So you’ve got a vegan business and want to make sure your customers can find you. Or you’re a vegan business owner and want to get some marketing advice from another vegan business owner. I understand. And I’ve pooled together my years of knowledge from content marketing to bring you this ultimate guide for marketing your vegan business.
Sit down, grab a brew and read this epic blog for all the actions you might want to take for your vegan business.
Marketing your vegan business
Before we begin, I want to say that not everything in this blog will apply to your business. You might be tight on time or experience, in which case take the things you need and leave what you don’t. You’ll also have to adapt this for your specific business and market.
I’m also going to assume that you’ve got your brand, target audience and messaging all nailed. If you don’t, that’s the stuff you need to do first. It’s a bit like doing up a house. If you whack some colour on the walls, it’s going to look nice for a few months but underneath you haven’t done the foundation work that will keep it going for years.
Then you end up having to go over your paint job, getting new decorations and generally wasting a lot of time and money. A bit like trying to jump straight into content marketing before you’ve sorted the underlying messaging first.
And I don’t want you to waste your time. I really want your business to thrive because the more that do, the better impact we’ll all have on the world.
Now, if you’re reading this thinking “I’m not a vegan business”, or “I’m vegan-curious but have a business that doesn’t sell to vegans”, then don’t worry. You are in the right place. Lots of vegan businesses don’t sell to vegans. Heck, a lot of vegan business owners don’t have vegan products to sell. Look at me – I sell content marketing services. There’s nothing vegan about that.
What is important here is your values are at the core of your business and that’s what will attract the right customers to you. And everything in here can apply to any business.
Sure there’ll be tweaks here and there if you’re selling B2B or B2C but for the most part, this is pretty solid across-the-board advice.
Right, let’s crack on.
Blogs for marketing your vegan business
I’m starting with the big guns here. I tend to categorise content into two brackets: the big stuff that lives on your website and the other stuff that lives off your website.
Blogs are pretty crucial for content marketing and they live on your website. This means you control what happens to them. No one but you is going to come along and change their visibility. Unlike social media where the algorithm or platform can change at any moment.
So we like blogs as a central tenet of content marketing.
This doesn’t mean you have to do blogs. You can podcast or do videos (and I’ll cover these later on) but blogs are an easy entry point and when done right, can work super hard.
If you’re new to business then writing a blog can seem like a big thing. Wondering what to write about, not knowing how to structure a blog, and what even makes a good blog? I’m here to tell you to not worry about all that stuff when you’re starting out. Just write and get something out. I can’t think of a single person who isn’t embarrassed by early blogs and that includes me – who writes them for a living.
If you are going to write your own blogs then I recommend you get some training to help you improve your writing and blogging.
Blogging Tips:
1. Write blogs that answer your customer’s questions
Keep this central to any blogging strategy you have. If you’re not sure about what questions your customers have, go and ask them. Or read their emails or when you’re chatting to clients, see what questions come up on a regular basis.
If you’re totally new to business then you can use tools like Answer the Public, check out Quora and Reddit, stalk a few Facebook groups, look at YouTube and see what’s on there. This is particularly good for introverts who hate the idea of talking to others.
2. Think about the customer journey
When someone reads your blog, what do you want them to do at the end? Should they read another blog? Will it lead them to want to buy your products or services? Do you have a freebie they can get? Understanding the next step you want them to take can help form the story you tell in your blog.
3. Have a blogging strategy
This means blogging on a consistent basis. You don’t necessarily need to blog every week but if you’re starting out this can help. It’s about having quality over quantity. A well-written blog that brings customers to your website will always be better than lots of mediocre blogs that you’re writing because you feel that you have to put out a blog a week.
4. Don’t underestimate how long it takes to write a blog
Research by Orbit Media found that most bloggers spend around 4 hours on their blogs. Think this sounds like a lot? Remember that Google also looks at the quality of content when it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO) and I’ll cover more about this further on.
5. Try using informative and decorative images
If you have the budget, get your own photographs. I cannot stress enough how much this will make a difference. You can use stock images but when lots of other businesses use these, it’s harder to stand out. Don’t forget you can also use illustrations and this might be an affordable alternative. Hand-drawn images are often scroll-stopping because we don’t see them as often.
Don’t forget to include graphs, charts or infographics to illustrate your points. These can really help make your blog stand out.
Better Blog Writing
You will only get better at blog writing if you write more and read more. And do not overestimate the power of editing. A good edit for your work can turn an okay blog into a great blog.
Why blogging?
Alright, I might be biased about why blogging is so great for marking your vegan business but they have so many uses. You can:
- Demonstrate your expertise
- Attract customers
- Help your SEO
- Have loads of inspiration for social media
- Build relationships with future customers
- Collaborate with other businesses
- Show off what you do and sell
Podcasts
An alternative to blogging is podcasting for marketing your vegan business. Podcasting is immensely fun and if you’re not a video fan, you don’t need to show your face. Podcasting allows you to do the same as you would with a blog but with talking rather than writing. This takes off some of the pressure if you’re not confident about writing.
Podcasting coach, Jo Milmine, always told me that podcasts are brilliant because you get to put your voice in your audience’s ear. It’s a really intimate way to connect with them.
I actually found Jo through her podcast. At the time, I ran a craft business and came across her show. I binged so many episodes and by the end of the day, felt like I knew her personally. So off I went to join her Facebook group. From there I joined her membership – which was awesome – and then hired her as a coach. She ended up supporting this business right here rather than my craft business.
This an excellent example of how a podcast can help you find clients.
Now, podcasting takes up a lot of time. If you enjoy it, this can be fun while marketing your business but a single episode can take about a day to produce. Maybe more if you’re interviewing someone.
Deciding on a podcast format is essential and if you’re making a podcast investment, you do need to understand the sales journey you want your customers to take.
Beginners Guide to Podcasting
If you want to dip your toe into the wonderful world of podcasting then you’ll need:
- Some software like GarageBand or Alitu to record your podcast
- A laptop and microphone
- A plan
Not much right? What I do really love about podcasting is that it can also double as a blog. And you can cut up the audio for your social media. Plus, if you decide to add a podcast when you’ve already got a blog then you can turn some of those blogs into podcasts.
The important thing here is to think about your podcasts in the same way you would a blog. This means answering the questions your audience has and thinking about the search terms they’d use to find your podcast episodes.
Podcasts can be a really powerful way to market your business. And there’s more you can do with podcasts.
By pitching yourself as a guest on a podcast, you get to reach new audiences and get some juicy backlinks to your website which helps with your SEO.
Videos
If you’re doing a podcast, it might be worth recording the visuals and using YouTube to help promote it. You can also do video content that you then embed on your blogs or other pieces of content.
Much like podcasts, video lets your future customers see your face, hear your voice and just generally get to know you a lot better. Now, this might work very differently for some brands but if you’re a founder-led business then folks are going to want to connect in some way with the founder.
Video is a shortcut to letting this happen. Right now, I’m talking about longer videos and not the quick shorts you’ll see on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. I’ll cover these in the social media section.
Video is also a powerful tool to support your SEO because these video channels are optimised. If you are going to add videos to your content marketing strategy then you will need to host them off your website on something like YouTube, Wistia or Vimeo. This is because video files are flipping big and that’s just going to slow your website speed right down. And that’s a bad thing, indeed.
Now you don’t necessarily need your lovely face on the video – although that definitely helps – you can always use animation or actors. One is much more budget-friendly than the other.
Videos are also pretty good for explaining complex subjects and can make finding the information a whole lot easier.
Now, rumour has it that Gen Z is no longer reading blogs but doing all their search on video, including TikTok. This doesn’t mean you HAVE to use video but you should consider how your audience finds what they are looking for – and that means asking them.
SEO
I’ve mentioned SEO a couple of times and we’re now going to dig a little deeper into this wonderful part of content marketing. I love a good bit of SEO because it’s very much a long-term investment. Some of those awesome blogs and collaborations you make today will still be paying dividends in months and years to come thanks to good old SEO. If it’s done right.
Now, this blog can’t cover absolutely everything you need to know about SEO but it can give you the basics.
There are two different kinds of SEO – the stuff that happens on your website and the stuff that takes place off your website. Now, obviously, you can control what happens with your website so that’s the easiest place to start.
On page SEO
Everything from the structure of your website, your style choices, the font you use and the images and copy has an impact on the SEO. If you want to get a quick overview of how your site is performing – grab a free SEO review right here.
Once you’ve made some website improvements, you can then look at a keyword strategy. This means leveraging how well your site is performing at the moment (known as your domain authority) against keywords that are likely to land you on the first page of Google.
Essentially, if you’re not coming up on that first page, people are unlikely to find you because hardly anyone bothers to click past that first page. And we know now that Gen Z doesn’t even read stuff, just watches videos.
But with the right keyword strategy, you can appear for the search terms you want and then use this to rank for better search terms. It’s like playing a game. And there are a lot of variables that make a difference in the outcome.
Did you know that having content on your website that no one is reading is bad for your SEO?
That’s why I always think that quality is better than quantity. You can either ditch these blogs or make them better so people do read them.
Off-Page SEO
The stuff that happens off your website you have less control over. Pitching yourself as a guest on podcasts is one way we’ve looked at to do a bit of off-page SEO. You can also offer guest blogs, give quotes to other websites, swap links with your business buddies or post on other sites.
All of these will help you get found on search engines. Although you can’t help how long those links will stay alive or if they will be marked as a “no follow” link which means they don’t necessarily contribute to your domain authority.
Building backlinks takes time and effort. It’s also important not to be spammy about it. We’ve all had those emails about how this blog will definitely add value to our website only to discover it’s for u-bends from some plumber in Scotland. Not exactly the same audience.
My best tip is to build proper relationships with the people who own the other websites. Treat them as you would anyone else in your network and build a working relationship with them.
Other things you can do
Pinterest, YouTube, Google My Business, Local SEO, and Google Shopping are a few other ways you can help build your search appearance. It all depends on your business. And honestly, search is such a huge thing with so many amazing possibilities, it’s best to work with someone to help you out.
Newsletters
Newsletters are perhaps my favourite tool for marketing your vegan business. These are so powerful and build a close relationship with your audience.
Now, with newsletters, you’re trying to do a couple of things. Firstly, you want to help your readers trust you. This means sending a regular – often weekly – newsletter to entertain and inform them.
If you want to know what kinds of newsletters do well then think about what newsletters you bother to open. What is it about them that makes you want to read them? Often, we’ll only open product-based newsletters if they have a sale or offer. Whereas newsletters that are more like magazines tend to get better open rates. This is because they have a regular format and put the needs of the audience first.
Let me explain. When you send out a newsletter with lovely pictures of your products (and this is specific to product businesses) you are showcasing your product because you want to sell them. However, if you send out a newsletter showing the lifestyle of people using these products – like a magazine feature – then it becomes about the audience.
Newsletters need to put the readers’ needs above your own. Yes, newsletters are a powerful way to sell. And yes, you should start to guarantee sales based on the kind of newsletter you send. But this only works when it’s done well.
Sales emails
You’ll also send emails outside of your regular “getting to know you” messages to form a sales campaign. These emails are there to convince your readers to buy what you sell.
For this, you’ll need to properly segment your list so that you’re only really selling to people who want to buy. And that you’re selling them something they actually want.
It’s so important to use the data from your email list to make sure you’re telling the right person the right thing at the right time. Don’t worry if you don’t get this right straight away, it takes time to understand and test.
Sales emails should be used during campaigns (and more on these in a minute) and not all the time. Else the people reading your email will simply stop reading it.
Social Media
Now, onto the biggie: social media. I’ve left this much further down because I want to show the amount of content marketing you can do without social media. And to say that social media is one option in your marketing toolkit that you have a choice to use or not.
When it comes to social media, it’s best to really get into the nooks and crannies of one platform and build your brand presence there. The truth is you’ll have customers using every single social media platform so pick one that you actually enjoy using. This way you’ll have more chance of your content landing because you want to do it rather than feeling like you have to do it.
I can’t stress enough that your attitude to social media will make a difference in how well you perform on those channels. You might not realise it but if you hate what you’re doing – it will come through.
Even the bigger brands with whole teams to manage social media put their focus on one single channel to lead their digital marketing. I know because I work with these brands and teams to help them form the best strategy.
My top tip for social is to look at the analytics – see what’s working and what isn’t.
But really get to know your platform and all the different features. This way when they bring in something new, you’ll know how to react to it.
Let’s talk about video
You cannot avoid videos on socials these days. The platforms are pushing this media and we know that people are using it. You don’t have to sing and dance in front of the camera to leverage this format. There are plenty of other options including animation, mixing up stills and showing how to do something.
Yes, showing your face will help build the know, like and trust but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t. When it comes to video, it’s about thinking about what your audience wants to know (all that work you did with blogs) and how you can communicate that visually.
For example, could you do a video demonstrating one point in your blog?
Content repurposing
One of the ways you can create quick content that you know people want is by chopping up your blog or podcast. You already know they are asking this question and that you have the best answer. Break down the blog into a key part and use this for your social media.
You can even use some of those snazzy graphics that you made. They’ll look lovely on Instagram.
If you want three helpful ways to repurpose your content, check out this podcast episode here.
Other tips
One of the ways I approach social content is to have around eight talking points. This is a mix of content repurposing, behind the scenes, my values and promoting something. Then I outline each week and think about what’s in it for my audience.
It quickly fills up a few days of content.
And remember – you don’t need to post every day. Think about how you’re building connections with your audience instead. Comment on other posts, and send some DMs. Posting all the time is a one-way ticket to burn out station. And when it comes to marketing your vegan business, it needs to be sustainable for you (or whoever does it).
Advertising
With all the possibilities of organic content marketing, we can forget about paid advertising. And paid ads can be pretty blooming good at bringing people in.
The important thing here is to have a clear strategy. You need to know the kinds of ads you’re investing in, what your budget is and what you want the outcome to be.
For example, you advertise your freebie on Facebook. You want to get leads to your mailing list so you can build trust in your product and sell to them.
Then you might do a second advert to the people on your mailing list reminding them about that product you’re launching.
And finally, you’ll do another advert directed at the people who seem super keen and have been to your website lots in the past few months.
It’s all about understanding your audience and how you want them to step on board your brand. An advertising boost can really help with marketing your vegan business.
Campaigns
Finally, we get to campaigns. These are the coordinated push of a particular product through a combination of all of the above in a short space of time.
I loved the Dr Wills campaign that they did through Strava and gave away bottles of their sauces if you signed up to run 50km or 100km a month. I’d not heard of them before this point. I ran the 50km and got a free bottle. I’ve been a convert ever since. I’m on their mailing list, follow their socials and buy their products.
Another great campaign was the free VFC run earlier this year. You go buy a box of VFC, put your receipt into the website portal and get a refund. Might sound like a nuts idea but supermarket placements need to see sales. So for the supermarket, sales of VFC go up. For VFC new people try the food. And it probably costs a lot less than a big outdoor or TV advert with the refunds. So a win all around.
You don’t need to do big campaigns like these. But mobilising your fab base to get more people to know you exist is always a good idea. Or you can run a competition at the same time as a launch and all your socials, blogs and emails fall into a theme.
Campaigns also help get you a bit of a sales push without feeling like you’re always pushing sales all year round.
Content Planning
No matter what you choose to market your vegan business, you need to have a clear strategy and a plan so that you can understand how best to use your time and where to get support when you need it.
It’s not about trying to do everything but doing the best for your business. This means you need to track how much of what you do is turning into sales and then adjusting the plan as you need.
Start with the strategy, working out how you are going to move your future customers from not knowing about you at all into being customers who awn to buy from you again and again. Focus on one route to get them there. And then put together a plan for how you will make this happen. What content do you need? What marketing tools are going to put this into action?
This blog should give you some good ideas to get you started.
If you need help with marketing your vegan business, check out my content strategy package where I do all the hard work for you.