“I THINK ALL MARKETERS SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT’S WORKING AND ASK THEMSELVES WHERE THEY ARE GENERATING THE MOST LEADS.”- JORDAN LINTZ, CMO, HIGHKEY ENTERPRISES
Ali Krauss remembers working on a marketing campaign with a Benetrends Financial Inc.’s franchisor where they were spending thousands of dollars every month on Google Pay Per Click advertising. While the small business lending solutions provider was getting leads, they were in markets that Benetrends, which offers an array of funding vehicles for entrepreneurs, was just not ready to focus on.
Instead of allowing Google to “eatup” all its dollars in those markets, Kraus, Benetrends’ VP of Marketing, designed landing pages specific to seven territories/states. The landing pages also were where the company was able to push its ads. The new direction began speaking directly to the people living in those states. Once Kraus and her team were able to drill down into the state level, their Google spend decreased and they began to see more qualified leads in the areas they were franchising in. It took time to build landing pages, but in the end, Kraus says it was worth the spend on the web development in exchange for less spend on national Google ads.
These are the kinds of initiatives and campaigns marketing professionals confront on a daily basis. Today’s marketing landscape is becoming more and more complex, as brands continue to do what they can to thoughtfully deploy assets across the spectrum—distributing resources among traditional vehicles like print and direct marketing, social and digital marketing channels.
“Hold on to your current customers and nurture them,” Kraus says. “Don’t stop marketing—especially to your current client base. Now, more than ever, it’s important to spend time and resources on connecting and engaging with your current clients to continue to build brand loyalty during difficult times. Heading into a (possible) recession doesn’t mean you stop marketing. In fact, it should be quite the opposite. Keep going, keep pushing, keep your brand loyal to its customers. The best thing we can do is be price sensitive, rethink and evaluate our marketing plans, but keep consistency.”
In a time when marketing is key to keeping a brand front and center in what can be a noisy communications landscape, marketers must indeed stay vigilant—if not aggressive–in their pursuits. Successful brands are the ones that are allocating the bulk of their resources in three key areas: brand strategy, campaign development and operations. The most successful examples appear to be the ones that balance out these three resources.
According to Gartner’s “2022 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey,” marketing budgets increased over 3% to reach almost 10% of overall company revenue year over year. The report shows that today’s marketing firms are back to pre-pandemic levels, with 70% saying they increased their budgets in 2022.
This year, Paige Black Marketing in Denver recently worked with a mid-range metal manufacturing company with a regional presence. The company was looking for a higher return on its current lead-generation efforts, budgeting a $75,000 spend for website redesign, content marketing and a 12-month Google AdWords engagement. In the next calendar year, it secured an additional $1.5 million in sales, directly attributed to the campaign’s success.
Still, Mike Black, Paige Black’s CEO, says that it remains unclear if there will be a downturn in early 2023. With that in mind, marketers who are prepared to spend should be bold in their approach, measure carefully and be ready to change again as the business environment evolves. “In terms of budgets today, there are some real opportunities for the companies with adequate resources or cash on hand. Competition is down. Google and Facebook have missed their earnings, which means spend is down. Because advertising spend is down, companies in a good cash position are able to get a better return due to the less competitive environment.”
There’s a lot to look forward to in 2023. Gartner’s “2022 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey” shows that CMOs will continue to move from digital-first to hybrid multichannel strategies. In 2022, online channels made up 56% of marketing budgets, with offline channels accounting for 44% of available budgets. This is a more equal split than in previous years.
On the other side, social advertising is the most popular digital spending category, closely followed by digital display and paid search. Gartner reports that marketers will continue to choose social advertising as a viable option because it offers highly targeted messages on a large scale.
But, as a new year and new challenges must always be accounted for, some brands will eye trimming their marketing dollars. More importantly, most will reduce spending on marketing strategies that don’t lead to direct results or leads. In other words, if the ROI isn’t positive, they will cut spending on these strategies to focus on the marketing strategies that work.
Jordan Lintz, CMO for digital marketing firm HighKey Enterprises, says that is just how the landscape will play out for now. “I think all marketers should focus on what’s working and ask themselves where they are generating the most leads. Whether that is spending money getting leads through Facebook or through email marketing, keep spending money on what’s working and reduce or cut your budget on what’s not.”
One of the key areas Lintz believes marketers should consider leaning into is content and content distribution. He recommends finding a strong content manager with a good track record to manage content creation and social media accounts. “Celebrity branding is an area that is growing. It is a great time for brands to align themselves with celebrities to become more profitable.”
HighKey Enterprises continues to make a big push on celebrity branding, and expects the long-term crush to pay off.
“Celebrity branding continues to remain one of the best ways to increase a brand’s awareness in the modern world. I firmly believe this will continue to be the case in the years ahead.” Along with traditional vehicles such as print and direct mail, mediums like video—YouTube, TikTok, Reels on Instagram, etc.— continue to become more important and budget friendly. And there’s also a simpler way. For example, bolstering your SEO by updating your website. Posting blogs—and frequently—is a cost efficient and effective—way to stay marketing strong. “Stay top of mind, provide educational content and find a cadence to your posting,” Benetrends’ Kraus says. “Be sure your blog posts and content are relevant to what people are searching. Start by searching your brand’s name on Google, looking at the frequently searched questions and then finding a way to answer those questions on your page through relevant topics and articles.”
When the preplanning phase winds down, marketing professionals will decide the dollar and sense-driven marketing changes that must be made, evaluating and re-evaluating what works in the long-term goal of their brand.