Social media: the golden goose of food marketing 

Nearly 37 million people use social media in Canada¹ (96 % of the population). Canadian users spend an average of 1 hour and 53 minutes per day on social media, with women aged 16 to 24 having the greatest presence.² What’s more, in a single month, a user visits an average of 7.5 platforms.

Most used social media platforms in Canada – 2021

Global popularity per social media platform³

1. Facebook: 2.797 billion monthly active users (about 30 % of the world population)
2. YouTube: 2.291 billion monthly active users (about 25 % of the world population)
3. Instagram: 1.287 billion monthly active users
4. TikTok: 732 million monthly active users
5. Pinterest: 478 million monthly active users
6. LinkedIn: 260 million monthly active users

Using these platforms as a marketing medium has therefore become the Holy Grail for businesses. Being visual, human, close to people and interactive, social media networks are an open door to attract the attention of your target audience to your food products, while convincing them of their value.

Advertising expenditures in Canada

Digital was the only media type to see an increase in its advertising usage by businesses in 2021 in Canada, up +26%. In addition, offline media saw less ad spend than in 2020, down -14%. The top platforms on which businesses increased their product (or service) marketing budgets were Pinterest (+186%) and TikTok (+544%) (4).   

Your food marketing content on social media

In Canada, 80% of 18–34-year-olds say they discover new foods or recipe ideas on social networks. And 36% say they have already purchased a food product after seeing it in a post on an online social platform (5).  

People like fun videos, attention-grabbing photos and human interaction. They like what is real, being at the heart of the action and commenting on the content that is presented. To allow these visitors to experience emotions and learn things while being entertained, companies try to be proactive and innovative. For users, it is too easy to skip to the next post or video!  

Therefore, it’s important to remember that your content should follow the 7 food trends for 2022. One of them is to promote products on social media by creating relevant content!  

Other food marketing trends for 2022 are as follows:   

• Healthy but delicious foods: focus your product marketing on the health benefits, low sugar, low fat, immune boosting and digestive benefits.  

• Healthy snacks: present your products as tasty, easy-to-prepare healthy snacks. Offer online shopping for chips, popcorn, crackers, nut butters and other salty snacks (73% of Canadians ordered their snacks online in 2021, and more than 50% said they would continue to do so in 2022) (6)!  

• Tasty and varied natural flavours: 74% of consumers (7) want to experience new and original flavours. World flavours such as spicy-sweet, turmeric, hibiscus and yuzu allow consumers to travel with their taste buds!  

• Authentic and local food: the most purchased products by Canadians (8) are local food (43%), natural or organic food (31%) and food products with identifiable ingredients (33%). Inform consumers about how the different products you offer are made or processed, and where they come from and where they go. Name the ingredients and highlight the fact that they are natural.  
• Ethical products: Consumers like products from manufacturers with environmentally responsible practices. 58% of Canadian consumers would be more likely to buy a product with packaging that clearly indicates it is reusable or recyclable (9) and 61% are concerned about the amount of packaging used in their online orders (10). So be sure to communicate your eco-friendly values in your social media interactions!  

Formats that perform best on social media in 2022  

Shorts and videos

Shorts, those brief videos of just a few seconds (TikTok-style) offered on YouTube, amassed more than 5 trillion views in 2021 (1 1). And 70% of users (12) have purchased a brand’s product after seeing it on YouTube! The platform has invested heavily in introducing effective video solutions that drive conversions through automation. Last year, the number of active advertisers using TrueView for action increased by more than 260%.

In addition, Google Ads allows you to create compelling video campaigns on YouTube (and other social networks) in a wide variety of ad formats. This allows you to engage users in different ways. Here are the different video ad formats you can use: 

Post videos to catch the eye of your Facebook followers. Create fun videos, tutorials or quick recipes that an influencer can comment on.

Pinterest predicts that video presentations of traditional recipes will be one of the most popular trends (13) in 2022. Don’t forget to focus on the naturalness of the products, their wellness factor, their flavour and the ethical side of the ingredients used in their making (2022 food trends). It is worth noting that 80% of users who log in weekly (14) on Pinterest have discovered a new product or brand there. 

Do the same on TikTok: in a short video, present a recipe or create a fun challenge featuring one of your products. A well-known personality could lead the activity. Keep in mind that the vast majority of TikTokers are under women (15) under 30 years old (16). It is also worth noting that the accepted length for videos posted on TikTok has recently been increased to 10 minutes to compete with YouTube. Also note that short videos, without lyrics but with music in the background, are very popular on TikTok!

Ad campaigns

To create excitement for your brand and products, make a splash by running a contest, offering a value-added piece or featuring a special event on all your social media pages simultaneously. Your employees can even act as brand ambassadors! Colourful pictures of them preparing your products will humanize your company and make it more accessible to consumers.   

Ad campaign created for La Fromagerie Hamel by Agence Braque.  

If you run a contest, you can offer some of your products as prizes to be won. During this campaign, encourage interactions and ask for likes, shares and leads from prospects (requesting a quote, making a phone call, visiting the website, contacting via email or sending contact information via form).    

When a prospect (potential customer) fills out a form, whether it’s to obtain a white paper, a sample, an entry in a contest or a reserved seat for a webinar or other event, the personal information collected can later be used to contact the prospect by email or to propose a newsletter. This contact information will also be used to define the persona of your subscribers, therefore your target customers to convert!

Regular posts

To keep your followers interested and engaged and drive them to act, post weekly on your various online social platforms, including a photo. On LinkedIn, add a photo: it will double the engagement of your subscribers (17)! You can share news, tips and tricks to prepare your products, nutrition tips, employee portraits, etc. Try to present useful and original content. 

Looking for tips to boost the popularity of your posts and get interactions? To attract comments, likes, shares and leads to new prospects, you must: 

• Spark conversations by asking a question or vote (choice of answers), invite people to take a survey or create a contest or challenge. 
• Make calls to action so that visitors will go to your website (include the link).  
• Invite followers to share a photo and comments related to a particular topic.  
• Insert a recommendation, testimonial or review section so that visitors to your page can be reassured about the value of your products or services. People rely heavily on the authentic and human side (word-of-mouth) of social media to form an opinion.  
• Have a human moderator to answer specific questions from your community and participate in conversations (consumers buy between 20% and 40% more (18) from engaged companies that respond on social networks). 
• Invite followers to like and share your post.    
• Follow pages of potential clients.   
• Add hashtags on TikTok and Instagram: the most popular food hashtags (19) are #healthyfood #pasta, #quickerecipe, #yum, #cooking, #easycooking #meal #eating #recipes and #recipe.

VIP events for your followers 

Food communities create attachment to your products and brand. For example, you could offer exclusive recipes or product samples to your 25 most active followers.

Develop a social media marketing strategy

Before you start posting freely on social media to promote your food products, it is important to:   

• Choose your platforms: who your target audience is VS the type of audience that frequents each platform (age, gender, interests, social profile, income, etc.). For example, nearly half of the people who make $100,000 or more annually in the U.S. are active on Pinterest (20). 

• Optimize the referencing of each publication with effective keywords: everything published on the Internet must be optimized by keywords to be referenced organically in search results. The same goes for sponsored posts. 

• Choose the best platforms and formats to focus on for each type of post: for example, to stay connected with your followers on Facebook and Instagram, short posts with a photo are sufficient (to talk about news, events, a new blog post, a new product or a recipe). On LinkedIn, you can make posts to enhance your brand image (company history, employee profiles, message from the CEO, sharing a blog post that interests your customers, etc.). On Pinterest, recipes are very popular; on Youtube, detailed explanatory tutorials are popular; while on TikTok, playful tutorials to prepare original and appetizing dishes are all the rage.   
• Sponsor some of your posts: social network algorithms generally put commercial publications aside (do not show them in the users’ feed). So, in order for your business posts to be visible, you need to adopt “pay to play”, a trend initiated by Facebook a few years ago and that other social platforms are now following. They don’t want to do free ads anymore! On Facebook, advertisers reach conversion rates of up to 1.6% (21) (depending on the industry). Given the millions of people who visit Facebook every day, it’s worth investing a monthly budget!

Hire a social media marketing agency 

Looking to strengthen your presence on social media and increase the sales of your food products? Braque is an agency specialized in food marketing. By analyzing your products and your current presence on different platforms, and by determining with you what your objectives are, our team of social media experts will set up your marketing strategy. This strategy will allow you to:  

• Increase awareness and visibility of your brand and products on social media  
• Target, engage and convert prospects on social media  
• Manage your communities and retain your current customers  
• Establish a sponsorship plan for your posts (paid advertising)  

Our social media agency will first provide you with a social media audit, which will give an overview of your current performance and that of your main competitors. This data will allow us to plan your social media marketing strategy.

Contact our social media agency now to get more information about our services. We are experts in food advertising on social networks and have been established in Montreal for 30 years! 

Sources

1. Canada Social Media Statistics 2022 | Internet & Mobile Statistics
2. Rapport 2022 sur l’état du digital dans le monde, par Hootsuite
3. Utilisation des médias sociaux en 2021, Recherche Pew, 2022
4. Ad Market Rebound in Canada, Standard media index
5. Sondage Facebook Insights
6. L’avenir de l’alimentation, une perspective canadienne, Deloitte
7. Rapport sur les tendances alimentaires 2022, par Whole Foods Market 
8. Sondage de la firme Deloitte
9. Sondage Shorr Packaging
10. Sondage de la firme Deloitte.
11. Lettre de Susan : Nos priorités pour 2022 (blog.youtube) 
12. Google/Talkshoppe, US, whyVideo study, n=2000 A18-64 Genpop video users, Feb 2020.
13. Pinterest Predicts : les tendances que votre audience va adorer en 2022
14. Votre audience est là, Pinterest Business
15. Utilisation des médias sociaux en 2021, Recherche Pew, 2022
16. Répartition des utilisateurs actifs mensuels de TikTok aux États-Unis en mars 2021, par sexe
17. 37 LinkedIn statistics you need to in 2022, Hootsuite
18. Statistiques et tendances du service à la clientèle des médias sociaux, Social media today
19. Best Popular Hashtags to use with #nourriture, Top Hashtags
20. Votre audience est là, Pinterest Business
21. Données publicitaires Facebook pour votre secteur d’activité, Worldstream.