Remember when Mcdonald’s and Burger King were neck and neck in popularity in 2007? Then 2008 hit and brought a recession. Burger King reacted to the economic headwinds by cutting their marketing budget. McDonald’s on the other hand kept investing in marketing. Thanks to McDonald’s vision, the fast-food chain increased its brand awareness and generated more sales. While Burger King stayed where it was, McDonald’s saw the recession as an opportunity.
But why am I telling you this story? 2023 is coming and with it a recession. Your finance director will try to cut your marketing budget. But does your business really need to cut your marketing budget? Expenses may have to be cut to remain profitable. The McDonald’s experience tells us it should not be the marketing budget.
A budget well spent is not wasted. In fact, it is quite the opposite. If you keep investing in marketing wisely, you will keep making money during the recession and bounce back faster when the economy recovers. This is what we call a win-win. This becomes a win-win-win if your competitors go the other way and decide to cut their budgets.
Your finance director will be coming to cut your budget. In this post, we will tell you how to argue them out of it.
Don't cut your Marketing budget
With tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and Twitter laying off so many employees, other companies are worried this will hit them too. So, to avoid laying off staff, the first thing they do is slash budgets. The marketing budget tends to be the third largest line item in the P&L behind rent and staff costs, so the marketing department will be the first victim.
What not everyone understands about those layoffs is; they happen for a reason. Many of those companies over hire employees. They make giant gambles; certain it will pay off. But as we are seeing, it doesn’t. This isn’t the first time, and it will not be the last. With other companies cutting their marketing and advertising budgets, the tech giants focused on ads are the first to suffer.
But enough of tech giants. Remember the McDonald’s versus Burger King marketing budget tale as old as time we told? This story is a great case study of why cutting your marketing budget is a mistake.
Need more convincing? Studies show that businesses that market themselves during difficult times are the most likely to survive a recession.
“Advertising aggressively during recessions not only increases sales but increases profits. This fact has held true for all post-World War II recessions studied by American Business Press starting in 1949.” OCreative.
Forbes made a list of 4 reasons why businesses should keep investing in marketing and advertising.
- When your competitors cut their marketing budgets, it opens a space for your brand to increase its “noise level”.
- Companies that keep investing in marketing present an image of stability.
- During a period of recession, the cost of advertising drops. These lower rates create a “buyer’s market” for brands, allowing them to keep showing their faces to consumers.
- Businesses that stop investing in marketing have the chance of being forgotten and you don’t want that.
How does LeadScale optimize your Marketing budget?
This isn’t our first piece about marketing in a recession and how LeadScale can help you optimize your Marketing budget. Independent of the time period, tight budgets, or layoffs, LeadScale always focus on helping you make the most out of your Marketing budget.
We help you find prospects genuinely interested in what you have to say and sell, and here is how.
- SmartForms
Our SmartForms uses advanced intelligence and keeps the garbage out. It checks names, email addresses, and phone numbers in real time and enables you to prompt your customers for corrections as needed. Getting the correct data lets you know your best next action, allowing you to activate your prospects at the right moment.
Read more about our SmartForms here.
- Predupe and dedupe
Put an end to your duplicates and gain a high-quality database. When your business has a cleaner database; it ends many potential issues. There is no more wasted budget, no more wasted time, and no more contacting the same customer by multiple people. Your conversion rates will increase, and your sales team will feel more motivated. Duplicates are wasteful – eliminate them.
Read more about LeadScale’s predupe and dedupe technology to see how you can optimize your budget.
- Intent data
Advertisers need to own every moment in the journey from prospect to customer. LeadScale helps you own these moments by delivering real data that is actionable and then putting it in the right spot for you to take the best next action.
Read our Intent Data: Maximise your B2B Lead Gen blog piece about it.
About LeadScale
At LeadScale, behind all data transferred to your CRM, there is a team of specialists verifying every lead that comes through. What makes us the uncommon partner for your business is that we are more than software, we are the people behind it making everything work perfectly for your business to thrive.
Remember: in times of crisis, don’t cut your marketing budget. Put another way, fortune favours the brave.
Contact our team and see how you can make the most out of your Marketing budget with LeadScale.