How To Find Food & Beverage Industry Email Ideas

Email Marketing Expert

Posted By Peyton Fox | October 23rd, 2023

By 2027, the worldwide email marketing market will be worth 17.9 billion dollars, and it’ll only continue to skyrocket from there. But don’t fret- your food and beverage brand can get in on the action by utilizing email marketing. 

Email marketing offers an opportunity to engage with customers, share updates, and drive culinary experiences. Crafting the perfect email, however, can sometimes feel like searching for that perfect ingredient to elevate a dish. 

Fear not; this blog will provide your brand with some helpful tips to find some ideas to use for your food and beverage brand. The quest for inspiration and creativity is closer than you think!

Milled

If you haven’t heard of Milled, you’ve been missing out! Milled is a search engine for email newsletters that helps to find deals, discounts, and sales from retailers and brands. See below for more on why it could be a great fit for your food and beverage brand.

Why Milled?

With over 28,000,000 emails and 109,000 brands on Milled- access to other food and beverage brands is at your fingertips, and it’s easy to use. Milled allows you to retain existing customers but also bring in new ones- this can be an excellent asset for research when needing email ideas, as brands can have emails spanning back years and years stored on Milled. This can be used, for example, to look at a brand’s previous Black Friday emails and find out how frequently they sent out emails and what those emails contained. Milled even has a feature that allows emails to be automatically uploaded within minutes- allowing you to quickly find the latest trends other food and beverage brands are using and take some inspiration from them.

How To Use Milled

To get some ideas for your food and beverage brands, Milled has several avenues you can take. If you want a general idea, you can click “brands” on the top left and select a number of filters, such as country and type of brand. By selecting “brands,” it will populate the most popular brands at the time, so if you want to be very specific, use the search bar and type in keywords such as “wine” if your brand specially sells wine or “keto” for a brand that specializes in keto-friendly products. 

After searching your keywords, it will populate brands that fit best with the keyword on the top and emails on the bottom. If you are interested in a particular brand that pops up, you can click on the brand and gain access to their backlog of emails. Milled will showcase a brief summary of the brand with a button on the right that allows you to follow that brand. This will enable you to receive updates when this brand uploads to Milled so you can stay up to date without having to search for them whenever you need some inspiration. 

Below the brand summary, you can select from different categories, such as the most recent emails, their sales and promos, and an archive of all their emails. We recommend spending some time researching your competitors on Milled and following them; this is a great tool to see what makes them tick and how you can draw some inspiration from them. 

Since its founding, Milled has been a vital tool for e-commerce brands looking for email inspiration. As a food and beverage brand, we highly recommend checking out Milled to see what it has to offer; you won’t be disappointed. It’s user-friendly and, best of all, free!

Want more insight on Milled’s effectiveness for this upcoming Black Friday? Check out this video!

Leverage Social Media

Social media is a game-changer in the food and beverage industry. Leveraging social media to help find creative email ideas has never been easier.

Influencers

Social media is flooded with content creators of all shapes and sizes, including food and beverage brands. By following these content creators and engaging with their content, you can gain valuable inspiration for your food and beverage brand’s email marketing. Pay attention to trending content, such as new ingredients, cooking techniques, and food trends, and incorporate these into your emails. 

Monitor Trends and Hashtags

Platforms like Instagram and Twitter are fantastic real-time data sources on the latest food and beverage trends. Stay updated by keeping an eye on the newest hashtags related to the food and beverage industry. By staying up to date, your brand can craft emails that resonate with your customer’s interests. Whether it’s a new cooking challenge or a viral recipe, using the hottest new trends in your email content can grab your customer’s attention.

Showcase User-Generated Content

Sometimes, it’s best to let your customers do the heavy lifting for you. Encourage your social media followers and email subscribers to share their experiences with your food and beverage products. Repost user-generated content on your social channels and include it in your emails. This can produce a steady stream of fresh, authentic content ideas while also working to build trust and credibility with your customer base.

Conduct Polls and Surveys

People aren’t afraid to speak their minds; this is paramount for food and beverage companies. Ask your customers what they want to see from your brand through polls and surveys. Use the insights gained to craft email content to match their preferences. For example, if a survey reveals that your audience wants to see more cooking recipes using your food products or different techniques to experiment with using your brand’s cocktails, send out email newsletters featuring cooking video guides or unique cocktail recipes and mixology tips.

Social media is a treasure trove of inspiration for finding food and beverage industry email ideas. Actively monitoring trending hashtags and challenges in the food and beverage community allows you to stay ahead of trends, engage with your customers, and create compelling emails. Let the endless content on social media fuel your creativity in the ever-evolving food and beverage industry.

Repurpose Social Media

Hopefully, your food and beverage brand uses social media to connect with its customers. Fortunately, you don’t always have to start from scratch when it comes to email ideas, and your brand’s content on social media doesn’t need to stay there- you can repurpose that content to form new emails. 

Why Repurpose Social Media Content?

You’ve already invested time, money, and resources in creating great social media content. Repurposing it for emails can save you valuable time, and chances are, if a post is popular on social media, it will resonate with your email subscribers. Customers enjoy seeing their favorite food and beverage brands get involved in internet trends. Repurposing content also ensures consistency in your brand messaging across different platforms. 

Visual Content into Visual Emails

If your social media content has eye-catching visuals like images, gifs, or infographics, repurpose them into visually appealing emails. You can use these visuals to showcase new products, highlight ingredients, or introduce discounts and promotions. For example, if your brand on social media posts shared a short on cooking tips, you can expand on that in your email by providing step-by-step instructions and additional insights.

Email Copy

While visuals are important, remember the power of well-crafted copy. Take the captions or descriptions from your popular social media posts and adapt them into compelling email copy. Similar copywriting, subject lines, and CTA make it appear more appealing to customers. 

Never feel stuck again; repurposing popular social media content for your food and beverage industry email campaigns is a great strategy that can save you time, engage with your customers, and maintain a consistent brand message. By following these tips and embracing the power of using social media for email marketing, you can curate endless email ideas for your food and beverage brand.

Google Trends

Google is an incredibly helpful resource. Did you know they have their own way of tracking popular trends? A website launched by Google in 2006, Google Trends finds the top search entries about a particular topic online in real-time, allowing your food and beverage brand to get immediate results on what people are looking for. 

Why Google Trends?

Google Trends can highlight emerging food and beverage trends and allow brands to identify when specific foods or beverages are in high demand. Examples include spotting a rising interest in particular beverages like wine, beer, energy drinks, or cocktails and dietary preferences like keto, veganism, or superfoods. Your food and beverage brand can use this data to create email content related to these trends.

Monitoring Regional Trends

Different things might be more prevalent depending on your location; Google Trends allows you to search data by location, helping you find email ideas depending on what’s most popular in your brand’s area. Identify and incorporate regional specialties or local food trends into targeted email content.

Identifying Popular Content

Food and beverage brands can use Google Trends to discover which content is currently popular among consumers. For instance, if “pasta” is a trending topic, you can create emails featuring recipes and products that go well with pasta or can be used to be a delicious pasta recipe.

Keyword Optimization

Google Trends can help you identify trending keywords and search phrases. Incorporating these keywords and terms into your food and beverage brand’s CTAS, content, and subject lines can improve email open rates and engagement.

How To Use Google Trends

Using Google Trends is easier than you might think. Let’s break down how to use and get the most out of Google Trends for food and beverage email ideas.

In the search bar at the top, you can enter a keyword, topic, or phrase related to your brand, such as “Keto” or “Wine.” Google Trends will then provide you with data based on the information given. You can then use the options on the left-hand side of the screen to refine your search if needed. If you need to get more specific, you can filter results by timeframe, location, category, type, and saved alerts so you can always be be kept up to date.

Timeframe

Using the timeframe filter allows you to see the top trending keywords or phrases anywhere from the last seven days to the past 12 months. This can help you if you are preparing ahead of time for a holiday or seasonal event and see what trended around that time last year. 

Location

As previously mentioned, location can play a considerable part in what trends are popular around a specific time. Use the filter to specify a country, region, or city to see data relevant to that area. 

Category

Your brand isn’t just a food or beverage brand; you probably specialize in something more specific, such as bread, pasta, steak, energy drinks, tea, or soda. Select a category related to your brand’s specialty.

Search Type

One of the most unique features of Google Trends is you can choose between image search, web search, news search, YouTube search, or Google Shopping. This allows your food and beverage brand to not only see what’s trending on the internet but also see what images might be best to use for upcoming email ideas and videos to use for a YouTube channel (if your brand has one) or other social media platforms. 

Alerts

You don’t need to stay up all night watching your phone or computer screen for the latest updates on trends; you can save the searches your brand needs for ideas by clicking the “Create alert” button. This allows you to receive email notifications when there are significant changes in search interest the term your brand selected. 

As you can see, Google Trends is a useful tool for food and beverage companies looking for email marketing ideas. It provides real-time insights into consumer interests, regional preferences, and the latest trends, enabling food and beverage brands to create more relevant and engaging email content that resonates with their customer base.

YouTube Expert Advise

YouTube is a good resource for learning new things, even email marketing for food and beverage brands. I have worked one-on-one with many different brands, and my YouTube channel is a goldmine for all things email marketing. From helpful tutorials on email marketing programs to advice on freelancing – I got you covered! 

On my YouTube channel, I cover the latest news from software like Figma, Canva, and Klayviyo and provide helpful tips and tricks to use when crafting emails. These videos are short and easy to follow. When in doubt, turn to Email Marketing BFF | Spark Bridge Digital for all your food and beverage email idea needs.

If you have any questions or need some more guidance, you can contact me at peytonfox@emailmarketingbff.com.

Join Facebook Communities

Facebook is more than just a platform to share your vacation photos and send the latest memes – it can also be a valuable tool for finding food and beverage email ideas. Facebook communities are groups created for people to express themselves with like-minded individuals. A great Facebook community for your food and beverage brand is Email Marketing BFF, and IT’S FREE!

Email Marketing BFF was created in 2022 and was designed to help those navigate the e-commerce industry. I like to think that my down-to-earth approach can help give your brand the kickstart it needs to create beautiful emails and expand its email list. Email Marketing BFF hosts live workshops where I answer all your questions and showcases the latest news within the e-commerce industry. 

Email Marketing BFF also releases fun education videos and shorts to help brainstorm the best ideas for your food and beverage brand, as well as things to avoid in the industry!

You can also receive FREE templates if your brand is stuck in a design block and could use some extra help. Sign up to Email Marketing BFF’s newsletter to help get a kickstart in email designs by signing up to the Email Marketing BFF’s newsletter HERE!

Conclusion

Finding email ideas for the food and beverage industry doesn’t have to be a daunting task – it can be an exciting journey fueled by inspiration from various sources. By staying curious, keeping an eye on industry developments, drawing from the wealth of resources available, and checking out Email Marketing BFF on YouTube and Facebook, you’ll be well-equipped to create emails that leave a lasting impression and drive success in the world of food and beverage. Happy email marketing!

Schedule Your Call

In our meeting together, we will run through your current email marketing setup, the hurdles you are facing, and more. At the end of our call, I’ll be able to detail how my team and I could help.

When booking, you’ll see a few questions that must be answered prior to our call. We are very selective about what brands and clients we work with to ensure we can succeed with your email marketing.