Influencers Are The Key To Modern CPG Marketing
When you head into a store, you are often faced with hundreds of consumer packaged goods (CPG) products on the shelves. As a brand, you, too, are constantly battling this crowded landscape. To compete with the countless other brands in stores and eCommerce storefronts, you have to find a way to stand out. For many CPG brands, influencer marketing is the solution.
With an influencer marketing strategy, your CPG brand can get ahead of the curve. For evidence, look no further than OLIPOP — the brand tapped into influencer marketing to make itself a recognized name. But it isn’t the only brand that can leverage influencers. You can use the personal connections and the relatability of influencers to establish trust in ways traditional marketing struggles to achieve and start seeing success from influencer campaigns.
Why CPG brands need influencer partnerships to stay competitive
CPG brands face intense competition, both in-store and online, making it hard to keep consumer attention. Influencer partnerships have emerged as the strategy for these brands to differentiate themselves. In the following sections, we’ll dive deeper into how influencer marketing can protect in-store product placements, boost brand awareness, establish authentic connections with consumers, and create a library of social proof.
Protect in-store product placements with a strong digital marketing strategy
A strong digital marketing strategy can reassure major retailers like Walmart and Target that a CPG brand’s products will be a profitable item to stock. Influencer marketing can also help bolster digital marketing strategies by boosting brand awareness, better audience targeting, and establishing trust. Influencers help amplify digital efforts by making it easier for brands to secure and maintain in-store product placements. If they are excited about your product, their friends will be more likely to buy, creating authentic interactions that drive sales on the retail front.
Boost brand awareness and attract new customers
Although there is ambiguity around influencer marketing, every brand should use it in their marketing funnel. Influencers help boost brand awareness by sharing CPG products with their audience, reaching potential customers that branded marketing efforts might miss. Unlike branded content, influencer content feels more authentic and less like spam, increasing the chances that followers will trust and purchase the recommended product or service.
Data shows that CPG brands see significant sales increases when using local influencers, such as our creators, to promote their new products or services. For example, Lola's Fine Hot Sauce saw a 3x increase in average weekly turns, with some markets experiencing up to a 16x boost! Marketing Director, Kayla Brown reported the data along with a note about how their “business experienced short-term growth during active campaigns, [that] sustained by nearly 80% for three months post-campaign.”
Another great example of boosting awareness and using local influencers comes with our collaboration with OLIPOP. Our goal in working with OLIPOP was to drive awareness in Costco. Our creators went to different Costco locations to create content about where to pick up the soda and then share them enjoying it with friends/followers. Not only did OLIPOP get excited fans who already love the product to shop at Costco, but they got their friends to buy there, as well. They now have new customers from the campaign who love OLIPOP and go back for more!
Establish an authentic connection
Influencers often maintain a more authentic online presence compared to brands, especially smaller influencers. Brands can leverage this authenticity to build trust with potential customers by partnering with influencers in the form of social media campaigns on Instagram, Tiktok, LinkedIn, and others.
Authenticity is crucial for CPG brands, as it directly impacts consumer trust and purchasing decisions. More than 75% of consumers buy from brands they feel a connection to over a competitor, which means that the more authentic content is, the more consumers are willing to buy.
For example, Goodles Mac partnered with local influencers to build brand awareness and highlight the health benefits of their mac & cheese. During the campaign we had creators go to their local Kroger to pick up the product and share how they enjoy mac & cheese and why it’s different from other brands. Their personal stories and authentic content helped Goodles Mac establish a genuine relationship with their audience.
Build a library of social proof
Influencer content can expand a brand’s content library, providing valuable social proof. Brands can repurpose influencer content to enhance other marketing materials, such as embedding posts in email campaigns or resharing on social media platforms in a collage of UGC. The value of social proof and UGC for CPG brands is well-documented. 84% of consumers are more likely to trust a brand's marketing that features UGC as it increases consumer trust and drives purchasing decisions.
Goodles Mac utilized influencer content to spotlight their product’s health benefits and great taste, setting the campaign up for success by providing influencers with detailed guidelines and product information like nutrition facts and how to position Goodles as a market disruptor.
How does CPG influencer marketing work?
Understanding how CPG influencer marketing works is crucial for brands looking to leverage their marketing efforts. From planning a campaign to collaborating on content production, each step plays a vital role in the success of influencer marketing. In the following sections, we’ll provide an overview of the key components involved in CPG influencer marketing.
CPG marketing teams plan a campaign
Planning a CPG influencer campaign involves setting clear goals, defining a target audience, and ensuring the campaign aligns with overall marketing objectives. You also want to ensure that your campaign message is something that embodies your brand values and resonates with your industry. Influencers target a specific audience so understanding who you are working with is important for effective content.
It’s crucial to consider the geographies where the brand wants to activate and tailor the campaign accordingly. Meaning, that planning has to be the vital first step in creating a campaign. Ask yourself the hard questions about what your goals are and who you want to target. Bring in the influencers that match most with your values such as local content creators or hummingbirds that target niche groups and bring authenticity to your campaign.
Marketing professionals establish influencer partnerships
Selecting the right influencers for your brand is often tricky as you want them to drive results in your industry. The way brands find and establish authentic influencer partnerships are through influencer marketing platforms, DIY search methods and conducting outreach so they fully understand who they are working with.
The different tiers of influencers suit various campaign goals, with local influencers playing a vital role in helping CPG brands expand into new markets. Regarding a 'good fit', we think it is dependent on the goals of the brand, but an influencer who has a larger following isn’t going to have as much impact driving sales in a specific geographical location like hummingbirds do.
Influencers and brands collaborate on content production
Effective collaboration between influencers and brands is essential for successful CPG influencer marketing campaigns. The collaboration begins with brands defining content goals, setting parameters, and reviewing the content to ensure it aligns with their brand’s marketing strategy. They need to make sure to set parameters for the type of content they want the influencers to create to make sure their message is authentic and true.
Once content goals and parameters are set, influencers get to bring on their creative side. They craft content that resonates with their niche audience while adhering to the brand guidelines. This balance between brand and influencer ensures that the content is engaging as it is crucial to keep the audience’s interest for a successful campaign.
The Hummingbirds platform simplifies this process by facilitating campaign creation and matching brands with the right influencers. We skip the review process, and instead, include the requirements in the campaign brief where hummingbirds can then decide to opt into campaigns that they resonate with. The software makes it easier for brands to engage ‘at scale’ with 100’s of content creators at a time.
Influencers receive payment in the form of cash or free products
Influencer pricing varies depending on the brand, campaign, and agreement that was established before initiating a long-term partnership. But typically, micro-influencers (0-10,000 followers) often are paid $30 - $300 per Instagram grid post and $5 - $25 per TikTok post, while mega influencers (1 million or more followers) are paid $20,000 and up for both Instagram and TikTok posts. As you can see, the larger the influencer (and the bigger the following) the more expensive the partnership will be for the brand. Small influencers, like hummingbirds, may also accept products or services as payment rather than monetary funds.
Brands monitor campaign performance and celebrate wins
Brands monitor the success of influencer partnerships by tracking social media post engagement rates to analyze their performance for future campaigns. They use engagement and audience growth metrics to understand how and why the audience interacts with parts of a post. They also track conversion rates on various tools, like Google Analytics, to track sign-ups through a link and sales increases. Another two important KPIs to pay attention to are:
Increase in sales and sales velocity
Reach/impressions/engagement rates
3 Best practices for successful CPG influencer marketing
Implementing effective influencer marketing strategies is crucial for CPG brands aiming to maximize their reach and impact. In the section below, we outline three best practices that can help CPG brands achieve their marketing goals and drive campaign results.
1. Partner with influencers that resonate with your audience
Identify the type of influencer best suited for your CPG brand by understanding your brand goals for a campaign. Mega/celebrity influencers work for global marketing goals, local influencers for targeting specific markets, and niche influencers for specialized products.
For example, if you are looking for the largest reach, you need to work with celebrities, such as Kylie Jenner, but if you are wanting a specific targeted region such as the Midwest for your brand, then working with local content creators is best for you. When considering the best types of influencers for your brand, it is important to understand how you want your brand perceived to others along with your intentional goals. Figure these out, and the influencer tier you should partner with will be easy to find.
2. Provide partners with everything they need to succeed
Ensuring influencers have everything they need to succeed is vital for successful CPG influencer marketing campaigns. Start by equipping influencers with comprehensive brand guidelines that outline your brand’s voice, messaging, and other requirements. You will also need to provide influencers with the new products you want them to feature in their content. Both of these will allow their content to align with your brand’s identity and create a collaborative environment.
Besides the items above, clear communication and ongoing support are also important for nurturing successful relationships. Establishing a point of contact for your influencers to reach out with questions and concerns will help them address any uncertainties they have throughout the campaign. Regular check-ins and feedback will also help you foster a supported and valued partnership with influencers.
3. Encourage authentic content creation
Authenticity is the cornerstone of successful influencer marketing, especially on social media where audiences are increasingly wary of sales pitches. Make sure you allow your influencers the creative freedom to produce content that is personal to their style and will resonate with their followers. This genuine connection will help bring a unique voice to your brand’s message and make the engagement with the audience more authentic.
Encouraging authentic content creation also means being open to different types of content formats and ideas. Be open to trying new things for your brand, especially since influencers have all the knowledge of the social media platform they are posting the campaign on. By empowering influencers with the resources they need and the openness of exploring their voice, they will create impactful campaigns that resonate with your consumers and drive meaningful results.
Learn how to launch a successful CPG influencer marketing campaign
Launching a successful CPG influencer marketing campaign can be straightforward when you have a clear plan and the right resources. The process is simple when beginning with setting specific goals and identifying the target audience. With these foundations in place, selecting the right influencers becomes easier, ensuring that their followers align with your brand’s demographics.
Hummingbirds offer the expertise and support that CPG brands need to navigate this process smoothly. Our platform is designed to help brands connect with local influencers who can create authentic, high-quality content that resonates with your target audience. With a proven track record of supporting brands like Goodles and OLIPOP, we have demonstrated success in driving brand awareness and increasing sales through strategic influencer partnerships.
We are committed to helping CPG brands optimize their marketing goals by providing comprehensive support throughout the entire campaign process. To learn more about influencer marketing and discover how we can help your brand, visit our influencer marketing resource hub or book a call with our team today!