How do you measure the ROI of working with food influencers for your culinary business?

1 Goals and objectives

Before you start working with food influencers, you need to define your goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve with your influencer campaign? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive sales, or improve customer loyalty? Depending on your goals, you will need to choose different types of influencers, platforms, and strategies. You will also need to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) indicators to track your progress and results.

2 Reach and engagement

One of the most common ways to measure the ROI of working with food influencers is to look at the reach and engagement of their content. Reach refers to the number of people who see or hear about your culinary business through the influencer's channels. Engagement refers to the number of people who interact with the influencer's content, such as liking, commenting, sharing, or clicking on a link. You can use tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, or influencer marketing platforms to monitor these metrics and compare them with your baseline and target numbers.

3 Conversion and sales

Another way to measure the ROI of working with food influencers is to track the conversion and sales of their followers. Conversion refers to the percentage of people who take a desired action after being exposed to the influencer's content, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a coupon, or making a reservation. Sales refer to the amount of revenue generated by the influencer's referrals, such as online orders, catering bookings, or event tickets. You can use tools like tracking codes, landing pages, or CRM systems to measure these metrics and calculate your cost per acquisition (CPA) and return on ad spend (ROAS).

4 Reputation and loyalty

A third way to measure the ROI of working with food influencers is to assess the reputation and loyalty of your culinary business among their audience. Reputation refers to the perception and sentiment of your brand, products, and services by the influencer's followers. Loyalty refers to the retention and repeat purchase rate of the influencer's customers. You can use tools like online reviews, surveys, or net promoter score (NPS) to measure these metrics and evaluate your customer satisfaction and advocacy.

6 Benefits and opportunities

Despite the challenges, working with food influencers can bring many benefits and opportunities for your culinary business. Some of the advantages include reaching a large and targeted audience, building trust and credibility, enhancing your brand image and personality, creating user-generated content, and generating word-of-mouth and referrals. By measuring the ROI of working with food influencers, you can optimize your influencer marketing strategy, maximize your results, and grow your culinary business.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?