Where To Spend Your Marketing Budget 101 As A Planet-Saving Business
By Anthea van den Bergh & Stacey Shaller
This blog is a collaboration between Stacey Shaller, the design brain behind Outside Minds Creative, and Anthea van den Bergh, a journalist turned freelance marketing strategist and copywriter for socially conscious businesses.
It’s tough to know what to do with your marketing budget once you have it. There’s a lot of pressure to get things right, but not always the equal clarity about what to prioritize for your marketing and brand and why! Marketing manager, brand designer, strategist, video content creator, copywriter - these words all blend into a big pool of overwhelm.
No need to stress. For regenerative and planet-saving businesses, this is our definitive 101 about where your marketing budget needs to go to boost your bottom line while building your community and changing the world.
start with: Branding & Graphic Design
Your brand is more than just a logo or color palette. It’s ; it’s the entire visual story you tell your customers. For planet-saving businesses, that story should reflect your values, mission, and dedication to sustainability. By investing in high-quality branding and graphic design, you’re giving your brand a face that customers will remember and trust.
Think about it: would you rather buy from a brand that looks professional and polished, or one that feels slapped together? Visual design communicates your business's values instantly, even before someone reads a single word about you. When customers see that you’ve invested in a visually cohesive and appealing brand, they’ll associate that level of care and quality with your products or services, increasing their trust and likelihood to buy.
Pro Tip: Invest in a logo and visual identity that is crafted to convey your unique story in an authentic way. A professional designer can help avoid "eco-clichés" that can turn off consumers - who are on the look-out for greenwashing - and instead, create something unique and memorable that will last.
next up: marketing strategy
You care about your business and the planet deeply. However, sometimes this enthusiasm leads to businesses leaping into marketing before creating a concrete gameplan and creative vision. This is like investing in a car (your Branding and Graphic Design), but driving out the garage with no GPS (the Strategy) in a new city. Sure, you’ll drive around a lot and you’ll look like the bee's knees - but you won’t be able to navigate towards a clear destination. This inevitably gets exhausting and your marketing starts to become haphazard or stops altogether!
With a clear marketing strategy, this brings immense clarity both internally to your business and externally to your community and clients who will see this reflected in your consistent and professional content and messaging. Instead of basing your marketing off assumptions - like what platforms you “should” be on - a strategy creates a map for what will actually be effective. This includes finetuning your messaging, a deep dive into your audience, choosing appropriate marketing channels, creating a marketing schedule, and building a creative vision for your content that aligns with your business and impact goals.
Pro Tip: A marketing strategist will create a comprehensive and collaborative strategy to suit your specific business, typically through a VIP intensive strategy session. A strategist can then support your business periodically to refresh this strategy, provide accountability, and in the long run, get you to your bigger goals with their high level creative support.
finally: copywriting & ongoing design
No matter what type of sustainable business you run, you will always need lots, and lots, of writing. From once-off projects to regular marketing content, copywriting should be an essential part of your budget. While you may find a jack-of-all-trades, it’s generally best to split your copywriting needs between different specialists to get the best outcomes. That can look like hiring different people to handle website copy, social media (depending on what platforms you decide on), and longer form content like emails, blogs and media articles. This is where freelance copywriters are an excellent option to fully provide your ongoing needs or support an in-house team with specialised skills.
Similarly, the importance of design doesn’t stop at the launch of your website or the completion of a logo. Ongoing design work is essential to stay relevant, keep your brand fresh, and respond to changing trends. For planet-saving businesses, it’s particularly important to adapt visuals to keep up with the latest environmental issues and sustainability trends.
Allocating a portion of your marketing budget to ongoing design efforts ensures that you’re always able to make adjustments and stay current. For instance, you might want to refresh your social media templates for Earth Day, launch a new eco-friendly product line with a custom design package, or update your website to reflect your latest sustainability achievements. Regular design work not only keeps your brand looking great but also allows you to respond quickly and effectively to new opportunities.
Pro Tip: For busy business owners and marketing executives, retainer copywriting and design support can give you over 10 hours of your week back. A designer who knows your brand and understands how you think will create quality design work efficiently, sparing you the frustration of trying to DIY or risk resources on a designer who doesn't get you. The same goes for keeping a freelance copywriter(s) on retainer who knows your business and customers inside out, producing resonant, profit-boosting content while saving you major time.
What did you find valuable about this article? Have more questions about your marketing budget as a planet-saving business? Drop a comment below!
about us
Anthea van den Bergh is a journalism turned marketing strategist and copywriter for socially conscious businesses. Being the multi-passional gal she is, Anthea works with global clients across multiple industries to produce profit boosting thought-leadership marketing that helps you change the world. Working with Anthea means getting a storytelling expert who can save you major time while providing high level vision and gripping content.
You can connect with her on LinkedIn, her website, or book a free 30 minute Clarity Call here!
Outside Mind Creative is a strategically-driven design studio for regenerative and planet-saving businesses founded by Stacey Shaller. After over a decade of working with ad agencies and corporate companies, Stacey decided to focus on working exclusively with mission-aligned clients. Outside Minds is dedicated to providing premium creative services that achieve business goals through visual storytelling. Stacey works with nonprofits, regenerative CPG brands, and other planet-saving companies across the US and beyond.
Connect on LinkedIn, on the website, or book a free Brand Audit here!