Investing in marketing is a difficult balancing act. Sometimes we mistake activity with solutions and your marketing budget is the easiest place to make this mistake. That’s because we see tangible results and think in terms of improved outcomes rather than effective improvements. Below are three simple shifts you can make to reduce your marketing overhead while working more effectively towards the outcomes your company wants and needs.
Hire Freelancers
Often the biggest costs in your marketing budget are personnel. Staff can be an essential to your team, but, if you don’t staff wisely, your marketing overhead will end up bloated with fringe benefits and taxes for skillsets you might only need on a project-to-project basis. Working with specialists, freelancers, or an agency on a project basis is a great way to leverage your marketing budget.
Outcomes, Not Outputs
Something you want to avoid in marketing is slipping into the hamster wheel of working to feel busy. It’s easy to get caught in the cycle of outputs (the steps you take before connecting with customers) and feel like you are getting something done, but if you are not getting results and outcomes, the objective was missed. Make sure your outcomes are tied to a measurable result connected to actual customers – this can help you cut ineffective outputs before you build the habit of mistaking all work for equal work.
Measure Net-Total-Cost
Customer acquisition and retention takes time, effort, and money, but not all acquisitions are the same. If you don’t already, start tracking the net-total cost (not just the cost of the medium and tools you pay for to land leads, but of your personnel and contractors and other costs as well) of each client acquisition. This will give you a clear understanding of your actual ROI on different marketing campaigns, strategies, and mediums. Set a threshold to avoid passing, and this will help you decide when to cut a campaign short and to reinvest in your most effective tools.
