Jay is the marketing manager at FunTastyFoods, a small business in Asia. It is a breakfast to snacks gourmet company that has multi – location presence in the country. In the recent marketing review meet with the CxOs, Jay tried hard to drive home the need for Digital Adoption for the company.
Jay – ”…we have had a tremendous quarter! The roadshow we conducted at the 25 odd shopping centers, including malls, has generated over 1000 footfalls. People enjoyed the lucky hamper samples we distributed and were inquiring about availability of the products at their local stores. Some were even asking if online groceries an deliver the products… Overall, we handed over to sales around 35 dealer – distributor inquiries.”
Raol, the sales head was not satisfied with this when, Sarina, the CEO, asked him for sales numbers! He protested that the quality of inquires were poor. And that the sales team was wasting time following up sub-standard prospects. Now it was Jay’s turn to object to the comments.
Hearing the two sides sparring, Sarina found herself facing similar situation, repeatedly. Even after spending tonnes in marketing to build up the brand, with road shows, shop-in-shop activities, discount offers to distributors and dealer…. the sales was not simply picking up. Whereas people who tasted their products, or existing customers were simply appreciating the gourmet recipes!
Ignorance Is Not Bliss Here, It Can Be Counter-Productive!
At this point, the tech savvy Jay suggested Digital Marketing to spur sales volumes. He argued that the brand was simply not visible online and didn’t have enough pull. There was much to do with tie-ups with online grocery stores, connecting with cafeterias with email campaigns and promoting the products, creating an online store to sell to big retailers at wholesale rates and so on…
Fearing loss of importance in the process, Raol, who had the CEO’s ears, objected to the ideas. According to him, digital marketing for small business was good for branding but not for sales generation.
How Can Jay Make His Point?
- Dikhega To Bikega (If It’s See, It Will Sell).
Increasing social media and search engine visibility will generate traffic to the company’s online stores.Jay was smart enough to cite the example of FreshMenu.com: An online food services venture, this marketing for small business case study is interesting. The site receives approximately 150,000 ~ 175,000 visitors per month. And the company claims it receives around4000 orders per day, 1 lakh customers in Bangalore alone and are in the midst of replicating themselves in Mumbai and Gurgaon.With more than 56,000 fans online, daily micro-blogging and social media engagement, Jay could strongly support his claim that Digital Marketing Adoption meant Profitability! And How.
- Back Of Envelope Calculations
Jay was quick to further support his argument with some quick calculations; with very modest, no-profit-no-loss assumptions, based on above numbers. He argues that FreshMenu ROI is:+ Cost per visitor acquisition: 1 Unit of currency,
+ Conversion ratio: 5%,
+ Average ticket size: 300 Units of currency,
+ Cost per customer acquisition: 20 Units of currency,
+ Return on Marketing Investment for incremental revenue generated: 14X - Incremental Long Term Benefits.
Jay was of the opinion and firm belief that, integration of their offline marketing initiatives with their online marketing campaign would bring in more revenue and reduce the cost of acquisition.- Enhanced visibility and brand engagement through social media will boost goodwill and increase market reach. Social media being viral in nature, it could be a very powerful tool to connect wtih target audiences across all ages.
- With growth in website traffic, the company could build an enviable customer database through marketing automation tools. This could also help pre-filter dealer and distributor entries that could be further harvested to boost offline sales.
- Special events and contests, like on Facebook, could engage such dealers / retailers / distributors further with the brand. And hot leads could be shared with sales for end-of-funnel engagement.
- Customers would see the brand as responsive and approachable across multiple channels. This would further built brand recall, engagement and reach… eventually help boost sales revenue.
- Marketing automation would further help in lead nurturing and give sales highly qualified prospect details. So all the company offline events and marketing activities could be integrated in the system to generate highly qualified leads. This would help sales teams generate more revenue by focusing on best prospects.
- An Impressed Sarina, An Enlightened Raol.
Jay concluded his contentions with a short online demo of a marketing automation tool he had checked. Both Sarina and Jay were impressed. They could visualize how their overall marketing would flow, how their budget could be better managed and how the team could streamline activities that generated revenue.
The Future Of Marketing For Small Business: Digital Adoption, Automation
Sarina, Raol and Jay are not alone. 64% of CEOs, as per a survey done by PWC, have yet not diverted sufficient funds for digital marketing.
How is your experience with your marketing for small businesses? Is your company one of them? Do you believe your marketing efforts are currently under performing?
If yes, step ahead of old traditions and explore the awesome new world of Digital Marketing. Feel free to contact me for any queries you may have in this regard. I can be reached at [email protected].