The 6 Signs Your Brand Needs A New Social Media Agency
If you have growth goals for your food or beverage brand, you're likely wondering if now is the right time to hire a social media agency. Knowing when it’s time to hire a new social media agency can save your brand thousands of dollars in stunted growth and loss of revenue.
The decision to bring on a new marketing agency is important for small and medium-sized brands. Hiring the right food and beverage marketing agency can help catapult your brand into success. In this article, we will evaluate your current marketing situation and outline our 6 clear signs that it’s time to get some help with social media!
1. Social Media Is Hard
There are many different ways for food and beverage companies to market on social media. However, the excess of social media platforms can feel overwhelming and make it challenging to develop effective social media marketing strategies.
“...people’s perceptions of healthy foods and beverages directly correlated with the number of healthy products they consumed.”
With an overwhelming amount of products and information on social media, it can be tough to make your products stand out on the feed. Social media is no longer just a fun addition to a campaign; it is the main focal point of your advertising efforts.
Interestingly, a 2020 study found that people’s perceptions of healthy foods and beverages directly correlated with the number of healthy products they consumed. This proves that people’s diet is directly influenced by what they see online.
Food and beverage brands will establish a consistent social media presence by hiring a social media marketing agency. Sporadic posting isn’t going to make your products fly off the shelves. A consistent posting strategy is necessary, especially for a team specializing in the outlet so that nothing slips through the cracks.
2. Lack of Growth
Unfortunately, building a social media audience is one of the toughest tasks for your food or beverage brand. Competition is high. Attention spans are severely low. Users are constantly flooded by posts from friends, family, and competing brands on a constant basis. Finding ways to stand out from the digital crowd and entice prospects takes an advanced understanding of your audience.
Just like a growing plant, your account has specific needs, time, and expertise — all of which can be addressed by a social media marketing agency. The agency’s job is to understand your targeted audience and test various types of content to see what works and what doesn’t.
Building a strong brand identity is one of the key factors in building brand trust and credibility among your customers online. This includes the tone of your voice, the colors that are used, and the visuals that are created. Ensure that your messaging is clear and your call to action exists to help drive action from your social media pages.
3. Publishing Takes Forever
Think about it this way: you have to manage your food or beverage brand’s blog, Twitter accounts, Pinterest, Facebook pages, Instagram, and now Threads, etc. There are so many different platforms that require your attention, that it is increasingly difficult to keep on top of all the content, especially since each of these channels is different.
You have the opportunity to delegate this responsibility to a social media marketing manager who can stay on top of contributing and publishing content. There are numerous social media publishing tools that social media managers utilize, operating a central platform that creates, coordinates, and publishes your content across numerous channels.
Social media marketing can also track the content, measuring successful posts, and others that floundered. They provide actionable insights focused primarily on content and engagement levels.
4. Engagement Sucks
Reaching your engagement goals on social media takes a good strategy, better content, and even greater consistency. Running your food or beverage accounts isn’t as simple as maintaining your personal accounts. There are the pissed off consumers publicly griping; trends that are always evolving each day; the brand’s image to maintain.
Your food or beverage social media account is most likely your first opportunity to make a good impression on a prospect. As a busy food or beverage owner, you don’t have the patience or time to stay on top of your social media notifications. The constant pinging of your phone would drive anyone nuts.
It’s no secret that users are drawn to brands that humanize themselves on social media and go beyond just posting aesthetic photos. The consumer wants to be seen, be spoken to, and share their experiences with you. Social media is not a conversation that is a one-way street.
Whether it’s comments or DMs, a social media marketing agency basically embodies your customer service team (see #6 about customer service), establishing connections and trust with your audience. And obviously, engagement helps the algorithm.
5. Failing To Reach Target Audience
Social media marketing isn’t just for connecting with current or loyal consumers. It’s also about getting your product in front of an idealized target audience. With extensive ad opportunities on social media, putting your ad dollars in the hands of an experienced professional can optimize spending and help you garner the best results for your goals.
Not only can a social media marketing team create persons for your potential consumers, but they can use analytics to identify unique segments of your target audience. Common characteristics for demographic information include age, location, language, and interests.
6. Enhanced Customer Service
“86% of Americans say transparency on social media is more important than ever before. ”
No matter what channel, the expectation for customer service is always fast-paced and attentive. If you post your food or beverage product without a response, your brand can appear unreliable and lack transparency. If the consumer orders a box of chips and opens the bag to crumbles, who are they supposed to get an exchange from? Or the buyer purchases a case of energy drinks to find some of the aluminum cans were punctured during shipment. Brands must address the needs and concerns to maintain the integrity and reliability of their brand.
According to Sprout Social, 86% of Americans say transparency on social media is more important than ever before. A quick response will be the difference between retention and losing a purchase. Additionally, if something is bound to go wrong, people will air their grievances publicly on social media. If they don’t receive an answer at all, 81% won’t recommend that company to their friends.
Hiring a social media management agency can take the customer service load from your shoulders. The team should be highly effective in response time, quality of engagement, resolution effectiveness, technology enabling, and organizational structure — delivering end-to-end customer service that leads to a final resolution.
Social Media Marketing That Works
These days people are spending more time on social media now than ever before, with the average American spending at least 2.5 hours a day on social media. This leaves a great opportunity for your brand to implement a cross-platform social strategy on the channels your customers enjoy most.
This means that if you’re currently limited to one or two social channels you could be missing out on market share! In order to attract customers to your brand, your best bet is a social media marketing agency well-versed in generating exposure for your product.
Interested to see if Firebelly is the right agency for you? Contact us and we will let you know!