B2B digital communication: the Parmalat Professional case

In brief: B2B digital communication aimed at professionals is the mix of website, content, social media and email newsletters a company uses to inform and support the people who use its products for work: chefs, baristas, pastry makers, hotels and distributors. It works when every piece of content solves an operational problem and every channel leads to a tracked sales contact.

Key takeaways

Professionals buy in order to work: they want pack sizes, yield, storage, delivery times and support, not slogans.
The Parmalat Professional case (2026) combines dedicated social profiles for the trade, an editorial plan and newsletters about trade fairs, events and launches.
The website is where content turns into contacts: a form, segmentation and a CRM.
Email newsletters to trade customers must follow EU and national email marketing rules: consent, or the existing-customer exception for similar products.
Product pages must give customers the data they need to do their job and to inform their own guests, starting with allergens (EU Regulation 1169/2011).
Samples and trials reduce perceived risk: make them easy to request online, and route each request to the local sales rep or distributor.
Success is measured in qualified enquiries and orders, not followers.

Selling to the foodservice trade means talking to a large and fragmented audience. According to FIPE-Confcommercio's 2026 restaurant industry report, Italy had 324,436 foodservice businesses in 2025, 1% fewer than the year before. One business in two reports difficulty hiring staff. In practice, these customers are short on time and need to be reached beyond the sales rep's visit and the trade fair. That applies to food manufacturers, equipment and packaging suppliers, and B2B online stores alike.

What is B2B digital communication for professionals?

It is how a company talks, through its own digital channels, to other businesses that use its products in their work.

HoReCa (Hotel, Restaurant, Café, sometimes Catering) is the sales channel covering hotels, restaurants, bars and food service operators. Foodservice, or the professional channel, is the broader term that also includes pastry shops, ice cream parlours, artisan kitchens, canteens and contract catering. Either way, the buyer is a business, even a one-person café.

The difference from B2C is not just a matter of tone, as I explain in the guide to how B2B and B2C strategies differ. A professional judges yield, consistency, service and cost per portion. With larger accounts, such as restaurant chains, hotel groups and contract caterers, the decision involves several people: Forrester's 2026 report on B2B buying across sectors finds that a typical purchase involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, and that buyers look for validation from sources they trust.

What did Parmalat Professional do in B2B digital communication?

In August 2026 the Italian trade outlets Food Affairs and Media Key reported that Parmalat Professional, the Lactalis Group brand for foodservice operators, had appointed the agency Erbacipollina to run its digital communication strategy aimed at chefs, pastry makers, restaurateurs and hospitality professionals.

According to those reports, the project has three parts:

Dedicated social channels: the first step was launching Facebook and Instagram profiles dedicated to the professional brand.
An editorial plan for the B2B audience: product deep dives, application ideas, inspirational content and updates on brand initiatives.
Email marketing: newsletters about trade fairs, industry events and product launches, to keep in regular touch with the database of professionals and support sales initiatives.

The website, checked in November 2026, completes the picture: a single page with about, products, news and contact sections; product entries listing pack sizes (from 1 to 10 litres), the fat content of each cream and its recommended use, such as a milk designed for café cappuccino; an invitation to leave your details to receive news and exclusive content; and a toll-free number. The page source shows it runs on HubSpot, a platform that keeps website, forms and email in one system.

The results have not been published, so the case is worth studying for its structure: social media builds attention, the website provides the technical detail and captures the contact, and the newsletter keeps the relationship going.

What information do chefs, baristas and buyers look for before buying?

Data that answers work questions: how far the product goes, how it is stored, how it is used, what it costs per portion, when it arrives. The more complete the product sheet, the fewer phone calls it takes to get to an order.

Usage data: pack sizes, yield, storage before and after opening, recommended preparations, compatible equipment.
Allergens and ingredients: for non-prepacked food, such as dishes served by restaurants, cafés and canteens, EU Regulation 1169/2011 (Article 44) makes allergen information mandatory. The same regulation (Article 8(8)) requires businesses that supply other food business operators to give them enough information to meet their own obligations. A downloadable spec sheet with the 14 Annex II substances clearly highlighted is therefore a service to the customer, not a detail.
Documents for procurement: price list or price band, minimum order, delivery times and areas, certifications held. These matter a lot for chains and contract caterers: according to Forrester, procurement professionals are decision-makers in 53% of B2B buying cycles, get involved from the start and look beyond price.
A trial: Forrester finds that more than 60% of B2B buyers use a trial before deciding. In foodservice, the trial is the sample, the chef's demonstration or the tasting at a trade fair: the form to request it belongs on every product page.
A person to contact: the local sales rep's number or name. The same report notes that human contact remains essential, partly because buyers look for validation from sources they trust.

Which channels should you use, and what is each one for?

Each channel has a different job and should be measured against that job.

Channel	Role with trade buyers	What to measure
Website and product pages	Specs, pack sizes, where to buy, contact form	Form enquiries, spec sheet downloads
Instagram and Facebook	Applications, recipes, product in use, trade fair presence	Saves, direct messages, website visits
LinkedIn	Chain buyers, distributors, procurement teams	Contacts at target accounts, meeting requests
Newsletter	Launches, fairs, seasonality, reorders	Clicks and enquiries per segment, unsubscribes
Guides, videos, webinars	Solving operational problems, training staff	Sign-ups, contacts generated
Trade fairs and events	Product trials and face-to-face meetings	Contacts collected and followed up within a week
Chefs and respected professionals	Demonstrations, signature recipes, trials described by people who use the product every day	Sample requests and contacts generated by their content

For social media, start from a B2B social media strategy built on a few repeatable formats; for fairs and meetings, from a plan that connects them to digital before and after the event, as covered in the guide to integrated communication for B2B events. There is also a deeper reason to communicate consistently: according to the LinkedIn B2B Institute's research on the 95-5 rule, 95% of your potential buyers are not ready to buy today. Social media and newsletters keep you remembered when the need arises.

Chefs and professionals respected by their peers give content a credibility that a brand post lacks. Forrester puts it in general terms: providers must make sure their claims can be validated through external voices that buyers trust. I explain how to choose these partnerships in the guide to B2B influencer marketing.

How do you get found on Google and in AI answer engines?

With public, complete and up-to-date pages for every product and every recurring question. According to Forrester, generative AI searches are now the starting point for B2B buyers, but answer engines often deliver incomplete or unreliable information, and buyers look for validation elsewhere. So it pays to be a clear, verifiable source.

One page per product, with name, pack sizes, usage data and allergens written in the page text, not only in a PDF or an image.
Pages that answer customers' questions collected by your sales reps, in the language cafés, pastry shops and hotels actually use.
Where to buy: distributors and reps by area, so anyone who finds the product knows whom to ask.
Photos with descriptive alt text, useful for accessibility and for understanding images, as I explain in the guide to alt text for B2B Instagram.

I cover how AI is changing search in the guide to AI-powered search engines, and how to choose SEO support in the guide to SEO consulting in Italy.

How do you build an editorial plan for the foodservice trade?

Start from your customers' working calendar: seasons, trade fairs, launches, reorder moments. Here is an example for a supplier of ingredients for pastry shops, ice cream parlours and cafés.

Period	What the customer cares about	Content and sends
December-January	Trade fairs and the year's new products	Invitations and stand appointments, for example for Sigep (Rimini, 23-27 January 2027, with sections for gelato, pastry, coffee, bakery and pizza); a recap for those who could not attend
February-April	Getting ready for the gelato season and Easter	Spec sheets and base recipes, reminders for early-season orders
May-August	Peak season, little time to read	Short videos, practical tips, quick reorder from the email
September-November	New menus, leavened products and holiday desserts	Recipes, pairings, staff training webinars

Four rules to make it work:

A recurring feature per segment, so customers know what to expect and whoever produces the content does not start from scratch every time.
One piece of content, several formats: the same recipe becomes a page on the website, a social video and a newsletter section.
One call to action per piece: download the spec sheet, request a sample, book a visit.
Room for existing customers: reorder reminders, training for new staff, early previews. The newsletter is the best-suited tool for this part.

For training, webinars work even for people with only a few minutes to spare: I cover them in the guide to B2B webinars.

How do you turn content and newsletters into sales leads?

By connecting every channel to a form and a CRM, segmenting by type of business and routing each enquiry to the right person under clear rules.

A short website form: name, company, type of business (bar, restaurant, hotel, pastry shop, distributor), area and a separate opt-in for the newsletter.
Source tracking: the CRM records where each contact came from (social, trade fair, newsletter, Google search), so you can compare channels.
Segments: different newsletters by type of business and season. An ice cream parlour in March and a hotel in September have different questions.
Routing rules: anyone asking for a sample, a price list or a visit goes to the local sales rep or distributor, with a maximum response time agreed in advance.
Automation: instant confirmation, the spec sheet sent automatically, a reminder to the sales rep. Tools such as n8n or Make connect website, CRM and email without manual work; I cover this in the guide to business process automation.

Newsletters come with a legal constraint. In Italy, the data protection authority's guidelines on marketing and spam state that promotional emails require consent. The exception, known as soft spam (Article 130(4) of the Italian Privacy Code, which implements the EU ePrivacy Directive), only covers an email address a customer gave you when buying, used to promote similar products or services, provided the customer was informed and did not object. Contacts collected at fairs or on your website therefore need specific opt-in consent to marketing; in borderline cases, check with your privacy adviser and the rules of each country you sell into.

The same applies to WhatsApp if you use it to send news and offers. The WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy only allows you to contact people who have given you their number and agreed to receive your messages, and makes the business responsible for collecting that opt-in in line with applicable law. On your website form, a separate, unticked box for each channel does the job.

How do you involve distributors and sales agents in digital communication?

In foodservice, many orders go through wholesalers, distributors and agents. If digital communication bypasses them, enquiries get lost; if it involves them, enquiries reach someone who can fulfil them.

An up-to-date kit: copy, photos, spec sheets and allergen data in a partner area, so distributors do not use outdated material.
Enquiries routed by area: anyone asking for a sample or price list is assigned to the relevant distributor or agent, with confirmation that it has been picked up.
A regular report: how many enquiries came from the area and how many became orders, so you can decide together where to invest.
Joint initiatives: demonstrations at the distributor's premises or at customers' venues, announced through both companies' newsletters and social channels.

Examples for B2B companies and online stores

The pattern works beyond dairy too. Three typical scenarios:

Coffee machine manufacturer: maintenance videos on social media, a downloadable spec sheet in exchange for contact details, and a quarterly newsletter to customer cafés with reminders and spare-part offers.
B2B online store selling takeaway packaging: a trade login with volume-based price lists and self-service ordering (I discuss this in the guide to the future of B2B e-commerce), reorder emails driven by purchase history (the existing-customer exception may apply here, with notice and opt-out), and guides on materials and regulations for restaurants.
Regional HoReCa distributor: local chains and hotel groups need tailored, account-by-account work, as described in the guide to account-based marketing; for independent bars and restaurants, segmented newsletters and a form to book a rep visit are enough.

More guides on these topics are collected in the lead generation and CRM section.

How to apply it in your company: first steps

Start from what your sales team hears every day, and measure every step.

Within two weeks: pick 3 segments of trade customers and collect from your sales reps the 5 most frequent questions for each.
Within a month: rewrite the pages for your 10 best-selling products with operational data (pack sizes, yield, storage, use, allergens) written in the page and a clear call to request a sample or price list.
Within six weeks: put the form live, connected to the CRM, with type of business and a separate opt-in. Target: a recorded source for every new contact.
Within two months: launch a monthly newsletter per segment, plus sends tied to fairs and launches. Track clicks and enquiries segment by segment.
After 90 days: compare contacts, qualified enquiries and orders by channel, and cut time spent on whatever brings no enquiries.

If you want a setup where website, CRM, email and automation work together, that is the kind of project you will find in my solutions.

Mistakes to avoid

Recycling consumer content. Professionals care about yield and procedures, not TV-ad emotions.
One newsletter for everyone. The pastry chef who keeps receiving hotel offers stops opening your emails, then unsubscribes.
Leaving trade fair contacts in a spreadsheet. Without a CRM and a follow-up within days, the fair stays a cost.
Data only in a PDF or image. Information locked in an attachment is harder to find on Google and in answer engines, and hard to read on a phone.
Bypassing distributors. An enquiry nobody in the area picks up is a lost customer, and a distributor who never sees results stops cooperating.
Measuring followers. What counts is the relationship over time, as I explain in the guide to the value of relationships in B2B marketing, and how many contacts turn into orders.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What does the HoReCa channel mean?

HoReCa stands for Hotel, Restaurant, Café (sometimes Catering) and refers to the sales channel serving hotels, restaurants, bars and food service operators. Unlike retail, the customer is a business that uses the product to work and cares about pack size, yield and service.

Which digital channels work best with foodservice professionals?

Usually a website with complete spec sheets, Instagram to show the product in use, and a newsletter segmented by type of business. LinkedIn is mainly useful for chain buyers, distributors and procurement teams.

Can you send a newsletter to trade customers without consent?

In Italy, promotional emails require consent, business addresses included; other EU countries set their own rules for business recipients. The soft spam exception lets you email your own customers at the address they gave you during a purchase, about similar products or services, if they were informed and did not object. Contacts collected at fairs or on your website need specific opt-in consent.

How often should you send a B2B newsletter?

A pace you can sustain with useful content, for example monthly, plus sends tied to fairs, launches and seasonality. If unsubscribes rise in a segment, the problem is usually relevance, not frequency.

How can you tell if B2B digital communication brings in customers?

Record the source of every contact in the CRM and follow it through to the order. The useful indicators are form enquiries, sample or price list requests, meetings booked and orders by channel.

Do you need an agency, or can you run it in-house?

A structured company can run content and newsletters in-house if it has a dedicated person and a well-configured CRM. Outside help is most useful for building the initial system: website, forms, automation, segments. The data and contacts must stay with the company.

Why personalise B2B communication, and how can you do it without a large team?

Because a pastry chef, a hotel and a chain buyer have different questions, and a generic message gets ignored. With a CRM, a few fields (type of business, area, products purchased) are enough to send each segment relevant content and offers; automation takes care of the sends.

Sources

Parmalat Professional sceglie Erbacipollina per la comunicazione digitale B2B – Food Affairs (Italian, August 2026)
Parmalat Professional sceglie Erbacipollina per sviluppare la propria comunicazione digitale B2B – Media Key (Italian, August 2026)
Parmalat Professional official website (Italian, checked November 2026)
Rapporto Ristorazione 2026, FIPE-Confcommercio – Format Research (Italian, April 2026)
The State Of Business Buying, 2026 (press release) – Forrester (January 2026)
95-5 Rule – LinkedIn B2B Institute
Guidelines on promotional activities and combating spam – Italian Data Protection Authority (Italian, 2013)
Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers – EUR-Lex (Articles 2, 8, 44 and Annex II)
WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy – WhatsApp (checked November 2026)
Sigep World – Italian Exhibition Group (checked November 2026)

If you want to work out which channels to connect first and how to route contacts to the right salesperson, request a free diagnosis.