The €100k hire a sub-€10M brand didn’t have to make

The case: when organic growth runs out

Some companies have a problem you can see: sales are dropping, a launch flopped, a competitor moved in. This one had a better problem, and a trickier one.

It’s a European brand with under €10 million in revenue and a strong standing in its market. Its online store was built the right way: logistics worked, customer service answered, and the team knew its CMS inside out. E-commerce already made up about 10% of total sales.

And almost all of it was organic. No paid acquisition worth mentioning. The brand was strong enough that customers simply found it.

That is a great place to start from. It is also a ceiling. A brand that grows on reputation alone grows at the speed of its reputation. To reach customers who have never heard of you, you need a different machine: paid campaigns, retargeting, marketplaces, and tracking that shows what actually works. The basics were done. The next gear wasn’t there yet.

Two hires, two problems

The first instinct was to hire. The leadership team looked at the options carefully.

A truly senior digital DTC leader, someone who can build the strategy, set up the channels and lead a team, costs around €100,000 a year as an in-house employee. For a company this size, that’s a heavy fixed commitment to make before the new channels have proven anything.

A more junior hire costs less. But look at what the first months actually required: setting up the full Google advertising stack, launching new paid acquisition campaigns, building display and retargeting, and connecting to a few key marketplaces. That’s a long list of specialisms, all at once. A junior manager can’t be both fast and good across that range. Not for lack of talent, but because nobody can have seen enough of it yet.

So the brand was stuck between a hire it couldn’t afford and a hire that couldn’t do the whole job.

The third option: an interim manager

The brand brought in an interim digital manager for 6 to 12 months. That was me.

Here is why this works at this size:

• Experience replaces hours. I have set these channels up many times. What takes a newcomer weeks takes me days, so the brand doesn’t pay for eight hours a day. It pays for the hours the work actually needs.
• The full range from day one. Google advertising tools, paid acquisition, display and retargeting, marketplaces: one person who has done all of it before, instead of several hires.
• A stronger team. I work alongside the people already in place, so they learn the playbook while it’s being built, not after I’ve left.
• A cost that makes sense. Paid only for the hours worked, the total comes in below a full-time junior salary, with more delivered.

How the engagement runs

The order matters more than the speed:

1. Foundations. Advertising platforms and tracking set up properly, so every euro spent afterwards can be measured.
2. Acquisition. New paid campaigns that reach people who have never heard of the brand.
3. Retargeting and display. Bringing back the visitors who showed interest and didn’t buy.
4. Marketplaces. Connecting selectively, where the brand’s customers already shop.
5. Handover. Everything documented and running, so the future in-house e-commerce manager inherits a working system, not a blank page.
6.  

What to take from it, if you run a company

The question at this stage is rarely “hire or don’t hire”. It’s: what is the smallest amount of senior capability that unlocks the next stage? Often that isn’t a permanent role. It’s a period of six to twelve months, with a clear brief and a clear end.

That is the model behind UOT: the growth team you don’t have to hire.

Does this sound like your company?

If your online store works, your brand carries it, and you know the next stage needs paid acquisition, retargeting or marketplaces that you don’t have the in-house skills for, let’s talk.

I work as an interim manager for digital DTC. The first step is a 20-minute call: no deck, no proposal, just a straight read on where the gap is.

Message me here on LinkedIn or write to michele.matejka@uot.agency.

Also this month 

Currys shows that brand marketing pays back

As I’ve been working on brand content and brand marketing this week, did you see that Currys won the IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix? It’s the UK’s toughest test of whether marketing actually pays back.

The numbers:

• £500m of incremental revenue in two years
• +1.1 points of market share
• long-term ROI up 44%

How? A simple idea for the videos (maybe not the most creative ever, but they deliver a message) and one clear thing to say: shopping in-store is cool, and can be easier than online. And we have stores. It’s also a strong point of differentiation.

A good reminder for any brand: one clear message that only you can credibly say, repeated until it sticks.

More: https://lnkd.in/dc4hZ_PY · https://lnkd.in/dRq-4BRP

Back to school at IAE Paris – Sorbonne

It’s been an amazing back to school this week, coming to IAE Paris – Sorbonne Business School for my course in Brand Content.

I’m happy not only to be working with the amazing brand experts Gaelle Tanguy and Dr. Nadr El Hana, but also to share time with the very professional and prepared students of this M2, who in a couple of years will for sure achieve great things in the industry.

The EU ends vague “eco-friendly” claims

Since September 27th, new EU rules make it illegal to use unverified environmental claims like “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” in marketing aimed at EU consumers, across all 27 member states, regardless of where the company is based. Self-declared sustainability marks are out. I would say: finally.

Claims now need to be specific and backed by evidence. I spent years in outdoor apparel, where “sustainable materials” and “made to last” are core to how brands talk to customers. The directive doesn’t ban that story, it just requires proof behind it, and it will help honest brands such as my beloved MILLET® or Montura S.r.l., who have been working on these topics since before it was marketing.

For most brands, the real work isn’t legal, it’s operational: going through product pages, ad copy, packaging and post-purchase emails, and checking which claims have documentation behind them and which don’t.

More details here: https://lnkd.in/dn6QqbZ9