Top 4 Food Brands that are Nailing Their Content Marketing

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” That oft-quoted Picasso line can be applied to almost every human endeavor—including content marketing.

As with everything else, the best way to improve your search engine rankings on Google is to study the best of the best, copy what they’re doing, and hopefully, eventually go a step above and beyond. Here are some of the biggest brands that are doing content marketing right.

Domino’s Pizza Content Marketing

With clever content marketing concepts such as a Wedding Registry (you know, for couples who really love pizza), an autonomous pizza robot, and an order-via-emoji feature, Domino’s has set the bar high for content marketers in terms of creativity and pure gutsiness. There is a method to the company’s madness, though: in 2018, Domino’s swept the title of “largest pizza company in the world” from Pizza Hut, after generating a cool $12.3 billion in global revenue. According to AdAge, over half the pizza company’s sales are made through digital channels and social media. 

Domino’s dive into tech began in 2008 with its “Pizza Tracker” feature. The moved marked Domino’s transition from being a pizza company that happens to sell pizza online, to an e-commerce company that happens to sell pizza. “When more than half of your sales are coming through your digital channels, you are, by default, an e-commerce company,” Domino’s Chief Digital Officer, Dennis Maloney, said of the change. 

“Domino’s shifted gears from the traditional quick-serve restaurant marketing model over the past five years, where…it was a never-ending revolving door of new products,” he added. “We’ve moved more into actually launching into technologies that we expect to be around for a longer period of time.” Among those products are artificial intelligence, drones, autonomous vehicles, and voice technology.  And that’s no doubt just a slice of what’s coming.

Denny’s Content Marketing

We can’t talk about modern content marketing without mentioning Denny’s. The humble breakfast diner chain boasts one of the most incredible turnaround stories in brand history, almost all thanks to its bold, brave, and often downright-silly marketing strategy. In 2009, Denny’s was at the tail end of several years’ worth of declining foot traffic, especially among the younger demographic. In hopes of changing its fortunes, Denny’s paid $3 million for a Super Bowl ad spot, an filled it with a humorous clip that showed a serious, mob-style conversation about “finishing the job” that was interrupted by a friendly Denny’s server spraying whipped cream into a smile on a plate of pancakes. The next day, lines wrapped around Denny’s locations across the country, and 2 million Grand Slam breakfasts were given away during the ensuing promotion.

Since then, Denny’s has committed to a content strategy that is quirky, bizarre, and seemingly-brandless. It launches social media posts that are designed to appeal to millennials’ Dadaist sense of humor, wherein the more nonsensical the content, the more entertaining it is. In era where authenticity is a rare, precious commodity, Denny’s proves that its no-fake-smiles approach actually does successfully generate real ones. 

Taco Bell Content Marketing

Taco Bell is a serious contender for the title of Best Content Marketing-Using Brand. The Tex-Mex fast food chain has built a huge, active presence on almost every social media platform, unparalleled by any other fast-food—or even non-food—brand (except, perhaps, those listed in this article, and Wendy’s). To do it, the brand pursued a content marketing strategy that engages with its consumers in a fun, personable fashion, essentially lifting the veil that separates major companies from their consumers. Like Denny’s, Taco Bell crafted a witty, unapologetically sardonic sense of humor designed to appeal to its youth-based demographic.  

Writer Steven Tulman points out that Taco Bell’s success is notable, because many companies attempt to attract a youthful demographic, yet fail to do so. This is because the younger generation will always naturally be more social-media savvy than its predecessors, and can easily sniff out inauthenticity. In order to get their demographic’s attention, Taco Bell’s strategy was simple: hire millennials. Taco Bell also listens to its demographic through consistent, constant engagement. By listening and engaging, Taco Bell isn’t just tapping a like button or copying and pasting a blurb, they are responding in a humanistic way that’s laced with enough playfulness that it instantly warrants a share from the recipient.

Whole Foods Content Marketing

One way to nail content marketing is to create content based on what your customer wants, not necessarily what you have to sell. That’s a strategy Whole Foods Market has pulled off extremely well. The company’s health-themed blog, “The Whole Story,” dispenses recipes; an inside look at some of the company’s brands; information on dietary supplements; and tips on living a healthier, more wholesome life. The blog also targets parents (as it should, seeing as they make up a large chunk of the Whole Foods shoppers’ demographic) by making content specifically for people with children, like “After School Snack Ideas,” and “Easy Back to School Breakfasts.” 

Though the Whole Foods blog does provide information about the company and products, it doesn’t display that information front and center. In fact, the consumer has to actively look for it; it’s located in a small left-hand sidebar menu. In summary, the company’s strategy proves what SEO experts tell our clients time and time again: if you want to increase your search rankings, stop thinking about what you want to sell, and start thinking about what your client wants and needs from life. 

Pack a Punch with Your Local Brand’s Content Marketing

So, what are the takeaways from this article? Be brave; be consistently engaged; and be unafraid to “drop the curtain” between corporation and human—and you can reap some big rewards. If you’d like to learn more about how content marketing can help boost your search rankings (and your bottom line), contact Whiteboard Digital today for SEO help in Cary, Apex, and Raleigh, NC.