When a marketing budget get cut, certain line items tend to get immediate scrutiny: media spend, headcount, events. However, simply slashing spend � while quick and dramatic � can have a detrimental effect on leads, pipeline, and revenue.� There...
When a marketing budget get cut, certain line items tend to get immediate scrutiny: media spend, headcount, events.
However, simply slashing spend � while quick and dramatic � can have a detrimental effect on leads, pipeline, and revenue.� There are more creative methods for achieving marketing efficiency without sacrificing ad impressions, colleagues, or market visibility.�
Here are 8 ways to get more from your marketing budget when the purse strings get tight:
* Repurpose and recycle older content
When trends, topics, and technology changes, marketing content can have a short shelf-life.� But rather than investing big bucks on new assets, think about recycling older content with a new spin or angle.� Even a design update can give old content new life.� Webinars and white papers can be reinvented as infographics, checklists, blog posts, even video.
* Identify and eliminate wasted spend in search.�
Rather than cut back on paid search (SEM) budget arbitrarily, look for keywords, ad groups, and campaigns that generate a bunch of clicks (and thus cost money) but few conversions.� Eliminating wasted spend is one of the easiest ways to increase SEM efficiency.�
* Clean up your CRM database.
Eliminate inaccurate, duplicate, and unmailable records from your database and not only will your email performance metrics suddenly look a lot better, but you may also be able to drop down a pricing tier on your CRM and MAP licenses.� Check with a reputable data vendor to see if they�ll run a free analysis on your database and provide a report on how many records could be deleted or updated.
* Make your blog work harder.
A blog is the most neglected asset in a company�s marketing toolbox.� Are blog titles optimized for search?� Is it easy for visitors to find related content, especially gated assets?� Can a reader subscribe to the blog via email or social media?� Do you email new posts every month to customers and prospects?� With a little work, a blog can be a major contributor to SEO and monthly lead goals.
8 Tips for Working with a Smaller Marketing Budget
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* Invest in partner marketing.
When buyers are few and marketing budgets are tight, maximizing partner relationships is crucial.� Co-marketing programs with strategic partners can make your campaign investment go further and leverage relationships outside your installed base.� Developing better sales tools for channel partners, or co-branded campaigns they can execute easily, can pay dividends many times over.
* Improve lead nurturing and funnel conversion.
Fewer buyers in market means lead volume is down across the board.� So it�s important to make sure the leads you have are converting at the highest possible rate.� When�s the last time you took a hard look at your lead nurture program?� How do your funnel metrics compare to industry standards?� Moving the needle on conversion rates � especially early in the funnel � can have an exponential effect on pipeline.� (As a first step, try segmenting existing nurture tracks by persona.)
* Explore user-generated content.
Find creative ways to encourage customers to create content related to your brand and products.� Record short testimonial videos to use on landing pages and on social media.� Conduct a user survey and compile the results into an industry report, Webinar, blog post, or infographic.� Crowd-source a �101 Creative Ways that Companies Use [Insert Product Here]� ebook. Employ aggregate user data to create thought leadership content (like the �quarterly threat reports� popular in the security category.)
* Test more.
When budgets are plenty, testing takes a back seat.� These days, however, it�s critical that every campaign perform at its best.� Are you diligently testing subject lines on all email campaigns?� Does every ad (display, search, paid social) include an A/B test?� If you have key Web pages (demo request, contact us) that drive a proportionately large percentage of qualified leads, consider a more formal Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) exercise, a cost-effective method that can have a huge impact.
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