The Digital Illusion: Why Nigeria’s Food and Beverage Industry Is Scaling the Wrong Things
Most food and beverage brands in Nigeria believe digital presence alone means growth. Conventionally, the masses seem to relate a thriving organisation to a verified check on an account and a large following. They flood social feeds with content, partner with influencers, and chase likes. However, quarterly reports show that while the likes are there, the sales are not.
Social media and marketing gurus online have a twisted idea of what matters. Too many food and beverage brands scale the wrong things, like shares and influencer collaborations, while ignoring the hard stuff, like reliable distribution, repeat purchases, market feedback, retention loops, operational efficiency, and a lot more that meets business goals.
What Wrong Metrics Are Food and Beverage Brands Focusing On?
Let’s be honest: most brands are scaling vanity metrics. Engagement rate, reach, follower count, and influencer impressions are good performance indicators, but not necessarily business indicators. If they don’t lead to a marketing qualified lead or a sales qualified lead, they simply do not matter to the sustenance of the business in the long run.
Here’s what many are over-prioritizing:
- Follower growth with no conversion plan
- Influencer video with zero backend data tracking
- Viral content that increases awareness but no sales related contents
- Giveaways or activation campaigns with no strategy to attract loyal customers
- Paid ads that have more impressions and clicks, but no leads.
When you zoom out, many of these brands look “alive” online, but are barely surviving internally.
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Are These Metrics Totally Wrong?
I think it would be sheer ignorance to ignore the importance of a page with many followers or viral content for awareness. The problem is that these metrics are incomplete. These metrics have their place in the funnel, but they are top-of-funnel. And if there’s no structured path guiding the audience from “interested” to “purchased” to “returned again,” then it’s like shouting into a crowd with no mic; nobody will hear what you have to say. The goal is not to eliminate likes or reach but to tie them to an actual customer journey, one that brings money in again and again.
What Should Be the Focus?
check out this article for more insight
Now that we have established that the goal isn’t to eliminate likes or reach, but to tie these metrics to a customer journey, here are the metrics to focus on.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
This tells you how much a customer is worth over time, not just once. If people only buy from you once, there is no real profit in that. The goal is to get paid again and again. - Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
You need to know how much it actually costs to gain one paying customer. If your Instagram ads are burning ₦1,200 per order for a ₦1,000 snack, that means, you’re losing. - Retention Rate
How many customers return after their first purchase? You need a true reliable customer base to keep making profits organically. Read more on digital strategies to adopt here. - Operational Speed
Can your backend keep up with the demand you’re trying to create? If delivery is slow, and packaging isn’t top notch, or service inconsistent, people won’t come back, no matter how interesting your content is. - Customer Feedback Loops
Are you actively listening to what people say about your product, service, or experience? That’s free intel. Use reviews, DMs, complaints, everything, to adjust and evolve. - Repeat Order Rate
This is your proof of concept. If people try you once and don’t return, something’s broken. If they come back often, you’ve got a product worth building around.
Digital Strategies to Scale your Food and Beverage Industry
Here are brief highlights of digital strategies you can use to improve your business.
- Retention-focused marketing
Use remarketing campaigns and customer tagging to re-engage those who’ve bought before. Acquisition is good, but repeat business sustains the business.
- Conversion-focused content
While creating interesting content, also adopt edu entertainment content with CTAs that showcase offers, explain product benefits, and give people reasons to act now. This will bring balance to your content strategy.
- Backend infrastructure
Ensure your delivery, packaging, payment flows, and response systems can support scale. There’s no point driving demand you can’t fulfil efficiently.
- Data-led decisions
Trends are good, but not every time. The use of data cannot be undermined. Tracking audience engagement and adopting attribution mechanisms will help grow your business and cut down wasteful spending.
- Smart influencer collaboration
Not all influencers bring value. Work with those who drive action. Always track conversion codes or actual uplift from each campaign.
Final Thoughts
Scaling is not about looking big. It’s about building systems that bring in money and keep customers returning. The Nigerian F&B space is crowded. And loud. But those who win in the long run choose to be loud and strategically equipped.
If you’re tired of strategies that don’t yield a return and want your digital strategy to actually drive business, we can help. Talk to us here, let’s shift your focus from likes to revenue.
