If you’re a fresh produce marketer and you don’t think online marketing tips are applicable to you, think again. Today’s consumer spends over 5 hours of their day on the Internet seeking information and inspiration from companies like yours. If we plan to keep our seat the Food Marketing Table, we must improve the way that we present ourselves and speak to audiences online.

Don’t wait to get started – start using these 25 ways to improve your online marketing performance TODAY!

1. Look at your website in the eyes of your typical visitor and adjust your welcome message, navigation and overall content to appeal to their needs.
2. Tell your story in a way that is digestible. Consumers are freaked out by terms like “hybrid breeds” and “processed” and they struggle with industry jargon. Take a look at your website copy and make adjustments to get on the same level as your target audience.
3. Add long tail keywords into web copy to attract visitors to your website that may be seeking something very niche relative to the products or services that you provide. Long tail keywords are easier to rank for organically and bring in more qualified web traffic, so they are more likely to convert into sales or leads.
4. Provide ‘calls to action’ or specific direction to your audience on what you’d like them to doon the pages where web/blog visitors are landing. A good call to action should attract attention to special offers and information about your company and/or products.
5. Use landing pages to drive home key messages about special information that you want people to know and give them a clear call to action or progression on the page so they know what to do next.
6. Use forms on landing pages to collectcontact information and information that you can use later to determine the best content for specific audiences.
7. Ask form questions that will help you segment your contacts based on people’s preferences, but also where they live and how they most like to receive information.
8. Pay attention to web design and navigation trends so your website is always viewed as modern and in line with the most recent updates in marketing.
9. Add Meta tag descriptions and keywords to your landing pages to help web crawlers find your pages and present them as results to online searches.
10. Ensure that your URLs are named with keywords to extend your search engine optimization reach and dollar even further.
11. Create a blog and provide regular content relative to your products and services to not only increase search engine optimization, but also to continually solve your target audience’s problems. A blog should work to establish your company as the online source or authority for information relative to your company’s offerings.
12. Elevate your company’s areas of expertise with defined content categories present on your blog OR define content categories based on your customer’s preferences you’ve collected through landing pages and forms.
13. Provide a search bar on your website and on your blog to help visitors quickly find the information that they’re seeking.
14. Allow people to comment and add their thoughts to posts on your blog. We know that people are seeking to have their decisions validated by online rating systems and consumer comments.
15. Ensure your website and blog are mobile responsive to appeal to the growing number of mobile device users seeking information and inspiration online.
16. Integrate your social media networks into your website and blog and vice versa. By linking your website to your blog and your blog to your social media networks and back again, you’ll drive more traffic to these important points of information and inspiration.
17. Dedicate a budget to building your social media networks on a monthly basis. Social networks are increasingly requiring brands to “pay to play” and your dollars will ensure that your message reaches the appropriate fans, driving traffic to your website in return.
18. Dedicate a budget toward nurturing your social media networks on a weekly basis with promoted posts and tweets. Promoting a single key Facebook post or tweets with an important message will generate a monumental increase in reach.
19. Apply the 80-20 rule with social media content, delivering 80% of your posts linking back to your very own information and pages and 20% linking to other people’s content.
20. Host social media chats and parties to attract and nurture people that are interested in your content, products and services.
21. Listen and connect further to social media audiences using hashtags and key words. Do not simply just broadcast your own message, but actively search for opportunities to answer questions and engage with consumer that may be interested in the products you offer.
22. Realize the power of email marketing and communicate to your database of contacts during key days and times during the week when they are online the most. A/B test your emails at different times to determine what works best for your audience.
23. Review your analytics a minimum of one time per week to determine if your online marketing activities are working to produce additional web and blog traffic.
24. Measure your competitors’ marketing to make sure that you are working to meet and exceed their online performance.
25. Know the source of your trafficwhether it is coming directly, from referrals or social media networks to identify what is working and where there are immediate opportunities for improvement.

If every fresh produce marketing pro were to implement the above best practices into their marketing, the produce industry would no doubt overtake our food brethren and WIN the food marketing battle. The practice of will be a key differentiator in the years to come for produce marketers – are you on board and ready?