Marketing is supposed to make you money. If that goal isn’t happening, it’s time to change strategies. If your budget is out of control--or you simply need to tighten the belt for a bit, here are three simple tips to help you minimize marketing expenses without sacrificing leads.  

How much should you be spending on specific marketing expenses?

• The Small Business Association recommends that SMBs that generate less than $5 million spend 7-8% of their revenue on marketing efforts (SBA).
• A 2017 study showed that most SMBs spend between $1,000 and $5,000 every month on marketing efforts, and the majority of companies only plan to increase that number next year (Bright Local, AdWeek).

But, due in part to a global pandemic, the economy isn’t exactly thriving, and a lot of businesses are a bit strapped for cash. To keep your company healthy, you might have to shave down your marketing budget temporarily. It can be tough striking the right balance between cutting costs and keeping your brand relevant, especially when considering personnel  downsizing related to marketing salaries. You need to keep growing your revenue - but don’t want to bleed yourself dry with runaway expenses!

How To Trim Your Marketing Expenses

1) Run an Audit

Before you make any decisions, you need to look at your budget and marketing-related expenses. Collect data on how much you’re spending on things like:

• Creating and promoting content
• Social media ads
• Traditional media spend (billboards, print, radio, etc.)
• Video marketing creation
• Search engine optimization
• Retargeting
• Email marketing
• Marketing automation software

When you have the numbers laid out in front of you, you might be able to see some prominent places you can cut spending. If there are channels that aren’t giving you steady, high-quality leads, consider reducing or pausing spending on those so you can focus on high-performing channels. 

2) Target the Bullseye

If you’re going to trim your marketing budget but want to maintain or expand revenue, you’ve got to aim for the bullseye every time. Spray and pray marketing, where you market to every person in the world and hope something sticks, isn’t cost-effective--or smart. 

Instead, you want to focus on targeting, converting, and delighting high-quality leads who turn into loyal, valuable customers. Studies show that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95% (Bain & Company).

So finding these ideal customers and targeting look-alike demographics can help boost profits while keeping marketing costs low. It makes more financial sense to focus your existing marketing budget on the customers that buy from you.

One way to keep marketing costs low while boosting revenue is by using account-based marketing, often referred to as ABM. With ABM, you funnel the majority of your marketing budget into landing particular accounts that fit your buyer persona. By targeting high-value, red-hot leads, you’ll be concentrating your marketing budget precisely where you’ll see the most significant ROI.

3) Embrace Automation

Want to keep working hours down by cutting out unnecessary work? Then marketing automation is the way to go. If you implement it well, it can free up your employees to spend their time, energy, and creativity on more important things.

Depending on your industry, there are different ways to incorporate marketing automation into your processes. Here are just a few:

• Chatbots: You can use chatbots on your social media platforms and your website to direct visitors and connect them to your team’s right person.
• Email Marketing Software: Instead of personally responding to every email or conversion, use email platforms like Hubspot, Mailchimp, or Constant Contact to create automated email campaigns to attract, delight, and convert customers
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Want to streamline the sales process? Invest in a CRM to track and manage interactions with prospects and customers. It’s an easy way to keep all your data in one place, improve internal communication, and save time by cutting out manual reporting.

Build a Smart Corporate Marketing Strategy By Partnering With Rizen

Need help coming up with the perfect marketing strategy to keep costs down while staying on track to hit your revenue goals? Rizen has been helping companies boost their profits and expand their reach for years.

Reach out today to see how we can help!