And here are some key takeaways from the conversation:
NOELLE WAGNER
So what is digital marketing?... This is marketing your brand using a variety of digital platforms and technologies. And this is the same, really, as traditional marketing. It is to generate product awareness and influence purchasing decisions, to drive sales. And online marketing is now a key component of many brands and in their strategy. So not only because of the widespread use of digital technology, but because it delivers outstanding results.
We're seeing a lot more choices that customers have to face, and deploying some compelling content can really help your brand stand out from the crowd. And the best place to do it is where your customers are hanging out, and that is online.
We're seeing so many people using social media and other digital technologies for brand discovery. One in three consumers are using social media to discover new products, and we know that digital ads can really increase brand awareness, and consumers are much more likely to look up your brand after they've seen a display ad.
We've got some common methods out there, including content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, SEO influencer partnerships, paid advertising and digital coupons.
One of the things that you know has become more evident as the CPG industry is growing, is that discovering new brands has become really, really difficult. And you know, emerging brands often have a really hard time getting noticed.
JAKE KARLS
For Mid-Day Squares, we’re in a refrigerated set that's not huge. There's not unlimited space. We have to drive awareness to the store, and we have to have high velocities.
For us, what's worked tremendously is actually telling a good story on social media, where the consumer feels something deeply inside, where they actually feel part of the journey of what we're building... We share a story of the good, the bad, the ugly, of how we build the business. We kind of make it like a reality show on entrepreneurship, on how we build Mid-Day Squares, from failure to successes, and that that makes the consumer feel like a friend of ours. So when they go to the grocery store where there's 30,000 to 40,000 products, ours shines bright like a diamond in the refrigerator, because they're actually looking for it, and they feel part of our journey.
I would suggest that every food and beverage brand going forward takes that and says, How do I tell a story that is relatable, that has an emotional connection, and that can create something for the consumer to feel. I think that that's a huge win in today's world. .
As you speak to your consumers or as you speak to your team, the authenticity should stick throughout the whole way, and that's based on values. And again, humans today want to be around humans that they can relate to and and feel part of or actually trust. And the best way to earn trust is just to be authentic and transparent.
As a business, you have a unique opportunity to not just sell features and stuff like that, but be yourself. Be real. Be a little quirky.
There's a strategy for every content, post or social media campaign we put out, and it goes like this. Number one, does it evoke an emotion in us when we're watching it? Is it angry, sad, happy, inspired. It has to evoke something. It can't just be neutral and nothing. And then the second thing is, do we even like watching this content or looking at it? Or we're just putting it out for the sake of putting it out, and if we are, we'll stop the content right there.
ASHLEY LAM
Essentially, for me, shopper marketing is understanding and influencing behaviors of shoppers, driving them via digital or in stores, physically driving them into stores. So it's at that conversion point.
Different retailers have different strategies, even broken out by channels, natural versus all others. Natural Channel gives a little bit more leeway, and we have to have a little bit more fun.
Here at GT’s, we like to really do a lot of test and learn. Even though it's been about 30 years here, we just operate as a startup, and that's actually where I have a lot of freedom here in terms of tactically ensuring what works. Anytime we're launching innovation, we want to make sure we have a full 360 approach here.
I understand as emerging brand with limited budget, you don't want to boil the ocean, and obviously there are ways in that you can build up brand equity and drive consumers. And a huge one is leveraging social media, through organic content, through influence collaboration.
Reviews are huge. They build trust and credibility, especially as an emerging brand. Anytime anyone leaves a review, make sure we reach out and build that relationship with them. Thank you for a review. Here's a shirt, here's some swag. Goes a long way. And then build that relationship so that they then encourage their friends and their colleagues as well to add reviews.
ASHLEY LEON
You can send a social media post that says, “Can you help us out?” Vulnerability and authenticity, people want to help, and your community already supports you as a business. So use that army to help you with reviews, because they already like your products... Don't be scared. There's honestly nothing to lose. If you're asking to buy products, maybe a little different, but if you're asking them to create a review or give you feedback, they want to be part of your journey, and that's their way of being part of it.
Just sort of meet your consumer where you're at, using your own channels of being able to drive people where they want to shop, making it easy to discover if they want to buy within store where there's a direct link into the retailer, instead of just trying to change that person's behavior or place where they're shopping.
If you have a promotion on shelf, there might be other tools that you have to use to amplify that promotion. Just because you have something on shelf and you have somebody go down the aisle, did you really drive somebody, or was that just a passive sale?... You only fail if you didn't learn something from what you did.
I call shopper marketing a practice, because ithe same thing doesn't work for everybody. It takes a while to understand what works for your brand, what works for your consumer, to start putting those actions into effect.
Stay consumer-centric, Really figure out, where is the majority of your consumers at and use those channels to communicate to them first.... Then what's the second tier of consumers that you're trying to tap into? Figure out what channels those are, and then start investing and testing and learning in those channels.
JESSICA SKAAREN
Look for a platform that is user friendly as well, that you know the retail is supporting and is behind it too.
Test and learn. Test and learn. Repeat and adjust, maintain a performance tracker. Be open.
It's important to take a look at the category performance and keep that in mind when you're budget planning, because you could be easily misled. You could maybe be thinking, oh gosh, you know, this is going to be too expensive for me because you don't know how it's really going to perform. So I think that it helps when I meet with brands, when they realize, oh gosh, okay, so I can do this program, and this digital coupon is only going to cost me 2,000, 3,000 bucks, you know, let's do it, and we test and learn and see how it performed, make adjustments from there.
How do you stay ahead of Digital Trends? You guys are already ahead of it by joining these webinars, conferences. That's a huge callout, learning about new tools, new strategies, new opportunities from leaders. And ultimately, a big call for me, as well as also staying focused, is following industry leaders and experts that bring you inspiration, that is a role model as well. What are they doing? That is that something you can do. What's the objective. Learn from them and ultimately build that relationship.
