Getting Started with Transactional Marketing in the Food Industry

While Québec may be slightly behind the rest of Canada in terms of e-commerce adoption, Québec adults still made over $17.8 billion in online purchases in 2023, representing an 8.8% increase from 2022. For food processors, it’s a market too important to ignore.

Digital marketing is now an essential growth lever for food brands, complementing traditional retail channels. At Braque, with over 30 years of experience supporting food and beverage clients, we’ve developed a proven approach to help companies successfully launch their e-commerce strategies. Here are some expert insights to guide your journey.

• Whether you already have a website, social media accounts, or tools like Google Analytics, you must ensure full access to your platforms at all times.It may sound obvious, but it can save you major headaches when launching or scaling your digital activities.
• Many food brands start by partnering with third-party platforms like Amazon or Maturin to tap into their traffic and logistical simplicity. While convenient, these platforms come with lower profit margins due to fees, limited stock control, and reduced access to customer data. They’re great for getting started—but we recommend transitioning to your own transactional website as soon as possible.
• When you’re ready, add e-commerce functionality to your existing website. WooCommerce is a popular plugin for WordPress, while Shopify (a Canadian solution) offers a robust SaaS alternative.One of our clients, ApothicAri, made this shift and gained full control over their sales strategy. They were able to implement flexible promotional offers, improve customer retention, and maintain direct relationships with their audience.
• Set up a clear tracking plan for your digital customer journey. This is essential before launching any marketing initiative. Well-defined analytics will help you understand user behaviour and optimize your offer. It also enables tactics like abandoned cart remarketing and lookalike audience targeting on social platforms.
• Make your website mobile-first. With an average of 70% of traffic coming from mobile, it’s essential that your online store provides an optimal experience on smartphones and tablets—sometimes even before developing the desktop version.

In a perfect world, a $500 investment would generate thousands in revenue. In reality, the food e-commerce space is competitive, and success requires a structured marketing approach built on three pillars:

Would you buy a product the first time you see an ad?

Probably not. Consumers need to be exposed to a brand multiple times before it registers. Awareness campaigns focus on reach, impressions, and frequency, helping your brand get noticed.

We typically recommend dedicating the first six months of activity to building brand recall through consistent exposure.

Once awareness and trust are established, you can guide users toward the sale. Here are proven tactics:

• Create urgency with limited-time offers and promo codes.
• Offer free shipping over a certain amount or easy returns to boost confidence.
• Use strong calls to action (CTAs) like “Buy Now” or “Limited Time Offer” with prominent placement throughout your site and ad campaigns.

These tactics should be tailored to your product margins and business model.

As your brand grows, your reliance on awareness campaigns will decrease, and more effort can shift toward conversion and customer retention, with occasional outreach to new potential buyers.

To control your visibility and reach your goals, use SMART objectives.

Example:

“Generate 200 online sales in six months by launching bi-weekly promotional emails and investing $1,500/month in sponsored ads on Facebook and Google.”

• Specific: Focus on sales via email and ads
• Measurable: 200 sales
• Achievable: Realistic target for an SME
• Relevant: Aligned with growth goals
• Time-bound: Six-month window

Many brands try to be active on every platform. But more often than not, quality beats quantity. Each platform has its own rules. Trying to be everywhere without a strategic foundation risks diluting your brand.

Enable Meta’s dynamic placement options to let the algorithm optimize delivery across Facebook and Instagram, reducing costs and improving results.

• Enjoy real-time optimization and lower CPMs (up to 4x cheaper).
• No need to manually split budgets—Meta does it for you.
• You don’t even need an Instagram account—your Facebook page can serve as the ad source.

Consumer response varies by content. With A/B testing, you can compare different versions of ads and let the algorithm pick the best performers.

• Test up to 50 combinations (e.g. 10 images x 5 texts).
• Avoid creative fatigue and improve ad lifespan.
• Make sure your creative assets are modular and mix well with different text variants.

Aim for at least 3 unique texts and 4 creative visuals. Try:

• Emojis vs. no emojis
• Different content angles or tones
• Standard formats (feeds, stories, Reels)
• Slide shows if you don’t have video assets

This approach gives you:

• Better performance metrics (CPM, CTR, engagement)
• Deeper audience insights
• Stronger ROI across both platforms

Remarketing is crucial—but only works if your website sees 1,000–2,000 visitors/month. Once that’s in place, start building segments:

• Use engagement data from your Meta pages
• Create audiences from site visits (via pixels)
• Target video viewers with custom campaigns
• Use lookalike audiences to expand your reach efficiently

Remarketing drives results:

• 2–3x higher conversion rates
• Increased average order value
• ROAS often 50–200% higher than cold acquisition campaigns

Once your core strategy is in place, you can expand with complementary channels:

• Don’t get complacent—digital marketing evolves fast.
• Monitor trends, competitors, and new tools (try SEMrush).
• Invest in SEO with blog content to drive organic traffic.
• Use email marketing to activate and retain customers cost-effectively.

Ultimately, maximizing digital ROI comes down to understanding your customer’s journey.