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What do people love almost as much as eating delicious food? Reading or watching videos about it.

One study from the UK found people spent more time consuming food-related content (five hours per week) than they did preparing or cooking food (four hours per week). As Wired points out, people’s interest in food content predates the internet, thanks to cooking shows from the likes of Julia Child and early Food Network stars including Emeril Lagasse.

Now that the internet is part of many people’s lives, devotion to all things food has been transferred there. In 2013, Google found that views of food- and recipe-related videos on YouTube grew by nearly 60 percent and social engagement on channels related to food increased by more than 100 percent.

People’s interest in, or perhaps obsession with, foodie content is excellent news for content marketers. Foodie content marketing provides a way for brands to connect with their ideal customer base by offering useful information and actionable advice.

What Is Content Marketing for Foodies?

Just like food itself, foodie content marketing can take many forms. It can be in the form of a blog from a popular food brand, offering recipes or creative takes on the brand’s products. It can be cooking tutorials or how-to videos walking a person step by step through the creation of a recipe. Foodie content can also be video taste tests, illustrated recipes, or entertaining ideas and tips for people looking to hold dinner parties, cocktail parties, or what have you.

As Google found, foodie content appeals to a range of audiences including:

  • Millennial women might not cook that much, but when they do they want it to be special. They are primarily looking for content that will help them improve their cooking skills.
  • Millennial men tend to be more confident in the kitchen than women, and are looking for ways to improve their culinary skills.
  • Moms and dads cook a lot and are confident in their culinary abilities. They’re looking for content that will help them with meal prep and planning or that will introduce them to new products.

The Benefits of Foodie Content Marketing

One of the biggest benefits of foodie content marketing is it allows your brand to connect with an audience. According to restaurant consultants Aaron Allen & Associates, 70 percent of people prefer to learn more about a brand through content rather than through traditional advertisements. You’ll reach more people and forge a stronger connection with them if you show them how to use your product rather than merely telling them about the existence of your product.

Another benefit of foodie content marketing is it’s affordable. Even though you have to source the ingredients used in the recipes you create for a food video, as Wired notes, the actual production costs of foodie videos can be relatively cheap. Tasty, the Buzzfeed channel that has taken foodie content by storm, has a studio setup that allows one person to work on creating a video. The Tasty team also comes up with its own ideas for recipes, cutting down on research costs.

Brands That Can Benefit From Foodie Content Marketing

Any brand that has a connection to food or can appeal to a foodie audience can benefit from a foodie content marketing strategy. The types of brands that stand to benefit the most include:

  • Restaurants
  • Food brands (both national and local, mom-and-pop brands)
  • Kitchen equipment/gear brands (like KitchenAid, Le Creuset, and Cuisinart)
  • Meal kit brands
  • Grocery stores
  • Farmers’ markets/farms/farm stands

Examples of Foodie Content Marketing in Action

What does foodie content marketing look like? Take a look at a few examples.

  • Tasty: Tasty is a bit a of a chicken-or-the-egg case. It launched as a food recipe/video website in 2015 and has since used the popularity of its content to produce a line of products, which include a cookbook, a meal kit service, and a smartphone-enabled induction cooktop.
  • Trader Joe’s: Cult-favorite grocery store Trader Joe’s has long made use of foodie content marketing. Every month or so it publishes its “Fearless Flyer,” letting customers know about new products or gently reminding them about old favorites. Its website also has  “TJ’s Test Kitchen” section featuring creative, super-easy recipes that use Trader Joe’s products.

How to Get Started With Foodie Content Marketing

You’re working for or own a food-focused brand and you’re thinking that content marketing seems like an excellent way to connect with your current customer base and reach out to a new audience. The only trouble is you don’t have the time or people-power to launch a foodie content marketing program on your own.

The good news is you don’t have to go it alone when it comes to content marketing. In fact, if you outsource content marketing, you’re in good company, as around 62 percent of all B2C (business to consumer) brands outsource at least one content marketing activity.

The most frequently outsourced content marketing activity is content creation: the making of the recipes, blog posts, and videos that leave foodies salivating. If you’re going to outsource content creation, here’s what to look for in a company:

  • Experience: The people who create the content should know about food and about what makes for excellent content.
    Content on a consistent schedule: You want to receive content regularly from the company, ideally on a schedule that works for you.
  • Relevancy: Ideally, the content created for your brand will be on-trend and relevant to the needs of your audience.
  • Industry knowledge: When you outsource content creation, you don’t only want a company that will crank out blog posts or videos. You also want to work with a partner who understands how SEO and social media work with content creation and promotion.

You can do it yourself when it comes to foodie content marketing. However, outsourcing content allows you to focus on the rest of your company while content marketing pros give their full attention to your content needs.