Whether you’re marketing your wildly popular peanut butter line or launching a meal kit service, your food business needs the expertise of a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) with communications expertise to lend credibility to your brand. An RDN has undergone four years of schooling that follows an accredited nutrition curriculum, has completed a rigorous internship, and has passed a national registration exam – all established by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics.
Be sure your communications and marketing professional has the “RDN” credentials behind their name to ensure you are working with a nutrition expert. Inquire about his/her marketing and communications schooling, background and experience as well.
Why Hire a Dietitian to Manage Your Nutrition Communications?
First, let’s discuss and define nutrition communications. In today’s health-focused marketplace, consumers want to know what is in the food that they – and their families – are eating. Is this particular egg a good source of omega-3s and what do omega-3s even do for my body? Does this brand of yogurt contain the most gut-healthy probiotics or should I reach for the brand next to it in the store refrigerator case? Is this energy bar created by dietitians, former athletes or the former CEO of a chain restaurant?
Having an RDN nutrition communications expert on your team will help you ensure that your product’s health benefits are amplified and clearly stated in your strategic marketing plans and messaging. The RDN will assess what is important to your audience when it comes to health and knows how to balance this messaging with other important product attributes such as taste, price, sustainability, etc. Let’s dig into three reasons for hiring an RDN communications expert.
The RDN is Grounded in Evidence-Based Science
An RDN communications expert brings his/her evidence-based, scientific knowledge to your brand. Evidence-based practices incorporate successful strategies derived from research, national guidelines, policies, analysis of clinical outcomes, quality improvement data, specialized knowledge and experts’ skillsets. The dietitian will distill the science down into digestible bites for your audience or consumers to help them make sense of the latest nutrition research.
The dietitian communications expert will source research and data to back your product’s health benefits; the dietitian will also help you understand the findings of any study that may pose a risk to your brand’s image in order to mitigate any negative inquiries or press coverage.
The Dietitian’s Nutrition Expertise Lends Credibility to Your Brand
The dietitian communications expert’s credentials lend credibility to your brand! Just as you would feel secure in hiring a medical doctor to serve on your board, the same peace of mind should come with hiring an RDN to message your product’s health benefits. Hire your RDN communications expert to be the voice of your brand, to provide testimonials, to craft your messaging, to create marketing collateral, to create video content for social media and more. RDNs are the nutrition experts!
The Dietitian Communications Expert Serves as an Influencer
The RDN nutrition communications expert also serves as an influencer among your target consumers, engaging with them on social media, answering their health-related questions submitted via your website, preparing proactive materials and content to share with your audience, and more. The RDN will help you define core audiences and perhaps additional relevant influencers to reach your targets. He/she may create and manage affiliate, ambassador and/or reseller programs on behalf of your brand.
It’s time to take action and hire an RDN nutrition communications expert for your brand! Whether you’re a start-up or an established company, bringing on an RDN nutrition communications consultant to ensure your food (or beverage) is promoted from a health perspective will be welcomed by vegetarians, vegans, flexitarians, pescatarians, Paleotarians, raw foodies – you get the idea!
Contact KUcumber Nutrition Communications to get started!