Internal buy-in and budget is important for a lot of marketers, and understandably so; ad campaigns, paid partnerships with influencers, graphic designers and other ideal assets for marketing campaigns come with a monetary cost.
Marketing is an area of the budget that companies will often review and adjust regularly in like with other financial costs within the company, and is typically one of the first to get subtracted from. That’s why it’s so important to build up your internal buy-in, showing those you work with that a marketing budget is something to be prioritised for the success of your brand.
In this blog post, we’ll help you learn how to maximise your internal buy-in for a marketing budget as a beauty brand.
Why is Internal Buy-In Important for Your Marketing Strategy?
First of all, what is internal buy-in? Internal buy-in refers to the support of an idea for your organisation, from people within the organisation. This includes internal stakeholders, like employees and shareholders, who the idea will directly affect.
Internal buy-in for a marketing budget, then, refers to the argument that internally, a brand or business should actively set aside a budget for marketing. Often, the marketing budget is the first thing to get cut when times are tough, for several reasons. It can, for example, be seen as non-essential, and its expenses can sometimes be difficult to track.
However, a strong marketing strategy is paramount to getting your brand’s name out there, and this, as anything, is easier to achieve with a higher budget. The world of beauty and wellness thrives online due to the sense of community created by the audience. People come together on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest to seek and share health and beauty inspiration and advice. Being part of this community is vital for the success of a beauty brand in the 2020s.
How to Get Internal Buy-in for a Marketing Budget
Present a Clear Plan
You need to be able to tell your finance department exactly where the budget would go. Show them that you know exactly how to manage a marketing budget: how much money do you need for paid ads? What about influencer partnerships? Think about things like which platforms your brand is best suited to, what your content strategy looks like, and how you’ll engage with user-generated content. After all, 96% of beauty brands are on social media.
So much of the success of beauty products is dictated by trends and recommendations. The best way to get your product out there is to get other people talking about it, and that’s where your marketing department shines.
Present the Numbers
Getting internal buy-in for anything will always be, at least in part, dependent on numerical evidence. Particularly if you’re pitching a counter case for a budget reduction, this is the top thing you’ll need to accurately portray.
Think of last year’s figures, what you originally envisioned the coming year as being, and all the pivotal metrics in between. Failing to bring this with you can make your argument look weak, rushed, and unpolished. Remember; if there’s one thing that financial departments love, it’s numbers.
If those you’re pitching to are hesitant, you could provide alternative (and less desirable) options. For example, if you want marketing to grow sales by 100% while halving the marketing budget, are they going to just drop the price of products?
Provide insight into what you want to achieve with your marketing; how much will it cost to get there, and how much revenue do you predict it to achieve? With funding as your focus, you need to prove that the ROI is worth it.
Appeal to the Priorities of your Stakeholders
Keep the right people interested by involving them early on. Engaging with key stakeholders from the beginning, like senior management and department heads, increases their sense of ownership and commitment to your cause.
Be prepared to address their concerns and answer questions with a thorough response, including how potential challenges will be managed along the way. Perhaps most importantly, explain to them just how important being part of the online community is for a beauty brand. The best way to do so, of course, is with competitor analysis, and by providing examples.
Use Case Studies
Use case studies and examples of where a solid marketing campaign has paid off for other beauty brands. You may find that from a consumer perspective, the best beauty marketing campaigns are the ones that invest in the creation of a community. Here are some examples that we love:
NYX
A healthy bit of competition often goes down well on social channels to build up a community, supporting one another’s talent. A great example of this is NYX’s reccurring contest, the NYX Face Awards.
The annual competition encourages beauty influencers to compete to create the best, most creative makeup look. This allows NYX to stand out against its competitors as a makeup brand for creators, rather than day-to-day natural looks that many brands now promote.
Glossier
Glossier has a heavy focus on its user-generated content, treating all of its customers like influencers. Micro-influencers (influences with less than 10K followers) tend to have the highest engagement rates, so Glossier embraces this by engaging with its customers on social media, treating platforms as a word-of-mouth style of communication.
If you know who your customers are and how they communicate with one another, inserting yourself into the heart of that community is a highly effective way of utilising your marketing budget.
Birchbox
Birchbox, on the other hand, has copywriting at the heart of its marketing strategy. They focus on blog content that educates their audience, helping them understand what products will be best suited to them personally, so that they can get the most out of Birchbox’s subscription boxes.
Content marketing and PR are a great way to secure backlinks to your site, increase its standing on SERPs, and overall increase visibility to your site.
Need Advice for your Beauty Marketing Strategy?
At Foundation agency, we specialise in creating digital marketing strategies especially for beauty brands. Our team of expert digital strategists can help you create a full strategy that’s suited to your brand, message, and audience.
Get in touch today to find out more, or arrange a consultation.
