This Way, Captain: InnaSea’s Step-by-Step Marketing Roadmap for the Seafood Industry
Wouldn’t it be nice if marketing a seafood brand didn’t feel like cleaning fish in the dark… on deck… in 40ft rollers?
If you’ve ever tried to keep a handle on your marketing while knee-deep in harvest season, answering emails from the boat, or trying to squeeze in a last minute meeting with your burnt out marketing/communications/admin person (who really shouldn’t be one person) before remembering they quit two weeks ago… you’re not alone.
You’re just operating without a real strategy.
But what if you didn’t have to duct tape together a stale website, a social feed makes you cringe, and those product labels your cousin wrote for you in 2018?
If this has been your life (and you hate it), you’re not totally adrift. You’ve just been operating under a strategy that sucks – or worse, none at all.
Sound like your current plotline? Then the InnaSea Marketing Roadmap might be just what you need to get clear on where you are, and what your next move is.
We created this foundational guide for seafood industry leaders because we kept seeing the same things:
Seafood brands attempting the jump straight to PR or paid ads without having a clear story, structure or system to actually make those things work.
Founders doing everything themselves with no clear plan and burning out.
Junior teams going hard to keep up with trends, but missing the bigger picture.
The result is marketing that doesn’t match your mission, content that costs but doesn’t convert, and confusion at every level of the communication chain.
So we built something better.
We don’t believe in guessing games. We believe in infrastructure that holds up. So if you’re tired of changing your messaging every quarter and refreshing your approach without real results, it’s time for a reset.
Comprehensive Strategy > Collection of Random Projects
You’ve probably heard (or said) this one: "We just need better socials."
Or "If we could just get one good press piece..."
Or our personal favorite: "We already did our branding 5 years ago, we’re good."
But are you?
Here’s the problem: marketing doesn’t work when you treat it like a mix-and-match sampler. It works when each channel, message, and customer touchpoint builds on a coherent central strategy – one that’s rooted in a thoughtful brand identity and supported by the work of both your internal and external teams.
Without that? It’s chaos. Pretty chaos, perhaps. But still chaos.
And customers don’t reward chaos. They commit to consistency, transparency, and trust.
A solid marketing roadmap doesn’t just tell you what to do – it gives you space to breathe. To plan, not just react. To say “no” with confidence, and to build with direction, not desperation.
That’s why whenever we work with seafood businesses that want to grow sustainably, ethically, and efficiently, we start with strategy. Because without it, all those shiny efforts (hi, social campaigns followed by crickets) are just a fresh coat of paint on threadbare fiberglass.
The Step-by-Step InnaSea Roadmap
We created this roadmap to lay out the full view of all that we do, and why. Here’s the step-by-step of how we help take seafood industry brands from scattered to strategic:
Step 1: Brand Strategy + Narrative
We help you define your brand’s core positioning, values, and audience segments. Not just who you are, but why that matters in the seafood space. We craft your story into a core narrative that speaks to your audience and can be repeated by every team member, stakeholder, and partner you work with.
Step 2: Messaging Frameworks + Brand Voice
Now that you know what you stand for, how do you talk about it? This is where tone, messaging pillars, and platform-appropriate language come in. Because a great brand doesn’t change voices depending on who’s writing the copy. We build replicable, scalable frameworks your entire team can use from boat to boardroom.
Step 3: Visual Identity
People eat with their eyes first, and the same holds true for your brand’s visual identity. From attention-grabbing video and photography, to sharp and cohesive graphics, logos, and layouts, we make sure your visuals aren’t just beautiful, but strategic and speak your values long before your customers read your mission statement. Whether you’re targeting international buyers, foodservice procurement teams, or policy partners, we ensure your visual assets are aligned with your ambitions.
Step 4: Owned Channels (Web + Email Marketing)
Your website shouldn’t require a 15-minute explainer, and your emails shouldn’t feel like a cold pitch that someone hated writing. We design websites and email marketing assets that communicate fast, drive the right actions, and create a clear, desirable experience for your specific audience.
Step 5: Social Strategy + Campaign Content
Time to get off the content hamster wheel and into a smooth data-driven, industry-relevant content strategy. We help you build out intentional, targeted campaigns that plot out what you post, when, where, and why – backed by audience insights, industry trends, and tailored to your goals.
Step 6: Influencer Partnerships + Creative Field Content
This is where it gets good. We get out in your world with you and capture it all. With strategic influencer partnerships and field shoots, our Creative Influencer Expeditions are where we show first-hand what makes your brand real (we can’t wait to dive deeper on this!). We handle the planning, the creative, the partnership alignments, and the thousand tiny logistics. All you have to do is be you and let us weave your authentic action into stories that actually land.
Step 7: Audits, Glow-Ups + Strategic Refinement
Sometimes it’s not about starting over. Sometimes it’s about recalibrating. We audit what’s working, refresh what’s not, and make sure everything aligns. You’d be amazed by what a few strategic edits can do.
Why Having a Map Matters (and Makes the Difference)
We love a shiny package and a viral reel, but we all know the brands that grow and last don’t just look good. They’re built on a solid foundation that holds up when things shift. Their voice doesn't change depending on who's writing the copy, and their strategy provides shape and direction to their team’s ideas.
When you're reactive instead of strategic in the way you show up, you end up pouring time and money into tactics that don’t talk to each other – ads that don’t align with your brand story, social content that doesn’t convert, websites that look nice but say nothing.
If your marketing isn't all connected, it's costing you.
The brands that invest in connected marketing infrastructure are positioned to handle a crisis, pivot to new markets, and create campaigns that actually make people trust, follow, or click the button. They know how to leverage their own stories instead of relying on outside noise.
We’re not here to make you look shiny for five minutes. We’re here to help you build something that is lasting. Because a well-built strategy is insurance against inconsistency. It’s your internal compass. It’s how you make marketing decisions that aren’t just "what’s trending," but "what’s right for us."
Who’s This Roadmap For?
The InnaSea Marketing Roadmap is an ideal guide for you if:
You’re a founder who’s been DIY-ing all things marketing and you’re just tired
You have a single marketing hire or handful of subcontractors, but no high-level strategy
You’re preparing for expansion into new markets (export, retail, foodservice, DTC)
You’ve outgrown your current brand but haven’t had time to evolve it.
You want your sustainability story to be more than a compliance checkbox.
You’re tired of marketing spend without long-term returns.
You’re watching the tide of public scrutiny turn and know you need communicate with more clarity
You’re not sure what to do next, but you know what you’re doing now isn’t working
If you’re still out there guessing at your marketing, it’s time to stop. This roadmap is a workable guide for any seafood industry business, brand, or organization that wants to do better, communicate clearer, and be remembered for it.
What Makes Us Different (aside from a healthy dose of audacity)
Most agencies pick a niche: branding, campaigns, content, influencer work. We connect the whole system.
Connection between your values and your visuals. Between your voice and your vision. Between you and the people you're trying to reach.
We do that because we’re not just marketers – we live full-time in this world. We’re a fisheries scientist turned digital seafood storyteller, a visual asset producer with real life boots-on-deck experience, and a team of brand builders who’ve worked on boats, in boardrooms, behind fish counters, and everywhere in between.
Today, we walk the docks, tour processing plants, interview harvesters, and handle media in the thick of seafood’s most complex conversations. We’ve supported brands like Loch Duart to evolve their identity and go global. We’ve built national storytelling campaigns for clients like New Brunswick Deliciously Canadian that unites suppliers, government, and trade stakeholders across borders. We help tell complex sustainability stories, guide legacy brands into a fresh era, and we know how to make seafood resonate on every platform.
Long before we offered these services to the seafood community, we were shaping stories from inside the industry itself. We’ve helped launch brands, clean up hot messes, and tell stories that make a difference.
That mix of creativity and seafood industry experience? You won’t find it anywhere else.
This isn’t just our job. We’re invested, because this is our world too.
Let’s Build Something That Works
If you’re overwhelmed, we get it. But you don’t need to do it all at once. You just need to start with a map. That’s why we made this one for you. Aren’t we nice?
The point of laying out all of the services we offer step-by-step like this is to help decision-makers like you, who aren't sure where to start, discover where you are along the way right now, and what you need to do next.
And if you’re thinking, “That’ll work for them… but not me though…”, first off, silence that nasty inner voice, it’s being entirely unhelpful. Our team at InnaSea has walked this road before – with brands that were underfunded, under-resourced, and under pressure. Businesses that didn’t think they were “ready” for full-scale marketing, but their business performance was telling them otherwise.
So slide over to our Contact Page.
Shoot us a DM.
Send us a message in a bottle (we prefer champagne 🥂).
Whatever’s authentic to your brand – Let’s start there, and build something build something strategic, true to your values, and impossible to ignore
P.S. This is the first in a series of deep dives where we go BTS on how we support seafood brands like yours, from strategy through execution.
Stick around for our next piece, Brand Building 101, where we’ll dig into step one of the roadmap: how to build a brand that’s not just pretty for a minute, but built to lead with legacy in mind.
