Now that most marketers have their 2024 budgets in hand and are ready to get to work, it’s time to face reality: The budget they asked for is most definitely not the budget they received. Even though budgets have tended to remain lean this year, it’s still possible for marketers to work smart, optimize their budgets, and deliver impactful results.
While it’s never easy to deliver results when the budget you have is less than the budget you need, it’s not as MarketingWeek’s Josh Stephenson wrote that it’s “easier said than done.” In fact, with just a little strategizing, careful planning, and innovative thinking, it is possible to take what budget is available and still deliver impactful results. Here are three strategies to help marketers optimize their budgets and generate measurable and impactful results.
Strategy 1: Turn Your Content Assets into a Marketing Goldmine
One area of investment that holds its own in today’s economy is content marketing. While spending is decreasing on marketing technology and search, the Gartner 2024 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey reported that 41 percent of CMO respondents planned on increasing content marketing spend in 2024.
This is exciting news for marketers for two reasons. The first reason is obvious. It provides marketers with the opportunity to create new assets – new case studies, new eBooks, and new whitepapers – to educate potential customers on their buyer’s journey and drive lead generation opportunities.
The second reason is one that savvy marketers are just beginning to explore. The budget that’s set aside for content marketing also allows marketers to refresh existing content assets and syndicate all these assets on a third-party platform.
With ever-shorter technology refresh cycles and limitations on their budgets of late, buyers are playing catch-up. This means that content that was created in the past year may be as relevant to their education and influencing their propensity to buy today, as it was at the time it was originally created.
The action item for marketers here is to look through digital libraries and identify existing assets that can be re-purposed as-is or with a quick refresh. Then, it’s time to relaunch them, preferably on a third-party platform where they’ll help your organization connect with new buyers and new opportunities.
Get a no-cost content portfolio analysis today!
Strategy 2: Extend the Impact of an Event Investment Beyond the Calendar Date
Exhibiting at an industry tradeshow or other event is still an important part of a marketing plan, no matter how lean budgets get. The goals of a marketing event are easy to identify and align with revenue; get a certain number of new leads, engage in a certain number of new conversations on the show floor, connect with existing customers to demonstrate new capabilities, and be seen by peers and analysts.
The one downside of events, regardless of whether it’s a tradeshow or a webinar, is that they are but a moment in time. Whether it’s an hour, a day, or three days, significant amounts of time and money simply cease to exist once the event concludes. Sure, there might be names entered in the CRM once everyone’s back in the office, and there might be some follow-up with connections made at the event, but once the event is over it’s done with.
However, what if there was a way to extend the impact of an investment like a tradeshow beyond the calendar date?
Well, there is. For each event, from a webinar to a tradeshow, marketers invest countless hours writing talk tracks, prepping team members, and creating assets. All these assets can be used to extend that moment into months worth of content in the form of written articles recapping the event, podcast spots showcasing thought leaders, and new lead-generation opportunities for existing assets on in-house and third-party content distribution platforms. In this way, the original investment in the event is extended and its impact broadened making the most of those scarce marketing dollars.
Strategy 3: Invest in the Power of …
We’d love to share it! Just click here to learn more about the power of investing in…