We all know that social media is the gateway to the consumer, but it’s very time consuming and can be very expensive. As an emerging food brand, you need to get in front of the consumer, (check out our blog for more information on social media marketing) but also need to be mindful of your overall budget. Email campaigns are the most effective way to connect with your target audience, but you can’t bank on the consumer opening your email right away. What if they want to learn more? They’d turn to your food brand’s website.
*For more information on what to do after you launch your food brand’s website, check out our blog here.
Social media and email campaigns offer a way to be transparent with the consumer and build brand loyalty and trust. This helps your food brand’s reputation as a quality product. But if you don’t put the time, effort, and design into your website, you run the risk of harming your food brand’s reputation. You NEVER want the consumer to equate a poor website with poor quality of your food product.
We’ve included 6 Principles to help your food brand build and manage a quality website.
1. Have basic information upfront
Having basic information at the forefront of your website, whether on the homepage, at the bottom of every page or a separate About page, provides an ease-of-access for the viewer. They’ll want to know where to buy your food product, how to contact your customer service department, and your price on average. The best advice we have is to include a “Buy Now” button at the top of every page on your website! Our other tip is to be sure to include your Contact information and FAQ’s at the forefront of your website design.
2. Capture the experience and stir the emotions
This comes down to your food brand’s story. Your food brand’s story is how you relate to the consumer. Your food brand’s website is a place to highlight your brand story — highlighting the value of your product, the emotions surrounding your product’s use, and how your business came to be. For example, Budweiser’s brand story is it’s American history and time-tested recipe. Their website is full of Clydesdale carriages, their old-timy packages, and landmarks of St. Louis. On your website, you’re not limited by packaging sizes or regulations. You can go into detail, offering transparency and intimacy for the consumer which again, is building brand loyalty.
3. Stake a Unique Claim
What about your brand makes you better than your competitors? Your food brand needs to have a brand position that sticks in the consumer’s mind. Your food brand’s website must highlight what about your food brand makes you better than your competitor and a better choice for the consumer.
4. What’s new?
Your website needs to be timely. Are you offering any Limited Time Offers, like Albanese gummies? Or what about Starbuck’s yearly release of the Pumpkin Spice Latte? Have a new product launching? Share that on your food brand’s website!
5. Keep it simple
Clearly define what your goals are for your food brand’s website. You need to convey what you offer, who your brand is, and why the consumer should choose you. But be careful not to force it. Remember, how you portray your food brand on your website ties to how your consumers view you. Don’t be pushy! Your website should be concise and visually appealing; which brings us to #6.
6. Design Matters
Have enough negative space that your website doesn’t appear cluttered. Your food brand’s website design should highlight what you’re all about; THE FOOD!!! We find that the best images to capture your food, are photographs. Have quality photographs of your food and your packaging that you put front and center on your website. Your website design should be consistent with your packaging, too. Consider your fonts, colors, and overall appearance when building a food brand website that is indicative of your product’s quality.
For more of our tips on website design, check out our blog.
Do these tips really create a quality food brand website?
YES! SiteBuilderReport published a post with 42 Examples of Inspiring Food Websites. All of the food brands’ websites include an about page, coincide with their brand story, and are designed surrounding photography.
To identify and isolate areas for improvement in shopper marketing program strategies and tactics to further your CPG brand growth against set KPIs:
Maximize the economic performance of your CPG brand shopper marketing investment
Increase velocity at retail and consumer brand affinity
This shopper marketing audit will detail and contrast your CPG brand shopper marketing and messaging versus that of industry standard competitive practices and will include, but not limited to:
Target market reach, integrated retail marketing support, promotional continuity & awareness, offers and incentives, and tactical execution timing
Go-to-market launch strategies, timing, and tactical execution
Deliverables
Marketing Communication Audit Report
The deliverable will be a white paper with NewPoint Marketing findings and recommendations related to marketing activities in one retail partnership or DMA/market as defined by the client.
Brant brings 20+ years of experience to NewPoint as chief brand communicator and marketing-plan contributor.
Brant’s specialty is bringing an outside, investigative perspective that can feel alternately “rigorous” or “exasperating” depending on your point of view. Yet, he never fails to uncover a business’s unique selling proposition—one which can serve as a brand foundation for marketing that is compelling, creative and “sticky.”
Throughout his career, Brant’s applied his skill set to a broad range of business applications along the food supply-and-service chain. His services have provided vital clarity for all types of operations, from the more conventional food and food equipment manufacturers to the adjacent enterprises that partner with them, such as the Purdue University College of Agriculture.
Stephanie Bossung
Food industry marketing expertise—from retail to food-service and food-service equipment— is a natural outcome of having deep knowledge in every facet of a business’ operation. With 10 years in branding and business development, preceded by 15 years in mass media and promotions, Stephanie is an FMI Emerge mentor, holds an executive-level expertise in sales, marketing, media, and production management.
This exceptionally diverse skill set adds value for NewPoint clients by providing a full complement of perspectives on food-industry brand management endeavors.
Wired for a hawkish attention to detail while also maintaining a high-resolution view of the big picture, Stephanie is uniquely able to provide astute branding direction and simultaneously apply the business principles necessary to squeeze more bang out of every marketing buck.
Patrick Nycz
A member of the Forbes Agency Council and quoted in the New York Times, USA Today and Adweek, Patrick Nycz is the author of Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain: Marketing Strategies to Grow Local and Regional Food Brands. He is an FMI Emerge mentor, an American Advertising Federation’s Silver Medal Award winner, and the Founding President of NewPoint Marketing, a full-service food industry marketing firm focused on food industry brands On a mission to grow.
Patrick’s vision for NewPoint emerged from his team’s success using this proven model for food industry clients and is fueled by NewPoint-funded food buyers and food manufacturers research around tracking consumer, industry, and ongoing food trends.
Kristy Blair
Since starting her 20-year career in commercial graphic design at one of the foremost catalog retailers in the world, Kristy’s visual branding skills have organically narrowed into the food-industry niche.
In that time, she’s directed graphic identities for snack food and restaurant startups, print materials for multiple agricultural seed companies, display graphics and merchandiser signage for major food-equipment manufacturers and everything in between.
Today, as one of the key brand architects for NewPoint clients, she continues to lead our visual research & development team, always working to find the innovative median between the best practices worth honoring and the accepted rules worth breaking.