Value-Added Shopper Content Is A Click Away

"Content is king," the phrase goes. The word "content" gets tossed around by marketers all the time, and with a smart phone in nearly every pocket, we consume content on a daily—if not hourly—basis. But what does that mean for independent grocers and their shoppers? Quite a lot, it turns out.

"A confident shopper buys more, and educating your shoppers through valuable content—like recipes, cooking tips, and more—helps your shopper be more confident," IGA's Senior Manager of Shopper Content Megan Drazer explains. "Shoppers believe it's the retailer's job to help educate shoppers on how to use their products, what product innovations are out there, how to make healthier choices, and more. IGA's shopper content is our way of helping independent retailers do that."

Drazer and the marketing team at IGA are constantly creating relevant content to help your shoppers with all their grocery needs, from learning how to choose the right cut of meat to recipes for making restaurant meals at home. All of that content delivers the value shoppers now seek from their grocer.

"The blogs and recipes our team are putting together are exactly what shoppers want and need, especially right now, as they're looking to you, their local retailer, for advice on how to get more value out of each trip to the grocery store," says IGA CEO John Ross. "Right now, with inflation at an all-time high and shoppers getting more worried about putting food on the table, delivering value through recipes and food budgeting advice is not just a 'nice-to-have,' but a necessary add-on for independents to keep their business."

The content is available automatically through IGA's digital programs, including: National Digital Ad, eCommerce (website), and Quarterly Marketing Kit signage. And even if you're not using those programs (but what are you waiting for?), IGA-branded and non-branded retailers can still use this content on their digital platforms. Here's how. 

Shopper Solutions & Recipes

It starts with the content published on IGA.com. Visiting the homepage, you'll see several categories of shopper-facing content.

Shopper Solutions offer tips to help your shoppers make the right decisions for their needs. For example, the BBQ 101: Know Your Cuts Of Beef article offers a handy guide to help shoppers recognize different types of meat, how to select the best meats, and tips on cooking those cuts perfectly.

"While the article doesn't directly call out inflation, with protein so expensive now, we want our shoppers to feel confident in the cut that they're getting," Drazer says. "Did they feel safe spending that much on a protein? They can get familiar with some of the less expensive cuts that they might not have purchased in the past."

The recipes section continues the value-added theme, which include recipes for restaurant meals at home and suggestions for stretching your ingredients.

How To Make 3 Meals With 1 Rotisserie Chicken includes video recipes for avocado and chicken toast, chicken and vegetable noodle soup, and southwest barbecue chicken tacos. "The fiesta Crockpot chicken is an example of making more with less, so the shopper needs fewer ingredients for a higher yield meal," Drazer says. "That's a budget-friendly meal that also delivers on nutrition all around." Recent "restaurant meals at home" recipes include steakhouse wedge salad with bleu cheese dressing and orange chicken and rice.

Every independent retailer and shopper can access this content and share it. "When you visit the blog, there are social share buttons down the left side of the page. For retailers looking for the easiest of easy buttons, they can just open up a blog, click that Facebook icon, and publish right to their page." 

And don't forget the Recipe Club, which is a twice-monthly eNewsletter that shoppers can subscribe to for original, seasonal recipes that make meal planning fast and easy, blogs with simple meal solutions and innovative kitchen hacks, plus a link to the National Digital Ad offers tied to those recipes. 

"The newsletter itself is really just the beginning," says Drazer, who is also editor of the Recipe Club. "Think of it like a portal to all kinds of sales-driving shopper marketing content and offers that helps shoppers feel smarter about the choices they make to get food on the table. The Recipe Club works in the background on behalf of IGA retailers to expand their reputation as a meal solutions resource, and the retailers don't have to do a thing to get that brand recognition." 

Encourage your shoppers to sign up via this link.
Want to subscribe your whole shopper email list? We can help! Contact Megan Drazer for details.

National Digital Ad

Those Shopper Solutions and recipes are then pushed through to IGA's various digital and in-store programs, including the National Digital Ad. When shoppers are scrolling your local ad, they'll see a clickable recipe that takes them directly to the IGA.com recipe page. They'll also see the tips on the ad, like the BBQ 101: Know Your Cuts Of Beef article as seen in this Geissler's Supermarkets ad.

That value-add is already included for all IGA member stores, whether they are branded or unbranded, as IGA makes the digital ad available for each store, spending advertising dollars on stores' behalves. While all stores benefit regardless of local participation, the ad is even more effective when they add their own local offers and content, as explained here.

eCommerce

These recipes and tips automatically push through to the websites of stores using IGA's eCommerce template. Scroll through Dixie Dandy Fresh Market's website to see the latest IGA.com content featured on their site. At press time, the steakhouse wedge salad recipe and Tips To Master The Grill This Summer article were on the homepage.

If you're not using IGA's eCommerce template, don't worry. This content can live on any website, whether your store is IGA-branded or not. Just request the content through this form and you can add it directly to your website.>

Dixie Dandy's website features IGA.com recipes and shopper-focused tips.

Quarterly Marketing Kit

When you think about the Quarterly Marketing Kit, you probably imagine in-store signage, since the quarterly subscription includes over 70 eye-catching seasonal signs. But it also features digital content, including QR codes on those signs that link directly to the recipes and tips mentioned above, as well as social media and eCommerce templates that are designed with the quarterly seasonal campaigns.

"There are a lot of events in the upcoming third quarter, from the official start of summer through back to school, and the Q3 kit covers all of that," Drazer previews. "Some of that signage will offer QR codes that link back to blogs on packing the perfect picnic, or making better breakfasts for back to school."

Subscribers will receive their kits at the beginning of the quarter and can hang the signs right away for shoppers to access the recipes and blogs via QR code, and they can use the digital files on their websites and social media for even more online engagement with shoppers.

Not branded IGA? That's okay!

As mentioned above, any retailer can use the shopper content, whether they're on an IGA program like the National Digital Ad, eCommerce template, Quarterly Marketing Kit, or on no programs at all. It's easy to publish the recipes and blogs directly to your social media page with the click of a button.

In addition, IGA makes all of the content available to any retailer to use as you see fit for your shoppers. Whether you're branded or unbranded, just fill out this form and we'll send you the content to add to your website, emails, and/or social media pages. 

"The other important thing for retailers to know is that this content is being shared on their behalf via our Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube channels. So we're already able to repurpose it and get it directly to shoppers with the media that we already own," Drazer says. "But anytime the retailers use their own channels, it will be more impactful with their direct shoppers."

So get clicking! Head to IGA.com and select either Shopper Solutions or Recipes for your first share, whether it's on your website, social media page, or in your email marketing.