Are you a Food and Beverage (F&B) business owner in Singapore struggling to attract new customers? Have you thought about adopting digital marketing strategies to improve your online visibility, but have no idea how or where to start?
If you’re reading this, you probably already know that digital marketing is crucial to the success of any modern business. But did you know that it’s even more vital for Food and Beverage (F&B) businesses?
F&B businesses have the unique challenge of showcasing their food’s aesthetics, taste, and ambience to attract and retain customers, making them more dependent on effective digital marketing strategies than other industries. With razor-thin margins and fierce competition, it can be challenging to find a budget hire in-house marketer or engage an agency to do your marketing for you.
The good news is you don’t have to rely on someone else to do your digital marketing for you. After all, who knows your business better than you? In this article, we discuss which F&B digital marketing course will benefit your business and help you stand out in a highly competitive industry.
Course #1: Fundamentals of Digital Marketing by Google Digital Garage
The first course on the list is Fundamentals of Digital Marketing by Google Digital Garage. It is created by Google’s trainers and accredited by Europe’s Interactive Advertising Bureau and The Open University.
Why start with a digital marketing course? Digital marketing is an umbrella term with multiple disciplines such as social media marketing, content marketing, search engine optimisation, and more. A comprehensive digital marketing course is important to help you gain an understanding of the big picture and how the different disciplines work together.
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing covers everything you need to know about the world of digital marketing. The course starts by teaching you how to build your web presence, before delving into online strategy and the various disciplines of digital marketing over 26 modules. At the end of the course, you’ll have a solid understanding of digital marketing and even receive a certificate from Google!
Course Format: Self-paced videos with practical exercises
Duration: 40 hours
Cost: Free
Course #2: Social Media Marketing by Meta Blueprint Online Courses
Facebook’s parent company Meta offers free, self-guided social media marketing courses to build your skills across Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. These Meta Blueprint social media marketing courses are developed and taught by digital marketing professionals and Meta staff, so you know you’re getting first-hand knowledge from the source.
What makes this F&B digital marketing course relevant? WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram are Singapore’s top three most-used social media platforms respectively. Facebook and Instagram in particular are highly visual, content-sharing platforms that enable F&B businesses to show off their menu and entice new customers. Social media marketing is a key part of F&B digital marketing strategy to increase brand awareness and reach out to the average Singaporean spending over 2 hours on social media each day.
Meta Blueprint offers a variety of modules to take you from beginner to expert at social media marketing. From theoretical knowledge to best practices as well as instructional guides on Facebook and Instagram advertising features — the range of topics covered includes:
- How to establish your social media presence
- How to attract an audience to your social media page
- How to engage and build relationships with your online audience
- Developing your creative strategy
- Optimising your creative strategy
- How to start advertising from your Facebook/Instagram page
- How to promote your business with Facebook/Instagram ads
After going through all the modules, you’ll have a comprehensive grasp of social media marketing fundamentals and know how to run ad campaigns from your Facebook or Instagram page.
Course Format: Self-paced text and video courses
Duration: Depends on learner’s pace
Cost: Free
Course #3: SEO Fundamentals by Simplilearn
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Fundamentals by Simplilearn is a free course that teaches learners the basic tools used in keyword research and web analytics. It is designed for complete beginners who have no prior knowledge of SEO concepts.
Why do F&B businesses need this digital marketing course? SEO is a key part of digital marketing that can help improve online visibility and attract more customers. Say you own a restaurant serving vegan food — optimising your website for SEO keywords such as “vegan restaurant” or “plant-based cuisine” will ensure you appear when your potential customers search for these terms. This can potentially lead to a visit or reservation!
Simplilearn’s SEO Fundamentals course contains four online lessons covering SEO fundamentals, the business impact of SEO, SEO terms and definitions and finally, SEO business concepts. You’ll also receive a certificate of completion after you finish the course.
Course Format: Video lessons
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: Free
Course #4: Email Marketing for Beginners by Wishpond
Taught by Wishpond’s in-house marketing generalist Victoria, this digital marketing course is designed to help individuals learn the basics of email marketing quickly and on their own time.
F&B businesses need email marketing to build relationships with existing customers in order to increase customer loyalty and drive sales. Customers who have signed up for your newsletter have indicated interest in your business, so it is important to stay on top of mind by using email to keep them updated on menu changes, new promotions and more. After all, it is much easier to get repeat visits from old customers than win over new ones. Finally, in an industry with tight-margins, email is a low cost marketing tool compared to traditional advertising methods.
This Email Marketing for Beginners course covers email marketing topics such as email design, list building, segmentation, automation, and analytics. Split into seven parts, you’ll learn about the importance of email marketing, practical tips, and see examples of effective email campaigns. It also includes information on how to measure the success of email marketing efforts and optimize campaigns for better results.
Course Format: Video lessons and PDFs
Duration: 30 minutes
Cost: Free
Course #5: Content Marketing by HubSpot Academy
HubSpot is a software company that develops CRM tools and is well-known across the digital marketing industry for producing impeccable content. This digital marketing course by HubSpot Academy gives learners valuable insights into how the company uses content marketing to successfully attract customers.
In a highly competitive industry, content is one of the best ways to differentiate your F&B business and stand out from the crowd. It’s worth investing in content marketing so you can keep ideas flowing and publish content your audience wants to see on a consistent basis. From glamorous food shots to behind-the-scenes glimpses into your kitchen, content is a great way to show off your brand’s personality and drive traffic to your restaurant.
The Content Marketing Certification Course by HubSpot Academy covers the fundamentals of content marketing, from long-term strategy to generating ideas, creating topic pillars as well as measuring success. F&B business owners and employees alike can use this course to learn how to create content that resonates with their audience, optimise it for search engines, and build a comprehensive content marketing strategy.
Course Format: Video lessons and quizzes
Duration: 4 hours
Cost: Free
Course #6: Google Analytics 4 by Google Skillshop
All digital marketing strategies rely on data for success. The industry standard for website analytics is Google Analytics 4, making this digital marketing course a must for any F&B business that wants to make data-driven decisions to improve their online presence and drive business growth.
Data analytics is an important digital marketing field for F&B businesses because it helps them understand their customers and improve their marketing strategies. Analysing data helps you identify trends and understand patterns in customer behaviour, preferences and purchasing habits. Which items on your menu are selling well? Which items are more profitable for your business? These are all questions that can be answered by data, helping you to find cost savings and improve efficiency.
The Google Analytics 4 course by Google Skillshop covers setting up a Google Analytics 4 account, tracking website and app data, creating reports, and analyzing user behaviour. F&B business owners or employees can use data analysis to tailor menus, create better promotions to meet customer needs, or even optimise operations to save costs. Ultimately, data analytics helps F&B businesses make informed business decisions to stay competitive.
Course Format: Text and video lessons and quizzes
Duration: 10 hours
Cost: Free
Accelerate Your F&B Digital Marketing with FirstCom Academy
Enrolling in the six digital marketing courses discussed in this article can give F&B owners the edge they need to succeed in a highly competitive industry with razor-thin margins. In this article, we’ve specifically selected six digital marketing topics and free courses to enable you to learn how to better market your F&B business without hefty upfront costs.
However, while these free online courses can be useful, there may still be some trial and error involved as you put the contents of these courses into practice for your F&B business. To get results quickly, F&B business owners can consider learning digital marketing from experienced industry veterans through practical, hands-on courses offered by FirstCom Academy.
FirstCom Academy offers courses that focus on the six important fields of digital marketing for F&B businesses outlined in this article:
- Digital Marketing Fundamentals
- Social Media Marketing: How to Run Successful Facebook and Instagram Ads
- Search Engine Optimisation: SEO Basic Techniques
- Email Marketing: Building Successful Email Campaigns with Mailchimp
- Content Marketing: Improve Digital Marketing with Content Strategies
- Google Analytics: Making Business Decisions with Google Analytics
Supported by SkillsFuture and WSQ, F&B businesses can get up to 70% subsidies when they send employees to SkillsFuture courses. Learners will also receive recognised certificates to certify their competency after completing a SkillsFuture course.
Equip yourself with the digital marketing knowledge and skills to stand out in a competitive F&B industry today! Discover FirstCom Academy courses, or speak to a course expert to find out which course is right for you!
