The Food & Beverage Industry is one of the fastest-growing industries worldwide due to its strong demand from consumers for healthy foods and beverages. Currently, a $506B in 2022 is projected to grow to $857B by 2025 as e-commerce sales will make up 15-20%, a 10x growth compared to 20161.
According to the research from Forrester Research Inc., the global digital presence of food and beverage companies has grown at an annual rate of 8% over the past decade. This equates to $20 billion in new revenue for these companies as they have been able to use their online platforms to reach out to consumers and drive sales. And F&B category is expected to be one of the fastest-growing industries over the next five years, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2% between 2021-2026, states Stratview Research.
As consumers increasingly rely on digital media for their information and entertainment needs, the availability of digital content is growing rapidly. In addition, more brands are using digital channels to connect with customers and create brand awareness. This means that competition is fierce for consumers’ attention as well as their dollars. As such, companies in the sector need to have a robust digital presence for their F&B marketing.
1. The Importance of Branding
It’s pretty often that marketers consider advertising as marketing and neglect branding and end up not fetching the desired results despite making efforts.
Branding helps people identify and recall a product or a service. It consists of elements like your logo, tagline, shape, color palette, fonts, and tone of voice. On the other hand, Marketing deals with various aspects like market research, advertisements, sales, and, of course branding.
Branding helps people identify and recall a product or a service
Branding creates an avenue to differentiate your product from the rest by communicating a Unique Selling Proposition; it’s a promise of quality and value. It’s what people think when they hear or see the brand name.
For example, the first image that hits our mind when we think of Coca-Cola is their brand colors – That’s red and white.
Similarly, when someone says Nestle’s Maggi, their tagline “2-minute noodles” strikes our mind.
2. Create A Unique Advertorial Strategy For Each Platform
Imagine selling ice cream in Antarctica. Sounds Absurd? That is precisely where most marketers waste their money. Let me explain, every platform has a particular set of audiences, and you cannot use the same advertising strategy across all the platforms. For example, a restaurant business is likely to advertise on Food delivery apps like Swiggy, Ubereats, and Zomato rather than focusing on LinkedIn.
A unique advertising strategy for each platform will help you craft clear and specific communication to target personas and build your sales pipeline. In addition, it’s essential to understand the differences in how people use social media platforms. For example, while Facebook is great at helping businesses connect with their customers, Twitter is more effective at engaging consumers.
The best way to begin is by identifying which platforms are most relevant to your business.
3. Know Your Audience And Be Consistent
Knowing your audience is important for two reasons. First, it helps you tailor your message to be more relevant to them. Second, it enables you to stay consistent with your message. If you are speaking to a group of business people, your language should be geared towards business people. If you are speaking to teenagers, your language should be appropriate for their age group.
Consistency is critical when it comes to building trust with your audience. Demonstrating your expertise through consistent content is one way to do this. And, by making your content available on all devices, you can ensure that your audience can access it no matter where they are.
Create a community around the topic of your blog or website. This will help you build an even more significant following and increase traffic to your site. If visitors to the website like what they see, they’ll want to share it with their friends. You can continue to grow your audience as more people learn about your site.
4. Avoid Ads That Are Too Long
Make sure your ads are concise and easy to read. Ads that are too long can be annoying and challenging to read. This is especially true if they are positioned at the bottom of the screen or if they occupy a large portion of the ad space.
One way to shorten your ads is to break them into smaller chunks. For example, you can break an advertisement into a headline, body copy, and images. This will make it easier for people to read and navigate. You can also use bullet points or keywords to help readers focus on the most essential parts of your ad.
Keeping your ads to a minimum will make them less intrusive and easier to ignore. If you’re using an image in your ad, keep it simple. If you use text, keep it short and concise. You don’t want to overwhelm users with lot of data. This will ensure people have the opportunity to see your ad and take action, whether that’s clicking through to your website or make a purchase.
Make sure you are targeting the right audience. You can try this by looking at what other similar sites are doing. Are they using images? Videos? What kind of content are they sharing? How often is their content shared on social media? These questions will help you determine if your target market would be interested in your site.
5. Don’t Overlook Mobile Devices
The secret to successful e-commerce business is to cater to a smooth and efficient mobile shopping experience. Mobile commerce, or m-commerce as it’s also known, has been growing at an exponential rate over the past few years. According to Statista website, in 2017, there were more than 1 billion active users of smartphones worldwide. This number is expected to grow multi-fold.
Even for retail stores, smartphones contribute to the purchase as most buyers do quick research on their smartphones before finalizing their purchase.
6. Don’t Forget About Social Media
It doesn’t matter if you’re starting your company or if you’re a well-established brand, social media is more than just a need; it’s an integral part of your marketing strategy. Social media creates a platform for connecting and engaging with your potential customers. It builds trust by allowing them to get to know you before they decide to do business with you.
Social media has become the most effective way to market products and services online. According to HubSpot, 93% of consumers use at least one form of social media when making a purchase decision. The key to success is being present on all major platforms.
That means that if you aren’t using social media as part of your marketing mix, you could miss out on many potential customers.
In conclusion, it’s important to remember that digital marketing isn’t just about creating ads; it’s also about building brand awareness and driving traffic. So, when designing your F&B marketing, remember these tips to ensure you make a successful one.
Are you looking to build an eye-catching F & B marketing strategy? Request a quote!
Reference:
1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/257532/us-food-and-beverage-e-commerce-revenue/