Fighting for Your Marketing Budget: What you need to know in a post-COVID world

If you haven’t heard, the world of business has turned upside down with the recent pandemic crisis. It’s led many businesses to close, either temporarily or permanently, and those that are remaining alive and well have had to reevaluate their operating budget. One area of that budget that often comes under scrutiny is the marketing budget, especially in digital marketing, where many are feeling the pressure to justify every dollar they spend.

This new world of business doesn’t have to mean the end of your marketing budget, but it may require some changes. However, there are places in your budget that you should fight for. While marketing can be an easy way to cut costs, it’s also vital to running a thriving, successful business. Although there are often few if any penalties to reducing ad spending, it’s the way your customers will know you are still there to provide your product or service. There may be the question still about whether there is enough Return on Investment in the long term to justify the ad spending in the short term.

If you find that you are facing the prospect of a cut budget, you are one of many. Some 65% of CMOs are reported to expect “moderate to significant” budget cuts in the upcoming months, according to Gartner. As you prepare for the possible changes and reductions in your budget, here are some things to keep in mind and areas to fight for.

Focus on your business, not the competition

Much like when playing a game, when you’re losing, you try to see what your opponent is doing or is about to do. How are they winning? How can I start doing what they’re doing now? Is there any way to tailor their approach to my side of the field?

In some cases, this type of benchmarking can be useful. If your opponent or competitor is doing something that’s extremely effective, of course you will want to adopt that to your business plan. It’s the same in marketing. If your competitors are covering certain topics or strategies in their ads and it’s working, it can show you what the customer base wants to see. It can also show you where there are gaps in the coverage.

That being said, with such uncertain and volatile times, it’s much better to avoid making big decisions about strategy based on what someone else is doing. Each business is individual and unique with a certain type of customer that will enter their doors or visit their website. Right now, you should focus on what makes your business unique and market accordingly. Sure, try new things but only if it’s the right decision for you, not just what the other guy is doing.

Make the tough decisions: what to cut and what to keep

With this rule, there is an exception. If short-term cuts have to be made, then make them. Many businesses are in survival mode and that applies to marketing teams as well. But, along with those short-term cuts, you have to know what to keep in your budget and don’t compromise if you know it’s going to benefit your marketing strategy in the long-run.

What’s trending NOW, not just last year 

To do this, start by looking past the top layer. Look at trends as they are now, not only as they should be or were last year. For example, sales of bread making machines are up more than 600% thanks to quarantine boredom and the earlier supply shortages. It’s likely that the bread machine companies didn’t know a pandemic was coming or that there would suddenly be a huge spike in the trend of making bread. But that’s the trend as it is now. Take into account what has worked in the past, but also be aware that everything about consumer trends is a little more unique this year.

You should also be listening to your customers. Send out surveys and questionnaires. See what the feedback is on social media platforms. And keep an eye on what the shifting focus is for the consumer. Market to the consumer of today, not yesterday. Tomorrow, maybe we’ll all be making salsa!

Redefine your measurement strategy

Ideally, you would have created your current marketing strategy using the best data you had available to you. Unfortunately, all that data is a little less useful now and because of that, you need to be aware that cutting areas of your marketing campaign that aren’t meeting profitability goals may not be the best move. Your marketing campaign may actually be working, but again, the consumer is thinking differently now than they ever have. Hold the different channels of your marketing team and strategy accountable and adjust accordingly, but keep in mind that your measurements may be weird right now.

Review and update your message

Some marketing campaigns or strategies will not work right now. They may have under different circumstances but now, you need to be aware of what will come across as insensitive, uncaring, callous or simply uninformed. You could be turning people off your product or service with a marketing campaign that would have worked last year. Be honest with yourself and your team and cut out what doesn’t work. Tailor your message to addressing or responding to the pandemic how you would want a company to do so if a loved one of yours contracted COVID-19.

Top-of-Funnel Budgets might be key

If we think about it logically, it’s obvious that cutting a budget’s funding to only allow a marketing team to chase the scraps of consumer spending doesn’t make sense. But it’s possible your higher-ups don’t see it that way because they are looking at the budget from a different vantage point.

This is one area you may need to fight for what your marketing team needs. Typically a new ad requires about 30 days before it leads to its first purchase. Reducing the company’s investment top-of-funnel advertising will only slow that down even more. Especially with business-to-business marketing

One way to combat this is to have a clear and definite understanding of your ad’s path to purchase. You can argue against cutting funding in this area if you have real data about how it will impact the influx of cash. Crunch the numbers and see where money can be saved, but don’t allow them to cut the business off at the knees by reducing the budget where it will really count.

Take-aways

You know your marketing campaign. You spent a ton of time on it. And sadly, it’s probably out the window in some way. Budget cuts are scary for everyone, but knowing where you should fight for your marketing budget can help you direct the conversation and retain the resources you and your team need to help keep the business running and operating as smoothly as possible.