Every senior marketer will need to manage or participate in managing a budget at some point in their career. When a business is doing well, it’s easy to get money (as long as you’re demonstrating ROI, of course). But when a business is not doing well, marketing is often one of the first places to cut a budget. So what do you do?
The dread.
That’s the first feeling you get when you’re being told that marketing budget is being cut. As the gatekeeper to the marketing budget at the past few businesses I’ve been at, I know the drill. The sales team isn’t hitting their quotas, the business needs to be cash flow positive, the marketing program isn’t working… all reasons to scale back.
But where’s a marketer to start? No one wants to build a scrappy program. Every seasoned marketer knows: marketing is an investment and a cost center. Especially for B2B where it takes time to demonstrate results and can often already be poorly resourced. So how can you demonstrate results when you’re likely already bootstrapped resources-wise, as well as budget-wise?
Also, not to make this a post related to time – this can be helpful to take a look anyway – especially when the economy is about to slide right into recession – supported firmly by economic signals… and being pushed over the edge a bit by COVID-19. So, do this exercise even if you haven’t been asked to cut yet.
Read on.
Can costs be pushed to another year?
Fun times when you are at the end of the year and are asked to save some dollars. What can you get now where you can be billed in the following year involves some crazy calls. Most things you won’t be able to – and with accruals often times this doesn’t work anyway. But if you can… say order physical goods in this year, and get invoiced in the following – that could help alleviate costs.
Review your T&E budget
Take a look at where irresponsible spending can be cut.
- Is travel booked last minute at exorbitant prices? Plan ahead! This is key even if you don’t need to cut budget!
- Has the entire team traveled to an offsite in your European HQ and had an extra fancy meal? Always nice every once in awhile to celebrate, but when the company isn’t doing well, this doesn’t look great.
- Is the team expensing car service/cabs because they are working late? This is a wonderful perk – I know I’ve used it before – but I would encourage teams to go home during regular hours or working with them on their workload so that it won’t cause them to work late in the night. Plus, if this is happening that often, it’s often a early sign the team is headed toward burn-out.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating for not treating your team well. But when things are going well, T&E budgets often are overlooked bc they are all a part of ‘getting work done.’ They are a part of the extra perks that make a work place great. But when things aren’t going well, its’ time to pull back a little. Not all of it, but the stuff that you can go without a bit until things even out. Plus, no one likes a stingy workplace.
Review your freelancer, contractors, and agency list
The biggest question is – do you need this extra help or can you make do with the team that you have? Sure it’s often cost effective to source support from the outside when you can’t make a FT hire, but when it’s time to tighten the rains, do you need that extra support?
Review your tech stack
As a SaaS marketer, it fully pains me to say this, but non-essential tech is an easy cut. Especially anything that you aren’t locked into a contract for (monthly subscription). For anyone locked into contracts, have your in house counsel review the t&c’s to see how you can cancel with limited cost.
Don’t worry, you can always get these solutions back. Don’t remove anything that will be super disruptive to your business. Look for alternatives (example: InVision > Figma // Box > Google Drive).
Review your events budget
Take a good hard look at your events budget. This is often where overspending occurs. Ask yourself:
- Will your target accounts be at multiple events you are sponsoring? If so, which one or two events would have the most impact across your accounts? A lot of brands will often attend more than one, but you don’t need to be at EVERY SINGLE CONFERENCE to catch them. Go in with a strategy on how to get the leads you need.
- What types of sponsorships are you looking at? Are they varied, have you tested different hypothesis about what would be successful and cost effective? Often times you may default to existing sponsorship packages. Occasionally event organizers can get creative with you to put together something more custom and suited to your needs. Also, if possible, it’s easy to do adjacent events (like dinners, or sponsored work-out classes). Just make sure it’s ok with event organizers.
- Are non-sponsorship related costs you can cut? You want to make sure you have a polish presence, so try not to sacrifice quality and presentation for $$$. But, are you buying 10 types of giveaways when you really only need one? Do you really need to staff your booth with 5 people?
Review your advertising budget
Often times, especially when you are a B2B marketer, advertising doesn’t become a priority for lead gen (it’s often one of the worst ways to generate leads when you haven’t built a solid strategy – which is time consuming when you have plenty of other things to worry about).
What ads are working, what are not? Are you bidding on brand terms, when you really don’t need to (because you have strong organic rankings)? Don’t waste your time here.
Review your premiums/swag + printing budget
This can be a huge black hole already if you aren’t smart about your buying. Can you hold off on buying new premiums or swag? Are you buying at a cost effective quantity? Can you purchase a few nicer items at higher quality, instead of a wide variety at lower quantity? You’ll need someone to help you play with the math.
The same goes for printing – do you need to print when you can save on doing things digitally?
Know your hidden costs
Taxes, service fees, and even shipping can often get you if you aren’t planning properly. To prevent this from happening you’re going to have to be very up front in asking about these costs when you sign for something.
It’s not fun to have to cut your budget, but if can be a good test on whether or not you can be just as effective without it. Take it as a lesson in learning how to optimize your marketing efforts.
Header Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash