Digital Marketing Strategies for FMCG

10 Digital Marketing Strategies for FMCG

Are you interested in finding out how an FMCG can utilize digital marketing to make it even more successful? If you're interested in learning more about digital marketing strategies for FMCG, take a look at this article.
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There are hundreds of products around us that we use on a day-to-day basis. From the moment we wake up to the moment we shut the lights at night, countless different products are used for different purposes. There is a high probability that a majority of them are FMCG or fast-moving consumer goods.

FMCG refers to those consumer products which have a very short selling period. Either due to high consumer demand or short shelf-life, these products need to be sold quickly while they still have value. Post the selling period, they either have to be sold at slashed prices or it might be illegal even to sell them. There are 5 categories of FMC products:

  • Home Care,
  • Personal Care,
  • Food & Beverages,
  • Cigarettes & Alcohol, and
  • OTC Products

India is known as one of the largest consumers of FMCG. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, the industry has grown by 9.4%. It is also estimated that by 2025, India will occupy the fifth position in the world FMCG market with a revenue of $220 billion.

Increased income in both urban and rural families, an increase in the prices of these goods, and the population’s growing needs are the main contributing factors to the exponential growth. However, with growth comes change, and this change is reflected in the mode of purchase and payment. 

Consumers no longer wish to visit traditional stores and make their purchases. This trend was further accelerated by the pandemic, and now consumers seek convenience. Ordering their products home through cashless payments is the latest trend. Hence, businesses with FMCG are resorting to digitizing their approach in marketing to reach more and more consumers and capitalize on the economic boom that the industry is experiencing.

Digital marketing is a great strategy to market to consumers directly and is much more efficient than traditional marketing. It helps your business stand out, encourages quality and innovation, and improves ROI with valuable insights. It involves the latest trends and practices while remaining cost-effective. And finally, it is customized and made specifically to induce measurable results for your business. This further establishes the superiority of digital over traditional marketing practices.

Top 10 Digital Marketing Strategies for FMCG

So let us discuss 10 digital marketing strategies that will increase the growth of your FMCG business in a dynamic, credible, and rapid way.

1. Establishing and Marketing a Unique Brand

Branding and marketing are both equally important. Only when you have clarity of your brand can you market it effectively to your consumers. Branding is crucial to making your business unique and memorable to your customers. It establishes customer loyalty and also credibility, establishing your authority among others in the business. It is responsible for creating and sustaining value within your business employees, which results in efficiency and gains employees’ trust. It also.

Even though consumers may not interact with your brand immediately, they will eventually reach out if you are still memorable to them. Appealing and cohesive colours and a logo that is unique and authentic creates a great first impression.

The logos of businesses like;

  • Starbucks,
  • IKEA,
  • Amul, and
  • Nestle

are unique and does not create room for confusion. Gaining clarity on your business principles and values and implementing the same in all aspects of your business is the core of branding. Innovation, quality, and variety in your inventory and service are a need for successful branding.

Branding facilitates the implementation of an authentic, cohesive, and creative marketing strategy. This results in increased sales, referrals, and revenue when marketed to your ideal consumer base.

2. Building a Strong e-Commerce Strategy

The e-commerce industry is booming. It is fast-growing at a rate of 5% every year in India. This puts it in a position to generate 200 billion dollars in revenue by 2026, and India being the second-largest e-commerce market in the world. Such huge numbers pave the way for businesses across the country to invest in an efficient strategy and reap their profits.

Creating an inclusive and holistic e-commerce plan by prioritizing the needs and demands of your ideal consumer is key. Investing in an online presence, delivery service, versatile inventory, and pleasant consumer experience will skyrocket your traffic and sales exponentially. E-commerce transforms your FMCG business into a scalable, accessible, and highly profitable one.

An omnipresent channel needs to be initiated for your consumers. This results in a need to develop a quality model for both the online and offline functioning of your FMCG business. By either investing in your custom website and mobile application or selling through a third-party online service, you can rapidly multiply your consumer base and reach. Although it is time-consuming, it is highly affordable and has high ROI if executed accurately.

Using AI and virtual reality technology features, a unique customer experience can be created, which helps generate more traffic. E-commerce also provides the added advantage of access to insights into the reach and effectiveness of your strategy. This also allows for the implementation of a much more profitable and marketable plan.

E-commerce is the leading trend and is going nowhere. So be quick to bank on this and establish your business as a successful one.

3. Consumer-Centric Content Marketing

It is easy to misconstrue that revenue-centric models are needed for the growth and success of your business. However, this is far from the truth. Consumers are responsible for the success or failure of your business. Hence, creating content and marketing to consumers in a way that appeals to them is the first step toward ensuring the holistic growth of your FMCG business.

Consumer-centric content involves the creation of versatile, innovative, and quality content and marketing it aesthetically and concisely. It reflects your brand identity and also promotes awareness. Rather than being motivated by sales or leads, create content to engage consumers. Even though they may not generate sales initially, it makes your business memorable and ensures future sales.

It is also beneficial if the content is created with a specific target audience in mind. Prevent generalization and generation of subpar content. This dilutes your credibility and any chances of gaining customer trust and loyalty. 

Blogs, information articles, testimonial pieces, and lifestyle content comprising audio and visual elements is the ideal consumer-centric content strategy. Marketing any innovative updates about your business, like sustainable packaging, exclusive loyalty rewards, small business support campaigns, and rural business development plans will resonate with your consumer base.

4. Dynamic Social Media Presence

Social media is a powerful marketing tool. With consumers already highly active on these platforms, it is a direct channel to communicate with them. Social media marketing involves promoting your brand or services on different platforms to improve awareness and visibility online.

It is a cost-effective, flexible, customizable, and highly engaging strategy. If executed correctly, it can generate valuable traffic for your FMCG business and drive sales actively.

For an FMCG brand, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube need to be your top-priority platforms. They have the most consumer engagement and the widest consumer group. However, content generation and execution need to be customized for each of these individually.

Consumer-centric content uploaded in a way that forces the algorithm to push it ahead and create more visibility is the ultimate goal. Short, creative, and visual content is what clicks on Instagram. Visual and informational content, in a pictorial form, resonates with the Facebook audience. And long-form, video content embedded with information is ideal for gaining consumers through YouTube.

A trend in the field is utilizing user-generated content or UGC to improve transparency, credibility, and brand awareness. Encouraging brand mentions and reposting that on your social media handles allows for the expansion of your clientele.

Story highlights are engaging and persuasive tools that will convince consumers to eventually make purchases. Capitalizing on influencer marketing and celebrity endorsements is great for reflecting brand value and identity.

Dove started the #ShowUs project to encourage women worldwide to shatter beauty stereotypes and embrace the beauty in all forms. With the help of GirlGaze and Getty Images, they curated a photo library from these submissions. They encouraged UGC and benefited from the buzz it created. #CoffeeComa by Levista, #GoodNewsIsGenderFree by Prega news, and IndiaDegaAashirwad by India gate are a few of the successful FMCG social media campaigns.

5. Partnering with Other Regional Businesses

At times, it is beneficial to blur the lines between competitors and collaborate for the growth and success of your businesses. These partnerships can improve customer satisfaction and make their shopping experience seamless. Digital marketing makes provisions for the successful creation and implementation of collaborations between two or more, similar or different FMCG companies.

Whether you indulge in co-branding or co-marketing decides the model and structure of your partnership with other businesses. Partnerships provide valuable insight into the mechanics of your business partner. They allow for the exchange of intel and consumer base, which translates to better lead conversions. It is refreshing and great for consumer engagement. And is also a highly personal yet consumer-centric strategy that aims at satisfying businesses and consumers.

Ensure cohesiveness in values, goals, and methods of implementation among your partners to lead a successful campaign.

Partnering with other local businesses like regional hotels, local pharmacists, event management companies, beauty salons, and directly supplying goods procured from local farmers and small-scale businesses are the ideal partnerships. It develops all those involved while simultaneously developing the community.

You could look at sponsoring major events in the country, which can help highlight your presence in the market. For eg – IPL has a reach of 220+ million across the world. Now just imagine your FMCG product being showcased in the match. The conversion rate could be insane.  

Unilever’s partner with purpose campaign, Target and UNICEF collaboration, and the co-branding partnership between Starbucks and Nestle are just a few successful examples of the benefits of partnerships for an FMCG business.

Affiliate marketing is a cost-effective yet very efficient marketing tactic. It is the process of paying a commission to publishers only when a sale occurs through their promotion of your products. It is great for generating quality leads, building credible relationships, and also promoting brand awareness.

Since it is performance-based, you can guarantee quality and innovation from the marketers. Based on the cohesiveness in values and goals, successful collaborations can be formed. By associating with the right affiliates and providing exciting deals, coupons, and discounts, you can convert leads into successful conversions quickly and with ease.

By channelling influencer power and strategic planning, sales and revenue can be generated. Since this tactic is measurable, it also allows the implementation of data-driven and accurate plans. This results in an optimized network of conversion pages and affiliate channels, which is great for the visibility of your brand.

Top Content, Money saving expert, and The Wirecutter are some of the popular affiliate marketing websites that can help you get started.

7. Commercials and Regional Advertising

A major shift is seen in the way consumers perceive and receive advertisements. Juxtaposing nonsense together and sweeping it under the rug called “celebrity” no longer works. Consumers demand quality and personalization in advertisements. This will make your brand more memorable, reflect brand value, and also result in successful campaigns.

PPC or pay-per-click ads are a great digital marketing strategy. It generates leads, taps into a wider consumer base, and is also cost-effective. Investing in a data-driven publisher to strategically place these ads to get the best engagement from consumers is crucial to its success. They are measurable, have an instant effect, and also have high ROI.

Companies are focusing more on creating regionally targeted ads than over-generalized national ones. With products belonging to the FMCG list, your ad commercials must resonate with consumers all over the country. You need to place your products in their minds before you can place them in their homes. The ethos of your product and brand should be reflected in your ad campaign. With such diversity at every corner in India, this likely comes with challenges.

Advertisements and commercials which give equal importance to the use of vernacular and subtle cultural nuances have increasingly outperformed their bland and generic counterparts. From having a dual-ambassador tactic with north and south celebrity endorsers reflecting the culture and mindset of people, these few FMCG companies have mastered the art of this form of marketing.

Allu Arjun for Frooti, Jnr.NTR for Appy, Tata tea premium having a hyper-local campaign, and Marie focusing on its Maharashtrian market further stress the need for regional advertising.

8. An Efficient Website

Websites are no longer optional. Having a fully optimized and highly efficient website is the need of the hour. Since the digital revolution, more and more consumers prefer making purchases and handling payments online, further accelerated by the pandemic.

If a custom mobile application deems a little unnecessary, your very own website can be the next best thing. Websites gather accurate consumer data and provide valuable insights regarding traffic and engagement. They establish credibility and brand value. Websites are key tools for the SEO of your business to increase your online visibility. It also acts as a direct channel of communication and hence has better potential to generate high-conversion leads.

A website cohesive with your brand logo and colours, values, and goals is your first step. Implementing features like quick site loading, visual organization of the inventory, transparency in pricing, and flexible delivery and payment schemes is ideal. Reviews and testimonials displayed, a live chat feature, an FAQ section, CTA links, social media handles, and contact information are some of the important features that can make your website shine.

9. Creating an Effective Email and SMS Marketing Strategy

It is a known fact that a vast majority of your consumer base is millennials. And 73% of millennials prefer businesses contacting them through emails than any other channel.

Since consumers have already expressed their choice, it makes sense to optimize this channel. Emails are great for personal marketing and collecting feedback. They are great for generating traffic and bringing in sales and are highly cost-effective without compromising on quality or leads.

Thank you emails for purchasing from your FMCG business, offers and rewards emails, emails on updates of any new launches, feedback surveys, and membership promotion emails are the ideal template. A cohesive SMS strategy for confirming orders, thanking your consumers for their purchases, and daily updates to stay in their minds is an added advantage.

Message and email bundles can be either auto-generated by your business team using ready-made templates or outsourced to email marketing businesses like MailChimp.

Many FMCG stores send daily SMS on limited offers for that particular day and also on any new offers and discounts. Vishal mart, More megastore, and the email marketing campaign by Function of Beauty are a few of the successful email and SMS marketing campaigns.

10. Investing in a Personal Relationship With Your Customers

Positive personal relationships are immensely beneficial to the success of your business. Investing in them helps build brand value and loyalty and also promotes awareness.

When you connect with your consumers on a deeper level, it opens a whole array of opportunities. It leads to better quality service, innovation, value, and credibility. It will also facilitate the establishment of a reliable channel for communication, receiving accurate feedback, and establishing your authority as an FMCG business.

Creating consumer-centric content and offering exclusive discounts and offers to loyal customers is a great way of giving back to your customers. A versatile inventory with transparent pricing and great-quality customer service can make all the difference. Sustainable and custom packaging with your brand logo is a great personal touch.

Trader Joe’s, Sephora, Amazon, Cisco, Bayer, and Target are some of the most popular consumer-centric businesses which have invested immensely in improving their consumer experience. They have improved all aspects of their business, from inclusivity and versatility in products and flexibility in payments and shipping/delivery.

Conclusion

FMCG products are those which can never go out of trend. There may be inflation or deflation, but with the way things have been unfolding since the pandemic, it is guaranteed that there is so much more development that can happen. Investing in updated marketing tactics will help your business own a piece of this cake and emerge successful. Digital marketing helps businesses like yours to retarget and rebrand themselves to ensure maximum reach and potential.

The competition is fierce, and unless your effort is consistent and innovative, chances are that your business might get diluted and shut stores. It is high time to embrace the technological influence in the realm of marketing and overcome the shackles of traditional practices. The strategies discussed above will ensure better visibility and reach for your brand and help capitalize on the leads generated. Stay consistent and invest your time and resources accurately to reap the best possible benefits of digital marketing. 

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Digital Scholar

Digital Scholar is a premier agency-styled digital marketing institute in India. Which offers an online digital marketing course and a free digital marketing course worldwide to elevate their digital skills and become industry experts. Digital Scholar is headed by Sorav Jain and co-founder Rishi Jain, who are pioneers in the field of digital marketing. Digital Scholar’s blogs touch upon numerous aspects of digital marketing and help you get intensive ideas of different domains of digital marketing.

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