What to do when your marketing budget gets cut by 80%

6 ways to squeeze the most out of your marketing dollars

I've run into VP's and Marketing Directors in the last few months who complain of massive marketing budget cuts. While the logic behind cutting the hand that feeds you is another blog post all together, the more pragmatic question is "what the hell should I do?". It doesn't matter what size the budget was - a 50% to 80% cut can be staggering. I heard one great believer in convergence marketing bemoan the fact that she would not be able to do much broadcast anymore. Another colleague is cutting back his boutique style brochure and focusing on one brochure for various assets (with minor customizations).

This is the perfect time for innovation. And in the business of image, perceptions, and conversations - people are the raw materials of innovation. Between your internal team, your brand evangelists, and the rest of your universe, you should be able to do some "sense making" and move most of your marketing online. Keep the artifacts - brochures, trade show booths, direct mail pieces - they're all vital - but reserve them for the prospects that are showing greater potential. 

Start with your website
The area that most companies don't focus on enough - us included - is conversion. While PPC folks live and die based on conversion, the rest of America seems to check off websites, once they're done, and move on to the next thing. Based on some interactions with Tim Ash lately and much studying myself, I say with confidence, work on your landing page optimization - Test, test, test! Is your site optimized for search, social, and usability? Is the traffic from the right places? What's the bounce rate? Do you even have a conversion path plotted out?

Make your social media work harder
Even the Mayo Clinic has a full scale social media program. Are you using the platforms that your customers are using? Are they being updated regularly? Its easy to forget one, yet that could be the one that your customers like best. Are you being authentic? Yet don't be a slave to authenticity. You may never get anything done. Are you taking risks? Are you failing? If your answer to the last two was no, then you need to start over. My opinions aside, the much respected Charlene Li, author and former Forrester Research recently put it best (and I paraphrase) if you're not failing, you're not doing the right things. I don't subscribe to the notion that your website is the center of your web universe. That's like saying - I'm best when I'm in a tux or in a boardroom. Your website is all business. Everyone from Billy Ray Cyrus to Perez Hilton love a party in the back. That's what social media is supposed to be. Make sure that you create the right context for conversations. And of course measure, measure, measure. But my new friend Robbie Slaughter says it best - "there is a danger of over measurement: we become more obsessed with figures than providing value, and we tend to game the system instead of tend to the actual work"

Try an integrated SMS, Email and Social Strategy
You know that saying the sum of the parts is greater than whole? Uh huh!

Activate your evangelists
Every brand has evangelists. Are you showing yours love? Are you tight with them? Are you giving them things to talk about?

Micro-sites and landing pages
These can be invaluable for spreading the net. They're great for search and you can measure the hell out of them.

Move people to real world interactions
Of course this is the key for most companies - whether its doing some offline or online. People must be inspired to do something. Is your marketing to a few people (or to a whole bunch) inspiring people to act?

For Indianapolis social media: I'm Duncan ;) What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz | Blip.fm

Comments

[Kimiko Martinez]

So true.
Even with cuts, there are lots of ways to still be effective marketers in this economy. Social media is booming (still ... though it does take a solid investment to really kick up your online presence), and, conversely, I think people are slowly beginning to miss real interactions. It's the perfect time to implement both virtual and in-person strategies that build community -- that get people emotionally invested in your brand, etc. It's not easy, but it's cost-effective and most definitely worthwhile.

[Wim Rampen]

Grood piece of advice..

From my perspective though, not only for the age of cutting.. It should be normal practice to find the most effective ways to have max impact... with any budget

[Marketech]

Add value. If you were not doing that before, you will most certainly not be doing it with an 80% budget cut. Oops, did I just out the industry known for not demonstrating value?

[Ginna Fenton]

Great article, Duncan. Thanks! Proud to be a Firebelly evangelist!