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By Rena Archwamety – Cheese Marketing News
October 11, 2024
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Traditionally, food companies approached prospective foodservice clients through the back door.
“That’s how people sold their products to the industry, walking into the back door and asking, ‘Is the chef around?’” says Ed Zimmerman, founder and president of The Food Connector, which specializes in digital marketing services to help clients reach the foodservice industry and build business-to-business (B2B) relationships.
FOOD CONNECTORS — The Food Connector employs a team of 15 food marketing experts to partner with clients across the United States, from acting as a company’s marketing department to organizing and implementing special campaigns or trade show events.
Today, going to visit customers with a handshake and face-to-face conversation still is important in many instances, but other parts of business relationships are conducted digitally, providing more convenience, flexibility, efficiency and targeted opportunities.
“Younger people want the transaction part of the relationship done online at their convenience,” Zimmerman says.
He adds that introducing products and looking at new ideas and trends still can be done face-to-face. However, transactions and taking orders can be completed online and don’t need to be limited to in-person and during a certain time period.
Zimmerman started his marketing firm more than 20 years ago, following many years of doing consulting work with food companies. After presenting the results of market research and strategic planning to his clients, they often would say it was great, but who would help to implement the strategy?
The Food Connector acts as “adjunct staff” for its clients, sometimes filling in as their marketing department, and other times working with a company’s existing marketing team for a one-off campaign, trade show or other specific project.
“We have specific knowledge and focus — we’re really a fractional CMO model — you get the benefit of a highly experienced food industry executive, but for the 10-15 hours a month that you need them.”
The Food Connector’s team of 15 marketing specialists serves more than 50 clients across the United States, split fairly evenly across manufacturers, distributors and those allied to the food industry such as trade associations or ingredient brokers. Zimmerman says there has been growing demand for digital marketing services particularly following the COVID pandemic, which expedited the move to conduct more business online for many in the food industry.
“Our industry is pretty traditional, and there had been a reluctance to embrace digital marketing,” Zimmerman says. “During COVID, we coined a phrase that in most restaurants, the back door is closed — the only door that is open is the digital door.”
After switching to digital marketing and online business and sales, he says any fears people previously had were replaced by a realization of how efficient and convenient the digital space could be in areas such as promoting what’s available or on-sale for the coming season.
The Food Connector tailors its solutions to individual clients based on their needs and areas of focus. For example, it may work with a distributor on how to put a vendor marketing program into action via email and social media. Manufacturers may want the help of subject matter experts to talk about trends and offer solutions for new product development. And trade associations could be looking at ways to increase demand through recipe books, contests or email campaigns.
“First and foremost, what we do is work on the strategy,” Zimmerman says. “What do you want to promote in May? Over the next six to 18 months?”
After looking at their needs, The Food Connector develops an editorial calendar to support its clients’ goals, including all the content that will be created such as email campaigns, social media campaigns and Google Ads. The Food Connector has a team member who is a certified Google Ads practitioner, specializing in targeting B2B clients.
“It’s not a skill most people have or know how to do, especially for B2B,” Zimmerman notes. “The world is built for B2C, how to get consumers to take action. B2B is a totally different strategy and time frame. Consumers are fickle — they see a promotion online and say they’ll try that. That doesn’t happen in B2B, where there are hard specs, food safety, inspections and a complex supply chain that needs to be managed.”
The Food Connector helps to maximize engagement and lead conversation through email, text and social media campaigns, utilizing expert content creation as well as precise targeting and analytics.
When helping its clients with email and social media campaigns, The Food Connector works on platforms to help make companies more visible to targeted clients. For instance, corporate buyers or a general manager at a downtown hotel may be looking at LinkedIn, while independent operators or small businesses tend to be more on Instagram or YouTube. Strategies such as adding video and movement to email and social media are employed to help drive increased engagement.
The consultation and discovery process also looks closely at what competitors are doing and helps to remove any “blind spots” the client may have.
STRATEGY SESSION — The Food Connector provides clients with targeted strategies for digital marketing, from identifying short- and long-term goals to creating content on various platforms and reporting on insights and analytics.
“Oftentimes, because we have a well-honed process and know what questions to ask, we get them talking about a strategy that they maybe haven’t considered,” Zimmerman says. “I think all people have a comfort zone — things we know, are comfortable with and see that it works. Sometimes people falsely translate that what works in the physical world is what works in the digital world. That’s not necessarily so. The digital world moves very quickly, and you need to grab someone’s attention in a second.”
The Food Connector will support its clients throughout a temporary project or long-term partnership, meeting twice a month to review results and determine any adjustments needed.
“We’re making constant adjustments, looking at open rates, engagement rates and opt-outs,” Zimmerman says. “We’re constantly looking at data. Our job is to interpret what that means, and what are the most efficient uses of their funds and their spending.”
As AI (artificial intelligence) becomes more advanced and prevalent in marketing, Zimmerman notes that it can be useful as a good base for information and background research, but it won’t replace human creativity and intuition.
“The things that AI can do is synthesize a lot of data into pretty quick summaries. What it can’t do is have ideas that still have to come from humans,” Zimmerman says. “If you ask questions like, ‘What are recent trends in food production,’ it can answer that question, but what it can’t answer is the future. A lot of what we try to do for clients is peek around corners. Where is the industry going? Where is product development going? Where is the competition going? AI’s great at looking back, but it can’t look forward.”
Data derived from AI also can help The Food Connector to pinpoint very specific segments for its clients to target with digital marketing, he adds.
As trends in digital marketing include more detailed channels and specific audiences, he notes trends in foodservice center on wholesome and value-added products. There is demand for more and more simple ingredients and natural, less-processed foods. Additionally, menus need to offer a special occasion to draw consumers to dine out.
“If you go back 50 years, there were three television stations, and everyone had to pack into the middle,” Zimmerman says. “Digital marketing allows us to segment and fragment different markets. It can get to more and more narrow segments for messaging.”
“There has to be some value-added reason. It can still be a hamburger, but with a specialty cheese, grilled onions and an interesting sauce. Just those little things can elevate a plain menu offering into something really special,” Zimmerman says.
“That’s what’s going to get people to leave their home. Otherwise they’ll say, ‘If I can get this in a store, why am I coming to your restaurant?’”
And when conveying a client’s offerings that align with the latest trends in foodservice, Zimmerman stresses that they need to approach digital marketing from the user’s point of view. For example, in a coffee shop, approaching someone directly and grabbing hands to greet them might seem like a turn-off. However, in the digital space, that’s exactly what people look for.
“If there’s an overarching theme, it’s ‘respect their time,’” he says. “People are very, very time stressed, and you have to get to the point pretty quickly.”
The Food Connector
899 Northgate Drive, Suite 412 | San Rafael, CA 94903 | (415) 785-8539
marketing@thefoodconnector.com