How to Execute Urgent Marketing Initiatives When Funds Are Low

Marketing is the lifeblood of a business, accounting for an average of 5% to 12% of a company’s annual revenue. It helps your business to create an ongoing, ever-present relationship with your customers and prospects. As a result, you keep more of the customers you have while continuously attracting new ones.

But how do you keep your marketing initiatives going when you’re low on funds? Rather than panicking and pulling the plug altogether, the key is to identify and prioritize your highest ROI activities. Read on to learn more about how to create a marketing budget when revenues are waning.

How to create a marketing budget with decreasing revenue

It’s never fun to see your revenues drop or go into the red. However, the solution often lies in marketing so it’s definitely not an area you want to neglect. To continue operations and turn things around, you’ll want to optimize your marketing spend. Here are five steps to do that.

1.   Take inventory

The first step is to figure out where your current budget is being spent. Take inventory of all your marketing expenses over the past 12 months. Break down the expenses by marketing type (e.g. advertising, agency fees, account-based marketing, customer surveys, content marketing, social media monitoring and participation, influencer marketing, etc.). You’ll want a clear report of where all the money is going and who’s in charge of it.

2.   Analyze ROI

Once you know where all the money is being spent, you’ll want to research the results of each channel. Contact the person managing each area to ask how the return on investment (ROI) is measured? How is it performing? Can they directly tie the activities to the growth of the bottom line? Once you have all the data, rank the marketing activities from highest to lowest trackable ROI.

3.   Identify your budget

Next, it’s time to figure out how much of the total available budget your business should spend on marketing projects over the next year. Study your revenue trends and spending over the past three years. How much has your revenue dropped? How much does your marketing budget need to drop as a result? Figure out an estimated budget for the coming year. For example, if you were investing 11% of total revenue last year in marketing activities, maybe you need to scale it back to 7% to 8%. If you’re not sure where to begin there are plenty of free marketing budget templates online.

4.   Prioritize

Now go back to your list of marketing expenses which is ranked by ROI. Review the various tactics with your team and discuss the pros and cons of each. Which initiatives are non-negotiable and which can be reduced or cut? Also, discuss ways that you can potentially improve ROI in certain areas, and how you could update and optimize your existing digital marketing strategy.

For example, could your blogs be driving more leads if you hired an SEO specialist? Or could you hire an expert to help you avoid the common mistakes most businesses make with email marketing? You need a lean budget that not only prioritizes high ROI activities but works on optimizing them so they’re as effective as possible. It’s not the time to be experimenting with risky marketing approaches or excessive charades.

5.   Track and optimize

Lastly, don’t set it and forget it. Keep a finger on the pulse of your marketing results. Continuously track your key performance indicators to see what’s working well and what’s not. Review the results with your team and regularly make adjustments to re-prioritize the budget so it offers you the highest returns. The best marketing approach won’t be the same for every company. Different channels resonate better with different audiences. Be sure you’re not blindly following best practices but making data-based decisions.

Revive your business with a lean marketing budget

While running marketing initiatives can be more stressful when the budget is tight, it is possible. The key is making the most out of every dollar you have. In today’s world, that often means investing in digital marketing where investments can be more modest for higher, verifiable returns. But to find the right mix of initiatives will require research, analysis, prioritization and ongoing maintenance. Follow these five tips to survive a dip in revenue and return to a place where your business can thrive.