Blue Apron sources healthy, local food, and ships that food with ready-to-use recipes straight to consumer’s doors, so they can make healthy meals easily.
The company deals with a lot of competition nowadays from other subscription meal services, including Amazon, HelloFresh, Green Chef, and Plated.
As a result of this competition, Blue Apron’s biggest challenge has been explaining how their product stands out from the rest.
In 2015, Blue Apron reached out to popular food bloggers like Naomi of Love Taza and Anne of Fannetastic Food, as well as social media influencers, and asked these industry leaders to explain in-depth what Blue Apron was. This is generally an effective strategy, as food bloggers and social media influencers have already gained the trust of their audience.
Blue Apron then took it a step further, sponsoring their content on podcasts like Gimlet Media and The No Sleep Podcast. The company recognized podcasts as a worthwhile investment: almost 50 million people ages 13 and up listen to podcasts, but more than a third of the top 100 iTunes podcasts have no ads at all. With plenty of supply and little demand, Blue Apron’s sponsored content could stand out from the rest.
Employing social media influencers and bloggers to promote their brand, and sponsoring ads on podcasts, paid off: In 2015, Blue Apron sales increased 500%.
Blue Apron separated themselves from the competition by using industry influencers to reach an engaged audience, and promoting their content on appropriate (and less-crowded) platforms like podcasts.