#114 Driving Trial at Retail with Digital Rebates + Key Insights on Latest Natural Shopper Trends with Social Nature

This episode was sponsored by RangeMe. Go to rangeme.com/startupcpg
This episode was sponsored by Floret. Go to tryfloret.com/startupcpg
This episode was sponsored by Cin7. Go to cin7.com/startupcpg

I’m so excited to have our friends at Social Nature back on the show! Today we get to chat with Annalea Krebs, founder and CEO of Social Nature, an all-in-one shopper marketing platform powered by 1 million natural shoppers. Because Social Nature has access to so much great data about natural shoppers, we’ve learned a ton here on the show from them about key trends in natural shopping and who the modern wellness consumer is. I’ve linked in the show notes our other episodes with Social Nature because they are jam packed with knowledge and always very popular. I’m really excited today to explore Social Nature’s new rebate program and what that means for brands driving trial at specific retailers, and I asked Annalea to come with updates on key trends they are seeing in their community, which are really fascinating.

Listen in as Annalea shares about:

• Current top health goals for shoppers
• Trends on where people are shopping from, including the breakdown on large scale retailers and natural retailers
• Top product attributes shoppers are looking for
• Social Nature’s recent B-corp certification and what that means
• Social Nature’s new rebate model and how it helps brands drive trial at retail faster and with more data
• Tips for making the most out of an in-store marketing campaign
• And more!

Social Nature is a proud sponsor of Startup CPG.

Episode Links:

• Social Nature website
• Annalea’s LinkedIn
• Join the Social Nature community as a consumer here
• As a CPG Brand, learn more about Social Nature’s programs here or contact their team at [e-mail]
• Mentions: Olipop, GoPuff, NotCo NotMilk, Primal Kitchen
• Learn from & get to know the Social Nature team: 
  • Episode #87 How Natural Shoppers are Responding to Inflation with Social Nature's Jessica Malach
  • Episode #50 The Data Behind the Modern Wellness Consumer with Social Nature's Jessica Malach
  • Overview of Digital Sampling with Social Nature founder Annalea Krebs
• Episodes that mention Social Nature campaigns: 
  • Episode #66 Sharing is Caring: How Alison Cayne & Haven's Kitchen share cooking confidence and industry knowledge (Social Nature discussed at 41:15)
  • Episode #86 From Target Buyer to Nationally Launching Upcycled Pet Brand Shameless Pets with James Bello (Social Nature discussed at 37:33)

Show Links:

• Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
• Join the Startup CPG Slack community (15K+ members and growing!)
• Follow @startupcpg
• Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website
• Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at [e-mail]
• Episode music by Super Fantastics

RangeMe Links

• RangeMe website
• Listen to our episode (#108) with RangeMe founder, Nicky Jackson here

Floret Links:

• Sign up here for a free 2023 deductions audit

Cin7 Links:

• Get a demo or claim your free 14 day trial of Cin7 inventory management software here

Creators & Guests

Host

Jessi Freitag

Guest

Annalea Krebs

Founder & CEO at Social Nature

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

The top CPG podcast in the world, highlighting stories from founders, buyer spotlights, highly practical industry insights - all to give you a better chance at success.

Jessi: Hi, Annalea. Welcome to the show today. I'm so excited to have you back. How are you? I'm really well, Jessi. It's great to be back. Awesome. Yes, we love our episodes, but social nature and our listeners love them as we see from the response we get every time. So I'm excited for another great episode today. We've got some really exciting news to discuss social nature. So I'm really excited to dig into that, including the new rebate model that we're going to dig into. But first, can you just introduce yourself for those that might be new? Tell us a little bit about yourself and a little bit about social nature, and then we'll dig into some trends and all the fun things.

Annalea: Awesome. Well, it's great to be back. Startup CPG Community. I'm a big fan and I think you're at over 15,000 people now, which is amazing. So big congrats on that. Happy to be part of the community. And so I've, I've been in the natural product industry for about 15 years, which I'm starting to date myself. within that. But I'm currently the founder and CEO of Social Nature. But my story really does begin 15 years ago. I've always been passionate about promoting good stuff, not junk, as I like to say. And really, I've been helping in one way or another, better for you brands, eco-friendly businesses, acquire new customers in many different ways. Over the last 15 years, I was actually reflecting on this recently as we recently celebrated our eighth birthday at social nature. And I was sharing my team how 15 years ago, I started the first online eco-friendly business directory. And it's crazy. There wasn't, there was not an online eco-friendly business directory 15 years ago. And then shortly thereafter, I started the first eco-friendly daily deal company where we helped, you know, vegan restaurants, organic spas, and other healthy eco-friendly providers acquire customers through daily deals. And then eight years ago, I launched Social Nature, which was at the time, the first online to offline marketing company for consumer packaged goods brands, with a mission to help more people make the switch to better for you products. So the theme across all those different businesses is introducing consumers to good stuff, not junk, and just doing that in different ways. It's been quite the journey.

Jessi: Yeah, it's amazing. And you have over a million consumers in your community now, right? That is just incredible.

Annalea: Growing every day. It's so interesting to kind of see, you know, where that community comes from as well. I mean, we're active across North America, and most of the community, of course, well, it kind of follows the population. So California, you know, we've got New York, we've got Florida hotspots. And then we've got, you know, Austin, Texas is another hotspot where we have a lot of community members, but yeah, people from all over looking to, to make the switch to better for them and better for the planet products. Those are the types of consumers that we track social nature.

Jessi: Yeah, it's amazing the amount of data that you have across a million people. And we've had you and Jessica from the Social Nature team on the show to talk about some of the trends that you found between inflation or how natural shoppers are responding and changing their behaviors. And so I wanted to actually start out with some updates on the data that you're seeing? What kind of trends are you seeing across this community of 1 million shoppers? You know, what should our listeners be aware of that has changed since, you know, changed or updates since the last time we chatted?

Annalea: Yeah, for sure. It's, it is interesting to have such a large focus group, like it's almost, you know, it's access to such a large focus group, and we can tap into it for the brands that we work with. So some of the things that we've been paying attention to is really the concept of health, is becoming more and more holistic for consumers. This is, you know, not just about eating healthier anymore, although that is still one of the top ranked health goals that we track within our community. It is also very much about mental health, being happier, increasing energy, reducing stress, 52%, you know, getting better sleep at 57%, improving cognitive performance at 57% of top rated health goals. So it's really this holistic view that I really encourage brands to be thinking about. So when it's a, you know, food or beverage brands, of course, there's the obvious eat healthier goal, but Is there something that you can kind of tie into with your marketing that speaks to helping consumers improve their digestion? I mean, of course, Olipop is a great example of a beverage brand that has done that so well as part of one of their core value propositions. And, you know, 59% of our community has a health goal of improving digestion. So if you look at the category through those eyes, if you're in a competitive beverage category, for example, You've just expanded your market share and can really use that health goal messaging in your marketing to speak to the top needs of consumers today. Our team was at the Trade Show Florida Expo East recently and there continues to be adaptogens and mushroom-based products and things like that which are appealing to that improved cognitive performance health goal that 57% of North Americans have right now with increased stress levels and just people being, you know, busier and busier lives. Having that clarity of mind is key to just functioning in your day to day and people are, you know, moving away. from some of the mainstream alternatives like coffee and other energy drinks and things like that and moving towards more adaptogens, mushroom-based products to have some of those energy and cognitive performance needs met in a healthier way. We're also seeing, it's a bit of a shame that this one never really goes away. I mean, it's interesting to see that 52% of our community, although they are largely a health conscious community, is still suffering from stress. So this is still the majority of people are under some form of stress. And so this is key for the supplement category, I would say, to really speak to reducing how this product can help you feel better, get better sleep, and just generally really using the health goal language. in your marketing. I still don't see that often enough when I browse the natural food health aisles. I still see a lot of vitamin B messaging boldly on the label versus brands using the more health goal-based messaging. So just continuing to encourage that. And then for beauty brands, what we're seeing is really in the spirit of health is holistic, Also, that's kind of continued leaning into be yourself and inclusivity in general. So being aware of that when you're doing your ad campaigns, when you're thinking about who you're speaking to and what language you're using and who's showing up in your ads, especially for that beauty category, being representative of everyone is going to continue to be really important, especially if you're… I mean, it's for everyone, but certainly the Gen Z crowd is very focused and aware of that. So that's kind of, I guess, the big message here is integrating health goals and current events and just acknowledging that people are busier and busier, more and more stressed, and you have to cut through the noise with some really simple, what's-in-it-for-me messaging and kind of reduce the features

Jessi: messaging as much as you can. Yeah. It's really interesting because I feel like even a few years ago it was people were like, oh, I'm trying to reduce my cholesterol. Like they had like very specific little pieces and now it's so much more holistic like what you're mentioning. So that's really interesting to see.

Annalea: It also makes it easier for people to buy products and relate to products, right? Because it can be especially the supplement world can be pretty intimidating. And so when you're browsing those shelves, as a consumer that might be newer to the supplement category, for example, they're probably going to reach for the products that have that intuitive messaging on their packaging. And so some of that's has more experience in the category, you know, might be more comfortable reaching for the more descriptive products. But especially as you're looking to reach new consumers, that packaging and first impression on the shelf and making that as easy for the consumer to understand the value that your product brings is just really, really key to standing out.

Jessi: Yeah. I'm also curious as far as where people are shopping, because I know during the pandemic, I believe when Jessica was on, we talked a little bit how we were seeing a lot more people moving to shopping at larger big box retailers, more than we had seen in the past. So I'm curious what you're seeing now across people shopping at bigger retailers versus the natural channel. What are you seeing?

Annalea: We are definitely seeing people gravitate towards Walmarts and targets of the world. Within our community, people sometimes think that because we're focused on promoting better for you and better for the planet products, as that maps back to our mission and what we're passionate about, that the community itself might only be shopping at the natural food stores. But that's not the case. We're attracting the mainstream and the mainstream is interested in making health conscious choices. And so they're going to, you know, the Walmarts of the world. And we work with a lot of brands who have sold successfully in the natural channel and are now making that leap over onto the Walmart shelf, looking for that natural consumer and natural shoppers are going there to save on those essentials that they're looking for, whether it's the cleaning products or other daily essentials. target as well. I mean, especially in the beauty category has done some good work in bringing more clean beauty products into or onto their shelves. So we are seeing with conventional stocking more better for you products in general, that conventional retailers are certainly gaining market share and competing more head to head with some of those natural retailers. all that said, within our community, you know, 45% of our community does regularly shop at Whole Foods. And at the same time, 69% of them also regularly shop at Walmart. So what's important for us all to remember is that, and just think about your own shopping habits, you know, makes it all kind of become real, because I mean, I don't know about you, but I shop at probably about three and a half different retailers. to get my basket done. I'm going to a conventional retailer for some of my cleaning essentials and bigger bulk items, whether it's a Costco or a Walmart. And then I'm going to the natural specialty for my beauty and more niche products. So this is the consumer journey. And so the more distribution you have, of course, the more consumers will find you. But we have seen an uptick in People shopping at places like Costco with 33% of our shoppers shopping there. Kroger's at around 23%. So the top three are Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods within our community, with the next three being Costco, Kroger, and Sprouts at about 20%. within our community of a million shoppers, again, predominantly in the US, that's the breakdown. We are seeing that people, you know, when they're looking for education on products, they're still gravitating towards the natural specialty retailers. So these are more niche products that really, you know, are going to tackle specific health issues. Supplements is quite common here. And so if you're a supplement product, of course, getting into those stores is going to be key and you're going to be doing a lot of sales, I'm sure, through those retailers. And then we're also seeing an uptick in online. Of course, Amazon's only continuing to grow, especially with supplements. Some other more niche online retailers as well have opened up since COVID, which are really great for emerging brands, like GoPuff and some other online retailers that are a little bit newer. But you know, predominantly still, if you're an emerging brand, if you're thinking about, you know, where do I need to be, then depends on the category. But if you're a product that needs a lot of education, certainly those natural specialty retailers will be your strong footholds as a starting point and making sure that you're really focused there and performing well there before jumping to the Walmarts of the world. But then if you are more of an everyday essential, maybe you're in the snack category or something like that, you know, it can make all difference to get onto one of those. larger retailers' shelves and your sales volume will just go through the roof. So yeah, I hope that answers it. There was a lot of it out there.

Jessi: That's very, very interesting to see that data across and across a community of that size. That's very interesting. You've mentioned supplements a few times, and I know supplements were really on the rise, especially with COVID and the pandemic. Are you seeing supplements continue to trend well, or has there been any decline in interest?

Annalea: Supplements are still trending? Well, it's interesting. I mean, there's always niche populations within the general population that might be seeking just more whole foods in general with cleaner ingredients and choosing to kind of supplement with high quality whole foods. So there's always going to be that population that believes that that's the best way to get their nutrients. But at the same time, we are continuing to see supplement sales increase. We work with a lot of supplement brands. that have very large product lines with, you know, many different products for all sorts of different health ailments. You know, it's also kind of in response to what people need and want. I mean, again, back to that kind of busy stress, go, go, go lifestyle that so many of us have, where we don't necessarily have the time, time is the scarcest resource. So sometimes have to supplement, we can't all grow our own food or purchase, you know, organic produce from the farmer's market or whatnot. And so the reality is that most mainstream consumers will be supplementing their diet with a variety of supplements. It depends on who you're marketing to. If you're marketing to the Gen Z or the millennials, of course, we don't really like taking pills. So that's where we see the supplement space getting into the functional food and beverage space and many different innovations happening within that category. how supplements are showing up has certainly, you know, innovated over the last five years or so, but they are still going strong. In fact, it's almost like the supplement space, it's not only growing from, you know, the traditional pills and capsules point of view, but we think of supplements and kind of expand that into the functional category, the whole category as a whole is really growing. And then we layer in mushrooms and adaptogens and things like that. Yeah, that industry is alive and well And for that to grow and it's also just a reflection, as I was saying, people are strapped for time and needing to suffer.

Jessi: Yeah, wow, that's very interesting. The last trend or theme that I wanted to check in on was some of the attributes that people shop by from organic to non-GMO, those kind of attributes. Like what trends are you seeing as far as attributes people are gravitating towards still? Are you still seeing strong interest in organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, those kind of attributes? Curious what you're seeing.

Annalea: Yeah, the organic and GMO-free attributes, those have been around the longest. And so there's just the most brand awareness, you could say, and understanding about those. Although, all that said, it's easy for those of us who are in the natural product industry to, you know, often, we kind of live in this bubble. And so we have to remember that actually, there is still confusion around GMO-free versus organic, for example. And so it's still up to us to educate consumers around that. But all that said, because the brand awareness for those two have been the highest, those are those are ones that a lot of consumers do look for that there's trust around as well. Then we I mean, it's certainly plant based has become the overarching attribute that people are looking for more so than vegan or vegetarian. We've even seen brands move away from vegan or vegetarian labelling and move towards plant-based labelling. is also just appealing to more people. So it's always interesting within our community, we do a lot of plant-based products, since there is demand across all categories from plant-based meats to dairy and so forth. But at the same time, we only have about 9% of people in our million community that identify as vegans. So it's always interesting that we do have over 73% of our community regularly buying plant-based products with 9% being vegan. So That has certainly become way more mainstream over the last five plus years with way more innovative products in that category as well. So making it easier for the mainstream to enter that category. So we're seeing plant-based as a top three attribute. So organics number one, GMO free number two, and plant-based is number three. The ketogenic attributes is fairly low on the list. I think there was a time where that was really trending and top of mind for a lot of people, but we've seen that kind of fall down the ranks in terms of attributes that people are looking for. So that's at about only 22%. of people today. If you have a product that falls into that category, it's not to say that you shouldn't label that on your product, it's just you might not leave with that. That might be one of the sub attributes that you have on your packaging. If your product is also plant-based, you might call out plant-based a lot louder or organic or GMO-free a lot louder than ketogenic. So those are just some of the things to kind of keep in mind when you're, you know, space is scarce on a package. And so often, you know, you can only really say three things, and you might have 10 attributes that you want to talk about. But we sometimes have to, you know, obviously prioritize a lot of the work that we do with brands sometimes is they'll come to us with their product. And then the last consumer on that product specific basis, you know, of all these of all my 10 attributes, which are the top three. And then from there, they'll use those top three on their packaging, but a bit of the work that we do with brands as well, because so many brands are doing so many, so many things. Now, you know, you do feel the pressure to check a lot of these boxes, whether it's gluten free or plant-based or organic or GMO-free or sugar-free or vegetarian or dairy-free or lactose-free or vegan or ketogenic. I mean, that is a list of a lot of things. But even if you're checking all those boxes or many of those boxes, just having the discipline to call out the top three and knowing which top three are most important to your consumer is important. I also caution with generalizations because it can depend on your product. But if you take anything away from this, if you have a vegan or vegetarian product, I'll leave with plant-based as a big shout out. You know, if you're sugar-free and organic, great. Like those are two kind of complementary attributes. Both of them are top of mind for consumers. Sugar-free is climbing the ranks that we've seen in the last few years, especially again, as more innovation is happening in the category. The two often go hand in hand, right? You know, as more innovative products in a sugar-free category are found on grocery shelves, more consumers suddenly are open to trying these products. And it catches on and it becomes more mainstream and more accessible. So that's what we're seeing in the marketplace right now.

Jessi: That's very helpful. And yeah, and I appreciate your note on the nuance per product, which is where there's such value in working with social nature to get data specific to your product, because you can gather that through surveys of the communities particular to your product. So speaking of that, I'd love if you can update a little about the latest at Social Nature. I believe that you're recently a B Corp certification. So I would love to hear a little bit about that. And then I am really excited to dive into the new rebate model.

Annalea: Yes. As I was sharing earlier, like I've been in the business of promoting good stuff, not junk for over close to 15 years now. And I've been doing, for lack of better words, what I believe is you know, the right thing for a long time. But I became a B Corp because I wanted to be an advocate for other companies to, you know, join this movement of businesses that are using business as a force for good, which is ultimately what the B Corp certification you know, is a symbol of, it's a commitment to really, you know, operating your business with a triple bottom line. And I'm so lucky every single day I get to work with brands that, you know, even if they're not B Corp certified, it is an effort to go through that process and have your entire business audited and, you know, update your shareholder incorporation statements with a public benefit statement. There's a lot behind the scenes of what it means to be a B Corp. That's why there's only just over 7,000 B Corps of the world today that have made this commitment to their shareholders, to the public, to their communities, to their employees, to the environment. It's truly a commitment to multiple stakeholders, not just to profit. And so that's what we stand for. That's why we only promote products that meet our criteria for better for you and better for the planet. proud to be part of this movement that is leading the change towards a different way of doing business. And it has been growing. I think in the last year, there was about a thousand B Corps that joined the movement, as we like to say. So I'm glad to see it happening. But again, as with anything, you know, you can be doing the right thing and not have the certification because that is another you know, to take us 10 years to make the decision to go through the certification process. But it's a great community to be a part of. It has many business benefits as well. Of course, it's great for your employer brand and networking with like-minded folks. But for us, it's really a commitment to our stakeholders that we will continue to have a commitment to the environment, to the community, and to our people. You know, it's just a way of making it official and being transparent about it and holding ourselves accountable to the highest standards as it relates to the environment and the community. It's been on my to-do list for a while, so it was nice to make it happen and proud to be corporate.

Jessi: Yeah, congratulations to you and the whole team at Social Nature. It's a huge accomplishment. So that is very exciting. And then I'd love to hear about deciding to launch the rebate model, because I've seen more brands talking about this. I'm curious about what it means as far as like, you know, the speed that you can launch sampling program, like, I would love to hear more about why you decided to launch the rebate model. What does it look like? You know, what does it mean?

Annalea: Yeah, this has been a new service offering that we're proud to launch this year and offer to our customers. Really, the decision to do it was multiple. So it's the same product sampling experience that many of our community members have come to know and love, but as we like to say, just better. So what's better about it? So now as one of our community members, and it's free to sign up to Social Nature if any of you want to check it out and discover new better for you products, I encourage you to sign up to social nature.com. And so from there, you can get matched to different products that are aligned with your health goals, with your dietary preferences, with where you shop. And now you can just go to a grocery store, go to social nature, check out what product offers are available at the local grocery stores for all of our product offers are based on where you shop and live. So, it's hyper-targeted and hyper-relevant to you. And from there, through the digital rebate, you don't need to wait for a coupon to be mailed to you. You don't need to wait for a physical product sample to be mailed to you. When you're in the aisles of the grocery store, you just go see what product offers are available. I was doing this the other day. I was actually in my grocery store and I was craving some plant-based milk. I went on Social Nature. And I saw a product offer or like a rebate for not go. And so I looked and I got their product, I went to the cashier, I paid for it. And then, you know, I got my receipt, took a picture of the receipt, upload it to social nature. And a couple days later, I was able to get cash back 100% cash back for that product. So it's another way to experience and try new innovative products, new delivery method that's real time. And then shortly after I uploaded my receipt, I was prompted for a product review. In exchange for that 100% cashback, I am asked to give my honest review and feedback and answer a couple questions about my experience with that product. I can opt in to the brand's newsletter if I want to continue to hear from that brand. And the brands are getting very… Within hours of launching a campaign, a rebate campaign on social nature now, you'll have shoppers going into stores, buying your products and writing reviews once they've had a chance to enjoy the product. So we've been seeing just the speed is incredible to go from live on a website to hours later, people talking about your product online and enjoying it. So speed is one. Of course, brands now have access to real-time redemption data as well. So you can now log into your social nature dashboard. You can see the redemptions coming in. We show it at the store level. So you can see, hey, this is the volume of redemptions happening at this specific Whole Foods location or this specific region. We also show it by region. You can look at a higher level. And if you're running a retail or agnostic campaign, you can see that 33% of your redemptions happen to Whole Foods, 17% at Sprouts, and so forth. And then of course, you can download all that transaction data, share it with your sales team and start looking at sales lifts over time from having acquired those new shoppers at those retailers. The experience is also attracting more of a Gen Z millennial audience. So for the last eight years, we've been focused on, you know, either physically shipping product samples direct to people's homes, or distributing physical printed vouchers. But with the rebate model, we've actually seen already through the community data and demographic data that we have that the millennials and Gen Z audiences really gravitating towards our digital rebates. So another great reason for brands that are looking to target that audience to use that delivery method. And it's overall just more data, fast results, and you're able to track the performance of your campaign, which in this economic environment, every marketer wants that capability.

Jessi: Yes, yeah, absolutely. That's so interesting. I hadn't thought about how the model might attract a different consumer like millennials or Gen Z. As a millennial, I have to say I am drawn to the rebate model. Even though I've loved the social nature, I've been a member of the community for over two years now and have sampled I don't know how many products at this point. I just got some coupons in the mail yesterday from Social Nature. So I'm a huge fan of being a member of the community itself. But I love the idea of the rebate model as a consumer too, because I can just go sometimes I'll get to Whole Foods, I'll realize I forgot my coupon. And I'm like, ah, shoot, you know, I love this method and just the speed that it can be launched for brands. Like you said, like you can go live on this as someone that's like set up coupon campaigns, like there's the clearing house and like getting your coupons printed and making sure they scan and all these things and you're able to not have to worry about any of that and just worry about giving the customer a rebate right back. So that's so interesting.

Annalea: Yeah, a lot of kind of what makes us different at Social Nature is our ability to not only attract those qualified consumers and help brands acquire new shoppers through our community, but also this ability to geotarget around your store list. So I think we're, as far as I know, the only digital rebate solution where you can have access to a community for that on-demand customer acquisition, as well as have the capability to narrowly target around, say, 50 Whole Foods stores locations or 500 Walmart locations and really just focus in on the stores where you want that traffic and you want that additional velocity and sales. So we're excited. I think we're taking… We're 8 years in. As I mentioned earlier, we just celebrated our birthday. You just got to continue to innovate. Every brand, if they're in it for the long game, which we are, we have to continuously improve our platform for our customers. So we're pretty excited to have this new offering for both community members and the brands that we work with.

Jessi: Yeah, yeah, no, it's really exciting. And I think for the brands, too, because they think about how like, you could say offer a rebate on your own as a brand and try to run geo targeted ads and try to find people that are shopping at both the store you're looking for and that line up with your brand. But that's become really expensive to do effectively. And it's a lot to try to figure that out and make sure that the right people are getting it. And then you have people reaching out going, Oh, I tried to go that store, I can't find it or whatever, like you, you bring the audience like social nature brings the audience to you. And so you have a million people ready to go ready to shop. And then you can target like you said, the those specific stores you want to launch for your brand. So I just I love how targeted it is. And from being on the brand side and the stress of trying to run those ads yourself and find your new consumers. I just love that you're able to be connected with your really engaged audience and the data that you can get. Because I assume that this is like your other products where you're taking a survey to qualify customers as well. If you want to target people that have never heard of your brand before, they'll still take a survey before they qualify for the digital rebate, right? And then they do a post-trial survey.

Annalea: Yes. Yeah. All the bells and whistles are still here with the digital rebate. You can customize a free trial survey to really hone in on additional targeting criteria. Or if you just want to collect some market research data, that's something that every single consumer that opts in for a digital rebate offer. has to fill out to qualify in addition to the store-level targeting that we do. And then yeah, post-trial, we're asking them about the product review and rating to, you know, what flavor did you try? How often would you buy it again? What other products did you buy with this? Of course, we're starting to look at the data that we're getting through the receipts itself, which is also a new data opportunity in terms of getting access to that basket size data. So the rebate really opens up a whole lot more data possibilities that we can share back with the brands as well to help them better merchandise their products and better market their products. And then you can continue that journey with that new shopper that you've now acquired that's gone to the point of sale, gone to the shelf, picked up that product, knows where to buy it, and continue to market to that consumer with discount offers to build loyalty just to stay top of mind with that consumer. The journey continues thereafter, and the digital rebate, again, makes that just a little bit easier to do. It just becomes easier for the community member to take advantage of that. We just launched SMS marketing as well, so now our community members can opt in to get alerts on product offers based on the retailers that they shop at, based on the frequency that they shop at, and when they want to get those alerts. So if you tell us that you go grocery shopping on a Wednesday at Whole Foods, we'll give you alerts at that point in time through SMS opted in for that. So we've been up to lots of cool and interesting things this year.

Jessi: Yeah. Oh, that's, that's very exciting. And I also just want to draw attention to your point of the follow up after a campaign, because I think it's really interesting when people fill out that survey, they also have the opportunity to opt into the brands like email list on an ongoing basis. And you see a really high rate of people just right then and there after doing a social nature campaign, opting in, you know, so long as they decide to be on the list, but going right to the brand's email list, which I just think is so powerful for long term relationship building with the clients that come from social nature.

Annalea: Absolutely. And, you know, we're talking to the startup CPG community. So, you know, a lot of emerging brands in the mix and just building up that CRM of your own is so important to be able to stay top of mind and stay relevant and be able to announce new product launch announcements. We've even had brands that almost build this email list through us and then they start doing their own grocery digital flyers. to their own email list. So that's been really cool to see as well, where they'll engage those people that gave their product five out of five stars, they'll invite them to become part of their ambassador or influencer marketing programs. Because a lot of our members are also active on social. And so, I mean, everybody's active on… Almost everybody's active on social nowadays. So it's not necessarily the big… Kim Kardashian of the world, but it is, it is these nano influencers that, you know, have the 500 to a couple thousand followers that if they've tried your product, you know, they shop at the retailers you sell at, they've given you a five at a five star product review, you've got their email, you may as well go the extra mile. And now, you know, invite them to become part of your community and make them an ambassador of your product. So that's kind of best in class. There's some brands in our community that really squeeze lemon, so to speak. and get all the juice out. But that's, you know, that's, that's what I encourage. I mean, I love to see that.

Jessi: Yeah. Oh, I love that tip of really making sure to target and segment based on the different consumers that come out of social nature and having them become ambassadors. That's great. Are there any other like best in class, like things that you see clients do a really good job of, like really capitalizing on their social nature campaign and making the most of it?

Annalea: Yeah, a lot of the time brands will come to us, for example, with a new product launch. And so the initial trial opportunity might be quite targeted around, you know, a consumer that they want to attract for that new product. And maybe it's even a specific flavor or something like that. But thereafter, when they're promoting follow up offers, to that consumer, they're going wide. They're going, you know, Hey, it's buy one, get one free off of our entire line of products. And so those brands that are, if they're targeted up front, then going wide on the back end, so to speak, to really introduce that consumer to their entire lineup of products. Because oftentimes, especially if you're a brand that's selling across different categories even, right? Like you might have sauces and pasta mix in a different aisle. Your products might be distributed all over the store. And so if you're going to bring the consumer to a shelf in a certain aisle and you have products in other aisles, make sure that with your follow-up discount strategy, you're making them go on that treasure hunt. through the store to collect all of your products. So that's something that we've seen some brands like Primal Kitchen do quite successfully. The other piece really is, there's a lot of solutions out there where you can market quite broadly. But because you can market so narrowly with social nature, that is finding that balance of what your objective is and how narrow you want to go is often a conversation point that we have with brands. So for example, say your objective is to drive trial. We'll dig in with you to really understand why are you looking to drive trial? Are you looking to drive trial to acquire new shoppers? Are you looking to drive trial to drive velocity in general? Are you looking to drive trial up ahead of upcoming category review. So we really dig in to really understand what the outcome is. And then we design the campaign around that. So if there's a buyer review coming up, and you really want to make sure that not only your retail sales are looking good, but you're also coming armed to the table with some data around what that retail buyer is going to be looking for, especially if it's a new product. We can think about, and we have enough experience over the eight years that we've done this, about the common questions that retail buyers will be asking brands, especially if it's a new product or a new SKU that they're looking to get on the shelf. We can ask those questions then in the pre-trial survey to get those answers for the brands so that they can then use those insights in their sales decks at category review time. So the more that we can understand the goals and objectives of the brands and really kind of tie our programming into that, I find those are the most successful campaigns. And those are the customers that are most strategically using the platform. So that's the best part.

Jessi: Yeah. Oh, I love I love all of that. That's so helpful. I'm thinking about how I'm so excited for the additional data that the rebate program gives you. Like you mentioned, I'm thinking of brands that have like used social nature to they've had in the survey question, like, what else did you buy in your basket to help them then merchandise their products? You have like, I think Haven's Kitchen, realizing that maybe we should be merchandised with the meat sometimes or those kind of things using the data from social nature. And that was just through the survey. Now you'll have the actual receipts to really see, like you said, how big someone's basket size was. What else did they buy that they maybe wasn't even a thought to have as a survey option of what they bought with? Like, there's just so much the I'm really excited to see the power of that data across a million shoppers, like the trends that you're going to learn and be able to share with brands is going to be incredible.

Annalea: Yeah, yeah. I mean, like likewise, just just the other day, we, we had a brand ask us, you know, can we target target people who have purchased our competitors products, and we have that data. So like, We have, because you know, we have the community, we have what they're interested in from their profile questions, but now we have what they're interested in from their baskets. And you know, they can verify data. So yeah, it's a whole new world for us at Social Nature as well. We're probably going to have to hire some additional data analysts to support. With all the different ways that we can slice and dice this. But yeah, that's top of mind for us too. And we're also a very customer-centric company. So the more requests we get for something from our customers, that's ultimately what lands on the roadmap. So as we launch this, and as we hear more from our customers, the sky's the limit. This is opening up a whole new possibility for us. also great for emerging brands. I mean, no more signing up to coupon clearinghouses. Yes. Big pain point for a lot of startup, startup brands.

Jessi: Yes. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I'm so excited. This has all been really great. So if people want to learn more about working specifically with social nature, Should they reach out to, I think in the past it's been marketing at socialnature.com. Is that still the best email to connect with your team and learn more and understand how they might be able to leverage a program with social nature for their brand?

Annalea: Yes. Yeah. [e-mail] is ideal. I also really encourage brands, if you're interested, to sign up as one of our community members on Social Nature and give it a whirl yourself. See what products are available for you to try and review. Many of our customers are also community members, which is It's also a pretty unique experience. It's, you know, hard to test vendor solutions like that, but you can give it a go. And if you like the experience, then give us a call and we'll see what we can do for your brand.

Jessi: Yeah, absolutely. I encourage every listener to definitely sign up to be a member of the community. It's free. Like I said, I've been a member for over two years. If you're a brand, you learn so much about the possibilities of things you can ask customers, how you could target people. You'll learn a ton. And then also as a natural product shopper, which most of our listeners are, you'll get connected with amazing products. It's so targeted. I get excited every time I get an email from Social Nature saying, Hey, you've been matched with and I've discovered so many incredible products. So yeah, encourage everyone to go to socialnature.com, sign up to be a member of the community for sure. And then connect with the marketing team as well to learn more. So thank you. you so much, Annalea. I love having you and social nature team on the show. It's always such a pleasure. I always learn so much. So thank you so much for spending time with us. And I'm really excited to have our community members reach out to you and the team and start experiencing social nature as consumers as well if they haven't already.

Annalea: Hey, thank you so much. Wishing everyone all the best. I'm cheering you on from the sidelines. And yeah, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. I always enjoy connecting with other passionate entrepreneurs and people in the industry.

Jessi: If you enjoyed today's episode, the best way you can say thank you is by leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We seriously appreciate it so much and it helps new people find the show. I'm Jessi Freytag, your host and producer. I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn, or you can reach out anytime to podcast at startupcpg.com with your feedback, ideas, or just to say hi. Special thanks to our podcast assistant, Stephanie Roberts. Also, be sure to check out more free resources from Startup CPG, our Slack community, webinars, databases, the blog, the magazine, virtual and in-person events, and more, all available at startupcpg.com. Our intro and outro music for today's episode is by the Superfantastics, the band of our Startup CPG founder, Daniel Scharff, which you can find on Spotify for more great tunes. On behalf of the whole team at Startup CPG, thank you so much for being here and see you next week.