Diving into Digital Marketing for YOUR Program.
part one
Digital Marketing Pro Breanna Gustafson
Happy New Year! While I am glad 2020 is behind us, we all grew and evolved to do the absolute best we could with the resources we had while rolling with the punches. We aren’t leaving 2020 behind without a story to tell, that’s for sure. It’s your story. My passion is helping you tell it. I like to say that I’mamarketing girl living in a school nutrition world. My professional background is in communications, film, and journalism. It turns out that those skills go a long way when you’re in a marketing role. In 2018 I fell into marketing at a large school district for their school nutrition program. I realized quickly that there is a need for this type of storytelling across the country. That role has led me to where I am today. School nutrition operators have the advantage of having a packed cafeteria lunch rush every single day. You literally have a captive audience. You don’t need to find them. They’re there! But are you capturing the attention of potential new customers and engaging current ones? Let’s explore some of my favorite digital marketing tools! So, what is digital marketing anyway?
a creative and interesting way. There are 5Ds of digital marketing. These are digital devices, digital platforms, digital media, digital data, and digital technology. Digital Devices The best camera is the one in your pocket! Unless you’re on the crew of First Taste TV, chances are you aren’t walking around with a SONY A7. That’s okay. You don’t need a high-end mirror- less camera. You can shoot great video from your smartphone. When shooting on your pocketed device, consider how you’re planning to use the video. This will determine in which orientation you want to capture the video. For example, I shoot with my phone on its side (landscape) because more than likely that’s how the video will be watched. There’s a place for vertical video too. For example, vertical video can be shot when filming an Instagram story, or Facebook live. Digital Media Made Easy Multimedia videos or digital stories are made up of several components. Digital stories may include some or all of the following: Photos Video Audio (interviews, music, natural sound) Lighting Text Graphics (logos, titles) Try these mobile video editing apps to put it all together! Adobe Premiere Rush iMovie FilmoraGo If you prefer to edit on a computer, Adobe Spark or iMovie are two simple editing programs. Congrats!YouhaveaDigital Story…nowwhat? You need a distribution plan!
Enter Digital Platforms . If you send out email newsletters to your audience, your email platform likely has an option to embed a video. If your video is uploaded to YouTube (depending on the email campaign platform you are using) you can simply paste the link into the email. Imagine being able to evolve your monthly newsletter into a monthly multimedia news show?! Let’s take it a step further. You’ve got to get social. Social media offers many platforms designed for sharing your content with your audience. Sharing content on social media will allow your program to get noticed. Did you know that you’ll reach a different audience on each social media platform? Facebook: This is where your parents hang out. According to Hootsuite (another one of my favorite marketing tools), in the U.S., 18- 29 year olds are the largest cohort on Facebook with 75% of users being women. Instagram: Join the Instagram worthy food culture and show the foodies of the world just how innovative and delicious school lunch can be! On Instagram, you’ll reach your 18-24 year olds with 43% women and 31% men. Twitter: If you want attention from your local press, Twitter is a great way to share what you’re up to. School district staff such as teachers, coaches, and principals use Twitter to communicate important information quickly.
Steve Jobs once said “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” I can assure you of this; if you implement digital marketing into your program, your story is just beginning. Pro Tip Finding your story One of the challenges in starting your digital marketing journey might be nailing down a story. I’m often asked what type of content should be shot. My answer: “Anything!” Start with a time-lapse of your entire lunch period. You can use your phone for this. Set it and forget it ( just don’t forget it for too long, or you’ll have a lot of editing to do!). Think about this. Anywhere you can replace text with video, you should. Cough… cough… this digizine… While there is still a place for press releases and newsletters, what if we communicated with our parents at home harnessing the power of digital video? Show parents what their children are offered at Stay Tuned for Part II In February’s edition of Served Digizine! In the next edition, we’ll dive into digital data, and digital technology. lunch, instead of telling them. YOU CAN change the perception of school meals through the power of digital marketing.
Digital marketing utilizes all things multimedia to s t r a t e g i c a l l y reach and engage an audience to promote products and services. In simple terms, digital marketing involves telling your story in
Breanna’s story in K-12 Marketing started in 2018. Breanna filled Lee County’s first marketing role for Food & Nutrition Services in Fort Myers, FL and worked with her team to build a nationally recognized school foodservice brand. Breanna’s undergraduate degree is in Communications with a concentration in Film, Video, and Media Studies and she currently attends Southern New Hampshire University working on her Master’s degree in New Media & Marketing. Breanna specializes in brand storytelling through multimedia platforms.
Breanna Gustafson NxtGen Network
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