Who is Freddy & Co?
Freddy & Co is a family owned and operated Australian business that creates unique, non-toxic baby playmats that appeal to both parents and children. Founded in 2016 by Amanda McKay her hubby Matt, the duo wanted to create a product that was non-hazardous, stylish, functional and importantly, educational.
The business now offers an impressive collection of playmats, eat & play products such as bibs, utensils and plates, as well as nursery essentials like wall art, sheets, blankets and swaddles. They also offer a new baby essentials range that includes body washes, nappy cream, towels, massage oil and moisturisers.
What Was the Business Challenge?
Freddy & Co posted a role on Seek for a Marketing & eCommerce manager which our BDM team discovered. The ad wanted an individual with several points of expertise who could wear ‘several digital marketing hats’ but didn’t specify the time requirements or salary expectations.
We met with Amanda and Matt to uncover specifics of the role as well as the responsibilities and their objectives. Being a small start-up business, Amanda and Matt would wear all the hats that the business required whether it be accounting, picking and packing, customer service or marketing. For the business to scale, they knew that they couldn't continue to manage everything themselves and let the marketing activities fall by the wayside. Amanda was also heavily pregnant with their second child so knew she would need assistance with the marketing while she was on maternity leave.
What Did The Client Need To Recruit?
· Marketing & eCommerce manager
Freddy & Co was seeking a eCommerce marketing expert to help them build brand awareness, generate leads and grow sales through social media, paid ads, email marketing and campaign management. As Amanda was in the final weeks of her pregnancy, the role required someone who could execute the marketing strategy seamlessly and work effectively by themselves.
Cemoh Actions Taken
With our talent pool exceeding 250 marketing professionals, we decided the best way to recruit for this position was to find someone with startup marketing experience as well as expertise in the eCommerce space. We also decided that someone who was a parent themselves, and resonated as a potential target consumer, would be a great fit as they would be able to quickly understand the brand and its direction.
After filtering through our talent, one name stood out as being the ideal fit - Sarah Leal.
The Outcome
Sarah was introduced to Amanda and Matt for an informal interview to establish and understand where the business strengths and weaknesses were, what their objectives were and where they saw their business in the next 12 months. This discussion helped Sarah to plan out and execute a digital marketing strategy that would be successful in growing Freddy & Co's brand awareness, increase leads and boost sales. As it turned out, this was enough for Amanda and Matt to give their tick of approval for Sarah to start immediately as they were impressed by her strategic planning and ideas for growing the brand.
Sarah focused on priority tasks first with Freddy & Co, as time was of the essence with Amanda literally days away from giving birth! Sarah was able to ascertain that the business didn't have a CRM platform to generate leads and in turn, also didn't have any marketing automation set up to retarget their customers. Sarah's first task then was to implement Drip, a website integration that gathers and organizes customer data, then enables ecommerce retailers to use that data to make personalised omnichannel customer journeys at scale. Setting up these workflows helped Freddy & Co to collect and retain customer data, and increase sales in a short amount of time.
Sarah then focused her attention on social media, email marketing, campaign planning, paid advertising and new product launches, which became on going task during her 18 month tenure with Freddy & Co.
The Outcome
Hiring Sarah provided Amanda and Matt more freedom to scale and work on other aspects of their business which they previously didn't have time to do. It also gave them time to look after their young family which we all know can be difficult at times!
During her 18-month stint, the business has seen notable growth thanks to Sarah's skills as a Marketing & eCommerce manager. Freddy & Co have increased their range by launching their nursery and silicone products and also announced the arrival of new and exciting play mat designs including the most recent launch of their Bigi Nigala Indigenous play mat.
Testimonial
"I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Sarah from Cemoh. Over the 18 months we worked together our business saw exceptional growth. Sarah was a wealth of marketing knowledge and successfully created and implemented several EDM workflows which we continue to use. Her love and enthusiasm always shone through, and she was able to bring a lot of consistency to our brand, helping us to show up regularly to best serve our customers. Working within the Cemoh model, Sarah really felt part of our small in-house team going above and beyond." Amanda Mckay - Co-Director of Freddy & Co