ads is the most effective and useful way for a food delivery company to get the initial traffic to their website. These are paid advertising types where advertisers pay for each click on the ad. This is another effective way to bring your customers to your website.
Seamless does an amazing job with search ads. They use a lot of paid search advertising to help customers find their ad, get their appetite ready, and motivate them to order.
Google Ads also lets you evaluate and enhance such advertisements to reach more people so that all of your paid marketing targets can be fulfilled by your business. Grub hub, also introduced a variety of paid search advertising in March. This ad displayed contactless deliveries to encourage people to buy food online.
Furthermore, the performance of Google ads is very much dependent on your landing page experience. A user-friendly, easily navigable, and clean design landing page will bring you improved responses from your ad budget. If you have a WordPress website, you can explore various customizable themes and templates on the website of Envato.
Read: Easiest Tutorial for Setting up Google Ads
Strategy 3) Don’t Ignore Advertising on Mobile Apps
In-App Advertising for Food Delivery Services
We are all using all kinds of apps these days. Such apps offer great opportunities for marketing and promoting brands. Needless to say, food delivery brands can also make the most of the marketing and advertising tools using in-app marketing.
In-app marketing is when the brands show their ads in an app on their mobile phones. These are paid advertisements that can be seen by customers when they are using certain apps. Ads in between games are one common example of ads in apps.
The customers can click on the ads to know more about the ad or brand to reach their website and place their orders. You can show your customers special deals, offers, and buy any only at 299 only, etc. kinds of ads to create FOMO (fear of missing out) so that customers instantly click on your ads to avail the discount coupon to buy whatever food they want.
A lot of brands follow this type of ad for weekends the most and have mentioned that this kind of ad works the most to generate a sudden excitement among customers and increase more sales.
Strategy 4) Keep Two-Way Communication Alive With Email Marketing
Email Marketing for Food Delivery Services
The first thing that many of your prospects look at every day just like social media is email. The mistake that most brands make is to ignore email marketing assuming they do not work. Honestly, email marketing can help you bring in a lot of customers and more orders.
Create a subscribers list and send out emails like the specials for today, inform them when their food order is confirmed, the food being processed, when the delivery boy reaches to pick up their food, thank you an email, etc.
Use a lot of images and show them how happy you are that they are your customers. Make them feel special and loved through your messages. This way your customers will also turn into your loyal followers.
But ensure that you don’t spam them with your emails. Your emails will be delivered instantly, so after submitting your ads, you will see the effect in minutes and take the appropriate steps after the review.
A well-researched, well-thought-of, and well-executed email marketing will not only help you get the leads but also customers for life.
Most of the small businesses prefer using Envato for their emails and newsletters. You can choose from over 1,300 Email templates and email designs there to match your taste and email marketing goals.
Strategy 5) Spread Awareness With the Help of Facebook Ads
This is the most common and the most effective platform to market and promote your brand. Customers are always on social media and there are more chances for your brand to be seen here.
Facebook Marketing & Advertising for Food Delivery Services
Facebook is one of the largest social media sites in the world with one of the biggest user bases. If you use your ads to reach your audience through Facebook, you are certainly on the right track as this platform can bring you all kinds of customers.
There are a variety of marketing techniques and ads that you can use on Facebook like image ads, video ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, etc. You can show off your products and services with a carousel, slideshow ads, and drive in more customers.
For example, you can show how to earn the reward points by ordering online through your app in the Facebook slideshow ad and help the customers to know the advantages of choosing you over others.
Strategy 6) Build Engagement With Instagram Advertising
Instagram Marketing for Food Delivery Services
Today, Instagram is the key tool for any brand to attract their customers and to remain connected with them. Every brand needs to have an Instagram account to make their ads reach all around the globe.
You can use image ads, story ads, video ads, carousel ads, collection, explore, and so on. Such kinds of ads urge the customers to click on your ad and would be willing to know more about your service and your brand and would look up when they feel they need to order food online.
You can also create hashtags, tag your customers, use influencers, etc. to increase your visibility and generate a more customer base.
Related: 12 Most Effective Instagram Marketing Tips: Advanced Marketing Guide
Do not stick to one form of advertising, your audience can lose interest. Therefore, use a variety of ads and some creativity to garnish your ads and make them look appealing to your customers.
Strategy 7) Do Twitter Marketing the Uber Eats Way
Twitter Marketing for Food Delivery Services
The audience engagement rate here is limitless. You can quickly come under the trending hashtags if your ads are loved by your audience on Twitter.
For example, Uber Eats launch a lot of marketing campaigns and content on Twitter which constantly get liked and retweeted which are seen by millions of people around the globe. This paves the way for your brand to be recognized by more people and thus leading to more sales.
Moreover, there are promoted tweets, search ads, etc. that you can use to target your customers. On Twitter, your ads can comparatively cost less for cost per clicks ads. You can also run short video ads at the start of videos from Twitter’s premium content partners.
Thus, making your brand increase brand awareness and better customer relations.
Read: 5 Mind-blowing Quora Marketing Tips for Startups
Strategy 8) Run Snapchat Ads the GrubHub Way
Snapchat Marketing for Food Delivery Services
Once upon a time, Snapchat was used only for sending snaps and having fun by its users. Now, the scenario has changed. Snapchat is eyed by marketers and advertisers to undertake marketing and advertising activities for various brands. So it’s only imperative that food industry brands also utilize it to their advantage.
These are the fun kinds of advertising that deal with snaps or photos. Snapchat provides a lot of features that you can use to the fullest and create amazing ads that get your customers attracted to your brand.
Grub hub has been using Snapchat ads for a long time and has generated positive results. Snapchat has been used by Grub hub to drive brand awareness through a scavenger hunt and Snap Advertisements. By running Snap Ads at the time of college finals, midterms, and graduations, they also easily draw the younger crowd here.
This platform can be used to have more fun with filters and ads that feel less like work. Snapchat advertisements are uniquely tailored to smartphone users that other platforms cannot provide.
Strategy 9) Maximize Your Reach With YouTube Ads
YouTube Marketing for Food Delivery Services
Your ads here have to be extremely creative to grab the attention of your customers. Your video ads can be placed before or in between the videos on YouTube. Food delivery brand ads can be shown on the search results of YouTube advertising too.
Here, your titles need to be very catchy so that the moment your customers look at your ads, they feel the need to click on the video to know more. One way to make sure more of your target audience watches your videos is by creating a series of YouTube advertisements.
It allows you to maximize the reach of your users and gain more customers. For example, you can show how your food reaches the customers, maintaining safety standards.
This will help the customers to know more about your brand and the precautions that you maintain leading the customers to trust your brand for online food delivery services.
Read: 4 Steps for Using YouTube Studio for Advertising Your Brand
Strategy 10) Add Retargeting Ads in Your Food Delivery Service Marketing Plan
Retargeting Ads for Food Delivery Services
These are a great way of staying in the mind of the customers who have already interacted once with your brand. Retargeting campaigns alert visitors to the website of your products and services, even though they leave without buying from your website.
This shows relevant ads that can be in the form of texts, images, or both together and remind them that they have unfinished business with your brand. Retargeting is really effective because it focuses on the advertising investment on individuals who are already familiar with your brand and have shown interest recently which is not possible with traditional advertising.
Strategy 11) Grab the Power of Social Media
Social Media Marketing & Community Management for Food Delivery Services
In this world where social media has golden opportunities for any brand, it is something that you also need to focus on.
Social media is no more about posting selfies rather it’s a platform where your target customers live. In short, it is a place to gain more sales and solidify your brand as the one engaged in food delivery.
Research by Finance Online shows that 40% of the consumers learn more about food on the online platform. So for food delivery services, it is essential to create food focussed content.
It is also found that 72% of the food pics on social media are of main dishes. People are willing to discover and share food pictures online. This further helps you in increasing sales of your product.
So what are you waiting for? start it now.
Strategy 12) Invest in a Food Delivery App
Having an app helps your customers to easily avail services from your online food delivery services.
It helps them to place orders, make payments and also track their deliveries. This helps your user to get what they want at their fingertips. This also eases up their efforts without having to go to your website.
You can get your app designed by any app developer. The app should be user-friendly as well as attractive.
Isn’t it a good idea to attract more customers? Yes, it is.
Strategy 13) Engage, Entertain and Sell With Compelling Videos
Video Marketing for Food Delivery Services
Video is always a powerful tool to sell your brand image effectively and within a short period. But you should know how to use it for your food delivery services.
Always make a short and crisp video and incorporate your brand concept.
Make it relatable so that you can boost up your conversion rates easily.
For instance, design your video in such a manner that lets your customers think of your brand when they get a glimpse of your creative video.
Strategy 14) Focus On Improving the Quality of Your Service
An amazing tip for digital marketing your food delivery service brand is to constantly focus on improving your service for the customers. It helps in attracting more customers. Good service also helps in keeping the existing customers intact.
For instance, you can provide your customers with quick delivery. Data by Gloria Food shows that 27% of customers are willing to spend extra for faster delivery service.
You can also give updates when you feel that your product delivery is going to be late. You can ask for customers’ contact details and provide them with the same. This helps them to gain trust in you.
It will be a good idea to invest in insulated, reusable food and grocery bags for your food delivery business. These bags are gigantic, durable, and extra strong. Not to mention, when your customers are going to receive fresh and hot food, they’ll admire your services.
Strategy 15) Offer Discounts and Appealing Deals
You can promote your food delivery service by offering discounts and deals to your customers.
For instance, you can give an offer to them on an order of a particular amount. Also giving discounts to the new customers on their first purchase.
This will help your food delivery service to gain popularity in the market. Your customers always want fancy offers, so why not go for such ideas for digital marketing your brand.
You can also offer discounts on festive seasons. This will surely help you in attracting more customers to your food delivery services.
Strategy 16) Ask For Feedbacks
Online Review Management for Food Delivery Services
One of the major reasons for the success of digital marketing for any brand is to highlight the customers’ feedback and reviews.
Most people do look for reviews while accessing any food delivery service online. So, request your customers to rate your service and provide feedback in the form of comments.
You can also ask them for testimonials on your social media platforms and website.
This will indirectly help you in improving the quality of your services. High ratings make your food delivery service much more reliable.
Here’s a great tool for doing that – Podium.
Strategy 17) Go For Sponsoring Local Food Events
Local Advertising for Food Delivery Services
A great tip for achieving success in digital marketing your food delivery service is that you can sponsor some food events. It can greatly help you in your digital marketing.
You can reach out to the restaurants that you are partnered with to organize a local food event. Go for setting up booths for each restaurant differently.
You can also provide free food samples to drive a large crowd. This will help you to promote your food delivery service to a great extent.
Analyzing the Digital Marketing Strategies of Popular Online Food Delivery Services
Grubhub
They are doing an amazing job with their digital marketing and advertising. Their ad spending is around 100 million in a year. They have a lot of marketing campaigns that encourage users to order food online as they provide contact-free delivery services.
Their social media feeds are also full of content and ads that show close-up shots of food and make us want to order right away. They also came out with video ads during the election campaigns, motivating people to vote and support the campaigns.
They also recently released their video ads with a creative hashtag #grubwhatyoueat which encourages the audience to make similar videos and shows them that they deliver on time even during the pandemic.
Grub Hub’s “Food’s Here” Campaign
This was an interesting and fun marketing campaign that was launched by Grub hub. This campaign was in the form of a video game, where the customers could play the game online. Such creative ideas grab the attention of the audience and they start engaging more with the brand.
This campaign attracted all age groups equally starting from the younger generation to the older generation and made them stick to the game and the brand. This created an impression on them and they would directly choose that brand that gave them a better experience.
Uber Eats
They use a variety of ads to attract their audience. They have brought in informative as well as entertaining marketing strategies to keep their audience engaged. A lot of content makes the advice want to click on the ad or check out their social media handles and the websites to know more.
They also have video ads where they collaborate with actors and they talk about how Uber Eats has helped them go through their daily meal needs. Such kinds of marketing strategies help to instill a sense of trust in the customers and the customers would turn to them whenever they think about food online.
They also have ads where they show out their app features, for example, my favorite one is where you can search for food with emojis. This creates a fun medium for people to interact with the brand and also order food, thus leading to more sales.
Uber Eats understands the customers and is trying to bring in innovative methods to remain in the mind of its customers. In fact, they saw a 30 percent rise in their app install in the first week of March in 2020 with the coronavirus hitting massively all around the globe.
UberEats’ “Bring It” Campaign
This was an ad campaign by Uber Eats, where they show a delivery boy doing his best to reach their hungry customers and bring the food to them even during the pandemic. This is their first standalone campaign. This displayed the brand’s notion to just eat this year with Uber eats.
The famous comedian Guz Khan made an appearance in the campaign to encourage people to show them that the food is safe and they follow all the protocols.
“Bring it”, not just shows the food that can be brought, it also shows the power and energy that can be brought to life to overcome and move on with life. Such kind of marketing by the food delivery brands helps the customers to choose the best among many.
Doordash
They recently came out with their holiday campaign where they celebrate the delivery joy. And are motivating their audience to share and enjoy the spirit with their hashtags to spread happiness.
They keep their audience informed with behind-the-scenes content and have brought off a lot of ads where they show support for small businesses. This displays the values of the brand and what they stand for.
They also participate in a lot of events and cultural festivals that encourage local customers to participate. Like the art for the foodies week, where people could post their art and win gifts. This helps in increasing their brand awareness and motivates people to know more about food and order online.
Postmates
They mostly use marketing strategies that excite customers and keep them engaged with the brand instantly. The use of graphics and 3D pictures helps give a professional and creative look to the ads.
They also use a lot of influencers and user-generated content to promote their brand. And also celebrities like Katy Perry or PaulMc Cartney who recently announced the local vegetarian restaurants for Postmates.
They also collaborate with other brands to promote their brand and talk about different cuisines informing and entertaining their customers. Their meme marketing with food is something I love about this brand. Such kinds of ads make the customers follow the brand and keep coming back for more.
Note: If by now you are convinced that digital marketing and advertising can help in developing your food delivery service marketing and improve your customer base, and would love to begin your business, perhaps you would also be interested to look at our article on digital marketing for restaurants and digital advertising for cafe business.
Seamless
Seamless’s “How New Yorkers Eat” Campaign
These are a series of ad campaigns launched by Seamless. These kinds of ads brought out a personalized form of marketing and advertising for food delivery brands. These asked the customers to deliver special instructions to receive a better and more comfortable experience with the brand that feels more personalized.
The campaign highlights its product features and also talks about the millions of dynamic people who depend on Seamless every day. And it is their responsibility to deliver a great experience to them.
It is the customers’ unique food preferences and the diversity of flavors that make New York City such an incredible food destination and continue to be celebrated.
The Future of Online Food Delivery Services & Its Marketing Stratgies
Customers have been shifting tremendously to online food delivery services. The millennials are mostly spending on this sector. Slowly, everyone is trying this new method and is absolutely loving it.
Even though the pandemic hit the food industry hard for some time, they are rising and are growing effectively. Whereas, the food delivery brands continue to thrive with some declines in the number of orders issued relative to orders received every day.
As per a report by Statista, an annual growth rate of 4.3 percent is expected to show sales, resulting in an estimated market volume of US$ 32,325m by 2024. Even restaurants have started with delivery services looking at the growth of these brands and are drawing customers to them.
Customers are going to look forward to the quality, quantity, and personalization of the brands. This is one way to invite more customers to your business and generate more sales. They are going to be more concerned about health and safety. Hence, ensure that you follow all the protocols strictly and make your customers realize the quality work that you offer.
More than ever, now customers are concerned about the environment. They demand more eco-friendly and even zero waste products and packing from the brands. Hence, brands need to ensure that they use recycled and green packaging for their customers and the environment to benefit.
Key Takeaway: Digital Marketing for Online Food Delivery Services
Earlier individuals did not spend much on ordering food online, but now people tend to order more food online to avoid entering crowded streets and to reduce exposure. Your digital advertising will create powerful opportunities for your food delivery brands. It will also help you to tell your story and get connected with them easily.
As a food delivery service, you cannot neglect the power of digital marketing. In this evolving business environment and changes in technology, your brand must keep up with the trends to best achieve your goals.
So, if you fail to incorporate the right marketing strategies, it might land you in trouble.
If you still have more queries and want to know why your marketing strategies are not working, maybe we should talk. We love food and also love giving creative solutions.
Till then
Keep delivering happiness and expanding your brand.
This post contains affiliate links. Clicking on those won’t cost you anything but we might get a cup of coffee with that which can help us not fall asleep while writing our next article.
Smart Business Owners Learn from the Mistakes of Others
The secret to success in business isn’t doing what other successful people have done; it’s by avoiding the mistakes made by businesses that have failed. Instead of repeating their mistakes, now we can learn from them and best ensure business growth and commercial success.
17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail brings the cautionary tales of mistakes made by many businesses that ultimately led to their failure and which other businesses should avoid at all costs if they plan to survive and grow. Get your copy.
Another Interesting Article For You:
