Our client partner is a rapidly growing organic snack foods company with distribution in several regional and national retailers, including nation-wide club stores. Their organic growth has been driven by high-quality, delicious products and a compelling and engaging origin story. As a result of their success, this small company needed to professionalize their marketing with a variety of skills, but faced a limited budget.

Business Challenge Summary

Before working with &Marketing, our client was looking for ways to grow sales through improved consumer brand awareness and a better online presence. They already had a small but loyal consumer base, but their broad messaging wasn’t effectively reaching their target consumer segments. Online, their presence was effective but inconsistent. Their website had an out-dated store finder, and did not have a blog or other content on the site to establish consumer trust and thought leadership. Although sales were growing, no initiatives were in place to build community and leverage existing customers for additional sales (such as an influencer program or recurring newsletter).

&Marketing’s Approach

Through a comprehensive approach, &Marketing took on the role of an outsourced marketing department. First, we created a “playbook” to align the business’s vision with a defined marketing strategy and a clear action plan. To do this, we collaborated with the company’s leadership team to deepen their segmentation, develop the messaging for each audience, and create a content and social media calendar.

During this playbook period, &Marketing:  

• Built on the client’s two existing broad demographic segments to develop five precise, targeted consumer segments
• Conducted a series of pilot programs through Google, social media platforms, and influencer marketing.
• Developed a monthly reporting method to measure online and in-store sales.
• Upgraded the foundations of their website to include an updated and easy-to-use store finder, user-friendly eCommerce, more impactful articulation of their origin story, and a dedicated blog for news and updates.
• Created a rolling 3-6 month implementation plan.

Once we finalized the playbook, &Marketing commenced our coordinated monthly execution approach, encompassing several workstreams. We initiated various paid advertising vehicles, such as Google Shopping, Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram. We also absorbed daily management of Facebook and Instagram, including photography, to increase variety and liven up their social feeds. To further enhance the client’s Instagram engagement, we created a Brand Ambassador program, which the client had wanted to do for some time.

&Marketing also created consistent and compelling content through regular original articles and monthly email newsletters, which reinforced brand awareness and drove eCommerce sales. We also worked to improve the ‘path to purchase’ for website sales.

Additionally, when the client secured a major promotion with a national club store, &Marketing executed a sell-through program, utilizing both paid and organic vehicles. This promotional process included the creation of sales team collateral and an online form for consumers to download to request distribution at their own local retailers.

Through Amazon, we also enhanced the product’s online presence and optimized sales using Brand Registry, ASINs, and Amazon Prime. In order to combat Amazon 3rd party resellers, we partnered with Gray Falkon, a company focused on reducing the impact of the gray market.

Results

During the first year of our partnership together, &Marketing has helped drive tangible results across the board:

• Increased monthly sales by nearly 3x via website eCommerce, driven by paid search (including Google Shopping ads and PPC), social advertising on Facebook and Instagram, a monthly email campaign, and the new brand ambassador program.
• Nearly doubled sales through Amazon due to the elimination of 3rd party sellers, improved listings (securing ASINs, completing brand registry, better SEO rich product descriptions), and efficient shipping procedures.
• Grew the client’s email distribution list by 54%.
• Increased sales, drove traffic to the client’s website and dramatically increased engagement on social media through the Brand Ambassador program.
• Increased Facebook and Instagram followers and engagement.
• Generated strong retail sell-through and a re-orders through the national club store promotion.

As our client partner continues its growth trajectory, &Marketing remains its ‘outsourced marketing department,’ providing strategy and implementation, and continues these efforts along with capitalizing on new initiatives as opportunities arise.

About &Marketing:

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

&Marketing’s client partner is an IT company that specializes in the reduction of turnover and cost of hires for companies across industries. They build longstanding partnerships with employers looking to hire local, qualified talent. The professional driver industry is growing steadily and rapidly in the USA, with 6% annual projected growth over the next five years. These companies are also facing challenges attracting and retaining qualified drivers, which makes them a potential fit for our client. The overall goal was to use this analysis as part of a broader effort to obtain further funding to support the company’s growth.

Business Challenge Summary

With a leadership team preparing the company for expansion, our client partner looked to conduct a market sizing and opportunity analysis for the hiring market for professional drivers in the United States. They faced a lack of empirical knowledge and internal resources to conduct the analysis, so they turned to &Marketing for resources, intelligence and strategic tools to help make an informed decision to how to grow within the hiring market for drivers, which faced strict regulatory requirements, high turnover, and a myriad of new entrants.

&Marketing’s Approach

Through a data-driven approach, &Marketing was able to provide an insightful analysis of the transportation sector in order to empower this client to better understand which pockets of the industry were growing, what types of companies made up the industry, examples of companies in each sub-sector, and the basic needs of each group of potential employees.

The &Marketing team conducted internal client interviews, mined publicly available data sources, and searched through the subscription-based service Statista to gather data and create a revenue model. The goals were to showcase:

• The overall size of the market (number of drivers)

• How the market subdivided itself based on the need for driver certifications & qualifications, types of drivers, and other factors
• The distinct composition and unique needs of each segment of drivers

This analysis also included customer lists for each segment, major trends surrounding them, and a revenue model to calculate potential client opportunity. &Marketing concluded this market research and analysis by delivering a recommended pilot program for a specific business unit, displaying the market potential and paving the way for the rest of the business units.

Results

The comprehensive data and segmentation &Marketing provided equipped the client partner with the research results and confidence they needed to present this market opportunity to their investors. In parallel, our client partner is in the process of rolling out a go-to-market strategy in the transportation industry uncovered through this analysis and is specifically approaching the companies most likely to benefit from their unique offer. Further, &Marketing assisted in improving their investor presentation so it told a clear story and was visually impactful.

About &Marketing:

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to launch or augment our client’s existing teams in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

Have a research project but don’t have the horses in-house to get the work done? Need to spruce up your investor presentation so that its worth of a large investment?

Contact an expert at &Marketing to learn more.

Business Challenge Summary

Our client runs an executive coaching business that grew through professional referrals but had little online presence, including an outdated website and an inactive LinkedIn profile. This partner wanted to improve her digital presence to target local executives experiencing significant career barriers within a 25-mile radius.

She needed strategic marketing advice to questions like 1) where to focus her efforts 2) what immediate tasks to perform and how, and 3) which marketing tactics to try, would help grow her business. Along with strategic clarity,, our client also knew that she needed help to effectively execute those tactics on a consistent basis, both digitally and non-digitally.

However, she did not have the time or expertise to undertake these endeavors on her own, so she turned to &Marketing for support.

&Marketing’s Approach

Based on our client’s desire for a ‘flexible, yet affordable’ approach, &Marketing employed a program of monthly execution support, including both coaching and digital marketing execution, and augmented those projects as needed. The program included the following deliverables:

• Clear, focused messaging on three distinct target audiences
• New website, including branding
• Data analysis and reporting to show what is working and what is not
• Social media upgrade and posting calendar
• Content calendar (one blog post per month)
• Quarterly email newsletter (including links to blog posts and calls to action)
• Senior-level advice and coaching

Results

As our client partner’s outsourced marketing department, our team was able to create a modern website with clear messaging, along with defined service offerings and thought leadership content that improved SEO for local search results. We also refresh and activated a LinkedIn profile that establishes a distinct and professional brand voice. Finally, we implemented more accurate tracking of website engagement metrics and launched her first quarterly newsletter.

These deliverables resulted in:

• Regular content creation and distribution to attract and retain customers
• A near 50% increase in web traffic due to a modern digital presence
• 5 leads generated from quarterly newsletter and organic search

About the Authors:

Marketing Manager Dexter Burgess takes the lead on implementing new tactics and promoting change through data-driven strategies. Dex works hard at client relations through consistent communication and positive feedback, never settling until the customer is understood and happy.

About &Marketing:

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.