Collaborating with Influencers to Boost Your Food Brand

 

In the food business, getting your brand noticed can be a bit like preparing the perfect dish. You need the right ingredients, the proper timing, and just the right amount of heat. These days, one key ingredient in that recipe for success is collaborating with influencers. Done right, influencer marketing can make your brand stand out like a perfectly baked croissant in a sea of stale bread.

Why Influencers Matter for Food Brands

Let’s be honest, people are obsessed with food. Just scroll through Instagram or TikTok, and you’ll find thousands of accounts dedicated to all things edible, from gourmet meals to quirky snacks. Influencers have tapped into this obsession, building loyal followings by sharing their culinary experiences. Whether it’s a chef experimenting with flavors or a foodie reviewing local restaurants, these influencers are trusted voices in the food space.

Think of influencers as modern-day word-of-mouth marketers. Just as you might ask a friend for restaurant recommendations, social media users look to their favorite influencers to discover new products. According to a report by Business Insider, influencer marketing is on track to become a $15 billion industry by 2022, with many brands (especially in food and beverage) seeing significant returns on investment.

Finding the Right Influencers for Your Brand

Not all influencers are created equal, especially when it comes to food. If your brand specializes in organic granola bars, working with an influencer who reviews fast-food chains probably won’t get you the audience you’re looking for. So how do you find the right match?

• Identify Your Audience: Before reaching out to influencers, it’s important to know who your customers are. Are they health-conscious millennials? Busy parents looking for easy meal solutions? Once you’ve identified your target demographic, search for influencers whose followers overlap with that group.
• Look Beyond Follower Count: While it might be tempting to focus on influencers with millions of followers, engagement rates matter more than raw numbers. A micro-influencer with 10k followers might have stronger relationships with their audience than someone with 500k followers who barely responds to comments. Quality over quantity is key here.
• Align Values: Authenticity is everything in influencer marketing. Make sure the influencer you’re considering genuinely aligns with your brand’s values and mission. If they’re known for advocating farm-to-table eating and sustainability, they’ll likely have a community that resonates with those ideals and vice versa.

A great example of this is Kind Snacks’ partnership with various fitness and wellness influencers. Kind promotes healthy snacking and partners only with individuals who share this vision, ensuring their message remains consistent across all platforms.

Navigating Paid Collaborations vs Gifting

Once you’ve identified potential influencers to work with, the next step is figuring out how to structure the collaboration. Should you pay them outright or send free products in exchange for content? The answer depends largely on your budget and what kind of content you’re hoping for.

• Gifting Products: For smaller brands just starting out or looking to dip their toes into influencer marketing without breaking the bank, gifting products can be a great way to build relationships. Many micro-influencers (usually those with fewer than 50k followers) are willing to post about products they genuinely enjoy without requiring payment beyond receiving free items.
• Paid Collaborations: For larger-scale campaigns or when working with mid-tier or macro-influencers, payment is typically expected. This can range from a few hundred dollars per post for mid-level influencers to tens of thousands for celebrity-level endorsements.

A study by HubSpot shows that brands receive an average return of $5 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, making paid collaborations worthwhile if approached strategically.

The Importance of Creative Freedom

No one likes being micromanaged, especially creatives like influencers. While it’s tempting to control every aspect of a campaign down to the hashtag used in every post, giving influencers some creative freedom can actually lead to better results. Why? Because they know what resonates best with their followers.

If an influencer has built their platform on candid behind-the-scenes cooking videos, don’t force them into creating highly polished content that feels unnatural for their brand. Instead, collaborate on ideas that play to their strengths while still showcasing your product in an authentic way.

A good example here is Chipotle’s partnership with TikTok star David Dobrik during its “Free Burrito” campaign. Rather than handing him a strict script, Chipotle allowed Dobrik to put his own spin on promoting the giveaway, resulting in viral videos that felt genuine and resonated strongly with his audience.

Measuring Success: What Metrics Matter?

You’ve sent out products or signed contracts and now posts are rolling in! But how do you measure whether your influencer collaborations are actually paying off?

• Engagement: Likes and comments are obvious metrics to track but go beyond these surface-level numbers. Are people tagging friends? Sharing posts? Asking where they can buy your product? These interactions suggest genuine interest and can provide valuable insights into customer behavior.
• Conversions: Sales are what matter most, but they’re not always immediate. Track referral codes or unique links used by influencers so you can see how many people are actually making purchases as a result of their content.
• Brand Awareness: Even if sales don’t spike overnight from one campaign, influencer partnerships can help significantly boost brand awareness over time. As more people see your product featured across multiple platforms by trusted voices, familiarity builds and often leads to future purchases when consumers finally spot your product on shelves.

An example worth noting is Daniel Wellington's collaboration strategy (which focuses more on long-term visibility than quick conversions) and has resulted in massive awareness for its products globally despite being relatively new compared to luxury watch competitors.

If you're looking to grow your food brand’s audience and build trust among potential customers, working with influencers could be the secret sauce you've been missing. But like any good recipe, success comes from using high-quality ingredients, finding the right partners whose values align with yours and giving them room to create content that feels natural while still delivering results.