It happens to all of us at some point: our marketing budgets are scaled back, limited, put on a “diet.” We argue that it “takes money to make money,” but to no avail.
So then what?
Unfortunately, some marketers choose—or have chosen for them—to eliminate marketing in certain channels. No more emails. Stop mailing follow-ups. Cancel all trade show appearances.
Although giving something up can be painful (have you ever tried a no-carb diet? The horror!) it can produce cost-saving results.
But at a cost.
Today’s markets expect—need—to be reached in a variety of ways. In print. Online. Via email. Through texts. On the radio and tv. When you don’t feed your markets the content or the information they’re looking for in ways they expect, then you risk starving them of the solutions you can provide.
So what’s the best solution? Instead of simply eliminating a marketing method or channel from the plan, examine its history and its effectiveness. Maybe it was a dud and deserves to get cut out. Maybe it’s still effective but could simply be scaled back a bit. As with any changes in health routines, the idea to winning the marketing budget battle is to make educated changes in moderation.
That could mean revisiting your department’s approach and treatment of the four P's—product, price, place, and promotion—and asking some tough questions:
Do our products and services still adequately meet our customers’ needs, or do they fall short of changing expectations?
Does our pricing system still make sense? Do our prices match our value and the position we’ve placed our products and services in? Are they still competitive or justifiable?
Are we reaching our customers how and where they want?
Has our marketing changed or has our market?
Building healthier marketing often requires a little pain, but when approached with commitment, it creates strong results.