Introduction
It’s that time of year – teams are focused on hitting year-end goals while also pulling together strategic plans and budgets for 2024. Investment in marketing is crucial for sustaining growth and staying competitive, but as always, there is pressure to demonstrate ROI on each dollar spent. Executives will need to find ways to cut out unnecessary spend without compromising growth. In this blog post, we’ll walk through six strategies to consider as you plan for next year.
Audit Your Existing Tech Stack
Marketing technology, or MarTech, has grown exponentially in recent years. While these tools can streamline your marketing efforts, they can also drain your budget if not used effectively. Start by conducting a thorough audit of your tech stack. You might be surprised by what you are paying for and how much it is costing you each month. Dig into how much each tool is being used and the value it is driving to Identify underutilized tools or redundant software that can be eliminated to cut costs without compromising marketing effectiveness.
Review Your Paid Search Strategy and Spend
Paid search can be a valuable asset for driving traffic and conversions. However, without proper campaign setup and ongoing management, it can also be a money pit. Review the keywords you are buying in order to weed out irrelevant or low-performing search terms. Adjust your bidding strategy to focus on high-converting keywords that align with your business goals.
Revisit Other Paid Digital Channels
Paid search is just one of many digital channels available for marketing. It’s just as important to assess the performance of other paid channels you are investing in, like social media advertising or display advertising, to identify and eliminate channels that aren’t measurably contributing to growth or delivering a satisfactory return on investment. The freed-up budget can be reallocated to more profitable channels or campaigns.
Reevaluate Paid Partnerships
Paid partnerships can be an effective way to reach new audiences. However, extracting value from these partnerships is highly dependent on effective program management. Smaller marketing teams often lack the bandwidth required to nurture and grow partner relationships. Review your current partnerships, how much time your team is spending on managing these programs, and the impact they have on your business. To address partnerships that are not driving enough value to justify the cost or time investment, consider renegotiating terms or discontinuing the contract altogether.
Eliminate Efforts Not Aligned with Your Growth Vision
Gaining marketing efficiency is fundamentally about streamlining efforts to ensure they are fully aligned with the overarching growth vision of the business. This alignment means every marketing dollar and hour should contribute directly to the strategic growth goals. We frequently find when engaging with new clients that teams are investing time in efforts that could be beneficial but are not directly a part of the larger vision for growth. A few examples of misalignment that we have encountered as part of our engagements:
- Large team investment in video content creation
- International marketing support
- Development of an extensive partner network
- Small local prospect events
- Customized messaging by industry
As stated, these projects could be a critical component of another company’s growth vision, but they were not a part of our clients’ growth vision so the resources were not been utilized efficiently. To keep alignment, companies must critically evaluate all marketing activities, discarding those that do not serve the core objectives. By eliminating misaligned efforts, resources are not only conserved but can also be reallocated to more impactful initiatives. This focused approach leverages data-driven insights to understand what works and what doesn’t, allowing for a more agile marketing strategy that can adapt to market changes while staying true to the vision. In turn, this efficiency can lead to a stronger brand presence and a more robust bottom line, as every aspect of the marketing mix is optimized to contribute to the company’s success.
Assess All Outsourced Resources
Outsourcing certain marketing tasks can be cost-effective, but can also be a waste of money. Depending on the type of resource, you could fall into the same trap we discussed with paid partnerships. Often outsourced resources require a significant amount of oversight and management to ensure they stay on-task and remain aligned with evolving objectives and changing areas of focus. Are you getting the best value for your money? If not, consider renegotiating contract terms to bring more focus to measurable results or exploring new outsourcing options. You might also consider shifting the team’s existing responsibilities in order to bring the function in-house.
Conclusion
Reducing your marketing spend without impacting growth requires a thoughtful and highly strategic approach. Start with evaluating the 6 areas we highlighted here to find low-hanging opportunities to cut expenses and increase efficiency. Remember that cost-cutting should not be indiscriminate; it should be driven by data and focused on optimizing your marketing efforts for better results. In doing so, you can take a leaner, more effective marketing strategy into 2024.
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