Are budget issues holding marketers down? Make the most of it, experts say

Marketers have had better days.

The outlook is bleak depending on where you look: slowing economic growth, inflation concerns, and recession forecasts. Pessimism can affect marketers. Most businesses often look to their marketing budget as one of the first places to control spending. Even if budgets aren’t cut, marketing spend can come under scrutiny during times of austerity.

For some marketers, the uncertainty of not knowing how much they will have to spend on a campaign in the first place can make them hesitant to spend big in the near future. However, experts say there are some steps marketers can take to protect their budgets and make the most of what they have.

First things first: fight to stay on budget if possible. This means effectively communicating with management about the consequences of marketing spend.

Katie Denlinger, principal at Deloitte Digital, told Marketing Brew:

Marketing analytics help you quantify the positive effects you get from your marketing spend. Even marketers in organizations with limited data sets can compile aggregate data to enhance how marketing relates to growth. Gartner Marketing Practice Senior Director Analyst Jason McNellis said:

Vic Drabicky, founder and CEO of agency January Digital, says many marketers are taking advantage of moments of uncertainty to plan “very basic things” like checkout flows, product pages, and email marketing. said it was reconsidering. “These are generally easier to benchmark, easier to prove, and easier to track. [and] Therefore, it is easy to raise funds. “

Is there another place to continue investing? Creative and brand-building efforts critical to staying in the consumer’s mind, especially as privacy shifts continue to impact the performance of marketing efforts down the funnel .

“You can look at just about any part of performance marketing and show that you need some kind of brand influence for it to work,” says Dravicky.

if you cut that is Use this opportunity to gather information about the most important and effective marketing for your organization. McNelis suggested that marketers use some of the same tactics as behavioral economists. In other words, “turn budget cuts into designed experiments.”

He explained that rather than having a standard slice across marketing, it divides marketing into different channels and tailors them based on specific objectives. Analyzing those changes and their consequences can then give marketers valuable information on how to plan more effectively.

“We can take these budget cuts and actually use them to design the best experiments many companies have ever done in the history of marketing.

Marketers may consider identifying how and when to reinvest and determine how to dial up their investment again to prepare to move on to the opportunity. This could include some leading indicators for the company, ideally using its own data, he advises McNellis.

That also means continuing to invest in testing new channels like TikTok at a time when the belts are tightening. The test is essential to helping marketers respond quickly to new opportunities as they present themselves, Drabicky said.

“You have to focus on testing,” Dravicky advised. “That way, we can move the organization forward without taking too many risks.”