Cut Your Marketing Budget This Year? Here’s Why That Could Cost You More
In a tight economy, cutting costs feels like the smart move, but slashing your marketing budget might be the biggest mistake you make this year.
We've heard from a lot of brands that marketing is the first budget to go when businesses feel uncertain. And, we get it, when you’re comparing it to hard costs like payroll, rent, or product inventory, it might seem like an easy answer. But here’s the truth: cutting your marketing spend might save you in the short term, but it can cost you in long-term growth.
In this blog, we’re breaking down:
Why the marketing budget is commonly the first to go
Why cutting your marketing budget could backfire
What actually happens when you cut your budget
How to stretch your budget further without sacrificing results
Why Marketing is the First to Go
"Marketing is a non-essential.”
"I need to pay my team before I market."
Sound like something you've thought or said?
There are a million things on your mind as a business owner, from keeping your team happy to keeping the lights on in your business. With all of that, marketing can feel like a luxury instead of a necessity.
It feels like the quickest solution to take out your marketing budget. But, if you're marketing strategy disappears, so does your business's support system...
The Cost of Quitting Your Marketing
When you take out your marketing budget, you can experience things like:
Loss of brand awareness and engagement
Your leads are disappearing, too
Confusion for your audience.
Again, it may sound like a quick solution to save, but in the long run, it could be costing you big time. Think about your buyer's journey — that timeframe. It often doesn't happen in a day that someone goes from learning about your brand to purchasing. Instead, it likely looks something like this:
Awareness
A person is scrolling through Instagram and sees a sponsored ad; they now know of the brand.
Interest
They click the ad, land on the website, and get a pop-up to join the newsletter; they subscribe.
Desire
The subscriber receives an email highlighting product/service features, customer reviews, and a side-by-side comparison with major competitors.
Action
You send a first-time customer discount code, and they use the code to purchase!
Loyalty
They receive an email inviting them to refer a friend for a fun perk.
It takes time to bring new audience members through your funnels. You have to warm them up, create a connection, and explain what you do. So, if you cut out your funnel completely, think about the time it will take to get that back.
What to Do Instead of Cutting Your Marketing Budget
Stop cutting the entire budget and start looking at why you're not seeing the ROI. You have to refocus your marketing strategy. What channels and platforms are you putting your budget towards? Are these the best investments? How can you become more efficient?
That's where having a marketing agency can make all the difference.
How a Social Media Agency Can Stretch Your Budget Further
Again, I think we are reading your mind here. You think outsourcing your marketing to a marketing agency is going to cost you even more money? But, DIYing your marketing isn't the time and numbers crunch you think it is — your time is money as a business owner, and if you're wasting that away on inefficient strategies...that's lighting your money on fire. Instead, you need experts who have been in the field, who know the trends, who spark conversations, and who drive the ROI you've been searching for. That's where we step in.
We are an entire marketing department that you're not paying the payroll, taxes, 401K match, and insurance on, and we specialize in carefully creating strategies that maximize your budget.
Long story not so short, when you cut the budget, you're limiting your own possibilities and throwing off your entire marketing funnel. Instead of saying goodbye to your leads and letting your business only survive off word of mouth, rethink your marketing strategies to do more for you and hire the experts to do it for you.
Contact us today if you need an on-call marketing team.
