I’ve always believed that for marketing to be truly successful in an organization, it must be considered a Center of Excellence (COE). Too often, marketing is left on the sidelines while sales, operations, finance and accounting make decisions about the company’s future. Marketing, in many instances, is either largely misunderstood, misused, or marginalized (I mean, whose budget is the first to be cut in uncertain times).
As in life, there’s little value in “Participation Trophies”. Becoming a COE is earned, not awarded; that’s why marketing should always be seen as an investment in the company’s future, not an expense. Every marketing dollar invested should earn more in return, though the definition of “more” or “value” can sometimes be fluid, i.e. more leads or conversions (MQLs and SQLs), more website traffic, or just more overall brand exposure.
In this COVID-economy, results from your marketing and advertising strategy are not guaranteed. To succeed, you must invest wisely and efficiently in marketing; that’s the only way to consistently ensure you get the full value out of every dollar you spend — no matter how big or small your budget is.
Plentiful marketing budgets make it easier to reach target objectives. But what happens when you don’t have the necessary resources? In that case, you must make shrewd decisions about where, when, and how to allocate spend. Here’s five ways you can optimize your market budget – in both lean and plentiful times.
1. Invest in Your Customers
In times of crisis, many companies panic and think the first thing that must be cut is marketing. That’s wrong. Your number one asset are your existing customers. Every marketing and sales analysis will tell you it costs less to retain an existing customer than it does to acquire a new one.
Focus on them. Start working on improving customer satisfaction, initiating cross-selling and up-selling campaigns, adding new products and services, and doing whatever is required to ensure your customer’s needs are being met.
2. Invest in Digital Marketing
We live in a digital world that removes the distance between you and your customers. If you haven’t already, it’s time to invest in digital marketing, including:
- Blogging
- Content Marketing/Syndication
- Email Marketing
- Lunch-n-Learns
- SEM/Paid Ads/Retargeting
- SEO
- Social Media Marketing
- Tech Talks
- Webinars
3. Invest in Marketing Operations
One of the best, but largely overlooked, ways to improve marketing efficiency and effectiveness is to automate. There are a great many marketing automation tools out there that allow you to organize and automate your processes and lower marketing expenses, including Pipedrive, Hubspot, Pardot, Eloqua, and Marketo. With these tools you can:
- Email more effectively
- Improve SEO and tracking
- Create meaningful connections with customers and prospects
- Improve your demand generation results (MQLs/SQLs)
- Strengthen your existing database and nurturing programs
- Save money by automating processes
4. Invest in Nurture Campaigns
For sure, automation can make marketing more effective and efficient, but did you know that nurtured leads on average make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads? Email nurturing is one of the most important pieces of a marketing campaign. Effective email nurturing helps you to nurture your leads and move them from one stage of the sales cycle to the next. Effective lead nurturing allows you to:
- Continuously score your leads as they mature over time
- Divide your subscribers into segments based on their journey
- Personalize emails, messages, and offerings
- Provide dynamic content at the point of need
- Make full use of your email marketing automation system
5. Invest in Outsourced Marketing
Implemented correctly, outsourced marketing can deliver significant gains for organizations large and small. It can keep fixed costs low, increase the speed at which results are delivered, ensure critical resources are focused on high level activities, and help protect against competitors. Most companies in need of outsourcing have marketing that is:
- Under-staffed
- Under-skilled
- Under-represented
According to Forbes, protecting your marketing investment can help you become a Marketing Center of Excellence. That may sound complex, or difficult, but it’s really not. You just need to focus your marketing investment on what matters most and then ensure for each campaign, program, or tactic, you’re adopting the best practices possible.