08: Marketing
Online Marketing Channels
Choosing a Distribution Method
Organic online social marketing is a fantastic way to reach your target audience. It’s free, and it’s easy. Your customers are already on social media, so why not be there too?
Organic means “natural,” “unprocessed,” or “unaffected by human action.” In the world of social media marketing, organic simply means getting traffic from search engines through good old-fashioned SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
But where do you start?
You can start by sharing behind-the-scenes stories, recipes, and product highlights.
This will help you showcase the unique aspects of your brand, build trust, and foster meaningful connections with your target audience.
For example, Brew Dr. Kombucha uses its Instagram platform to share creative recipes that incorporate their kombucha flavors into cocktails. They regularly post videos and stories of beautifully crafted cocktails along with the recipe details in the captions.
It not only helps them display their product in action but also helps them create a stronger connection with their followers.
To further connect with your audience, you can also share user-generated content and encourage your customers to post about their experiences with your products, creating social proof and driving organic reach.
Another effective strategy is to leverage the power of storytelling. Share the story behind your brand, including your values and the team behind your products. This humanizes your brand and resonates with consumers who are seeking authentic and meaningful connections with the companies they support.
Take Siete Family Foods, for example. This brand makes grain-free tortillas, chips, sauces, dips, and seasonings inspired by Mexican-American cuisine
They routinely feature their family members, founders, and team members in its posts and stories.
Here are some more tips to give your organic social media marketing a headstart:
- Choose Your Platforms Wisely: You don’t need to be on every platform possible. Pick the ones where your target audience is hanging out, and then build from there.
For the food and beverage industry, some of the most suitable social media channels are: - Instagram: Ideal for visually showcasing products and engaging content.
- Facebook: Diverse user base and advertising options for brand awareness.
- Pinterest: Great for recipe sharing and product inspiration through visual pins.
- YouTube: Effective for sharing cooking tutorials, recipe videos, and behind-the-scenes content.
- TikTok: Popular among younger demographics and provides an engaging platform for creative food-related videos.
- Twitter: Platform for engaging with the audience, sharing updates, and participating in conversations.
- Create Quality Content: People don’t want to see a bunch of ads on Facebook or Twitter – they want to see content that interests them, whether it’s recipes, videos or posts about local events taking place around town!
- Share Other People’s Content: This one seems counterintuitive at first glance, but sharing other people’s content can actually help you build relationships with influencers in your industry and expose your brand to new audiences who may not have heard of you before.
- Engagement is key in organic social media: Respond to comments, messages, and mentions promptly to show that you value your audience’s input and are actively listening. Encourage conversations, ask questions, and run contests or giveaways to boost engagement and foster a sense of community.
Pro Tip: Use social media analytics tools provided by the platforms to track the performance of your posts, understand your audience’s preferences, and refine your content strategy accordingly.
Paid Social
Organic marketing is well and good, but it’s not always the easiest way to reach your target audience.
Paid social media is a great complement to organic social.
Paid social involves displaying sponsored advertising content on social media platforms such as Meta (Facebook / Instagram), Google, Pinterest and others.
Paid social allows you to reach and target specific audiences that may not be aware of your brand or product, or may not be following you organically.
It can help you achieve various goals, including increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, generating leads or sales, or boosting engagement with your content.
Luckily, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Pinterest offer effective paid advertising options.
Here’s how each of these channels can benefit your business:
Meta (Facebook / Instagram)
With precise targeting options, these platforms allow you to reach your ideal audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
You can create visually appealing ads, carousel ads showcasing different products, and even run video ads to engage users.
For example, you can promote a new recipe using your food product and target users who have shown interest in similar recipes or ingredients.
Here’s a quick list of best practices to maximize your Meta ad spend:
- Test different ad formats: Experiment with various ad formats available on Meta, including image ads, video ads, carousel ads, or Stories ads. Test these formats to determine which ones resonate best with your target audience.
- Utilize the Facebook Pixel: Install the Facebook Pixel on your website to track user behavior and gather valuable insights. Use the data to create custom audiences for retargeting and to optimize your ad campaigns based on user actions.
- Use Instagram’s “Explore” to display your ads – after all, 50% of accounts on Instagram use Explore every month.
- Leverage Dynamic Ads: Use Dynamic Ads to automatically promote relevant products to users based on their past interactions with your website or app.
- Use Instagram Stories Ads: Create visually compelling Stories ads with captivating content to capture users’ attention and drive conversions.
- Experiment with Influencer Marketing: Collaborate with influencers in the food and beverage industry to promote your products. Influencer partnerships can help amplify your brand’s reach and tap into their engaged and loyal follower base.
- Take Advantage of Audience Insights: Facebook’s Audience Insights tool can give you valuable insights about your target audience. You can explore demographic data, interests, and behaviors to better understand your audience and tailor your ad targeting and messaging accordingly.
Google Ads
Google offers various advertising formats like search ads, display ads, and video ads that you can use to promote your food or beverage brand.
By bidding on relevant keywords, you can appear in search results and display your ads on partner websites. For instance, you can run search ads targeting users searching for specific recipes or food-related queries.
But avoid overly broad or competitive keywords that might drain your budget. Use a mix of high-cost, high-reward keywords and low-cost, branded keywords to balance your strategy.
At the same time, don’t rely on paid ads alone to drive traffic and sales. Optimize your website, blog, and Google Business Profile for SEO and local search. Appearing in multiple places on the search results page can boost your credibility and click-through rate.
Here are some more tips to help you make the most out of Google Ads:
- Get rid of vanity metrics: Focus on the metrics that matter for your business goals, such as conversions, customer lifetime value (CLV), revenue, and return on ad spend (ROAS). Don’t get distracted by metrics that don’t reflect your bottom line, such as impressions, clicks, and likes. We covered how to measure ROAS and cost per action here in detail.
- Create an “Impression to Conversion” (ITC) column: This is a custom metric that shows you how many impressions it takes to generate one conversion. You can use this metric to identify and optimize the campaigns, ad groups, or keywords that have a low ITC ratio and a high conversion rate.
- Use In-Market Segments in Google Analytics: In-Market Segments are groups of users who are actively researching or comparing products in a specific category. You can use Google Analytics to identify the In-Market Segments interested in your products and target them with your Google Ads campaigns.
- Use responsive search ads: Responsive search ads are a type of ad format that allows you to create multiple headlines and descriptions for your ads. Google then automatically tests different combinations and shows the best-performing ones to your audience. This can help you increase your ad relevance, reach, and performance.
- Use smart bidding strategies: Smart bidding is a type of automated bidding that uses machine learning to optimize your bids for conversions or conversion value. You can choose from different smart bidding strategies depending on your goals, including target CPA, target ROAS, maximize conversions, or maximize conversion value.
- Test and optimize your landing pages: Your landing pages should match the intent and expectations of your users who click on your ads. They should also be fast-loading, mobile-friendly, clear, and persuasive. Test different elements of your landing pages, including headlines, images, copy, and calls to action, and optimize them for conversions.
Finally, don’t forget to use the budget report feature in Google Ads to track and forecast your campaign spending. You can see how much you have spent so far, how much you are likely to spend by the end of the month, and how your budget affects your performance.
Known for its visual content, Pinterest is a great platform to showcase your food and beverage products. By creating eye-catching pins with appealing visuals and informative descriptions, you can drive traffic to your website or online store.
For example, you can create pins featuring your products along with recipes, meal ideas, or food styling inspiration.
YouTube
YouTube offers various ad formats, including skippable video ads, non-skippable video ads, bumper ads, overlay ads, and display ads. You can target your ads based on users’ search queries, interests, demographics, and viewing behavior.
For example, you can create engaging recipe videos featuring your food or beverage products and run them as pre-roll ads before popular cooking or lifestyle channels. This way, you can reach a relevant audience who are already interested in culinary content.
TikTok
TikTok also offers various advertising options, such as in-feed ads, branded hashtag challenges, branded effects, and topview ads.
You can also collaborate with influencers or create your own branded content to engage with TikTok users.
For instance, you can partner with a food influencer to create fun and entertaining videos that feature your product in unique and engaging ways, sparking interest and generating brand awareness among TikTok’s user community.
TikTok Shop now allows you to directly sell to customers on-platform, providing a great revenue source for those brands who truly take advantage of it.
Email /SMS Marketing
Email is still one of the best ways to reach your customers and prospects in an affordable way.
Email marketing campaigns allow you to send out personalized messages to your customers, clients and prospects.
You can use it to promote new products, services or special offers and even drive traffic to your website or social media pages.
Similarly, SMS marketing is a cost-effective way to connect with customers on a personal level by sending them text messages through their mobile phones. It enables brands to deliver personalized messages that resonate with consumers better than traditional advertising methods like TV commercials or print ads do.
Here’s an overview of email and SMS marketing and how they can be effective for your business:
Building a Subscriber List:
Start by building a subscriber list of customers who are interested in receiving updates, promotions, and offers from your company.
You can offer incentives like access to exclusive content, discounts, recipe ideas, or product updates to encourage customers to sign up for your email or SMS list.
For example, at Foodbevy’s blog, we offer a valuable proposition to food and beverage industry founders by providing exclusive content. We invite them to join our community by simply sharing their email address through an opt-in form.
This helps us build a community of like-minded individuals while running targeted email campaigns. Subscribers benefit from gaining access to valuable and exclusive content, creating a win-win situation for both parties involved.
Personalized Communication:
E-mail and SMS marketing allow you to personalize your messages based on customer preferences, purchase history, and demographics.
Make sure you tailor your content to resonate with your target audience and deliver relevant offers or information.
For instance, as a health food company, you can personalized emails to customers who have previously purchased gluten-free products, recommending new gluten-free recipes. You can accompany it with a discount on your latest gluten-free product line to sweeten the deal.
Promotions and Special Offers:
Utilize these marketing channels to announce special promotions, discounts, or limited-time offers to your subscribers.
This will help you convert customers sitting on the fence about your product and encourage them to make a purchase.
Product Launches and Updates:
Use email and SMS campaigns to update your customers about new product launches, seasonal offerings, or menu updates. This helps you generate excitement and anticipation among your audience.
Run Surveys to Gather Customer Feedback:
You can either use Email and SMS separately or in tandem to gather valuable feedback from your customers, allowing you to improve your products and services based on their preferences and suggestions.
Channel Specific Advertising
Reaching customers when they are specifically looking to buy products is the best time to get your offer in front of them.
By using channel specific advertising on Amazon.com, Walmart.com and other ecommerce platforms like Instacart, you’ll have a higher likelihood of your product ending up in their shopping cart.
Here’s an overview of these channels:
Amazon.com
As the world’s largest online marketplace, Amazon.com offers various advertising options to promote your food or beverage products.
You can run sponsored product ads that appear in search results and product detail pages. Additionally, you can utilize display ads, video ads, audio ads, and even custom solutions to engage shoppers.
Amazon’s advertising platform also allows you to target specific keywords, interests, or even specific products to reach your desired audience.
For example, a snack company can run sponsored product ads for their healthy snack bars, targeting keywords like “organic snacks” or “gluten-free snacks” to capture relevant shopper attention on Amazon.
Walmart.com
Walmart.com is another prominent online retailer that provides advertising opportunities to food and beverage brands.
Walmart’s Sponsored Products program can help you promote your products within search results and category pages on their website.
For more details and insights about Walmart sponsored search, read here.
Instacart
Instacart is an American delivery platform that connects customers with personal shoppers who pick and deliver groceries from local stores.
Instacart also offers advertising solutions like shoppable display ads, shoppable video ads, sponsored product ads, full page ads, and more.