Customers spend hours on social media, making influencers a natural fit to drive sales. Learn how influencer marketing can benefit your food & beverage brand.

How Influencer Marketing Drives Food & Beverage Sales | Union

How Influencer Marketing Improves Campaign Performance and Drives Food & Beverage Sales

Are you one of the many food &amp; beverage <a href="https://union.co/industries/food-beverage">brands</a> building out <a href="https://union.co/services/performance-media/social-media">social campaigns</a> with the assumption users are scrolling through their feeds hoping to learn about your latest offerings? If so, you may be disappointed to learn that most users are actually consuming social content in order to connect with other like-minded users and learn how the people they look up to build their own lifestyles.
It’s this trend that helps to explain the rise in popularity (and success) of food influencer marketing. 
At a time when 85% of consumers think user-generated content is more influential than <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/branded-content">branded content</a>, partnering with influencers who have no vested interest in your brand is proving to be a lucrative strategy for the F&amp;B industry. A <a href="https://productlead.me/blog/influencer-marketing-food-industry-roi/">2019 study</a> showed restaurants and fast food companies earning $6.50 for each dollar they spend on influencer campaigns.
Below, I’ll outline just how important food and beverage influencers have become for brands and offer key takeaways for launching your own influencer <a href="https://union.co/services/performance-media/influencer-marketing">campaign</a>.

Simply put, food and beverage influencers are popular because they are very successful at engaging with audiences. <a href="https://businesscollective.com/how-you-can-use-influencer-marketing-on-instagram-in-2018/">Research</a> shows Instagram influencer marketing in the F&amp;B industry draws an average engagement rate of 7.38% – that’s 5x better than the average in-house campaign. The reason behind this significant jump is that influencers can give you access to an audience eager to interact, who don’t care if the content is sponsored as long as they’re inspired. Additionally, influencers can connect you with consumers who might normally block ads and would never see your promoted content.
With mouth-watering visuals, a level of authenticity and by communicating within a tight-knit digital community, influencers leverage many of the key elements that make content go viral and linger in the minds of consumers. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2020/08/05/five-reasons-to-invest-in-influencer-marketing-today/#5ce109eb7b2e">TapInfluence</a>, an influencer marketing software company, found that the return on investment for influencer campaigns (ROI) doubles after three months with no extra investment. In some instances, a single piece of influencer content showed a 4x ROI after four months and an eye-popping 11x sales lift over 12 months.
And it’s not just sales numbers being impacted by influencers. Restaurants and bars have invested more into revamping their locations to make them more “Instaworthy,” even changing menu items to feature those deemed more appealing and visually-exciting by the latest social trends. Remember when it seemed like the internet was nothing but avocado toast and bacon? For CPG brands, packaging has become more aligned with how consumers prefer to visualize food online. PepsiCo’s <a href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/lays-goes-insta-worthy-in-packaging-refresh-to-attract-younger-consumers/563230/">latest rebranding</a> of Lay’s Potato Chips (its first since 2007) was meant to appeal directly to younger consumers, with photography shot from a top-down angle, using a smaller logo, less text and additional visual elements – similar to what you might see on a food influencer’s social feed.

Why food and beverage influencers are so successful

With the coronavirus pandemic dominating headlines, social media feeds and economies – bringing most marketing strategies to a halt – influencer marketing has largely remained a successful tactic. Positioned as one-stop-shop creatives, influencers have been able to fill the void of larger scale commercial productions, bringing fresh content that reflects the current state of the world while not seeming like an overwrought sales push from big brands.
According to <a href="https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/influencer-marketing-bounces-back-strong-pandemic-lingers/2275521">Shareablee</a>, branded content from influencers was up 21% in July from March across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This all comes despite sponsored influencer posts dropping 85% on Instagram and 57% on Facebook in April compared to 2019. Likewise, with more people bored at home and looking to their screens for escape, live streams have surged in popularity. With live video averaging roughly 6x more engagement than regular video, brands and influencers are scrambling to maximize their presence on popular platforms like TikTok and IGTV.

The growth of influencer marketing during coronavirus

So you’re now convinced that food influencer marketing is right for your brand, but how do you make sure you maximize your investment? As a creative and performance marketing agency, <a href="https://union.co/services/performance-media">Union</a> has collaborated with major food &amp; beverage brands and influencers to create successful campaigns across multiple channels. Here are just a few of the insights we’ve pulled that food &amp; beverage brands should consider before getting started.
Be open to experimentation
The most successful influencer campaigns typically occur when the brand allows the influencer freedom to experiment. This does not mean going in without a clear strategy and goals. It just means that, ultimately, working with influencers is about tapping into the authenticity of someone outside your own brand, getting you as close as you can to “authentic content” in the eyes of most consumers. That’s why it’s key to allow the influencer to be a partner and not a proxy.
Consider multiple content formats
For F&amp;B brands, the expression “people eat with their eyes” has never been more true than online. In a crowded social feed, grabbing attention often means being disruptive, both in the creative direction and the medium itself. So don’t limit your campaign to just photos and look for influencers that have experience posting in multiple formats (hello again, IGTV and TikToK) so you can stand out and win the hearts, minds and eyes of your audience.
Influencer size does not always equal success
Once you enter the world of food and beverage influencers, you’ll quickly realize there are many tiers to work with, from mega (more than 100,000 followers) to macro, to micro, to micro-micro, and even nano (less than 1,000 followers). While your impulse might lead you to seek out the largest following, not only can that be the most costly approach, it can also be the wrong approach. Consumers following micro-influencers get reassurance that new products or experiences are right for them because they are promoted by people similar to themselves. A <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/Influencer_Marketing_Benchmark_Report_2020.pdf">recent survey</a> of influencers found that nano-influencers have a 7x higher engagement rate than mega influencers, which is likely why the number of micro-influencer campaigns have increased by 300% since 2016.
Ultimately, food influencer marketing remains a valuable tactic for brands as influencers create consumer-focused content that meets and solves the needs of their audience, which is precisely what successful marketing should do. To ensure you are getting the most out of any influencer campaign, partnering with a results-driven agency like Union will help you tap into the data you need to plan, execute and optimize your campaign.
<a href="https://union.co/contact">Contact us</a> to get started.

Food influencer marketing best practices

Union is a creative &amp; performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results. Obsessed with data-driven performance, we believe every marketing dollar should be viewed as an investment. Our clients expect a meaningful return and we prove the ROI of our work with quantifiable data.