Why Your Food Business Should Pay Attention to Seasonal Trends
Being aware is one of the most important things a business can do. The more you take the time to understand what the overall trends are in your industry; the better off you will be in marketing your products. It’s crucial to realize that customer wants and trends are rapidly changing. So, today I want to break down why it’s essential to keep up with seasonal trends, and how your e-commerce food business can capitalize on them. Lucky for you, you have more of an advantage over brick and mortar establishments because of the flexibility you have over your inventory!
Let’s think in the mindset of a consumer for a moment. During Christmas time, what is the likelihood of you searching for a cool summer beverage? Probably not too high. This impacts the level of engagement you would get from promoting in-season products compared to out of season products.
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It’s not that your summer beverages aren’t good, but they just aren’t as desirable during this time of year. Perhaps it would be in your business’ best interest to promote holiday treats like Christmas cookies or hot chocolate. This way, these products will be much more relevant to consumers. Following trends isn’t a guessing game either. You can confirm your trend intuition by using analytics. Keep reading to see how!
QQ Studio has learned from experience how much of an impact seasonal trends can have on the marketing of your products. The most success we have seen on an ad has undoubtedly come from our holiday campaign in December of 2020.
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By emphasizing holiday gift packaging, we were able to bring in as much as 327,809 impressions, and reach 231,868 people. Because we ran the campaign in the heart of the holiday season, there was a much higher demand for gift packaging. The same can be applied to the food industry as well. Running an ad campaign to promote pumpkin pie during the fall season is going to have a much higher impact than if it were promoted in the spring.
Since you’re an e-commerce business, the main form of marketing comes from digital marketing. So, make sure that you take advantage of using all relevant keywords and hashtags in your posts. This is another reason why it’s important to think in the mind of your audience. Writing simple keywords and phrases that an average customer would search up with little-to-no knowledge of your product is huge. For example, the Super Bowl just passed, and plenty of businesses were using relevant hashtags. Marketing food and snacks for game day is a great idea, but it’s important to use words that will actually reach people. We at QQ Studio even used some of the Super Bowl snack hashtags that gained us more impressions on our social media posts. Now, you might also be wondering where to find relevant keywords and hashtags. Google Trends is a highly resourceful tool to use, where you can type in a search term and learn about its analytics and related topics. On Instagram, you can search one hashtag and find a ton of top posts that use other related hashtags.
Switching up packaging colors is another strong tactic to use when keeping up with seasonal trends. Based on this Food Network article, you’ll notice that all of the most desired dishes and ingredients in the fall include white, orange, black, brown, and green food coloring. This is no accident! If you search up a keyword phrase such as “black and orange” color combination on Google Trends, you’ll see that these colors are statistically the most searched during the start of autumn than any other time of the year. Just like your food products can go in and out of style each season, so can your packaging.
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Luckily, QQ Studio has the widest selection of packaging colors you will find anywhere. Sort through our colorful packaging selections here to find the seasonal colors you need.
Another interesting trend that is recorded on Google Trends is the demand for freeze dried products. Specifically, searches for “freeze dried” skyrocketed between March 15th and March 21st of 2020. If you recall, this was right around the time the pandemic was announced. Perhaps people looked into freeze dried food because they wanted to make sure their items would last longer at home. This is why it’s extremely important to keep up with current events and consumer wants.
Just when you think you know exactly how to market your food each season, there’s always going to be some unpredictable trends that arrive. Make sure that you regularly keep an eye out for new food trends that come in. This doesn’t just mean food itself, but also new relevant hashtags, keywords, and more. One of the things we learned from COVID-19 is that business trends can change super-fast. Something that worked last year isn’t necessarily going to help your business this year. If you want to learn about new trends, try to regularly check through social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Each app tends to have its own types of trends. So, the more you explore different platforms, the better off you’ll be in finding new trends that will benefit your business.
Overall
I hope you were able to gain a better understanding of why keeping up with seasonal trends is so important. Try to stay ahead of the curve as best as you possibly can. Your food business can really take brand awareness to the next level if you market yourself the right way. We have other business tips to share with you too. If you like this blog, check out our other blog on how to effectively communicate with your customers on social media.
