The 5-Step Retail Marketing Guide Every CPG Brand Needs in 2025

Did you know that over 80% of new consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands fail within their first year? Retail is one of the most competitive landscapes, where capturing customer attention—let alone loyalty—requires more than just a great product. From in-store visibility to seamless online experiences, supporting your brand at retail means having a strategy that connects the dots between customers, channels, and sales.

How can your brand not only survive but thrive in this challenging environment?

The answer lies in a well-crafted retail support strategy. This article outlines a five-step framework to help CPG brands excel in retail by setting clear goals, creating compelling content, analyzing competitors, and executing data-driven advertising campaigns. These steps provide a roadmap for building strong customer relationships, driving measurable growth, and standing out in a crowded market.

Let's dive into how to craft a retail support strategy that engages, converts, and keeps customers coming back.

Step 1. Content Ideation: Crafting the Message for Each Funnel Stage

An effective retail strategy starts with understanding the journey a customer takes from awareness to loyalty. Each stage of this journey requires unique content tailored to answer specific questions in the customer's mind. 

By developing content tailored to the Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, and Loyalty stages, brands can effectively guide potential customers through a process that addresses their evolving needs and questions:

To effectively guide customers through their journey, brands must tailor their messaging to each funnel stage—Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, and Loyalty. Here's how:

1. Awareness
   • At the top of the funnel, the goal is to introduce the brand and highlight core values.
     • Ask: What are the core values of this brand? What makes this product unique? Which emotions does it evoke? What is the benefit of this product? 
     • Example Content: Short-form videos, social media posts, or banner ads that visually emphasize the product's qualities or brand story. Lifestyle-focus; using aspirational and user-generated content to engage audiences and establish brand relevance.
     • Goal: Introduce the brand and highlight core values. Connect emotionally with the audience. Elicit engagement with the brand.
     • Audience Targeting: New customers are targeted based on interests, brand affinities, and behaviors; similar audiences and lookalikes; geotargeting - targeting by location
2. Consideration
   • As customers become more familiar with the brand, they need practical information. This is where testimonials, ingredient quality, and lifestyle-fit details come in.
     • Ask: How does this product fit into my daily routine? What do other people think of the product? What is the quality of the ingredients?
     • Example Content: Customer reviews, "How it's made" content, or comparison charts that provide clarity on product benefits.
     • Goal: Messaging at this stage is designed to reinforce brand value and build trust, encouraging users to move closer to a purchase.
     • Audience Targeting: Retargeting high-intent users who have visited the website, explored social profiles, or interacted with video content.
3. Conversion
   • At the conversion stage, focus on addressing common hesitations with clear, persuasive messaging. Offering discounts or showcasing reviews can reassure customers that the product is worth purchasing.
     • Ask: What would motivate me to buy this product now? Is the product worth the price? Where can I find this product? What kind of incentive can you offer me for my first purchase?
     • Example Content: First-time purchase incentives, testimonials, and FAQ-style content that answers potential last-minute concerns.
     • Goal: Address common barriers—fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD)—through closing messages.
     • Audience Targeting: Product page viewers, cart and checkout abandoners
4. Loyalty
   • Post-purchase content should encourage repeat engagement. Highlight subscription options, referral perks, and other loyalty rewards to incentivize ongoing purchases.
     • Ask: Is there a subscription option? Why would I buy this product again? Are there perks for inviting my friends to try the product?
     • Example Content: Subscription offers, loyalty program details, and user-generated content showcasing how customers incorporate the product into their lifestyle.
     • Goal: Stimulate customers to make repeated purchases as easily as possible
     • Audience Targeting: Past purchasers, customer lists

Learn more about crafting powerful content for every stage of the customer journey in our content marketing guide.

Step 2. Competitor Analysis: Learning from Market Leaders

Before launching content, it's essential to understand what competitors are doing well—and where they may be falling short. A thorough competitor analysis helps reveal trends and gaps, guiding you to create content that stands out. This isn't limited to direct competitors; brands with similar target audiences in adjacent markets can also offer valuable insights.

Steps to Conduct Competitor Analysis:

1. Identify Competitors: List both direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are those in the same product category, while indirect competitors might appeal to a similar demographic but operate in different categories.
2. Analyze Content Strategy: Examine each brand's content themes, engagement tactics, and key messaging. Look for patterns that show what works, such as high engagement rates on testimonial videos or educational posts.
3. Pinpoint Opportunities: Where are competitors falling short? Perhaps they're lacking authenticity in customer reviews or overlooking certain content types like user-generated content. Use these gaps to inspire unique, targeted content that fills these needs.

Step 3. Content Planning: Structuring and Testing Your Approach

After gathering insights from content ideation and competitor analysis, it's time to transform those ideas into an organized content plan. Here, research powers a Content Planning Tree, which forms the basis for targeted A/B testing. Each content tactic is designed to engage specific audience segments, providing clear, relevant information that moves them further along the customer journey.

In this example, we're talking about a baby formula brand.

Key Tactics for Content Planning:

1. Science Angle
   For parents—especially first-time parents—educational content is particularly engaging and shareable. This tactic appeals to their desire for information about what's best for their child, including scientific benefits of certain ingredients.
   • Concept/Script: Use science-focused text overlays that highlight the benefits of key ingredients, such as DHA, which supports brain development in infants.
   • Hook: Lead with a provocative statement to grab attention, e.g., "I don't know why anyone isn't talking about DHA in infant formula!"
   • Body Content: Briefly explain DHA's role in brain development and mention how the formula provides the highest DHA content among its competitors.
   • Ad Example: A short video or static post with a parent or expert explaining why DHA matters, paired with text overlays summarizing key benefits.
2. Statistic Angle
   Numbers and data-driven insights can be powerful in establishing credibility and influencing decision-making. Using post-purchase survey data to highlight satisfaction rates or product benefits can validate the product's effectiveness and create trust.
   • Concept: Static images or banners showcasing compelling statistics, such as customer satisfaction rates or success stories.
   • Example Template: "X% of parents noticed a transformation in their baby after trying this formula."
   • Ad Example: A static ad featuring a statistic that reinforces product benefits, combined with a call-to-action encouraging parents to see the results for themselves.
3. Myth vs. Truth
   Many customers are influenced by common misconceptions about certain products. A "Myth vs. Truth" format is an effective way to address these misconceptions, helping customers become more informed and more likely to consider the product.
   • Concepts: User-generated content (UGC) that gamifies the truth vs. myth concept. Examples include "3 Myths About Baby Formula" or "Myth-Busting for New Parents."
   • Hook: Present a popular myth to capture attention, then immediately follow it with the factual truth to clarify misconceptions.
   • Ad Example: A series of images or a carousel ad format where each slide presents a myth, followed by the truth, guiding viewers to more accurate information.

Implementing and Testing the Content Tree

Regular A/B testing on these angles helps fine-tune each approach, allowing brands to prioritize the most effective content based on audience response. This continuous optimization ensures that each piece of content delivers the right message to the right audience at the right time.

Step 4. Instacart and Platform-Specific Ads: Tapping into High-Intent Channels

For CPG brands, especially in the "better-for-you" space, Instacart Ads provide a powerful avenue to drive both brand awareness and return on ad spend (ROAS). Instacart's platform allows for precise targeting, making it ideal for scaling brand visibility and achieving measurable growth in a competitive market. This step involves creating surgical, data-driven campaigns that not only boost topline growth but also maximize efficiency.

Key Tactics for Instacart Ads

1. Strategic Campaign Segmentation
   Segmenting campaigns by product categories, audience behavior, and funnel stages allows for precise control over budget allocation and targeting. This segmentation ensures that each campaign reaches the most relevant audience with messages that resonate based on where they are in the buying journey.
   • Example: A campaign promoting organic baby food might segment audiences based on purchasing habits, like category shoppers interested in organic products, and tailor messaging accordingly.
2. Keyword Targeting & Bid Optimization
   To reach high-intent shoppers, it's essential to use a range of keyword match types. Regularly adjust bids to align with ROAS goals and respond to keyword trends, ensuring that the budget is allocated effectively to keywords with the highest potential for returns.
   • Approach: Continuously monitor keyword performance to adjust bids and identify emerging trends. For instance, if data shows increased searches for "organic baby formula," bids can be optimized to capture this demand.
3. Creative Development & A/B Testing
   By using the content tree developed in earlier steps, test multiple variations of ads to optimize click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates (CVR). This allows for data-driven refinements to creative elements, ensuring that each ad variation is aligned with the campaign's objectives.
   • Testing Strategy: Test different visuals, headlines, and ad formats to determine which combinations yield the highest engagement. For example, testing images featuring testimonials versus those with product benefits can provide insights into what resonates most with audiences.
4. Audience Targeting & Seasonal Promotions
   Leverage audience data to build loyalty and engage category shoppers and lookalike audiences. Align campaigns with seasonal trends and major calendar events to stay top-of-mind and capture attention during high-traffic times.
   • Example: For a holiday campaign, target audiences who previously purchased related products and tailor messaging to highlight the product as a festive or seasonal necessity, creating urgency and relevancy.

The graphic below highlights the key reasons why Instacart is a vital platform for CPG brands, showcasing its unique ability to drive growth and connect with ready-to-buy shoppers.

Instacart Ads offer CPG brands a direct line to engaged shoppers actively seeking products in their categories. By combining strategic segmentation, optimized bidding, targeted creative, and seasonal adjustments, brands can maximize their Instacart presence and drive measurable, sustained growth.

Step 5. Paid Media Launch – Executing Targeted Campaigns with Precision

While platforms like Instacart provide a powerful way to target grocery shoppers and drive immediate results, a broader paid media strategy ensures your retail efforts scale across channels and geographies. The execution of these campaigns requires connecting data, platforms, and insights to deliver impactful messaging to the right audience. From integrating real-time data to refining creative and targeting high-value locations, this step turns strategy into measurable retail growth.

Here's how it works:

1. Laying the Groundwork: Infrastructure and Data Integration

To launch effective campaigns, the foundation must be solid. This starts with setting up a seamless infrastructure that connects key tools. For instance, integrating platforms like Aisle with Meta Ads via custom API hooks allows real-time data exchange. These integrations feed critical metrics—such as engagement rates and add-to-cart behaviors—into the campaign, while point-of-sale (POS) data from retail stores flows back into a regression analysis model.

This setup ensures that campaigns are informed by up-to-date data, enabling dynamic adjustments. Landing pages are also optimized to align with the ad creative, creating a cohesive customer experience from click to conversion.

2. Pinpointing High-Value Targets

With the infrastructure in place, the next step is to identify where resources will have the greatest impact. Using a combination of demographic and psychographic data, retail locations are scored for their potential to drive incremental sales. High-potential stores are prioritized while overlapping DMA (Designated Market Area) targeting is used to ensure ads reach relevant customers in nearby regions without wasting budget.

This targeted approach enables brands to focus their efforts where they'll generate the most return, keeping the campaign efficient and impactful.

3. Testing and Refining Creative

Creative testing plays a vital role in the success of any paid media campaign. Multiple rounds of testing are conducted to determine which messages, visuals, and formats resonate best with target audiences. For example, aspirational imagery might be tested against user-generated content to see which drives higher engagement.

Weekly backtesting ensures that every decision is backed by performance data, allowing for continuous improvement. This iterative process ensures that the campaign evolves based on what works, maximizing its impact over time.

4. Fueling Campaigns with Data

Throughout the campaign, data is continuously fed into platforms like Meta Ads. Real-time metrics from Aisle, such as customer engagement and conversion rates, inform targeting and optimization. Weekly POS reports provide a clear view of sales performance, helping refine the campaign further.

This feedback loop creates a dynamic campaign that adapts to changing customer behaviors, ensuring that ad spend is always allocated efficiently.

5. Measuring Results and Scaling Success

At the end of the campaign period, results are carefully analyzed to measure success. Incrementality analysis compares targeted stores to control stores, providing a clear picture of the campaign's lift. In one case, this approach resulted in a +75% increase in weekly unit sales at targeted stores over 60 days. The retailer, impressed by the results, committed to a year-long expansion, rolling out SKUs nationwide.

This success also created opportunities for further growth, with placements secured at major retailers like Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods. Instacart campaigns, will expand the strategy further, ensuring continued momentum across multiple retail channels.

Why This Approach Works

By combining precise targeting, data-driven adjustments, and continuous testing, paid media campaigns become more than just advertisements—they become tools for measurable growth. This method ensures every step is aligned with business objectives, driving results at scale while laying the groundwork for future success.

Final Thoughts

Navigating the competitive world of retail requires more than just great products; it demands a clear, data-driven strategy that speaks to your customers' needs at every step. This guide outlined five critical steps to creating a retail support strategy that works:

• Crafting Tailored Content: Speak directly to your audience at each stage of their journey, from awareness to loyalty.
• Analyzing Competitors: Learn from others in your space, spotting opportunities to stand out.
• Planning with Purpose: Organize and refine your messaging through structured content calendars and testing.
• Leveraging Platforms like Instacart: Expand your reach with retail-focused tools that drive measurable results.
• Executing Paid Media: Use precision targeting, creative testing, and real-time data to maximize campaign impact.

Whether you're launching in one store or scaling nationwide, success lies in aligning your efforts with the unique needs of your brand and audience. But remember, the best strategies are built on flexibility and continuous improvement, grounded in insights and real results.

If you're feeling inspired but unsure where to start, you're not alone. Many brands face challenges in translating strategy into action. If you have questions or need help making these steps work for your business, don't hesitate to reach out. Every great retail story starts with a strong foundation—and we'd love to help you write yours.