Here’s a tasty tidbit: the United States spends about $400 billion each year on snacks alone. But while the food industry is still quite lucrative, many businesses are failing to get the results they need.
The cause? Poor advertising. However, with a little bit of help, those slumping figures will soon rise.
Any food marketing agency struggling to get results needs to read on. Here are some of the best ways to get results that really matter.
What Makes For An Effective Food Marketing Agency?
Before discussing results, it’s important to understand and clearly define what makes an effective agency. This can be a bit difficult, as different companies are going to have different metrics.
Some companies just starting out, for example, may want to raise brand awareness. Others may simply want to increase sales.
So what makes for effective results anyway? Here are some of the biggest factors to focus on.
Transparency
Customers these days value transparency above just about anything else. Smart brands, such as Panera and Chipotle are known for their eco-focused ads.
So what’s their secret? Both brands take extra care to let customers know what to expect when they shop at their restaurants. Their copy focuses on where their food comes from and whether or not antibiotics are used.
It’s a pretty brilliant move. Walk in the customer’s shoes for a moment. Which sounds more appealing: organic, cage-free eggs or just eggs?
Customers want to trust brands, so the more open a brand is about their product, the more a customer will like it.
A Customer-Focused Approach
While transparency is great, it’s important to take things a step further. When people think of marketing, they think of a bunch of suits in a boardroom discussing how to get their money.
Sounds pretty negative, doesn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be this way. Transparency works because it operates under the assumption that customer and client are on the same level.
Try not to talk down to customers. The more “real” you are with them, the more likely they are to identify with a brand.
When coming up with marketing strategies, ask: ‘Would this work if we were the customer?’ If a business isn’t getting the desired results, it could be a sign that their marketing is missing the mark.
Be Consistent
One of the easiest ways a food marketing agency can get better results is with consistent design
Make sure that the site’s design reflects packaging or logo colors. For example, if a company sells cereal, they’d want their site to reflect the colors and geometry of their cereal packaging.
This type of consistency is helpful when it comes to brand recognition. Humans are creatures of pattern recognition. The more we’ve seen a design, the more likely we are to remember it.
Getting The Right Results
Now let’s talk about how to measure the results.
Set aside a few hours each week and study that week’s analytics. This goes for social media pages, website data, and any other advertising.
Since analytics can be a bit overwhelming, to say the least, so here’s a quick guide of info to look for:
- Age ranges
- Location
- Time spent on a page
- Whether a purchase was made
- Where in the shopping process was the sale abandoned
Regularly monitoring these details allows for quick, on-the-fly changes to be made. So if a campaign isn’t hitting the mark, consider which of these factors are responsible.
Final Thoughts On What Makes An Effective Food Marketing Agency
No agency gets things right 100% of the time. There will undoubtedly be mess-ups and corrections along the way. However, by remaining honest and consistent, customers are more likely to give a brand their business.
Customers have other choices, so use advertising to win them over.
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