FanFinders

Why nursery brands still have to meet new parents in their product lifecycle

FanFinders’ CCO and co-founder Adam Gillett talks about how nursery sector SMEs can angle their business for success, despite the budget constraints of a recession.

As an SME, you are at the centre of a vision. You’re there because you have something to share with new parents. Something that can help them navigate those stuttering sleep schedules or weaning challenges, something that you know is truly worth hearing about.

But sometimes being at the centre of it all can feel like the eye of a storm. And with a recession looming on the horizon, you might be anticipating a few choppy months ahead. The natural inclination may be to cut back on consumer marketing in order to steady the ship. Which makes sense for most markets, but you already know things are a bit different in our sector.

With new babies being born every day, the obstacles you face can’t be solved by just tightening up spending. You still need to meet new parents in their product lifecycle, because without it, you could be steering yourself into danger.

Why optimise over cutting back?

The reality is that parents will be cutting back, but this won’t necessarily be on the many essentials our sector provides. And if you want to keep your revenues steady, you’re going to have to focus on keeping your costs streamlined while also keeping new parents aware and engaged with your brand.

It’s definitely a challenge - it will require marketing spend in a time when it would be easy to strip back. But history shows that doesn’t work, especially at the SME level, where if you don’t grab your new customers, you risk your hard-earned audience being hoovered up by the big boys. In fact, some landmark research points to sales increasing by 256% in companies that advertised through recessions, whereas those that stripped back saw 0% increase across the board.

Moving beyond Facebook

It seems daunting, right? To get your brand across effectively whilst also keeping your budgets low. And we’re not suggesting spending more than you can afford either.

Traditional in-store purchases are moving online at an increasing rate, so it makes sense to meet those challenges online. And your first port of call will have probably been Facebook, with over a third of the world using their platform. But in recent times, their Ad prices have sky-rocketed, nipping into margins, which can be felt strongly at the SME level.

That’s the story across the Programmatic Ad network. Prices can’t stay steady, because their models are vulnerable to outside market pressures. But if the reason you considered those services were because it offered cheap, effective and sustainable advertising for your business, can you really say that’s still the case?

So maybe it’s time to reassess if you’re getting what you need from your current Ad spend? If your costs aren’t stable during a time where you really need them to be and you want to keep scaling, then you’re unlikely to be able to confidently plan into next month, let alone the next year.

Setting up to thrive

In a time where we’re all feeling the pinch, there are ways of optimising your spend that aren’t just cutting back.

Choosing the right strategic partner for your advertising spend can be the change that helps you survive the storm, whilst reaching new parents. By fixing your new lead cost you have a way to both plan ahead, but also cap how much you need to spend on other platforms, where the prices fluctuate wildly.

There are numerous strategic partners that can help you optimise your business and work to complement your existing marketing mix. With the right ones, you can deliver incredible results on a fixed cost of customer acquisition and meet your customers with targeted content and email campaigns, delivered at the perfect time.

Where parents could be looking to cut back, it’s more important than ever to connect to them by offering real value and with acquisition costs that suit your business. Using a fixed lead cost model, that can help you plan into the long-term and see you through the upcoming uncertainty, is just one way SMEs can thrive.

Brands and retailers can try FanFinders pay-on-results partnership marketing to mums with a no-risk, no-obligation one-month trial.

Adam Gillett, Co-founder, FanFinders

FanFinders is a performance marketing company that connects brands with parents via Your Baby Club in the UK and US. Find out more at fanfinders.com or contact info@fanfinders.com