A popular saying in the marketing world is that half of what is invested in advertising is wasted... but the problem is that we don't know which half.
In times of crisis, optimizing digital marketing costs becomes more necessary than ever. Ideally, what we are looking to do is to maintain the same results while reducing expenses. How can we achieve this feat? We'll share some of our best tips!
To maintain marketing results while cutting costs, it is essential that every action is well-targeted.
Creating a buyer persona is essential for any marketing campaign, but in times of hardships, it is even more important to keep it updated and front of mind. That is why we recommend conducting keyword research regularly and keep asking your potential audience their opinion. Be sure you understand how they feel about your content, whether or not it is relevant to them or if they enjoy it.
Content marketing generates more leads than traditional marketing at a lower cost, and also helps to position your brand as an authority in your sector.
In times of crisis, we should never cut back on the quality and quantity of content, although we can consider alternatives that are easier to produce, such as live video. Content creation like blog articles, social media posts, and live social media videos, while time-consuming, is free in nature. If you have the ability and the manpower to shift your efforts to the more organic content, this is a great way to continue your marketing efforts by cutting digital marketing costs.
When budgets are tight, you must ensure that every action you’re taking is granting some sort of result. If a strategy isn’t yielding results, it's time to cut it out.
Measuring your results is the only way to actively optimize your marketing investment. Decide what your key metrics are and never lose sight of them: only then will you know what actions are worth investing in and what you can eliminate to reduce marketing costs.
If you need to reinforce short-term results to get out of a rut, it is a good idea to see how the marketing investment is being distributed in the different stages of the conversion funnel. In these circumstances it may be a good idea to temporarily focus resources on the last stages of the funnel, that is, as these users are closest to making a purchase. Once you’ve earned a bit more, you can brand out to the different phases again.
Remarketing or retargeting consists of reconnecting with users who have already shown an interest in your brand. As this is a small audience, the costs are lower, but the possibilities of achieving conversions are higher. Therefore, it is a very strong tactic when we want to reduce marketing costs while maintaining the same results.
Marketing automation is a very simple way to free up time and resources for other tasks, which ends up leading to better budget optimization. In addition, you do not need a large investment to start automating, as there are many low-cost tools on the market that can help us.
HubSpot offers a free CRM that you can use to manage many sales activities. This will free up time to focus on other marketing tasks while spending more sales time on the BOFU prospects.
Every crisis implies a change, and every change brings with it new market gaps and opportunities that we can take advantage of.
In difficult times, we have to be aware of how we can continue to be useful and adapt to new times. We have to be willing to analyze the situation continuously and respond quickly. Marketing during a crisis, whether it's a pandemic, natural disaster, or a smaller-scale crisis, is possible with a little extra ingenuity and hard work.