Strategic CPG marketing strategies are critical to ensuring the longevity and success of your CPG brand. As you look for new ways to keep up with the digital-first advertising industry and stand out from competitors, don’t back down from incorporating CPG influencer marketing into your plan.
Below, we’ve put together a quick guide to CPG brand marketing and what it looks like to leverage influencers to grow and distinguish your business.
All About CPGs
What Does CPG Stand For?
CPG stands for Consumer Packaged Goods, which refers to a market that produces products for everyday use (such as food, soaps & lotions, cleaning products, and more). Today, the consumer packaged goods industry is worth approximately $2 trillion.
What is CPG Marketing?
What makes CPG marketing different is the baseline that the brand is inherently essential.
CPG companies don’t have to fight for validity (the way a new candle company or jewelry brand might), but they do have to fight for shelf space and work harder to increase their visibility and stay relevant.
Comparing a CPG Brand with a Non-CPG Brand
Let’s compare a boutique jewelry company to a small soap business.
The jewelry company can let their marketing strategy lean on the uniqueness of their product. They might have special designs that you can’t find anywhere else, use a special combination of metals, release new pieces sporadically to keep customers on their toes, etc.
While the soap company can be unique, they are – foundationally – soap. Soap is used every day by everyone for the same purpose. On top of that, the soap won’t last forever. So how do you reach consumers and convince them to make a temporary investment in your product over all of the other versions of that same CPG that do the same thing?
You make sure your branding lands in front of the right people in the right place at the right time.
What Does Influencer Marketing for CPG Brands Look Like?
While CPG brands’ products don’t have to change as much to keep up with consumer interests, their tactics for reaching consumers, especially in the midst of generational transitions, do.
Right now, there’s a large shift to selling products online, catalyzed by mobile technology and reinforced by the pandemic. While CPG products will continue to sell in brick and mortar stores, marketing has to meet consumers where they are: online and on social media.
The best way to help your brand stand out in the social digital space is to use a trusted influencer who speaks to your target consumers.
What is CPG Influencer Marketing?
Followers trust influencers more than celebrities and brands themselves. An honest review from a trusted influencer can sway a follower into making a purchase. Thus, an influencer with a substantial following has the power to significantly increase a brand’s consumer base.
Incorporate influencers into your CPG marketing strategy by having them integrate your products into their everyday lives. This will set an example for their followers of how the product will add value to their lives, and the influencer can follow up with an honest review of their experience to help establish your brand as a trusted seller.
If you want to know what makes a good CPG influencer marketing campaign, keep reading for four helpful tips.
How to Create an Impactful CPG Influencer Marketing Campaign
1. Keep Your Influencer Discovery Open
As a brand that appeals to everyone, CPG companies don’t have to niche down as much with the influencers they choose. Pick influencers from different niches, different backgrounds, and different interests. This will show how your company embraces diversity with a universally essential product. As a baseline, every influencer should align with your brand values so that partnership and content feel organic.
Using our example from above, a natural soap company can partner with influencers who cater to their specific niche (sustainable, natural, holistic products) and test out partnerships with influencers in other niches—because everybody needs soap!
The key word here is “test”. You might step outside of your niche and discover that influencer’s consumers aren’t interested in your brand even though the product is something they use. Be practical with how far outside of your niche you step and use the campaign data to adjust your CPG influencer marketing strategy.
2. Make Your Brand Attainable
Influencer content is raw, authentic, and relatable. That’s the main reason why followers trust influencers more than brands and celebrities. Traditional advertising glamorizes products, and a couple of decades ago that was enough to get buyers interested. Now, the emerging generation of consumers doesn’t want fluff, they want to see how products fit into their lives and what value it will bring.
Keep your CPG influencer marketing campaign natural. Have the influencer give an honest review, encourage them to share their experience using your product with their followers, and incorporate some educational content to show consumers what the product is and how it will increase the quality of their everyday lives.
3. Remember, You Aren’t Marketing a Product, You’re Marketing a Lifestyle
Your CPG products should add value to your target consumers’ everyday lives. Life should be easier, and the product should be functional, durable, and allow customers to get something of great value for an ideal price.
Since your online content is another asset your brand will produce, it should do all the above. Your social media marketing strategy should use a healthy mix of persuasive advertising and educational, informational, and entertaining content. All of these content types will showcase your brand and how it fits into people’s lives. With educational, informational, and entertaining content, the content itself will add value to your target consumers’ lives and entice them to trust your brand even more.
4. Add Influencers to Your Offline CPG Marketing
Maximize the impact of your influencer marketing strategy by including offline, geotargeted influencer marketing. While there’s a major shift to online shopping, CPG products are still very present and sought out in physical stores. Don’t forget to speak to your in-person consumers. Host live events with influencers or include in-store promotions in your online influencer campaigns.
Why CPG Influencer Marketing is an Ideal Strategy for CPG Brands
Now is the time to take advantage of influencer marketing for CPG brands because a lot of CPG companies are still focused on their offline marketing strategies. CPG advertising might be heavily saturated, but CPG digital advertising is not, making it an ideal way to ensure your brand stands out and stays relevant and discoverable.
Work with Sway Group!
Find the right influencer for your next CPG marketing campaign with Sway Group. We are an influencer marketing agency with a network of over 30K vetted, professional influencers. Our team of social media experts will generate targeted lists of influencers that match your brand values and develop a results-driven strategy that will solidify your CPG brand’s place in the digital social market.
Contact us today to get started!
