THE BUSINESS OF DAIRY Modern Marketing on a Budget BY THOMAS J. ARMITAGE
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any small to medium-sized companies deal with the same problem, day after day, year after year. They’ve long understood the value of marketing and its role in helping gain exposure for their brands, drive traffic to their websites and generate leads for their sales teams. But, they often lack the financial backing to do it right. This is, of course, true for the dairy industry, as well. Any good marketing program requires an investment on three primary fronts: labor, technology, and advertising. Let’s review how small to medium businesses can get the biggest impact from lean marketing budgets.
VISION VERSUS REALITY
What should your marketing budget be? That’s an age-old question but important, nonetheless. The rule of thumb varies by industry. Dairy have a bit of both B2B and B2C, so you can apply the information here that seems to be the most helpful to your particular area of business. B2C companies tend to spend between 5 to 10% of projected revenue. B2B companies usually are a bit more conservative — typically spending between 3 to 5%. Startups or emerging companies are more aggressive, sometimes eclipsing 20%. You always need to start with a plan at the beginning of your fiscal year, whatever the number. In doing so, you establish goals and expectations, set and control cost, confirm your software and technology, understand the work to be done and who will do it, and review how you will measure success. Always make sure your goal and objectives meet the SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound), which improves the likelihood of them being met. 42 • Northeast Dairy Foods Association, Inc.
LABOR
Labor is the part of your budget devoted to getting your marketing work done. This can come in the form of in-house internal staff members, an agency partner, specialty freelancers or a combination of all three.
IN-HOUSE TALENT
By hiring full-time staff, you’ll have more time and resources available to get work done. The downside is that it’s usually impossible to find full-time professionals - within budget - that span the many skillsets in today’s complex digital world. Consider someone who can strategize, produce videos, code, write long-form content, build workflows that connect marketing and sales activity, analyze data, and manage social media channels with a personality and brand-relevant voice. Many companies find talent that can support many of these duties and then outsource the rest.
FREELANCERS
The marketplace is flooded with freelancers today. Many freelancers focus on very specific niches. When measuring cost, don’t just consider the out-of-pocket hourly or project-based rates of the freelancer but also the time it takes your internal team to find, vet and manage those relationships.
AGENCY PARTNERS
With an agency, you don’t just get one expert, you get a whole team. Agencies tend to have rich tech stacks that you can and should take advantage of, too. Plus, when combining all the team members and all their clients, there’s a ton of experience that can be leaned upon to help your business solve complex marketing challenges.
