Many companies are pulling back spend right now…specifically for sales and marketing.
But why is this happening and, more importantly, how can you maximize your advertising budgets even if they’re being reduced?
In this Demand Gen U episode, Jason Widup, VP of Marketing, and Silvio Perez, Head of Product Innovation at Metadata, chat about what budget cuts mean for sales and marketing and provide top tips on dealing with them.
Jason and Silvio explain why you shouldn’t short-change top-of-funnel content, how focusing on your ICP could help you tailor your strategy and more.
Find out:
- Why building a strong audience will help get through budget cuts
- Silvio’s top tips for preventing cuts in the first place
- Why spend reductions do and don’t make sense
For more expert tips on maximizing your advertising budget, check out the full episode.
Three top takeaways:
Takeaway 1: Cutting marketing and sales budgets sometimes makes sense
Silvio thinks there are two main reasons companies slash budgets for sales and marketing.
The first one is that leaders often view sales and marketing as expenses – not revenue drivers. It could be a philosophical element of the company that makes no logical sense, but just is!
He believes another key reason is that businesses often want to retain customers rather than acquire customers. This can mean leaders will be inclined to cut marketing and shift those dollars to other departments.
These could include customer enablement, product adoption, product resources or elsewhere.
Takeaway 2: Look for advertising ‘hidden gems’
Outside of just knowing your numbers, there are practical observations you can make to optimize your advertising strategy.
Silvio suggests paying close attention to ad performance to make sure you’re really making use of the budget you do have.
For example, if you’re running Google search ads, your ‘hidden gem’ could be that Monday through Friday converts 100 times more than the weekend. On the weekend, you may just be blowing your money.
It could be something as simple as LinkedIn image ads working better than LinkedIn carousel ads.
Tune into what works and what doesn’t and use those observations to make wise marketing and sales decisions
Takeaway 3: Don’t short-change top-of-funnel content
Jason says to remember to keep your top-of-funnel content strong. It might be necessary to find options other than paid ads, so you can keep hold of more of your budget.
He believes companies should follow in Metadata’s footsteps by building a strong, dedicated audience. That way, you’ve got 5000, 10,000, 15,000 people who listen to what you say, open your emails and follow you on socials.
Organic social media content is an excellent way to maintain your audience and even find new members too.
