When a recession or economic decline is on the horizon, why is it that the marketing department always gets cut first? Why not sales or service delivery or even HR?
What does marketing do for your business? In our opinion it does two main things. The first is that it educates the market on your products and services and the second is that it takes that marketplace through a journey to to help businesses decide on if your products and services are exactly what they are looking for to fill their need. In a few words, they bring in leads which no matter what the economy is doing is always a priority for every business. So why would you cut off the department responsible for finding people who want to buy your products and services?
Does everyone no longer need your products and services or are buying cycles just a bit longer as their buying cycles have also lengthened?
Have the number of prospects actually dropped or are they just seeking more alternative quotes to get a better deal?
Why isn't it the sales department that gets cut first? If there are less leads coming in (because you sacked your marketing department) you won't need as many sales people. The sales people are not able to sell without a good pipeline of leads coming through. It is the marketing department that should be filling that pipeline with the type of leads the business knows will buy. It could be better to keep your marketing department as is and cut down on the sales staff which means that the people who are left have a better chance of making sales and earning decent commission even in tough times otherwise they may look to leave as they are no longer able to bring in the money they once did.
If a recession or economic downturn is on the horizon why wouldn't getting in as many leads as possible become the new focus? Why wouldn't increasing the % of ORs, CTRs, CRs and so on be the new goal as every 1% increase is going to add £££s to your revenue no matter what the economy is doing.
If you still need to make the marketing function of your business cheaper, outsourcing is your best solution and that comes in two opportunities. Outsourced marketing activities based on a number of social media posts, blog posts, creative designs, email campaigns (often costs between 999 to 2999 per month) or dedicated skilled resource covering various roles with a marketing strategy set by yourselves (costs depending on the role filled and experience in that role, often 2000 to 4000 per month per role).
Why double down on marketing?
While everyone else is cutting back on marketing, you can show you are still open for business, still educating the market on your services and therefore must be doing better than everyone else. Not only that but less competition means cheaper prices for clicks and views allowing you to super charge your marketing budget. Not all customers purchase straight away, in fact most take their time so why not fill up your lead pipeline for less money so you can nurture them for longer and creating long lasting customer relationships.